The United States warned China last week that it risked “technological isolation” for developing unique technical standards of its own that also are shutting out foreign competition reports AFP.
China is developing standards across a wide range of industry that give Chinese industry an unfair advantage says Under Secretary of Commerce Christopher Padilla. However he notes Japan thought it was large enough, it could do the same and the world would follow in the 1980s. However it was wrong and now China risks technological isolation.
“We see this happening in other areas as well, including telecommunications, electronics, digital media, and software,” Padilla said. One example cited was a China-specific 3G mobile phone standard over internationally recognised standards.
Could one area that China may want to develop its own standards be domain names? While it is not mentioned in this AFP article, there have been moves afoot around the world to do so.