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China blocks foreign software use in gov't
CNET ^ | August 18 2003 | CNETAsia Staff

Posted on 08/18/2003 2:08:13 PM PDT by 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.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: china; freetrade; ms
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To: steve50
"The CEO of General Motors arrived shanghai to attend the yearly forum held by Fortune last year, and he was late for one day. When he step out of plane, he hold warmly the hands of the president of trade union in GE's shanghai branch, ,and sent thanks to workers in shanghai for their support to defeat the workers in Detroit"

Han Deqiang, Economics and Management School, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
41 posted on 08/18/2003 4:15:06 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
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To: riri
"Technology, capital, advertisement, trade mark and patent etc, are all weapons of war. Winner takes all is the same as victor monopolies authority. Economics crisis is the same as economics war is consuming both sides most fiercely."

Han Deqiang,
Economics and Management School,
Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
42 posted on 08/18/2003 4:17:39 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
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To: harpseal
You know, we really are out of place joking about the French surrendering prematurely.

The only difference is that our elected officials are surrendering the lives and fortunes of all our future generations also.

43 posted on 08/18/2003 5:15:57 PM PDT by meadsjn
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To: Feldkurat_Katz
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.

A nice payback for all this outsourcing!

44 posted on 08/18/2003 5:16:13 PM PDT by A. Pole
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To: steve50
Why would I support M$ against Linux?

Because it's an American product, versus your foreign conceived and maintained Linux. That is the point of this thread, but you seem to prefer defending Communist China for some reason.

45 posted on 08/18/2003 5:19:04 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: dennisw
My thoughts too...

If you like steve50 support the Chinese in this line of reasoning, then you wouldn't want any Linux in the US government, right?

46 posted on 08/18/2003 5:20:44 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
That is the point of this thread, but you seem to prefer defending Communist China for some reason.

I said that it would be stupid for China to use software that they couldn't be sure was secure, the same as it would be stupid for the U.S. of A to do the same. Not sure how you get supporting China out of that, I'm supporting common sense. You must have cash riding on M$.

47 posted on 08/18/2003 5:25:02 PM PDT by steve50
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To: adam_az
Can you point to a few of these "many sensitive projects?"

Sure, MS works very closely with the US government on many projects, especially for DoD. Here's one I found with a simple Yahoo search:

http://www.gcn.com/vol19_no27/dod/2868-1.html

Creating a "son of Windows" to run an aircraft carrier.

48 posted on 08/18/2003 5:31:18 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: steve50
I said that it would be stupid for China to use software that they couldn't be sure was secure, the same as it would be stupid for the U.S. of A to do the same.

No that's not what you said, you said it made sense for China to use Linux, because MS was not Chinese. However you refuse to accept an equivalent argument that the US should use US derived software instead of foreign derived software like Linux, because you indicated the US derived software was somehow inferior.

It's obvious your bias is against US software, or you really need to straighten your position up, a lot.

49 posted on 08/18/2003 5:35:23 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: steve50
Another thread here has the NSA distributing a secure Linux for their use. Looks like the NSA doesn't trust M$ software.

And if you cared to read the rebutts of thread, you would see the the constant attempts by the Linux crowd to infer that it is somehow an endorsement by the NSA of Linux is simply incorrect. It is clearly not an endorsement of Linux, provide me the link there and I will show where it is only some testing going on, and is "not a secure solution" I believe it says.

50 posted on 08/18/2003 5:39:05 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: belmont_mark
Also eliminated: Red Hat Linux, SuSe, Solaris, etc....

Unless I missed your point, SuSe is not an American product. Germany is where it comes from.

51 posted on 08/18/2003 5:40:04 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: steve50
You must have cash riding on M$.

Probably in some mutual somewhere, but my cash is riding on the US economy. Technology is our #1 export now, and your precious little Linux is now shutting out MS, Sun, Oracle, Apple, you name it out of the Chinese market. This is about a lot more than MS, although many of you can't ever see beyond that.

52 posted on 08/18/2003 5:46:07 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Coral Snake; Bush2000; TheEngineer; Incorrigible; Liberal Classic; Nick Danger
Come see the latest development in the worldwide software war.
53 posted on 08/18/2003 5:50:14 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: meadsjn
You know, we really are out of place joking about the French surrendering prematurely.

The only difference is that our elected officials are surrendering the lives and fortunes of all our future generations also.

At least the French are doing it out of a sense of self preservation and some have showed elan.

54 posted on 08/18/2003 6:54:34 PM PDT by harpseal (Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown)
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To: Golden Eagle
Come see the latest development in the worldwide software war.

Now this is the open source community's idea of competition. You can choose any OS you want -- as long as it's Linux.
55 posted on 08/18/2003 8:34:16 PM PDT by Bush2000
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To: Golden Eagle; A. Pole
You've seen it before, but how could I resist!?

 


56 posted on 08/18/2003 9:02:27 PM PDT by Incorrigible
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To: Golden Eagle
I don't agree with your appeal to nationalism that Microsoft represents America abroad. That I should favor Microsoft because they represent American capitalist efforts while Linux is Euro-socialist-collectivist crap. That even worse, now there's a ChiCom version of it.

I don't go along with your narrative because:
1) I detest the way M$ has done business through the years. A bad example of capitalism.
2) M$ has hired tons of H1-B workers so is not particularly loyal to American workers nor patriotic. When I think of corporations that are patriotic M$ never comes to mind.
3) Linux is developed by people from all over the world through I'll admit it is a collective/collectivist effort

 

 

57 posted on 08/18/2003 9:18:53 PM PDT by dennisw (G_d is at war with Amalek for all generations)
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To: dennisw
I take it that means you'd prefer to see this through to the ultimate linux fantasy - the complete destruction of the largest market cap company in America? Sorry, but that's not something I'm interested in, especially if the hole left in our economy isn't filled by another US company, but rather some worldwide "movement" that won't stop until the rest of the US for-profit software industry is destroyed as well.
58 posted on 08/18/2003 9:48:42 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
I take it that means you'd prefer to see this through to the ultimate linux fantasy - the complete destruction of the largest market cap company in America?

I could care less. Besides market cap is no big deal and is deceptive. Total M$ income is puny compared to real companies like IBM. So piss on them. Technology migrates, transfuses. So it not such a big deal to make a great office suite or operating system anymore. M$ is flogging a line of mature products so now it devotes much resources to extracting the maximum revenue from it's loyal corporate customers via rip-off pricing schemes. And during a recession no less! M$ is flogging a line of mature products so it devotes more resources to combating piracy.
59 posted on 08/18/2003 10:18:44 PM PDT by dennisw (G_d is at war with Amalek for all generations)
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To: Golden Eagle
So why don't you help us block Linux from being used inside the US government?

1. Who is "us"?
2. Does the government have your permission to use BSD, since it was developed in the US?

60 posted on 08/18/2003 10:36:39 PM PDT by ThinkDifferent
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