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China Developing own Standards

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-bully-for-them dept.

J ROC writes "Encouraged by their government Chinese electronics firms are shunning technological protocols invented abroad and developing their own, according to this article. The Chinese have developed several standards including EVD to replace DVD standards, and TD-SCDMA to replace the CDMA cell phone standard found elsewhere. The reasons seem to be partly based on "techno-nationalism", and Chinese firms growing tired of paying foreign patent fees. While this may force foreign firms to lower their patent fees, some experts warn that China risks isolating itself if it creates standards that are incompatible with the rest of the world."

9 of 590 comments (clear)

  1. China is too big to worry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    China has a market that is far far FAR too large to care what the rest of the world thinks or does. As the middle class grows, companies from the rest of the world are going to come crawling to China in order to participate in the market.

    They won't isolate themselves, they'll re-write the books on standardization.

  2. Metric? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    some experts warn that China risks isolating itself if it creates standards that are incompatible with the rest of the world

    Why not? It works for the United States...

    On a serious note, China is big enough to throw its own weight around if it wants to, though.

  3. Taking cues from Microsoft by Ximbiot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't know about that isolation warning. China is pretty big and has access to cheap labor. Microsoft isolated itself right into a market monopoly by ignoring standards.

  4. Re:This shouldn't come as a surprise.... by akaina · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There isn't a dillema in China. China was given open access to the WTO by President Clinton who called them a "strategic ally".

    China is having a field day, and we should be very concerned that their form of government can reap the benefits of a free society without adhering to its rules.

    --
    Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
  5. Re:This shouldn't come as a surprise.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Without getting into politics, China is only walking the well trodden path of other emerging super powers in their time. America pulled pretty much exactly the same tricks with everything from science (hell what kind of global standard is CDMA anyway?) to sport.

    China walks all over global standards because China is big enough to get away with it. Same as America, same as Russia, same as Britain (in its time) probably too.

  6. Patent fees by m.h.2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...Chinese firms growing tired of paying foreign patent fees.

    Are they even _paying_ patent fees now?

  7. Good for the chinese... by jwthompson2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... as a sovereign state. Not so good for those who dream of a one world integrated system. I don't concieve of any reason interchanges couldn't be develop to allow the chinese standards to coexist with the rest of the world, sure it will be bothersome to some, but maybe this will give China an opportunity to innovate in new and interesting ways. What some may regard as fractioning I would say could potentially spurr innovation and competition. But you know, why look for a bright side to this when it gives us ample opportunity to pull a chicken little or to belittle somebody else...

    Woot for the chinese! Dirty commies! :-)

    --
    Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
  8. China is very smart to do this by maynard · · Score: 5, Insightful
    While the problem of incompatibility may appear to make this move foolish, it is in fact very smart of them to do so from an economic and national standpoint. Consider these points:
    • China has a huge trade surplus with the western world, and in particular the USA. They hold very large sums of US treasury bonds, giving them real economic leverage against US intervention in Taiwan and North Korea.
    • By developing their own protocols, technical standards, and software (based on Linux or other open source we suppose) they further their goal of keeping capital inside China while sucking capital out from other industrialized nations in trade. Further, they maintain legitimate WTO status be meeting the letter of the law in their international trade treaties.
    • With each step they take integrating into the world trade community by breaking down centralized management of their economy the Chinese government has taken flanking steps politically to shore up power within the central government. This is a great example of how to implement capitalist economic theory without sacrificing political power with political decentralization through democratic means. IOW: freemarket capitalism doesn't necessarily require or create democracy, and here's your proof.
    • While Chinese GDP is small compared to the US or Europe, that won't continue for long. The Chinese economy is the fastest growing of all industrializing nations. And they have a huge pool of cheap labor with which to maintain that growth. Don't assume that just because we set technical standards here in the west that fifty years from now standards designed in China today can't take over a Chinese dominated marketplace tomorrow. Apple once held control over the GUI market for a time, who controls it now? There are many alternative scenarios whereby the technical leaders who dominate a market today lose their power and fade from the market tomorrow.

    China is a real threat to the potential for world democracy. And don't forget it. They may trade with the west, but their political structure and long term planning make them political and economic adversaries long term. Compared to them, Iraq is a "[...]side show of a side show" (See Lawrence of Arabia for the quote).

    --Maynard
  9. Re:Funny that. by ForsakenRegex · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "...especially the US and Australia... are opting for modeles where the Rich get educated and the 'poor' (those not in the top 10%) are receiving less education in order to become serfs for the elite."

    The problem with education in America isn't the government. It is the parenting. I grew up in a trailer. We had barely enough money to eat. I attended a substandard school with substandard academics that did little to prepare me for the future. Yet, I've been successful, and my sister even more so (fucking overachiever). How is this possible with the low education and non-existant support from my government? Our parents instilled in us, from an early age, the importance of succeeding where they had failed. They paid attention and made sure we did not regress. This is the job of the parent. It is not the job of the government. No one, child or adult, should expect to "receive" an education. You seldom learn from something handed to you. The true lessons are from what you take or from what is taken from you. Any education is available if you have the initiative to find it. It is this initiative that children lack. For this lack, the parents are predominantly to blame.

    --
    "A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself."