3/12    Why does the Chinese govt. care about forcing WiFi chipset makers to
        support WAPI?  Is it beaurocrat muscle-flexing, technical advantages
        of the spec, or added dissident-spying features?
        \_ They know they have a lot of market muscle. So they want to use
           that to help the Chinese tech industry. Foreign companies have to
           license WAPI from China and basically share technical know-how
           when implementing it. There's no real technical reason for it.
           They're trying to do this with DVDs as well, with their "EVD".
           I understand the logic, but still think it's a bad way to go about
           it. When they split the market for everything it's just annoying
           for people who travel, and for companies who need to make the
           different versions. But hey, more useless tech jobs for us!
        \_ The reason is actually a lot benign than that.  China, like
           rest of the (semi-conductor) manufacturing powerhouse, need to pay
           royalties for producing equipment that is in compliant of the
           standards adopted by the West. This Royalties and license fees
           can be a significant cost to the equipment they manufacturs.
           Unlike Korea, or Taiwan or Singapore, which essentially said:
           "we got bullied, but there is nothing we can do about it."  China
           is flexing its market muscle, coming up with thier own standards
           so they don't have to pay those IP-related fees.  Wifi is just one
           of many moves that China made recently (heard of TDS-CDMA?).
           Where to go from here is anyone's guess.  If I am the Premier of
           China, I would eventually use these home-grown stardards to
           influence the existing one, thus, neogiate a better term for
           licensing technology such as GSM and other specifications.
           However, there is an undercurrent of unreasonable national pride
           beneath all these, which may cause Chinese market isolated from
           rest of the world... similiar to what happened to USA and Japan.
           And... China's market is going to be too big to be ignored by
           anyone and thus, they can get away with all that.
           \_ I was unaware that there are royalties for WEP...
                \_ I thought WEP encryption was lame anyway?
           \_ Everyone keeps saying China's market is too big to ignore but
              doesn't most of China still live in small villages growing rice?
              \_ you are correct.  the rural urban breakup has gone from
                 80-20 to 70-30, but it is still mostly rural. OTOH, 30%
                 of 1.3 billion ain't bad.  WSJ says China is already
                 the world's biggest beer market.  I didn't read the
                 details but I would guess it's by volume consumed not
                 average price * volume consumed, cause they drink quite
                 a bit of cheap local brew.
                 \_ So are you saying the 'China is a huge market' thing is
                    for real or bullshit?
                    \_ I am saying it's a huge market for beer.
                       \_ But only cheap local beer, right?
                 of 1.3 billion ain't bad.
           \_ Well said.
           \_ So it's basically "We're really big.  If you want to sell us
              stuff you'll have to give us tech know-how and a discount on
              royalties."
                \_ the WSJ had a story a few weeks ago about how GE
                   wanted to sell power turbines to the Chinese market,
                   but in return the Chinese government wanted significant
                   discounts AND the plans to the technology used in
                   making the turbines so they can make it themselves
                   cheaper down the road, stuff that GE has invested billions
                   in over the years.
                   \_ Was GE stupid enough to do this?
                      \_ According to the article, they reached a compromise
                         - some technology transfer but the most leading
                         edge part was kept secret.  GE had to compromise
                         a little because otherwise China will just go to
                         European companies.  The good thing is, as the
                         article noted, often the transferred technology
                         quickly becomes outdated as even newer technology
                         becomes available.  The technology itself is
                         important, but even more important is the ability
                         to invent new technologies.
                         \_ I remember the article quoting a chinese
                            manager saying that, in technology transfers,
                            the foreign companies show them what to do,
                            but not why they do it, and not how they discover
                         to invent new technologies.
                            that's the way to do it.