China Sees a New Way To Steer Tech Market: Touting Own Standards
In 2001, a group of researchers in this ancient city quietly embarked on a project to better protect wireless Internet systems from potential hackers. Their effort was little-noticed by the outside world, but it received a surprising amount of attention at home: Jiang Zemin, then China Communist Party chief, personally visited Xian to inspect the equipment being developed by the research team.
In July 2003, high-ranking officials flocked to a news conference held by the researchers in an exclusive state guesthouse in Beijing to unveil their home-grown data-protection process. State television played up the news, and several months later, authorities ordered all Chinese and foreign vendors of Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity, products in China to conform to the new standard by this June. Intel Corp. said it could be forced to stop selling some computer chips in China because it couldn't meet the deadline. Nokia Corp. said it also wouldn't sell a new phone model because it used Wi-Fi technology incompatible with the new Chinese standard.
For China, the development marked a watershed. Even while Beijing has cited security concerns as the reason for enforcing its own wireless-encryption standard, it, in fact, represents the first volley in an ambitious, new stratagem: As China becomes an increasingly important player in global trade and diplomacy, it is also pushing its own technical standards on a wide range of fronts, affecting products from third-generation wireless phones to compression technology to inventory-tracking tags to Internet-related software.
Facing anger from companies like Intel and Nokia and pressure from the U.S. government, China agreed on Wednesday to indefinitely shelve the home-grown encryption standard. But it said it would continue to work with international bodies to set global standards, and some policy makers in China suggest the country could present the encryption standard to one such body with the aim of pushing it as the global standard.
Unsettling Message
The dispute over the encryption standard shows how China, propelled by nationalist pride and a desire to decrease reliance on foreign technology and level the playing field with foreign rivals, is shaking up the global standards game. And its push to set its own technical standards is sending an unsettling message to U.S. companies: In a world moving toward globalization of production and trade, the rules are sometimes set elsewhere. The European Union now affects corporate strategies as it sets rules on everything from genetically engineered crops to antitrust issues. China's new assertiveness is of special concern because the nation is both the world's factory floor and the world's biggest market.
China is saying, "If you want access to my market, you have to use my standards," says Chen Yuping, a director at the Ministry of Information Industry's research institute in Beijing. Adds Fang Xingdong, a high-tech consultant: China's huge market "is ours, but we've been passive, not proactive. To negotiate with the other side, we need our own cards to play. Standards are China's cards."
China is a latecomer to the standards game. Traditionally, it has held relatively few patents of its own, and so often has had to pay high royalties to use components and software developed by others. Having its own standards can strengthen China's hand when negotiating royalties or technology transfers. The strategy also allows China to claim early ownership of an emerging technology and gives domestic industries a head start over foreign rivals in the marketplace.
The ramifications of China's standards strategy ultimately could sweep across many industries and affect companies around the world. Some foreign companies fear that other countries could follow China's lead and try and set their own standards, slowing global high-tech development. "It could definitely have a snowball effect," says Frank Ferro, director of Agere Systems Inc., a U.S.-based maker of chips used in communication equipment.
"There are lots of industries where China's market is leading, like cellphones and DVDs," says Anne Stevenson-Yang, head of the Beijing office of the U.S. Information Technology Office, a Washington-based industry group. "It's natural for Chinese companies to emerge as leaders in setting standards in those areas. But you want to do it through inducement, not dictate, or you'll cut off your companies from export markets, international customers and collaboration in technology."
Bigger Role Desired
China's growing importance as market and manufacturing base is driving its efforts to influence global standards for radio frequency identification tagging, or RFID, which is a more upscale version of bar codes. The promising new technology transfers small bundles of information embedded in products to special wireless readers. The technology is being adopted by companies like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to track inventory. China's efforts to develop its own RFID standard are taking place alongside similar efforts by global players, including the Electronic Product Code group, which is owned by EPCglobal, a joint venture of Europe's EAN International Inc. and the Uniform Code Council of the U.S., manager of the bar-code system.
TECHNICAL COMPETITION
China hopes to influence world standards for digital technology. Among the areas it is targeting:
o Rfid: Made-for-China standard to govern radio frequency identification tagging technology that would be compatible with global standards.
o Avs: Digital-compression technology standard that offers an alternative to the global MPEG-4 standard.
o 3G: A third-generation cellphone that is vying with standards set by Europe and Qualcomm of the U.S.
o Evd: An enhanced video-disc standard that China is promoting as a next-generation DVD system.
