Being answerable to Xi Jinping has not stopped Huawei from protesting it is privately owned, with zero links to the Chinese state, in response to US sanctions. ZTE, the smaller of China's two 5G equipment makers, can table no such defense. Its latest annual report lays bare the grisly details of its parentage. Xi'an Microelectronics and Aerospace Guangyu, two of its main shareholders, are themselves government-owned. For any freedom-loving Westerner, ZTE has always looked dodgier and riskier than Huawei ever did. Yet in a peculiar twist, it is Huawei that has become a seemingly permanent fixture on the US Entity List, the blacklist of companies to which US firms are prohibited from selling by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), an adjunct to the US Department of Commerce. ZTE found itself on that list in 2018, when US authorities said it had failed to make amends for past misdemeanors, including the sale of US technology to Iran and North Korea. After paying a second $1 billion fine, it had its shackles removed a few months later.