I think this is just a positive side-effect for PRC (which is miles away from a "PR").

China is playing the exact same card that USA does. Microsoft (willingly or not) have been playing ball with the 3-letter-agencies (3LA) to keep vulnerabilities secret and to the 3LA's advantage. If USA is going to 'cry wolf' on Huawei, then it is fair game that RPC will 'cry wolf' on Microsoft (and/or Cisco, and/or Oracle, and/or pick-your-own-company).

Let's not forget that China has blocked access to its market for US Technology companies for the last 10 years.

This is not China playing the same card. This is China playing aggressively, as they have been.

It's a smart strategy, don't get me wrong, but let's not claim the US as the initiators of these market-distorting actions.

For most normal people it doesn’t matter who initiated it. Neither of the 2 parties have much credibility. Between the NSA hacking revelations and the way China cracks down on its own people it doesn’t feel like anyone would take either side from a moral standpoint.

Oh, states will take sides out of interest: interest to make money, to get protection, to not become enemy via the “with me or against me ideology”. But not for any moral reason.

The US engages in market distortion all the time.

What do you think the invasion of Iraq was all about?

At worst, cynically, I think it's our spyware vs their. US companies and xEyes in general lost privacy credibility some time ago. Both gov't s are known and proven to spy using big companies.

And china isn't 1st here in issuing a ban, they are retaliating here.

Imagine putting RMS (Richard Stallman) in China. What do you think the authorities would think of him? Will software in China ever be free as in the definition made by Free Software Foundation?

I hear they're working on a custom Linux kernel called Chinese Telephone.