May 31, 2018
TRUMP IS RIGHT TO SAVE ZTE
http://chinalearningcurve.com/trump-is-right-to-save-zte/
Senators are lining up to tell Trump he shouldn't cut Chinese
company ZTE
any slack. They're wrong. Trump is right. Here's why.
Punishment should fit the crime
They're main argument is that the rule of law should not be
intermingled with outside issues like trade negotiations. But
within our system of law, "the punishment should fit the
crime" is a well accepted principle. Plus, within our system,
it is not unusual for the judge to have a certain amount of
discretion when it comes to sentencing, including the ability to
consider factors outside of the infraction at hand. This is
what Trump is doing relative to ZTE.
An investigation concluded that ZTE had violated sanctions against
countries like Iran and North Korea from 2011-16. ZTE has
already paid a substantial fine and there are no new
assertions relative to recent sanction violations. The
additional penalty comes from ZTE not following through on all of
its promised remedial actions, particularly dismissing
employees who actually executed the violations. Because ZTE
only completed part of its agreed
remedial actions, the Treasury Department decided to ban US
companies from doing business with ZTE. Because so much of its
key componentry comes from American companies, that punishment
has an extremely severe impact on ZTE, almost a death
penalty.