The Chinese-headquartered multi-billion dollar, multinational telecommunications equipment firm, 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, reports the South China Morning Post.
The broken urinal is at one of the firm's offices in Shenzhen, China and is made by New Jersey-based American Standard.
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 to SCMP 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, according to SCMP.
The Shenzhen-based telecoms equipment supplier has agreed to pay a 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.
Notes SCMP:
In a race to resume buying American components, ZTE has paid the US$1 billion fine and is in the final stages setting up the escrow account in the event of future violations.
However, even though the Chinese company is moving ahead with the deal, its fate is uncertain after the US Senate on Monday passed a defence bill that included an amendment that would reinstate the ban.-RW
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