China is setting its own standards in VCD, PC/VCD, DVD, settops, and broadcast systems................
China to Set Standards in 10 Key Technology Product
Areas, Reports CMP's EE Times
MANHASSET, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 24, 1997--
The Intent is to Level the Playing Field for Chinese Manufacturers
China's government is setting systems standards in 10 targeted areas and gathering intellectual
property through patent pools in an effort to increase the clout of its huge market and production
prowess, according to an exclusive report published in this week's issue of CMP's EE Times. In
nearly all cases, the standards being drafted by China's Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) are
expected to differ from existing international standards, whose intellectual property is often tightly
controlled by companies based outside the People's Republic. Emerging electronics-trade policies in
China are also more restrictive than in most--if not all--other countries: Sales within the country will
be limited to government-approved products. The intent, as expressed by various Chinese officials,
is to level the playing field for Chinese manufacturers. And the massive size of China's market may
prove a powerful impetus for compliance among foreign companies that otherwise might not be
willing to play by another's rules. But industry and government officials in the United States and
elsewhere have expressed some concern that Beijing is looking for more than a home-field
advantage and that it may seek to propel China to dominance on the world electronics stage. "The
various committees inside the MEI as well as the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPT)
will develop standards for all electronic consumer goods and components," Chang Fong Chow,
director for the China National Standardization of Technology Committee on Recording, which
oversees China's video-CD standards activity, told EE Times. "If a company wants to sell an
electronics product in China, it must conform to our standards." In addition to VCD players, the
MEI committees are drafting standards for hybrid PC/VCD machines, digital cameras, TV
broadcast equipment, DVD players, laser-disk players, digital VCRs, digital audio tape (DAT)
players and set-top boxes. The MPT handles standards for analog and digital phones. A United
States Trade Representative (USTR) official, who declined to be named, acknowledged that the
U.S. government-run Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) recently reported on China's
plan to establish its own standards in certain product areas. Yet she warned against reading too
much into the plan until more is known about it. "China sometimes makes great proclamations, which
sometimes it follows up and sometimes it doesn't," the official told the publication. "We have to run it
by the U.S. Embassy in China to get more details."
In a recent speech that was translated and broadcast by FBIS, Chinese electronics-industry minister
Hu Qili said China has made "significant breakthroughs in key scientific research projects such as
very large-scale integrated circuits, smart cards, CAD systems, large-scale software development
systems, digital broadcasts and microwave-telecommunications systems and new display devices."
Some of those developments, he said, "not only represent a breakthrough in the situation in which
foreign products dominate everything in China but also mean that we are (prepared) to participate in
the world market." The complete EE Times report, which features more details, can be found on EE
Times Online at eet.com. EE Times, published by CMP Media Inc., is the leading
publication covering the high tech original equipment manufacturing industry. The well-respected
weekly--which in recent years broke several major industry stories including the news of the floating
point bug in Intel's Pentium processors--is the only source that delivers news of both business and
technology to engineers and technical/corporate managers at electronics and computer systems
manufacturers in North America. The publication's Web site, EE Times Online, can be accessed at
eet.com. CMP Media Inc. (Nasdaq: CMPX) is a leading print and online publisher of
newspapers and magazines about technology and an innovator in technology-related Internet
products and services. CMP's offerings serve the broad technology spectrum in key high-tech
markets worldwide: those who build technology, those who sell it, and those who use it. The
company's publication titles, which include EE Times, InformationWeek, Computer Reseller News
and WINDOWS MAGAZINE, along with products and services created exclusively for the
Internet, can be found on CMPnet at cmpnet.com.
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e-mail srubel@cmp.com
or
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