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from the year-of-the-linux-desktop-in-China-by-2023 dept.
The Guardian is reporting that the tech war just got hot.
China will be replacing all hardware and software with Chinese equivalents. This is the latest escalation in the US-China tech trade war in response to the US ban on Huawei equipment.
China has ordered that all foreign computer equipment and software be removed from government offices and public institutions within three years, the Financial Times reports.
The government directive is likely to be a blow to US multinational companies like HP, Dell and Microsoft and mirrors attempts by Washington to limit the use of Chinese technology, as the trade war between the countries turns into a tech cold war.
The Trump administration banned US companies from doing business with Chinese Chinese[sic] telecommunications company Huawei earlier this year and in May, Google, Intel and Qualcomm announced they would freeze cooperation with Huawei.
By excluding China from western know-how, the Trump administration has made it clear that the real battle is about which of the two economic superpowers has the technological edge for the next two decades.
China already leads in patents
China's 2016 patent application total is greater than the combined total of patent applications filed in 2016 in the United States (605,571), Japan (318,381), South Korea (208,830) and Europe (159,358). These five jurisdictions accounted for 84 percent of all patent applications filed during 2016.
China has been preparing for an all-out IT war.
In May, Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times newspaper in China, said the withdrawal of sharing by US tech companies with Huawei would not be fatal for the company because the Chinese firm has been planning for this conflict "for years" and would prompt the company to develop its own microchip industry to rival America's.
"Cutting off technical services to Huawei will be a real turning point in China's overall research and development and use of domestic chips," he said in a social media post. "Chinese people will no longer have any illusions about the steady use of US technology."
US trade policy may have been meant to pressure China, but that move looks to have just forced an acceleration of the loss of software and hardware orders from American suppliers to China.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Monday December 09 2019, @03:53PM (5 children)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday December 09 2019, @04:44PM (3 children)
It's not really destroying competition, just limiting the geographic scope of it in two specific instances. It's highly likely it will cause the domestic creation of what was formerly outsourced by each nation. That will effectively double the suppliers to the rest of the world and increase domestic industry for the primaries. Also, forcing both nations to lose out on a huge market necessarily lowers the market share and shrinks the pockets of the entrenched players, thus lowering the bar for new competitors to enter.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday December 09 2019, @07:04PM (2 children)
Possible, but I wouldn't bet on it. I suspect that the "local" Chinese products will include software that has GPL licenses, and so be subject to suit in most countries outside of China. That's the only quick way to get a huge number of software products up and running. But it limits the ability to use them where you don't control the courts.
That said, they could offer GPL versions that would compete with the commercial versions offered by vendors, and those wouldn't have that problem. So they could selectively keep commercial industries from being successful.
However, I suspect the current main purpose is to prevent foreign companies from having control over any important local systems. This doesn't mean it will continue to be the purpose, however, once the projects are up and running.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday December 09 2019, @11:29PM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday December 09 2019, @11:53PM
Sorry. You don't know what you need until you start doing the conversion. They've probably got a lot ready, but not enough.
OTOH, after reading a bit more this turns out to be a staged conversion of government computers, so maybe you're right. They could have been running test systems for awhile.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday December 09 2019, @11:17PM
You mean like the competition that Microsoft itself has destroyed?
Oh well, it's worked for Microsoft before.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---