The reprieve “doesn’t mean much,” Ren Zhengfei, Huawei’s founder, said. He added that the company could “not easily” exclude U.S. chips from its devices, “but if there is a supply shortage, we have a backup.” He also said: “The current practice of American politicians underestimates our strength.”

What happens next?

• The exceptions suggest the move has “always been for leverage in the trade talks,” Derek Scissors, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told the WSJ. If he’s right, it could be over as soon as it’s started.

• But the Trump administration has spoken repeatedly about blunting China’s tech development, citing issues like intellectual property theft and cyberespionage. And China has already threatened to retaliate. So don’t rule out a long and bitter fight.

Here’s one worst-case scenario:

• In a tech cold war, China would create “a digital Iron Curtain” that would keep out much of the world, Li Yuan of the NYT writes. “The United States and many other countries, goes this thinking, will in turn block Chinese technology.”

• That could hurt both sides, Tim Culpan of Bloomberg Opinion argues.

• It could also slow down development and deployment of new technologies like 5G wireless networks, which benefit from global economies of scale.