ZTE, one of China's leading technology companies, has announced it will end "major operations," after the US government barred American firms from doing business with the telecom equipment maker.

The announcement by the fourth-largest wireless equipment maker in the country comes amid an escalating trade battle between the US and China.

A ZTE employee at its factory in Shenzhen. Credit:Bloomberg

Last month, the Commerce Department barred American firms from exporting parts to the Chinese smartphone company for seven years, saying that ZTE had violated a previous settlement of criminal and civil charges for making illegal shipments to North Korea and Iran.

ZTE said in an announcement Wednesday that "the major operating activities of the Company have ceased." ZTE added that the company continues to communicate with the US government with the goal of modifying or reversing the order. But investors were left without a definitive roadmap of the company's future, according to the announcement.