ZTE is leaving a broken American Standard urinal unfixed to avoid breaching US export ban

ZTE note says urinal will be restored to operation when export ban is lifted

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ZTE is working to implement the terms of the White House-brokered settlement deal. Photo: Reuters

Li Taoin Shenzhen

Published: 10:34am, 22 Jun 2018Updated: 4:33am, 26 Jun 2018

ZTE Corp is leaving a broken US-made urinal unfixed because it is afraid that repairing it may cause the company to run afoul of a blanket ban on buying American-sourced products.

The offending urinal at one of its offices in Shenzhen, China, is made by American Standard, a New Jersey-based sanitary fittings manufacturer, according to a notice posted by ZTE’s administration department.

The notice said that the company is unable to buy the spare parts to repair the toilet due to the export ban.

The note, a photo of which was posted online and verified by a ZTE employee, goes on to promise that the urinal would be fixed and brought back into operation as soon as the US-government ban is lifted.

“We are not allowed to purchase US components or accessories,” said a person familiar with the matter, who declined to be named as the information is private. ZTE did not respond to a request for comment.

A note explains that this broken American Standard urinal at a ZTE office building in Shenzhen, China, can't be fixed due to the US export ban. Photo: Weibo

The Shenzhen-based telecoms equipment supplier has agreed to pay an additional US$1 billion fine, put a further US$400 million in escrow and pay for a US-appointed compliance team as part of a bilateral settlement agreed by China and the Trump administration to lift a seven-year ban for selling American products to Iran.