China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said:"China is opposed to the US citing domestic laws to place sanctions on Chinese enterprises. We hope the US stops this erroneous action and avoids damaging Sino-US trade cooperation and bilateral relations."

The US announced the restrictions because ZTE planned to sell US-made equipment to Iran's largest telecommunications provider in 2012, in violation of US export restrictions to the nation.
What it means that anyone who wants to work with ZTE like Intel, Microsoft and Qualcomm will be forced to apply for export licenses to ship anything to the company. Any application will be rejected, the US commerce department said.

ZTE says that it's "highly concerned" about the sanctions, and that it has cooperated with the US since reports of trade with Iran first surfaced in 2012. The company makes not only mobile handsets like the Axon targeted at US and European consumers, but is also a significant supplier of telecom equipment around the world.

The restrictions, if implemented, will cause significant supply problems to ZTE, worldwide.