The latest PC replacement project also reflects Beijing’s growing concerns around information security as well as a confidence in homegrown hardware.
BY:
Salvatore Nicci
Technology Analyst / Reporter
PROJECT COUNSEL MEDIA
9 May 2022 (Krakow, Poland) – Over the weekend we posted a piece on how Russian forces have taken over internet infrastructure in Ukraine and rerouted traffic to Russia-controlled operators, making Ukrainians’ data vulnerable to interception and censorship by the Kremlin. The invasion of Ukraine has triggered a significant digital shift for Russia. A plethora of events have escalated the invasion into the digital world, with cyber attacks, cyber criminals taking sides, and even an IT army of civilians being mobilised by Ukraine.
Over the last two years there has been much chatter about Russia “decoupling” from the West, taking its control of information online to the next level – by cutting the country off from the global Internet. The difficulties (impossibilities?) of doing this will be explored in a future post.
Similar, more substantive moves, are happening in China where its ongoing technological battle with America has resulted in numerous China think-tanks finding China “decoupling” is already underway in areas like core computing systems, semiconductors, operating systems and aerospace.
The Chinese government and its state owned enterprises are going to replace at least 50 million PCs with domestic computers running only local operating systems. The information security risks for using American systems have been judged to be too high. It is another fascinating move – the unwinding of a flat technology world that was closely standardised by the success of American firms. This should in turn boost domestic Chinese companies.
But the latest PC replacement project also reflects Beijing’s growing confidence in homegrown hardware: the world’s biggest laptop and server makers today include Lenovo, Huawei and Inspur Ltd., while local developers such as Kingsoft and Standard Software have made rapid strides in office software against the likes of Microsoft and Adobe.
It will also force American firms to navigate ever more complicated waters. Take Tesla, for instance, where China accounts for 24.8% of the firm’s revenue. These smartphones on wheels operate with internet connections and have, historically, even been the source of cyber intrusions.
And it is all part and parcel of trend we have noted: this era of efficiency, growth and scale (the hallmarks of 1990s globalisation) are drawing to a close, and it’s why many trade experts reckon that the period of cheap and plenty might possibly be over. Yes, it is far more complicated than that. For instance, we’re moving cognitive tasks into machines where they can benefit from software economics. An increase in the cost of a given commodity makes uneconomic reserves cost effective enough to spur innovation in alternative methods which don’t need the expensive commodities. Surely a benefit. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be hairy in the meantime.
Elsewhere: a fascinating read on China’s demographic conundrum. The nation’s median age is higher than that of the US, and it is greying so fast that more than half the population could be over 50 within 3 decades. Fertility rates are plunging, and the institutions of the Chinese Communist Party and courts are pickpocketing women’s rights to stabilise nuclear families and child rearing.
