Its a play on the whole "they warn about the dangers of supply chain hacks". If asked how they can be so sure that is happening, they say: well we would do it that way.

A proven case? Look at Crypto AG. Sure one might argue the whole company was planted, so it doesn't count ...

They don’t have to be so secretive. The Snowden leaks told us that companies like Microsoft collaborate with the IC to backdoor their software.

That's why I was curious