The Chinese government makes the NSA look like the ACLU. There is no debate about the Chinese-equivalent NSA in China, it wouldn't be allowed.

Here's wild speculation: what if the copies sold on the back of vans and some of the ones available to download on the web already are already backdoored by the Chinese government, hence the lax attitude to this?

If government agencies can't run Windows anymore, what OS is on the approved list?

They're not actually using Red Flag or Kylin, are they?

honestly I wouldn't be surprised if its related to helping a government run office competitor more then spying.