China ditches Microsoft Word for WPS in trade filings
In a striking parallel to the actions of Europeans upon their arrival on the shores of America, who read out orders to the unsuspecting native populace, China now appears to have adopted a similar approach. This time, however, the focus shifts from conquest to control. Beijing has decided that it no longer wishes for Washington to have easy access to its official documents. Last week, China’s Ministry of Commerce released new documents regarding rare earth export controls; however, these documents were inaccessible via Microsoft Word or any other American word processor. In a notable development, the ministry utilized a file format that is compatible solely with WPS Office, China’s domestic alternative to Microsoft’s suite, as reported by South China Morning Post.
Developed by Kingsoft, WPS Office employs a distinct coding structure, resulting in its files being incompatible with Word unless converted. The timing of this shift symbolizes the escalating cold war-like tensions between the two economic giants. The relationship between Washington and Beijing has been deteriorating, marked by increasing control over technology, semiconductors, and systems viewed as strategic weapons. At the heart of this transition is China’s extensive initiative aimed at achieving technological self-sufficiency. In recent years, Beijing has significantly ramped up its initiatives to lessen reliance on foreign IT systems, particularly within government, state-owned enterprises, universities, and essential industries.
For instance, when a problematic update from the Texas-based cybersecurity company CrowdStrike in July 2024 disrupted Microsoft’s Windows systems globally, China was largely unaffected. Numerous essential service providers, including banks and airlines, had already transitioned from foreign systems. That was not merely a coincidence. In 2022, the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission reportedly mandated that all state-owned enterprises fully implement domestic software by 2027 for their operations and office tasks. According to a report, WPS Office has emerged as the leading domestic word processor, while companies such as Tencent, Huawei, Alibaba, and NetEase are developing their own alternatives for email, cloud, and various other digital services.
In China, foreign software companies have been slowly withdrawing and, in some cases, compelled to exit. Adobe and Citrix (now Cloud Software) have reduced their operations in China, while Microsoft has announced the closure of its AI research lab in Shanghai and all physical stores in mainland China by 2024. In September this year, regulators reportedly instructed major Chinese companies, including ByteDance and Alibaba, to halt testing and purchases of Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D chips. Previously, Beijing’s cyber authority issued a warning to local companies such as Tencent, Baidu, and ByteDance regarding the use of Nvidia’s H20 AI chips, highlighting concerns related to national security and data risks.
