China bans Mac, Windows and foreign PCs for government agencies and state-owned enterprises

The Chinese government has decided to free itself from dependence on foreign suppliers within two years. To this end, Apple products, Windows and foreign PCs, especially from Dell and HP, are to be replaced by domestic solutions/products in all government agencies and state-owned enterprises.

The news itemApple, Microsoft To Be Hit As China Bans Foreign Computers, OS In Government Offices appeared on the Benzinga platform back on May 6, 2022. The news originated at a Bloomberg (pay wall) article based on sources in the relevant environment. According to the article, China has ordered its central government agencies and state-backed companies to replace all foreign PC hardware and operating systems with domestic alternatives within two years.

Part of the economic war

Since former U.S. President Donald Trump started a trade war with China (I recall the ban on Huawei products as well as the TikTok story), China's government is also looking at how to reduce its dependence on U.S. products and manufacturers. China does produce electronics for Apple and many other manufacturers and is flooding the markets with its own products. But it doesn't want to be caught cold if the U.S. flips the "kill switch" for political reasons.

Now, according to Bloomberg, the Chinese government, which regularly excludes certain products from procurement lists to promote Chinese products, has instructed staff at state-owned companies to swap foreign PCs for in-house Chinese alternatives. The move is likely due to growing privacy concerns on the part of the Chinese government. The move is one of Beijing's most aggressive pushes yet in its decade-long campaign to replace imported technology with domestic alternatives.

Windows 8 had already been officially banned by the authorities in China – and Microsoft developed a specially adapted variant of Windows 10 for China to keep its foot in the door. However, the Internet Security Information Leadership Group (ISILG) of the People's Liberation Army was already commissioned by the Chinese military to develop a Windows alternative in 2012.

China now has the Linux-based operating system "Red Flag" and a Ubuntu clone Neokylin. If PCs from Dell and HP, as well as Apple products, are now banned from the state environment in addition to Windows, this will be tantamount to a paradigm shift. With Huawei and Lenovo, there are hardware manufacturers that can equip the companies with the appropriate hardware.