ZTE taps in-house executive as new CEO

Beijing: After being hit by American sanctions, Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and systems giant ZTE has roped in Xu Ziyang, an in-house executive with experience in product research and operations, to serve as its new CEO.

Xu, president of ZTE's Telecom Cloud and Core Network product line, has been selected as the new CEO, South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.

Li Ying, the current vice president of the finance department, would take over the role of CFO while Gu Junying, a newly-elected executive director on the new board, would lead the company's human resources department.

The US said it would let the Chinese tech giant to temporarily re-start some of its business operations as it considers lifting a seven-year ban imposed on the firm.

The US had imposed sanctions on ZTE for illegal sales to Iran and North Korea but the Chinese company agreed to take corrective action.

When regulators in the US found ZTE to be violating the terms of the agreement, they cut off the firm from its US parts suppliers.

ZTE, which employs 70,000 people in China, had described the move by the US regulators to cut it off from its US parts suppliers as a "death sentence".