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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (5360)	8/19/2003 5:22:16 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793917

This could have huge implications China blocks foreign software use in gov't By Staff, CNETAsia Monday, August 18 2003 10:11 AM A new policy by China's governing body will rule that all ministries buy only locally-produced software at the next upgrade cycle. The move by the State Council is aimed at breaking the dominance of U.S.-based Microsoft on desktop computers, will eliminate Microsoft's Windows operating system and Office productivity suite from hundreds of thousands of Chinese government computers in a few years' time. Gao Zhigang, an official with the Procurement Center of the State Council, told reporters that the new policy will be in place by year-end. At a special congress held to encourage ministries to upgrade to WPS Office 2003, a China-made office productivity suite, Gao said that only hardware pre-installed with domestic operating systems and application software will be purchased by government. Those seeking exceptions will need to submit a special request. The new policy is expected to increase the number of government officials using domestic-made office software from a third to 100 percent eventually. Gao said that the new policy is meant to support the local software industry and protect state information security. Microsoft has been on a charm offensive, including granting the government inspection rights over Windows source code and creating a new CEO position for Greater China. The new policy will continue till at least until 2010. These protections are standard and are not meant to discriminate against other countries, said the Council. China is a member of the World Trade Organization and it is unclear if the new bans contravene the body's charters. "The domestic software industry is very insulated. There is poor interaction and partnership with user companies. The increased use of domestic software will make the China software industry more open," said Fei Lin, an official with the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The ban comes as part of China's efforts to challenge Western technology. Chinese software company Kingsoft used to take 90 percent of the market with its Chinese word processing tool, but lost nearly all market share to Microsoft Word when the product entered in the early 90s. Experts say that the WPS system is the only product that will challenge Microsoft Office's dominance of the Chinese market. In addition to commercial reasons for protecting local software, there are security concerns. China is placing official support behind the Red Flag Linux operating system , which they trust because the open-source code allows officials to see that there are no data spyholes installed by foreign powers. Recently, China rejected globally-dominant MPEG for its own audio-video compression standard, known as AVS. China is keen to move its IT infrastructure away from the dominance of Western companies and the fees levied by such firms. ZDNet China's Zhang Xiaonan contributed to this report. asia.cnet.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (5360)	8/19/2003 2:37:36 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793917

Gilligan put his foot in it with this move! Gilligan tried to prompt Kelly to voice fears Ciar Byrne Tuesday August 19, 2003 The Guardian Andrew Gilligan, the BBC reporter at the heart of the David Kelly affair, tried to draw the weapons inspector into admitting publically there was disquiet over the Iraq intelligence dossier, it emerged today. The journalist sent an email to a Liberal Democrat press officer suggesting questions that could be put to Dr Kelly by the foreign affairs select committee. In the email dated July 14, Gillligan described Dr Kelly as "an extremely interesting witness". "Above all he should be asked what kind of threat Iraq was in September 2002 and, if he was able to answer frankly, it should be devastating," Gilligan wrote. Gilligan did not admit Dr Kelly was the source of his "sexed-up" dossier story broadcast on the Radio 4 Today programme, which started the row between the BBC and the government. The email addressed to the Lib Dems' Greg Simpson was submitted to the Hutton inquiry by David Chidgey MP, a member of the FAC. A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: "We passed on the email to the Hutton inquiry thinking that it could be relevant." It is not clear why the document was not submitted by the BBC as part of its evidence to the inquiry. James Dingemans QC said the email had not arrived in time for him to put its contents to Gilligan, who gave evidence last week. Mr Dingemans suggested to the No 10 communications chief, Alastair Campbell, who was up before the inquiry today, that the email showed Gilligan was using the FAC investigation to attack the government. Mr Dingemans asked Mr Campbell whether he thought the government was using the parliamentary inquiry to get at the BBC. "A game of chicken was being played by two great big institutions with Dr Kelly in the middle," Mr Dingemans suggested. Mr Campbell replied: "I do not accept that. I find that quite an extraordinary email." The prime minister's director of communications and strategy also played down the significance of an email highlighted at the inquiry yesterday, in which No 10 press officer Tom Kelly described the row as a "game of chicken" between the government and the BBC. "I don't think it does reflect the mindset really. I think emails that are sent between colleagues who are very close and work very closely can look very different when you're looking at them on a screen in a courtroom," Mr Campbell said. "I think the point he was making was at some point one of us is going to have to back down." media.guardian.co.uk