Dig results on ZTE and POTUS recent announcement to bailout….

http://www.ibtimes.com/fake-iphone-store-iphone-ipad-spotted-china-photos-708122

We established relatively early on that China has a massive fake iPhone store phenomenon… keep that in the back of your mind for a moment.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/the-trump-administration-just-forced-smartphone-maker-zte-to-shut-down/

ZTE was effectively banned from existing because it was caught selling to Iran and North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions. Again, we probably all are aware of this, but building the paint pallet, here.

https://gizmodo.com/north-koreas-new-smartphone-looks-an-awful-lot-like-an-1796455390

Now, things get interesting - North Korea has a line of phones that… make no sense if you understand how phones go together. You don't have "phone factories" - you may have assembly lines for phones, and lines for their subcomponents - but the issue is that the technology to make a modern smart phone is, effectively, banned - as I understand the sanctions in place. Unless North Korea has some very modern silicon die fabrication facilities, they can't make their own phones, internally - which means these things were likely part of that whole ZTE deal.

But it gets better…

https://gizmodo.com/iran-blocked-from-apple-app-store-1823813816

>>Due to US sanctions, Apple does not sell its products in Iran. Instead, the devices are imported mostly from Hong Kong. According to reports, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus were available in Tehran within 24 hours after they launched globally.

I could be re-hashing what someone else has already done, but I don't recall coming across this, before.

The take-away is the possibility that ZTE has been working to produce 'iPhones' - perhaps with full knowledge and cooperation from Apple, which would then be sold in Iran and North Korea. The recent reversal from Trump could be a signal that they started cooperating with investigators, and may have been what Q's posts related to Apple and that shipping pallet were about.

Going a little bit deeper, this could have also been a cover for the supply of more advanced electronic components or purposed assemblies which had defense applications (such as missile guidance to NK and industrial process for uranium refinement to Iran). Though that is running a bit beyond what data I have found.