US lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill that would ban the export of US chips and other components to Chinese tech companies Huawei and ZTE. It is sponsored in the Senate by Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and in the House by Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).
The bill would enforce denial orders on “covered telecommunications companies” that are found to have violated US export control or sanction laws. It identifies Huawei and ZTE by name, for the suspicion in recent years that they have used their tech to spy on behalf of the Chinese government.
It would also impose the same penalties already faced by ZTE on any Chinese company found to be in violation of US export control laws or sanctions, and set standards and procedures for these penalties to be withdrawn.