This wouldn't have been a surprise for the Chinese. Intel would have been told a long time ago, and so likely would the university in question. It also won't b

This wouldn't have been a surprise for the Chinese. Intel would have been told a long time ago, and so likely would the university in question. It also won't be a scenario that China hasn't planned for. The reason that China's been building up its chipmakers over the last few years is for precisely this scenario; reducing the reliance on American tech. They've been doing this quite successfully; Cisco now aren't able to do business with the Chinese government, iirc. Lastly, Tianhe-2 was a $400 million computer. The decision to block American collaboration on a project valued at a considerable fraction of $1 billion isn't made by some office clerk; it will have been considered at the highest levels of at least the military, but most likely the government in general. It's a diplomatic maneuvre specifically designed to hurt China. Intel's just been caught in the crossfire. They could easily be pacified (for example, by giving them a supercomputer contract in the US). In terms of the Chinese reaction, antagonization is probably the point.