Fast-growing ZTE, free to buy US tech, is a nightmare for Biden
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 fix...