US warns China about standards war
9 May 2008 | 10:55 BST
Follow us or risk isolation
THE FORMER English colony of Virginia has warned the glorious People’s Republic of China that it needs to follow technology standards and not impose them on the rest of the world.
That's its job.
US Under-Secretary of Commerce Christopher Padilla warned that if China went around creating its own technology standards then it risked "technological isolation".
He feared that creating unique standards for China was all a cunning plan to keep foreign companies out of the huge market.
Padilla said that China is facing Japan’s problem during the 1980s when it thought it was large enough to have standards and force the world to dance to its tune.
In the same way that this effort backfired, China risks turning itself into a “lonely island of technological isolation” and cutting itself off.
American companies were finding it difficult to do business behind the bamboo curtain because security standards for information technology products that made it costly for them to enter the Chinese market, Padilla added.
Beijing wanted a China-specific 3G mobile phone standard over internationally recognised standards. While that might give a competitive advantage in the short term, it inhibits collaboration, limits product development, reduces consumer choice, and hindered China's competitiveness and growth, Padilla muttered. As China issued a collective yawn. µ
L’INQ
AP
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