re: why would China want to be an island in the wireless world?
Economically, it makes no sense. Politically, and militarily, it may be necessary.
The Chinese see what has happened with Intel and Microsoft, and they don't want yet another American company dominating a vital technology. Remember, they think of us as the Great Hegemonic Power, who bombs their embassy in Serbia, whose culture is dissolving many national cultures around the globe, who sends Carrier Task Groups when the Chinese rattle their swords at Taiwan, whose multinationals dominate the global economy, and who sends soldiers here, there, and everywhere.
The technology Qualcomm developed has vital military applications. They want a variant that is homegrown, all theirs. I don't think Americans realize how nationalistic and paranoid the Chinese are. With their history of being nearly colonized from 1839 through 1949, they have good historical reasons to be paranoid, and they have not forgotten (or forgiven) any of that history. And, since all vital decisions are made in government ministries (not by businesses, whether they are officially private or not), it is the attitude of the government which decides.
They may also develop, in parallel, CDMA variants for export. But I don't think they will allow 3G until one of the variants deployed is TD-SCDMA. |
