Although analysts said that the export controls against ZTE were most likely aimed at nuclear proliferation rather than being a new jab in heightened technology trade tensions, China’s interpretation of the action was an open question.

“Depending on how both sides read it, this could be a specific case, or it could get overheated and extended,” said Scott Kennedy, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonprofit research group.

Trading of ZTE’s shares was suspended Monday before the announcement. News of the export controls was first reported by Reuters.

ZTE said in a statement Tuesday morning that it was “fully committed to compliance with the laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which it operates. ZTE has been cooperating, will continue to cooperate and communicate with all U.S. agencies as required.”

ZTE’s status within China is likely to make the export controls big news there. Though not well known in the United States, ZTE is an international champion of the Chinese high-tech industry, with a market capitalization of around $10 billion. After China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan, aroused online criticism by using an Apple iPhone during a 2013 trip to Mexico, she switched to a ZTE phone for a public trip in 2014.

In Monday’s statement, the Commerce Department provided two internal ZTE documents to back up the claims that the company was violating sanctions. One, from 2011, signed by several senior ZTE executives, discussed the risks of United States export controls and noted that ZTE had “ongoing projects in all five major embargoed countries — Iran, Sudan, North Korea, Syria and Cuba.” It also said that the Iran project was the “biggest risk.”

In the other document, ZTE mapped out the way it could circumvent American export controls in a complex flow chart, including using a “shell” company structure.