China blocks foreign software
By CNETAsia Staff
Special to CNET News.com
August 18, 2003, 8:56 AM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1012-5064978.html
A new policy from China's governing body states that all government
ministries must buy only locally produced software at the next
upgrade cycle.
The State Council's move, aimed at breaking the dominance of
Microsoft on desktop computers, will eliminate Microsoft's Windows
operating system and Office productivity suite from hundreds of
thousands of Chinese government computers over the next few years.
Gao Zhigang, an official with the Procurement Center of the State
Council, told reporters that the new policy will be in place by
year's end.
At a special congress held to encourage ministries to upgrade to WPS
Office 2003, a China-made office productivity suite, Gao said the
government will purchase only hardware preinstalled with domestic
operating systems and applications. Those seeking exceptions will
need to submit a special request.
The new policy is expected to increase the number of government
officials who use domestic office software, from one-third to 100
percent, eventually. Gao said the new policy is meant to support the
local software industry and protect the state's information security.
Microsoft had been on a charm offensive, including granting the
government inspection rights over Windows source code and creating a
new CEO position for greater China.
The new policy will continue until at least until 2010. The
protections are standard and are not meant to discriminate against
other countries, the council stated. China is a member of the World
Trade Organization, and it is unclear if the new ban contravenes 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 have 90
percent of the market with its Chinese word processing tool, but has
lost nearly all market share to Microsoft Word since the early 1990s.
In addition to commercial reasons for protecting local software,
there are security issues. 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.
Zhang Xiaonan of ZDNet China contributed to this report.
_______________________________________________
Neue-medien listi.jpberlin.de
News-Mailingliste des Netzwerk Neue Medien e.V.
http://www.nnm-ev.de
http://www.nnm-ev.de/mailinglisten/neue-medien.html