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Chinese Fly Red Flag With Ban On Microsoft
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000 12:04:59 +0000
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From: Robert Henderson <[email protected]>
Subject: Bill Gates: "Foreign Devil"
Note: The important point in this story is China's resentment
of the West. There are those in the West who think China can
be turned into a cuddly capitalist toy. This is a profound
error. China is simply biding her time to gain revenge on the
"foreign devils." Robert Henderson
------------------------------------------------------------
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Chinese fly Red Flag with ban on Microsoft
By David Rennie In Beijing
CHINA is to ban its vast bureaucracy from using Microsoft's
forthcoming Windows 2000 software in favour of a home-grown
system known as "Red Flag".
The official Yangcheng Evening News said the policy would
save billions of pounds, and represent a triumph of
self-reliance comparable to the development of China's first
atomic bomb.
"The important government ministries will not permit the use
of Windows 2000 on their computers," the paper said, citing
senior officials. Instead, they would use the "Red Flag"
Chinese operating system based on the rival "Linux" platform.
Older versions of Windows currently dominate the burgeoning
computer industry in China, though few of the millions of
copies sold earn a single cent for the company's founder,
Bill Gates.
Chinese state-backed software experts have alleged that
Windows contains a secret "back door" allowing data to flow
to Microsoft when a computer is logged on to the Internet,
jeopardising government security.
Officials at the Ministry of Information Industry said a
formal ban was unlikely in the near future. "But the
government is advocating that users buy domestic software,"
an official said yesterday.
The reports are a fresh public relations problem for
Microsoft as it attempts to turn a profit in the China
market, which is marked by
alternating
hero-worship of Mr Gates and' outbreaks of prickly
nationalism.
Microsoft has poured resources into China. But the company
has also made enemies by launching legal actions against some
of the countless firms that steal its software. Up to 90 per
cent of software used in China is pirated, including much of
the programming used by government ministries.
Mr Gates is said by local Microsoft executives to have
sanctioned one innovative solution, agreeing to pose for
photographs with senior Chinese managers who sign belated
software licensing agreement at $1 million~ (�600,000) a
time.
For all such efforts, Microsoft's China managing director
abruptly quit the firm last I year, accusing Mr Gates of
failing to understand or respect local conditions. Wu
Shihong later maintained that Microsoft had forced local'
firms to steal its products by setting its prices too high.
Ms Wu's Western colleagues recall her as a fiery patriot who
held an emotional company protest meeting after Nato's
bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. In China she has
become a heroine.
--
Robert Henderson
[email protected]
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