This is all too convenient.
Russia and China both have been caught with their hands in the US Election interference cookie jar. To come out NOW of all times to make these claims, with only 20 days remaining before Election Day, is highly suspect.
Maybe they're just bent out of shape because China State-sponsored hackers have attempted numerous intrusions into our industrial and infrastructure systems. They then went looking into trying to drum up anything remotely possible simply to say "THEY DO IT TOO!", but since they actually haven't found anything yet, it's possible this is all just propaganda.
I don't think Intel would hardly care if revenue from China would drop as a result anytime soon. I don't think the UK would seriously only red flag Huawei instead of US tech because they're quite fond of hammering Google just for advertising reasons. Furthermore while their own silicon tech could possibly experience homegrown boosts of investment, I think they're too far behind the curve to truly catch up to everyone else's tech even at current levels for a considerably long time. The bigger issues to consider would be impacts to other sources of materials, such as lithium and pharmaceutical ingredients for everyday medications - from a retaliatory aspect.
Now while there's always a possibility the Management Engine - which if that's the true conduit - could have some "backdoor" into it, would simply disabling or in Device Manager interrupt it? Maybe the versions subject to "backdoor" were only the chips sent to China. Turnabout after all is fair play in the game of counterintelligence.
Assuming any of it is true. XD