SHENZHEN-BASED telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp. said in a statement Friday that it will not accept a ban by the United States on the company, calling the decision “unfair.”

“The ban will not only severely impact the survival and development of ZTE, but also cause damage to all partners of ZTE, including a large number of U.S. companies,” said the statement, which came after the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed a denial of export privileges against ZTE for alleged violations of the Export Administration Regulations earlier last week.

It is “unacceptable” that the U.S. side insists on unfairly imposing the most severe penalty against ZTE, even before the completion of an investigation, the statement said.

The U.S. side has disregarded the fact that ZTE has identified the issues itself and immediately reported them to the U.S. side, and that “the company has taken measures against the employees who might have been responsible for this incident,” the statement said.

ZTE argued that “corrective measures” had been taken immediately and a U.S. law firm had been engaged to conduct an independent investigation before the U.S. decision was made.

Yin Yimin, chairman of ZTE, said at a press conference held Friday afternoon that the company is firmly opposed to the U.S. ban, which is likely to put the company “in shock” and cause direct losses to its global clients, including carriers and consumers, and its shareholders.

ZTE said it has continuously reflected on lessons from its past experience in export control compliance and has attached great importance to the matter during the past two years.

“Within ZTE, compliance is regarded as the foundation and bottom-line of the company’s operation,” the statement said.

Its efforts included organizing compliance training for more than 65,000 employees, as well as comprehensively cooperating with the U.S. side and providing more than 132,000 pages of documents. In 2017, ZTE invested more than US$50 million in its export control compliance program and is planning to invest more resources in 2018, the statement said.

“The incident is a technology war in essence, and we should be alert that the United States will politicize economic frictions,” economist Zhang Lianqi said.

ZTE said it is determined to take all judicial measures to safeguard its legal rights and interests, while it will not give up efforts to resolve the issue through communication.

China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday that the U.S. action against ZTE will damage itself. “The action targets China, however, it will ultimately undermine the United States itself,” said MOC spokesperson Gao Feng.

“Although ZTE cannot represent all Chinese manufacturers, it is also not an isolated case,” Zhang said. “The plight of domestic chipmaking tells the state of the manufacturing sector — big but not strong.” (Xinhua)