It's interesting that the article does not mention US-based Illumina. Illumina and BGI are the two biggest DNA sequencing companies in the world right now, and Illumina has been struggling immensely after China singled it out for repercussions even before the tariffs started. Illumina is not allowed to trade in China, and is about to lose $100 million and has fired many of my colleagues.

I wonder whether some higher-up US official asked Microsoft to carry out revenge on BGI for that.

Well, without the Standard Business Operating System, which supports uniquely irreplaceable apps Word, Excel and PowerPoint, those operations will not be able to function.