海角大神

As Beijing and Washington trade accusations of cyber-espionage, China is trying to curb some of America鈥檚 biggest information technology firms here. But it is a long way from breaking its dependence on giants such as Microsoft and IBM, local analysts say.

That means that though Beijing has been talking tough in recent weeks 鈥� lashing out at US companies that China says have helped the National Security Agency to spy on Chinese officials and citizens 鈥� its options are few.

鈥淭here have always been efforts [by China] to displace western technology,鈥� points out Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA, a Beijing-based consultancy specializing in the tech sector. 鈥淏ut there have been no local alternatives.鈥�

Since Edward Snowden鈥檚 revelations about the NSA鈥檚 massive data collection programs, Chinese officials have complained bitterly that Beijing has been a prime victim of US cyber-espionage. The US Department of Justice, meanwhile, last month unsealed indictments against five Chinese military officers, accusing them of hacking into US companies鈥� computers in order to steal trade secrets.

That prompted quick retaliation. China said foreign technology companies would be vetted for possible national security breaches 鈥� a move that could hit US firms鈥� sales in the biggest PC market in the world.

A few days earlier China had announced that it would forbid the use of Microsoft鈥檚 Windows 8 operating system on government computers; the state-run Xinhua news agency said the decision was designed 鈥渢o ensure computer security鈥� without further explanation.

At the end of last month, Bloomberg News cited four sources as saying that government agencies are pushing Chinese banks, which are largely state-owned, to replace their IBM servers with a locally made brand.

And as the website of the ruling Communist party鈥檚 youth wing decried what it called Cisco鈥檚 鈥渄isgraceful role鈥� in China as a tool of the US government, the Chinese authorities released a report finding that 鈥渢he nine major US software and hardware providers offer core technology support to US intelligence.鈥�

Microsoft OS upgrades

Microsoft's ubiquitous software is widely used 鈥� and pirated 鈥� in China.听It is not clear which operating system the Chinese government will choose to replace Windows XP, the outdated OS that most government computers currently run on but which Microsoft no longer supports.

Windows 7 appears the only option, since Chinese scientists have not managed to develop an operating system to match Microsoft鈥檚 products. But it raises the same dilemma: Should China's government rely on a software platform that听is US designed and controlled?

A news item broadcast on state-run television last week questioned Windows 8 security and warned that 鈥渨hoever controls the operating system can control all the data on the computers using it.鈥�

China has developed its own homegrown platform:听computers in some branches of the Chinese military and a few government departments run on an operating system developed by a Chinese firm, Zhongbiao.听But it is less stable than Windows and has made little headway in the consumer听marketplace says Dai Xiangjun, a security expert at CCID, a Beijing IT consulting firm.

鈥淚t is hard to say鈥� when a local firm might develop a computer operating system to rival Windows, adds Mr. Dai. 鈥淏ut it will take a long time.鈥�

Servers for bankers

Likewise, no Chinese firm has yet built a high end mainframe server that could compete with IBM products, meaning that the reported order to replace IBM servers in Chinese banks with servers built by Inspur, a Chinese company, is an empty threat, for now.

Inspur鈥檚 spokesmen did not respond to calls for comment, but staff in the sales department could not name any company product that might compete with IBM鈥檚 mainframes.

鈥淐ore banking operations and mission-critical systems can only run on IBM servers,鈥� says Wang Pei, a cyber-security analyst at IDC, another Chinese IT consultancy. 鈥淚nspur does not have the same technology.鈥�

Though the Chinese authorities are worried about their cyber-security, says Mr. Wang, their recent angry words and actions 鈥渁re a response to the Snowden scandal and the five PLA officers being charged,鈥� he believes. 鈥淭hese are tit for tat reactions.鈥�

鈥淭hese have been a rough few weeks for US technology companies,鈥� says Mr. Clark. 鈥淚 hope it turns out to be more rhetoric than reality.鈥�

Dai expects it will. 鈥�80 percent of all this is because of US-China politics and 20 percent is about technological concerns,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he technological problems are actually not hard to solve, but the politics can get very complicated.鈥