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Effects of China's Software Policy on World Economy?

guptaparesh asks: "The Chinese government is currently engaged in a comprehensive overhaul of its procurement policies and regulations. These regulations would ban non-Chinese firms from selling software to the Chinese government. Given that how much trade all the countries in the world are engaged in with China, isn't this a unfair trade move by the Chinese government?" A better question would be how this might affect the worldwide economy, particularly that of the U.S. and China. What benefits and drawbacks may China see as a result of this new policy? What steps might the U.S. take to attempt to counter it?

15 of 588 comments (clear)

  1. Great for big companies, sucks for small ones by team99parody · · Score: 3, Informative
    These regulations would ban non-Chinese firms from selling software to the Chinese government.

    No problem for guys the size of IBM, who can simply create bizzare chimeras with guys like Lenovo to produce things that are Chinese and US companies at the same time.

  2. Re:One effect by jellomizer · · Score: 2, Informative

    China is not an undeveloped nation, it is a superpower nation. Why do you think the US kisses China Butt all the time, and lets so much stuff slip that would cause other nations to be whiped out. over 2 billion people. about 1/3 of the world population is in China.

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  3. Well... by cnelzie · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...a great deal of people in the US seem to be under the assumption that China is an underdeveloped nation, for some bizarre reason.

    A friend of mine regularly chimes in that we have nothing to worry about from China because "...there is no way a nation that still has cases of Bubonic Plague and can't put electricity or roads across its entire landmass could possibly challenge US Superiority in what we do best..." ...or something to that effect. I think he is to busy drinking the "Republican Pundit Cool-Aid" to seriously take a look at what is going on in China. There are far to many people who share those beliefs for it to be an isolated incident.

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    1. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Something to tell your friend:

      http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_110602_nycpl ague.html

      'Officials say there are 20 to 30 cases of Bubonic plague in the U.S. each year. If caught early, the disease is very treatable, but it is often mistaken for a cold. If treatment is delayed, the plague can, of course, be fatal. '

    2. Re:Well... by borroff · · Score: 2, Informative

      And yet, the World Bank considers them a developing nation - They're one of the biggest recipients of World Bank loans. I believe the World Bank commits over a billion dollars a year to Chinese development.

  4. Re:One effect by Xiaran · · Score: 2, Informative

    over 2 billion people

    Small nit to pick. China doesnt have over 2 billion. From CIA worldfact book its 1,306,313,812.

    Otherwise... right on brother ! Im learning Manadrin .

  5. Re:One effect by Rei · · Score: 2, Informative

    Best growth rate of any large nation, but not the "best economy". It's GDP is only half the size of ours, despite having four times the population. It's growth rate is fast, but not the fastest - Equatorial Guinea is predicted to grow at 16% this year (compared to China's predicted 8%), and I'd hardly call them "the best economy on the planet" (tied for second is one of the poorest contries in the world - Chad, at 14%).

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  6. I would guess cluelessly by Donny+Smith · · Score: 1, Informative

    And you're clueless.

    Years ago Microsoft has given the Chinese government access to the complete source code of Windows operating systems.
    And the Chinese are not the only government who has access to the Windows source code.

    http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-990526.html

  7. The US goverment already does this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I work for a U.S. government contractor. One of the rules that we have to comply with is that all of our software must be produced in the united states. We can't use open source code because some of it could be written outside of the US. We can't buy licenses for software libraries that could be produced overseas. It's to protect us from potentially malicious code.

    This articles prevents the Chinese Government from buying software from outside of the country. There's still another 1.3 billion consumers there that don't directly work for the government. I don't see this to be a very big problem for US companies trying to sell products there.

    1. Re:The US goverment already does this... by LordofStars · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, as an actual DoD employee and not just a contractor, I would like to say that it is true... Somewhat. The company that produces it has to be from the u.s. there is no 'truth in software' act that forces companies to reveal where code was written. Just because Microsoft makes windows, doesn't mean all the code was produced in redmond.

  8. Open markets, govt. purchases not the same thing by spun · · Score: 3, Informative

    There are plenty of things the US government will only purchase from US companies. If a country has no trade tarrifs or subsidies, their markets are open. You wouldn't advocate forcing corporations to purchase from foreign firms, why should governments be forced to? If the Chinese government doesn't want to purchase things from other countries, that is their right. If they start saying that no one can purchase things from other countries, then you can start invoking trade laws.

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  9. Try to RTFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    From TFA:

    "must manufcature all of their product in China, register their copyrights in China first, and do at least 50% of the development in China"

  10. Re:One effect by MaGogue · · Score: 3, Informative

    over 2 billion people. about 1/3 of the world population is in China.

    Ahem, you meant in China and India combined, didn't you? Both have about 1 billion populaion.

    http://geography.about.com/cs/worldpopulation/a/mo stpopulous.htm

  11. Re:One effect by studerby · · Score: 3, Informative
    keep in mind that China's currency is currently undervalued by an estimated 40%

    That's very interesting because: a) they've artificially pegged the yuan-to-U.S.-dollar exchange rate at 8.2765
    b) the U.S dollar has been dropping substantially in value in comparison to many other major currencies, over the last 4 years. In May 2001, it took about 1.14 Euros to buy 1 US dollar; now it takes about .78 Euros...

    The dollar's been rising lately though. At the beginning of the year, it only took .76 Euros to buy a dollar.

    Assuming China's currency really is undervalued, because they're tied to the dollar at a fixed rate, then the US dollar is overvalued (or another currency tied to the dollar is). I'd guess that if China lets their currency float, then in theory the dollar (or the dollar and that other currency) will fall even more, which will make our exports cheaper to the rest of the world and make our imports (including spot market oil) more expensive.

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  12. Re:One effect by Rei · · Score: 2, Informative

    Many people (often reported as "thousands"; the NSA (US) estimate was 180-500) were killed at Tiananmen Square (including a few dozen to several hundred security forces, whose entry was actively resisted - again, numbers differ by whose estimate you look at), but none were reported to have been "run over by tanks". That's a popular misconception because of the famous "tank guy" photos and videos; there actually was a long standoff between the man and the tank, which ended when the man actually climbed *on* the tank to try and talk to those inside, which caused worried onlookers to grab him and haul him off into the crowd.

    To be fair to the Chinese, we haven't had such a massive riot in the US in a time when security forces were on edge. Our closest "equivalent" was Kent State; a similar percentage of people were killed in comparison to the size of the crowd and number of troops, but the numbers at Kent State was a tiny fraction of that in China. The Tiananmen square protests involved over a million people at its height, and perhaps another million or more in other cities in China (no loss of life was reported in the dispersal of the other protests).

    China certainly has real WMDs, but not many of them; FAS puts the total at around 80 warheads, and only about a dozen ICBMs (compared to thousands in the US).

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