AFAIK this isn't for CPU's, it's for wireless devices, intended as a replacement for the easily cracked WEP.
Of course, the chinese standard isn't open... so it probably has similar weaknesses to what plagues WEP. Crypto without peer review is basically worthless.
With good crypto, the algorithm being public doesn't weaken the strength at all.
I would urge Intel not to bother. By the time they implement this in a chip, it will already be cracked.
An article from Cryptonomicon:
http://www.cryptonomicon.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=570 China Increases Number of WAPI Licensees
Posted on Tuesday, January 06 @ 12:55:00 EST by mhamrick
Network World Fusion is running a story on their site (China grants WLAN technology rights to more companies) reporting that the Chinese government has announced it will increase the number of WAPI licensees. WAPI (Wired Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure) is the 802.11 / WEP alternative developed for the Chinese market. The report indicates that the government will increase the number of licensees from 11 to 20. The names of the new licensees were not released.
As reported in our earlier story (Chinese Wireless Snafu Looming?,) China has drawn criticism from international trade groups who accuse Beijing of exclusionary trade practices. The government is requiring that all wireless lans in that country adhere not to the internationally recognized 802.11, but to the domestic GB15629.11-2003 standard.
The government has also announced that foreign firms wishing to produce and market "legal" WLAN (Wireless LAN) equipment in China will be forced to do so under a co-production agreement with a domestic Chinese firm.
Chinese officials site security concerns to justify mandatory use of GB15629.11-2003 and WAPI. International security observers are concerned, however. Xi'an-based China Broadband Wireless IP Standard Group, which developed the new standard, has yet to publish technical details of the WAPI standard, a move that has network security experts crying foul.
"There's a consensus among the academic crypto community that one of the reasons that WEP was so weak is that it was not subject to expert external review before publication." quotes one expert who asked to remain anonymous, "It looks like China may be using Snake Oil to protect their wireless infrastructure." (Snake Oil is a term used by security experts to describe inadequate security components that are represented as providing adequate protection.)
Of course, the chinese standard isn't open... so it probably has similar weaknesses to what plagues WEP. Crypto without peer review is basically worthless. Think that one through again.
This is China we're talking about. "Unrestricted Warfare", remember?
Don't think "weaknesses", think "backdoors". They'd have to be nuts not to include a backdoor, a la Clinton's failed "Clipper Chip" initiative.
Think about it. WHY are they so insistent that their gov't-developed secret crypto be built into everything?
Economics of scale, combined with the "facts on the ground" (sooner or later, pretty much everything will be "made in china") will bring us to a point where their crypto will be on our hardware. All of our hardware.
Chinese operatives will be able to drive through every city in the country, Pringles can in hand, laptop a-hummin', sucking down terabytes of "secure" comms from American industry and government networks.
Got the creeps yet? If not, read it again.