FILE PHOTO: Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) arrives for a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing evaluating the Intelligence Community Assessment on "Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 16, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio criticized on Friday the decision by the United States to lift a ban on suppliers selling to ZTE Corp <000063.SZ), allowing China’s second-largest telecommunications equipment maker to resume business.

“ZTE should be put out of business. There is no ‘deal’ with a state-directed company that the Chinese government and Communist Party uses to spy and steal from us where Americans come out winning,” Rubio said in a statement following the U.S. Department of Commerce’s lifting of the ban.