It seemed to me like Loongson was sort of a "compliance" product. There are no doubt plenty of "we want to own the ecosystem end-to-end" forces who have cheque

It seemed to me like Loongson was sort of a "compliance" product. There are no doubt plenty of "we want to own the ecosystem end-to-end" forces who have cheque-writing authority within China. They'll bankroll homebrew parts even if they aren't really competitive to achieve that goal. Or it could be more based on their willingness to play a longer game-- they can take 20 years to get to competitive if they have to.