Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


China's Computers Run on Microsoft Windows: Are They Vulnerable to US
Pressure?

John Xie

   As tension grows between China and the United States, there is worry in
   Beijing that the conflict could end up further restricting Chinese
   access to American technology.

   Of foremost concern is that despite decades of effort, China has yet to
   build a homegrown operating system good enough to replace Microsoft
   Windows. "Our operating system market is dominated by U.S. companies
   such as Microsoft, Google and Apple," a recent report by state-run
   Xinhua News Agency said. "To fundamentally solve the problem of 'being
   choked in [the] neck', creating a domestic operating system and
   supporting software and hardware ecosystem is a must."

   To be fair, China is not alone. Other countries including Russia,
   Germany and South Korea have been trying to develop their own operating
   systems. But none of them have gotten very far yet.

   Washington has already targeted China's technology vulnerabilities. The
   U.S. Commerce Department has banned [1]Huawei from Google Androidand
   cut off the Chinese tech giant from foreign chip manufacturers in May
   2019 after adding it to the Export Administration Regulations Entity
   List. Just last week, 33 Chinese firms and institutions, including the
   Shanghai-listed software giant [2]Qihoo 360 Technology, were added to
   an economic blacklist for activities that threaten American national
   security or foreign policy interests.

   Last month President Donald Trump suggested he is considering going
   further.

   "There are many things we could do," he told Maria Bartiromo, the Fox
   Business host. "[3]We could cut off the whole relationship."

References

   1. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/technology/google-android-huawei.html
   2. https://www.360totalsecurity.com/en/about/
   3. https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-on-china-we-could-cut-off-the-whole-relationship

.