Updated Friday at 12:30 p.m. to report that the ban has been lifted and at 4:15 p.m. to include comments from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fl.

WASHINGTON — ZTE is back in business, thanks to the intervention of President Donald Trump.

The Chinese telecommunications company that violated U.S. bans on selling American products to Iran and North Korea has paid almost $2 billion in fines and replaced its board of directors and other high-level executives.

It just cleared the final hurdle: depositing $400 million into an escrow account — funds it will forfeit if it violates U.S. rules again — the terms of which were agreed to Wednesday. The Commerce Department lifted a seven-year ban on ZTE purchasing parts it needs to make its products from American companies, including Qualcomm chips, on Friday.

"While we lifted the ban on ZTE, the department will remain vigilant as we closely monitor ZTE's actions to ensure compliance with all U.S. laws and regulations," Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement Friday.

ZTE employs 80,000 worldwide and has its American headquarters in Richardson. In North America, it is the fourth largest seller of smartphones behind Apple, Samsung and LG.

"Once the monitor is selected and brought on board, the three-pronged compliance regime — the new 10-year suspended denial order, the $400 million in escrow and the monitor — will be in place," the Commerce Department said in a statement Wednesday, referring to the American-selected compliance team who will monitor the company for 10 years to ensure no further violations.

ZTE also received temporary authorization to conduct some business with American companies last week. The reprieve — effective July 2 to Aug. 1 — was intended to allow ZTE to maintain its existing equipment and networks until negotiations were completed.

In April, the Commerce Department imposed $892 million in fines and the ban on buying U.S. parts. Then Trump stepped in. He tweeted that he was working with Chinese President Xi Jinping to get ZTE "back into business, fast" due to the number of jobs lost in China and as a part of a "larger trade deal" with China.

ZTE, the large Chinese phone company, buys a big percentage of individual parts from U.S. companies. This is also reflective of the larger trade deal we are negotiating with China and my personal relationship with President Xi. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2018

Commerce flip-flopped, backing away from the effective death sentence to the now almost-complete deal to save the company.

“The ZTE settlement represents the toughest penalty and strictest compliance regime the Department has ever imposed in such a case,” the Commerce Department said of the deal in their Wednesday statement. “It will deter future bad actors and ensure the Department is able to protect the United States from those that would do us harm.”

After the Commerce Department announced that the escrow agreement was finalized, ZTE shares — which have plunged over 40 percent since April — rose 25 percent in Hong Kong.

Congress' negotiations

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, condemned the move. "Allowing ZTE to resume business is a direct betrayal of @realDonaldTrump's promise to be tough on China & protect American workers," the minority leader said on Twitter.

"It's clear President Trump gave away the store to China for nothing, so now it's entirely up to Congress to right the administration's wrong. I hope my Republican colleagues in the House and Senate will do the right thing and maintain the Senate's strong language in the defense bill that reverses the administration's awful ZTE deal," he tweeted, referring to a provision of the Senate defense authorization bill that forced the Commerce Department to reverse its reprieve and banned U.S. government agencies from doing business with ZTE and Huawei, another major Chinese telecom firm. The legislation passed the Senate 85-10 in June.

House and Senate conferees began meeting Wednesday to resolve differences in their versions of the must-pass defense bill.

The House version, which was passed in May and has the support of the White House, bars the Defense Department from using telecommunications equipment from ZTE or Huawei. The Pentagon already bans sales of the companies’ products from its base stores.

The White House has pressured the Senate to back off.

"We've made clear that the sanctions against ZTE were the most stringent against any private company that I think have ever been imposed, not just in the size of a financial penalty but also removing the entire board and putting in our discretion and compliance team," Marc Short, the White House's legislative director who is stepping down at the end of July, told reporters on Capitol Hill in June. "So we are more comfortable, clearly, with the House language that was passed."

The White House issued a statement on June 26 saying the Senate's provision would "disturb the traditional allocation of powers between the legislative and executive branches."

“The provision undermines the very purpose of the relevant export control regulations — which is to coerce noncompliant parties to stop engaging in behavior contrary to the national security interests of the United States,” it read. “A statutory bar on relief would eliminate key incentives for ZTE or any other company to come into compliance with U.S. export controls.”

Despite the pushback, many senators — including Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and many other Republicans — have stood behind the Senate bill. Cornyn and Cruz signed a bipartisan letter reprimanding the Commerce Department for its attempts to negotiate with export and control laws, and warned that the "state-owned and -influenced" ZTE is a national security threat.

Those leading the conference committee have been reluctant to comment on the issue.

The lead Senate negotiator, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., told reporters on Wednesday, “Let’s wait and let the conference work on that.”

Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon, the lead House member, has defended the House approach but said the outcome is subject to negotiation, according to The Washington Post.

Some senators have been less diplomatic.

"Trump's willingness to put our national security at risk in order to protect jobs in China must be stopped. I am working with @MarcoRubio and @SenTomCotton to make sure our amendment to hold ZTE accountable — which already passed the Senate — moves forward. We will not be deterred," Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said on Twitter.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, also expressed their opposition to lifting the ban.

"Our military and intelligence community have all warned us that ZTE is a national security threat. This sweetheart deal not only ignores this threat, it lets ZTE off the hook for evading sanctions against Iran and North Korea with a slap on the wrist," Warner said on Twitter.

Don’t bother cashing the check, @realDonaldTrump. Congress must and will act to hold ZTE accountable for its threat to national security and flagrant violation of U.S. law. — Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) July 12, 2018

Cotton, Van Hollen, Rubio and Warner jointly sent a letter to the conference committee leadership Thursday urging them to keep the Senate measures forcing Commerce to reinstate penalties on ZTE in the final legislation.

"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 on Friday. "We must put American jobs and national security first, which is why I have urged NDAA conferees to ensure the bipartisan provision to reinstate penalties against ZTE is included in the final bill."

A number of Texans will be part of the House-Senate negotiations, among them Cruz, a Republican member of the Armed Services Committee, and his challenger in November, Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso.

Changes at ZTE

ZTE has complied with all of the Commerce Department’s terms, including the removal of all leadership at or above the senior vice president level.

ZTE reported the departure of one senior executive last week. An internal memo showed seven other executives, including three vice presidents, were removed without explanation, Reuters reported.

All 14 members of the company’s board of directors, including its chair, resigned. They have been replaced by eight new directors. ZTE also has a new CEO.

"Removal of the directors and executives will have a deterrent effect on other individuals at ZTE and elsewhere, by showing that violative behavior has consequences for the individuals involved," Ross told The Wall Street Journal.