Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she hopes China won’t mount major retaliation against any steps Washington takes to safeguard investments in critical new industries, while emphasizing the US cannot allow these emerging sectors to be “wiped out” by Chinese competition.
Probably more of a fear of the claim that they were spying… though how much of this fear is actual and how much of this is fabricated by the USA companies is not investigated in the text that I skimmed.