China's authoritative official news agency Xinhua published an article on its WeChat Official Account on May 26, on the lesson learned from the ZTE incident after the U.S. Department of Commerce issued the notice on May 25, 2018, regarding the lifting of the ban on ZTE’s sales. In brief, the article said 'ZTE escaped disaster, but the Americans almost stripped it alive by taking off one layer of its skin. The hard-earned money that ZTE made over the past few years was all made for the Americans. The lesson is very, very painful. The lesson is at least three-fold: First, Chinese companies cannot have the slightest mentality of taking chances. In particular, in some countries, politicians have already made Chinese companies their special targets. If they try to take all kinds of chances, sometimes they don’t even know how they became dead. Second, there is no line that the United States won’t cross today. To be fair, ZTE committed some wrongdoings, but were they absolutely worth the death penalty? However, the United States killed it with one strike. Its intention is self-evident. This also helped the world to poke through an illusion. In the past, it was always thought that the United States would not be unreasonable to the point of wiping the opponent out, similar to the practice of “trade terrorism.” However, the reality is cruel. There is nothing that the United States will care not to break. Fair trade? Fundamental principles? Everything can be thrown out of the window. Third, it is still the word: core technology, core technology, and core technology.

Although ZTE escaped disaster, it is believed that the psychological shock brought to the Chinese people is still quite far-reaching. We must be clear-headed. In many areas, we have indeed achieved amazing results. We must also know that, in some areas, we still have a big gap. Especially in the area of core technology, Chinese leaders warned that core technology is the country’s most important device. If a house is built on someone else’s foundation, it may not be able to survive storms. The core technology under other people’s control is our biggest hidden danger. The last point in particular means we must keep the alarm on! This point, we must remember that knowing shame is akin to courage! We must also thank the Americans for reminding us of this point!

(Comment: The very last point has been said by other Chinese writers too, who have claimed that Chinese industry has made advances during adversity.)