BUSINESS/CHINA/COMMERCE/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “As the Trump administration puts together another trade mission to China next week, it is scrambling on Capitol Hill to keep lawmakers from undermining trade talks by blocking a deal to roll back penalties on Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE Corp. President Trump has been moving closer to a deal to help ZTE survive, despite a Commerce Department ruling that the company had failed to live up to terms of an agreement over ZTE’s evasion of sanctions on sales to Iran and North Korea. Lawmakers have resisted any move to help ZTE, which was forced to suspend operations after Commerce, in April, banned U.S. suppliers from providing it with key components to its business as a punitive measure. Beijing has made resolution of the issue a top agenda item in negotiations. Amid the controversy, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is preparing to lead an interagency delegation to Beijing, starting June 2. There, he will confer with China’s chief economic envoy, Liu He. The two men talked Thursday [5-24-18] night, Washington time and set up the session. The high-profile assignment for Mr. Ross marks his re-emergence as a major player in U.S.-China economic relations, after being sidelined for about a year.”
-Kate O’Keeffe, Bob Davis and Lingling Wei, “Trump Team Seeks Truce With Congress Over ZTE,” The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2018 1:39 pm