Although sales have continued to increase since last May, the rate of increase has______. A: resurged B: retaliated C: decelerated D: demeaned

Trump’s Throttling of Huawei Could Backfire on U.S. Tech China Daily 2019-05-27 Companies like General Electric Co., Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are worried that export controls being considered by Washington, related to technologies seen as essential to competitiveness, could actually impede them from competing in lucrative markets, while reducing America's capacity to innovate. In a written submission to the Department of Commerce, Microsoft warned that the proposed restrictions risked isolating the US from international research collaborations and "could thwart US interests." Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx and Broadcom have said they will cut off supplies to Huawei until further notice, according to people familiar with their actions. While their move hamstrings Huawei, it also means the companies will lose revenue. The Trump administration widened its dragnet this week on Chinese companies barred from selling to the US or buying components from American firms in a push to slow China's technological advances. After crippling Huawei Technologies Co., China's biggest telecommunications company, the administration followed up by threatening to cut off US components or software to five Chinese video surveillance firms. But the plan might backfire, because US companies are so inextricably involved in the global technology supply chain. Concerns over Washington's punitive measures and possible retaliation by the Chinese rattled markets throughout the week, hammering chipmakers and Apple Inc. "With its strong institutions, the US has long been an assuring force in the global supply chain." If supply chains can be arbitrarily interrupted and that trust disappears, countries will start to develop individual systems and the result will be inferior and more expensive. "The more that we continually conflate economic warfare with national security interests, then we start to look at everything as national security," said Evanna Hu, CEO of Omelas, a security software firm based in Washington. "When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Huawei is already the biggest provider of 4G networking and its gear is key to rolling out 5G networks in China, the biggest market for smartphones that will connect to it. US companies are keen to tap into that pool, with its hundreds of millions of subscribers. It's 5G that embodies most of Washington's fears -- by powering a wealth of upcoming technologies from self-driving cars to advanced medical procedures, the new wireless standard is set to be the backbone of the modern economy.<br/>Until recently, it seemed like Huawei, the world's biggest purveyor of communications networking gear and the second-largest smartphone maker, was leading in supplying that infrastructure. Washington's efforts to contain the world's second-largest economy accelerated about three years ago when Beijing first codified a broad ambition to take the lead in future technologies through its Made in China 2025 industrial policy. Coupled with a formal plan to dominate artificial intelligence by 2030, the plans showed the country's willingness to funnel billions of dollars into scientific research -- a goal that spooked Washington bureaucrats worried that private US. enterprise and the military would be left in the dust. By cutting off the Chinese tech giant, the US will only slow the expansion of 5G. That's bad news for some of the most important US companies, particularly component makers, that were banking on it for a major surge in orders starting this year. Without China's 5G network, consumers there won't buy new phones that contain chips from Qualcomm Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. They won't generate data that need to be crunched by processors made by Intel Corp., Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. And there'll be no need for faster networking gear powered by chips from Broadcom Inc. and Xilinx Inc. Apple could lose nearly a third of its profit if China retaliated by banning its products, Goldman Sachs analysts estimated this week. Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said 3% to 5% of iPhone sales in China may disappear over the next 12 to 18 months because of the US ban on Huawei. "This is wrong behavior, so there will be a necessary response," Zhang Ming, China's envoy to the EU said in an interview in Brussels. He added that China would "make the best possible effort to defend the legitimate right and interests of Chinese companies" and urged Washington "not to go further down the wrong path, to avoid further disturbances to China-US relations." 1. What does the word “hamstring” in paragraph 3 mean? A: a kind of string B: makesomebody very difficult to take any action C: one of the tendons at the back of the knee D: a tendon behind the middle joint