IBM Permits China To Review Source Code (wsj.com)

An anonymous reader writes: IBM has permitted the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to review its proprietary source code in a 'controlled' environment, said IBM Senior Vice President Steve Mills yesterday. The company didn't make clear which of its products would be available for review. According to a (paywalled) WSJ report: "IBM has been willing to strike closer partnerships with China’s government than many of its fellow U.S. tech companies, people familiar with the company’s strategy said. Still, it isn’t clear to what extent IBM’s move might be a symbolic gesture. The people briefed on the practice said Chinese officials can look at the code only during visits and can’t remove it for a thorough review. In a short amount of time, it would be extremely difficult to comb through all the code for a product for potential “backdoors” that would allow spying on users."

Comments

A new startup

[Anonymous Coward]

Strangely enough, shortly after the IBM code was reviewed, a new startup in China called "RYE-BM" plans to hire 1000 new employees.

Re:A new startup

[Tsolias]

...and shortly after the new RYE-BM startup is created, 1000 more U.S. outsourced their activities to that company.
Damn those Chinese.

Re:China's Source Code

[Tsolias]

If there is a rule that a chinese company has to have its code reviewed by the U.S. Ministry of Something and that company wants to enter the market of the U.S. (not America, America is a continent) then that chinese company will have to obey the rules.
That's what IBM is doing, they are entering a new sandbox, with different laws and different corruption that the U.S..

Bottom line is, noone forces IBM to comply with chinese laws and enter that market and vice versa. They are willing to do it.