In a direct challenge to President Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio suggested Sunday that Congress would take steps to prevent the Chinese tech firm ZTE from being able to operate in the United States. not even allow Chinese telecom companies to operate in the United States.”“None of these companies should be operating in this country,” he said, also naming the Chinese telecom firm Huawei. “None of them.”[Trump says he’ll spare telecom firm ZTE from collapse, defying lawmakers]Rubio has been a leader of the congressional charge against Trump’s plans to ease the restrictions on ZTE that were imposed after it broke U.S. sanctions by selling products to Iran and North Korea. But lawmakers like Rubio remain unconvinced that the terms will do anything to keep China from using companies like ZTE to target U.S. national and corporate security. The annual defense authorization bills being considered in Congress already contain a prohibition on the federal government using Huawei and ZTE products.

Source: Washington Post May 27, 2018 18:11 UTC