China blocks foreign software use in gov't

CNET ^ | August 18 2003 | CNETAsia Staff

[Feldkurat_Katz]

China blocks foreign software use in gov't

By Staff, CNETAsia
Monday, August 18 2003 10:11 AM

A new policy by China's governing body the State Council will rule that all ministries have to buy only locally-produced software at the next upgrade cycle.

The move, aimed at breaking the dominance of U.S.-based Microsoft on desktop computers, will eliminate Microsoft's Windows operating system and Office productivity suite from hundreds of thousands of Chinese government computers in a few years' time.

Gao Zhigang, an official with the Procurement Center of the State Council, told reporters that the new policy will be in place by year-end.

At a special congress held to encourage ministries to upgrade to WPS Office 2003, a China-made office productivity suite, Gao said that only hardware pre-installed with domestic operating systems and application software will be purchased by government. Those seeking exceptions will need to submit a special request.

The new policy is expected to increase the number of government officials using domestic-made office software from a third to 100 percent eventually. Gao said that the new policy is meant to support the local software industry and protect state information security.

The new policy will continue till at least until 2010. These protections are standard and are not meant to discriminate against other countries, said the Council. China is a member of the World Trade Organization and it is unclear if the new bans contravene the body's charters.

"The domestic software industry is very insulated. There is poor interaction and partnership with user companies. The increased use of domestic software will make the China software industry more open," said Fei Lin, an official with the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

The ban comes as part of China's efforts to challenge Western technology. Chinese software company Kingsoft used to take 90 percent of the market with its Chinese word processing tool, but lost nearly all market share to Microsoft Word when the product entered in the early 90s.

Experts say that the WPS system is the only product that will challenge Microsoft Office's dominance of the Chinese market.

In addition to commercial reasons for protecting local software, there are security concerns. China is placing official support behind the Red Flag Linux operating system, which they trust because the open-source code allows officials to see that there are no data spyholes installed by foreign powers. In response, Microsoft has been on a charm offensive, including granting the government inspection rights over Windows source code and creating a new CEO position for Greater China.

Recently, China rejected globally-dominant MPEG for its own audio-video compression standard, known as AVS. China is keen to move its IT infrastructure away from the dominance of Western companies and the fees levied by such firms.

ZDNet China's Zhang Xiaonan contributed to this report.

[Feldkurat_Katz]

ping

[N3WBI3]

Another of our beloved Republicans (and Democrats) most favored trading partner...

[Golden Eagle]

The Linux crowd will be ecstatic, since Red Flag Linux - the official operating system of the PRC - will now be their only choice.

"Raise the Red Flag Linux"

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5116

[N3WBI3]

Im a linux fan and this makes me sick, sick because we are allowing them to makce integrated circuits and auto parts for us but they wont let somene else make software for them..

Free trade my Irish A**

[doc]

Let's hear from all the open market proponents!

[Feldkurat_Katz]

The Chinese have a long term strategy. We don't.

[steve50]

Im a linux fan and this makes me sick, sick because we are allowing them to makce integrated circuits and auto parts for us but they wont let somene else make software for them..

It makes sense to me. I wouldn't want a potential enemy to supply software to our nation. You want to run Chinese code on our government boxes?

[Golden Eagle]

Well supporting Linux has helped contribute to this in a way, especially if it contains US trade secret technology which is currently alleged. Here's something else you may be interested in:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/964677/posts

[N3WBI3]

No but I dont want their IC's in our computers either yet we allow it. I dont blame China for doing this (or care for that matter) I blame the Republicans for allowing more one sided 'free trade' to continue..

[Golden Eagle]

It makes sense to me. I wouldn't want a potential enemy to supply software to our nation. You want to run Chinese code on our government boxes?

Who cares what THEY want? We should be working to make them accept what WE want, which they were, previously.

[A Navy Vet]

Knock. Knock. Hello Mr. President? Uh, got any tariffs in mind to counter? No? Just asking.

[N3WBI3]

And the article starts with China putting a quota on the number of domnestic goods to be sold, I think the Chinese just want to be a superpower more than we do.

Thank you Republicans for selling out America to China, its a crime for Clinton but ok for Bush..

[txhurl]

Interesting twist.

[RinaseaofDs]

Sorry pal, too late.

Most of our rare earth magnets are now sourced from China, given that the plants that made them here got purchased and the work moved over there.

That's just one example.

[steve50]

Who cares what THEY want?


It's pretty obvious that They care what They want. They have a responsibility to do what's most beneficial for their nation. It's a shame our politicans don't govern so wisely.

[Golden Eagle]

It's a shame our politicans don't govern so wisely.

Our politicians have zero control over whether the Chinese download Linux from some European website. What matters is, Linux was not a good choice for them but until recently, and possibly because IBM illegally took Unix technology and put it in Linux, making state of the art software available to them without paying for it and completely outside of US jurisdiction. You may be comfortable with that, however many aren't.

[steve50]

Most of our rare earth magnets are now sourced from China,



The manufacturing sector is another story. We have nobody to blame but ourselves for not protecting American industry. The Chinese are making politicans run local code. Considering the backdoor potential in foreign owned software I don't blame them a bit

[steve50]

If you mean the SCO code, that appears to have been over rated. Linux is willing to remove and replace it with independent source code.

[Golden Eagle]

Considering the backdoor potential in foreign owned software I don't blame them a bit...

So why don't you help us block Linux from being used inside the US government?