Welcome to the Open Forum on the Standards policy in China

Questions to be addressed:

What are the conditions for including Chinese companies in global ICT standardization?

How can the US and the European Union cooperate with the PRC to avoid fragmentation and protectionist standards?

The recent financial crisis has been felt particularly hard in the US and Europe, and as a result we are seeing a shift in the world economy from the G8 to the G20. China in particular is becoming increasingly important globally and is no longer content merely as a source of cheap labor. Growth in GDP during the crisis barely dipped below 10% and with an annual growth rate of 29.7% China is now the world’s fifth largest patent filer .

However, China’s approach to standardization is generally met with considerable negativity from the West. The indigenous innovations policy in particular draws substantial criticism.

The indigenous innovation policy is an effort by Chinese legislators to support and promote domestic Chinese R&D in key strategic industries and reduce China’s reliance on foreign IPR. The view of many commentators is that the policy is excessively protectionist and makes it too hard for foreign firms to operate in mainland China (see e.g. here and here).

Yet policy makers in the PRC appear to be, in part, listening to and taking on board international criticism evidenced by a number of positive steps that have recently been made. Specifically, there have been a number of subtle changes made in regulation such as rules relating to patent inclusions in national standards and foreign IP in public procurement lists, which indicates a move towards a general relaxation of the policy’s requirements placed on foreign firms and standards.

Talkstandards has previously hosted an open forum covering ICT Standardization in China (see here), and as such the focus of this forum is to present an updated picture and of standardization in the People’s Republic of China. Recent developments, as outlined above, will be discussed, as will the effects/consequences stemming from them.

Please join the discussion!

Mattias Ganslandt, Editor

Banner image by West Zest