[fspeech]

For the same reason it is surprising that the Chinese government would not let ZTE go under. Without ZTE, Huawei would likely be able to charge higher prices around the world. ZTE's know-how and business relationships can be sold off to other domestic entities. The employees of ZTE will find jobs elsewhere. The failure of ZTE would then set an example to other Chinese companies for being dependent on US suppliers.

If the failure of ZTE is not necessarily a loss to the Chinese government, we can infer that it is not necessarily a gain to the US government, as the gp claimed but using the logic of zero-sum.