ZTE had reasons, it clearly violated sanctions against Iran and North Korea by exporting equipment containing US technology. 

And if US decide to declare total trade war by completely banning all forms of export to China, including all semiconductors, that will effectively kill all Apple products, Dell, and any other companies that have OEM in China. And China in return could simply ban all exports of such products back to US. Everyone will lose shirts.

This however, serves as a warning shot to China that China needs to come up with its own semiconductor solutions, Alibaba, tercent or other fancy e-commerce won't fly w/o a solid domestic hw infrastructure.