I love how we are slapping sanctions on our allies and letting our adversaries in the backdoor. All the while complaining about IP theft from China. Sad!
Exactly this. It's insane that the US is threatening EU companies for (currently, legally) doing business in Iran, while at the same time letting ZTE get away with, well, having done the same thing (except illegally, when the sanctions were still in place). And all of that to save "many jobs"... in China.
ZTE objectively got punished with a lot less than what was meant. They got away with a lot, while the US chickened out. And EU companies will lose a lot more than a billion (caused by the US breaking an international treaty).
The US did not break an international treaty. It was a "deal" from Obama, which he never put in front of the Senate to actually become an international treaty... Likely because the Senate would not have confirmed it as it was.