Content area
Full text
1. Introduction
Since China joined the WTO in 2001, China's domestic industries have faced many challenges from globalization and foreign competition. No industry illustrates this better than the IT and telecommunications sectors. China's accession to WTO has greatly impacted on its telecommunications services ([45] Roseman, 2005). Chinese markets are the arena for fierce competition among multinational telecommunication equipment manufacturers and service vendors. Because the Chinese markets are so huge, foreign companies are keen to participate in them.
Traditional instruments for trade protection such as tariffs and quotas are limited under the WTO principle of free international trade ([59] World Trade Organisation, 2004). China has to find a new way to protect its markets from being dominated by foreign multinationals, and standards emerge as an effective means to protect and promote national industry ([53] Suttmeier and Yao, 2004). China's post-WTO technology policy therefore emphasizes the importance of standards. For example, the [52] Standardization Administration of China (2004) published a report on "China's Technology Standards Strategy Development", which set out China's technology standards implementation plan from 2005 to 2020.
National technology standards have emerged as an increasingly important item on China's development and foreign relations agenda. There are several attempts to set its own technological standards - different from international standards - within its own territory and worldwide. They include WAPI (Wireless LAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure), TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), AVS (Audio Video Coding Standard), IGRS (Intelligent Grouping and Resources Sharing) and EVD (Enhanced Versatile Disc) ([53] Suttmeier and Yao, 2004; [42] Qu and Polley, 2005).
This paper examines China's attempts to set its own standards in the ICT sector. After analyzing the WAPI case, [53] Suttmeier and Yao (2004) placed all the Chinese attempts under the banner of "neo-techno-nationalism" (see the following section for details). However, we have noticed that there are some differences between those attempts. Identifying those differences will help us better understand China's technology standards policy. There is no cross-case study that compares similarities and differences among those attempts. To identify and compare those similarities and differences is the aim of this paper in the first instance. In so doing, we will be able to understand why and how China tries to set its own standards in the...