ZTE appoints new chairman in another step toward lifting of US ban
New leadership was one of several conditions in an agreement struck between ZTE and the White House to end a seven-year ban on technology purchases
Telecommunications equipment manufacturer ZTE Corp has appointed a new chairman from a state research outfit that backed its founding decades ago, taking another step toward cleaning house and freeing itself from a ban on American technology purchases.
Shareholders voted in Li Zixue, the 54-year-old deputy director of the Xi’an Microelectronics Technology Institute, as chairman, according to a Shenzhen Stock Exchange filing.
The institute is a research unit of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, a key technology provider to the nation’s space and defence programmes. The firm became the earliest investor in ZTE when then-employee Hou Weigui decided to set up a telecommunications equipment company in Shenzhen in 1985.
ZTE, which became a focal point of a US-China trade dispute, also said its former board of 14 resigned as it elected a new board of eight. The company had appointed Tian Dongfang, a former chief of the same institute, as party secretary, Bloomberg News reported last month.
New leadership was one of several conditions in an agreement struck between ZTE and the US to end a seven-year ban on technology purchases that crippled its business. The Chinese company also agreed to pay a steep fine for violating sanctions on exports to Iran and North Korea, then lying about it. ZTE has lost almost US$11 billion of market value since its shares resumed trading on June 13.
