SHENZHEN-BASED telecommunications giant ZTE Corp. has replaced three senior executives alleged to be the main signatories to documents purportedly showing the company made efforts to dodge sanctions against Iran.

    The change in personnel was made just weeks after the U.S. Government released the documents and imposed tough export restrictions on the telecom equipment maker.

    The U.S. Government has since said it would ease the restrictions until the end of June and could further ease them if ZTE cooperated in “resolving the matter.”

    On Tuesday, ZTE said it had named current chief technology officer Zhao Xianming as its new president, effective immediately, replacing Shi Lirong, who had been in the role since 2010. Zhao also replaced Hou Weigui to be chairman of the board.

    The firm’s executive vice presidents Tian Wenguo and Qiu Weizhao also stepped down.

    In a letter sent to ZTE employees, Zhao, 50, said ZTE has never been plain sailing on its road to be a world-class enterprise.

    “Facing the current crisis, we confront frankly and solve actively, improving the grim situation. Standing at a new starting point, we need to reflect on introspection and use a new image, tangible measures to remould the management idea, and then turn the crisis into opportunities.”

    “In the best of times, the pace of globalization will not stop,” Zhao said in the letter, adding ZTE should be innovative.

    “Innovation is not dispensable, but essential. It is a matter of life and death,” said Zhao.

    Shi, Tian and Qiu, the only people dropped from ZTE’s top management, were also the only members of the firm’s senior executive bench named in the documents released by the United States.

    The company reshuffles management every three years and the changes are in line with the company’s regular schedule, a ZTE spokesman said.

    While reshuffles at ZTE happen frequently, a high-level change is almost certainly related to the U.S. export restrictions, said Kang Rongping, a director at the Institute for World Chinese Business at the think tank Center for China & Globalization.

    Shi, Tian and Qiu were three of the main signatories on alleged internal documents released by the U.S. Department of Commerce detailing efforts to circumvent Washington’s export controls on Iran and other countries.

    The company said the U.S. restrictions also applied to affiliates ZTE Kangxun Telecommunications, Beijing 8-Star International and Iran-based ZTE Parsian.

    ZTE, which has roughly 80,000 employees globally, is a major global supplier of telecom networking equipment such as wireless base stations and antennas.

    Over the past few years, its smartphone business has also gained a substantial presence in the United States, where it was ranked fourth with a 7.2-percent market share last year, behind Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., according to research firm Canalys.

    (SD-Agencies)

    (Richard Han contributed to the story)