Shanghai's Fudan University is providing key technology to the EPC effort, but Chinese policy makers envision a bigger role for China. A working group set up by the government is in talks with two dozen multinationals to define an RFID standard for China, with a pilot project in the works to test globally available technologies by tracking inventory from Chinese factories to warehouses in the U.S. and Europe, and then cherry-picking parts of different technologies to cobble together a made-for-China standard. Edward Zeng, a member of the working group who runs Beijing-based business-to-business trading company Sparkice Inc., says he believes that eventually, several countries, including China, the U.S. and Japan, could emerge with their own local standards that would be able to talk to each other.
"China is the new economic co-driver and manufacturing center of the world," Mr. Zeng says. "We're not setting the global standard, but we'll at least become a co-setter of global RFID standards."
China hopes to sell another home-grown standard, for video-compression technology, to the rest of the world, touting a superior technology and simple licensing system. Currently, the world's most widely used compression technology -- which turns audio and visual signals into digital ones and is crucial for Internet data-streaming and high-definition digital television -- is MPEG-2, although the Los Angeles-based MPEG working group has rolled out a newer version, MPEG-4, that hasn't seen widespread adoption by broadcasters because of its onerous licensing terms.
'A More Urgent Matter'
Gao Wen saw an opportunity for China. The urbane computer scientist with a penchant for designer polo shirts has led China's delegation to MPEG forums since 1997. He spoke up at a monthly brainstorming session of scientists at a mountain hotel outside Beijing in March 2002. The billed topic was how China could promote the media-streaming industry by strengthening copyright protection. But Mr. Gao argued that "we have a more urgent matter to talk about: China needs to have its own [compression] standard." Recalls Mr. Gao: "We felt that we could do this because the market is so big and the manufacturers are all here."
Mr. Gao says the Chinese standard, created with the help of multinationals like Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and Nokia, is not only technically superior to MPEG-4, but also offers a better licensing deal. Manufacturers that want to license MPEG-4 must negotiate fees separately with each patent holder, a potential problem for China's mostly smaller manufacturers, which lack the financial resources and personnel to undertake such negotiations. The Chinese standard, Audio Video Coding Standard, or AVS, in contrast, offers "one-stop shopping," with licensors required to deal with one licensing body, Mr. Gao says. To help jump-start the industry in China, he says, the group plans to initially charge a royalty fee of just one yuan, or about 12 U.S. cents.
Beijing's standards ambitions don't necessarily mean bad news for foreign companies. Many are eager to partner with China since such alliances can benefit both sides: China can grab onto new technology to advance itself, just as Japan and South Korea have done in the past, while foreign companies gain access into China's huge market. Nokia, for one, is already working with China to develop a standard for the next-generation Internet, which will have a much bigger capacity for IP addresses than the current generation Internet, among other qualities.
"Nokia would like to help China develop any global standards," says Ma Jian, a manager at Nokia's research center in China.
The push to influence global standards has opened up an internal debate in China with strong nationalistic and national security overtones. For many Chinese, the issue has become one of nationalist pride, not technical merit. "Why should we comply with those standards made by Americans?" argued one online poster during a recent bulletin-board discussion about the wireless encryption standard. "In their eyes, American domination is the most reasonable standard." At a meeting in Xian last fall between the Xian standards group and global players including Intel and Cisco, one Chinese executive charged the U.S. side with being "hegemonist," recalls an attendee.
According to policy makers and industry executives, China is drafting a number of other compulsory standards in the name of security, including for routers, digital switches and other Internet related hardware and software. Mr. Chen of the Ministry of Information Industry says the aim is to deter hackers and address other security concerns. But some foreign companies worry that security concerns could provide a cover for trade barriers. "We hope national-security issues will be dealt with in narrow, confined ways," says Jim Gradoville, head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.
Other parts of China's bureaucracy are taking a more open and flexible approach in setting standards. In 2003, China was poised to introduce its own national product-code system, but decided to shelve implementation when it found out from the Internet and through foreign partners about the RFID technology, which was more sophisticated than, and possibly incompatible with, its planned system. Beijing's decision to return to the drawing board wasn't popular in many circles in China, with conservatives arguing that China should push ahead with its own system and others saying it should simply adopt the international standard.
Mr. Zeng, the China RFID group member, says he personally lobbied three government ministers to take a middle road. "We could become nationalistic and self-centered and isolate ourselves, or we could...become an RFID colony," he says. "I said we should have compatibility with the international standard while having our national intellectual property."
Mr. Zeng's office is a testament to his philosophy. Hanging on one wall are three diagrams identifying existing and potential leaders in both RFID software and hardware around the world. Pointing to one featuring colorful concentric circles labeled with the logos of international companies, he says he updates it each week, "so we know which companies are driving the stuff and which companies could be players because they have useful technology."
Surprising Backlash
The Xian group that created the wireless encryption standard appears to have fallen into the conservative camp. But neither it nor Chinese policy makers expected the backlash that its work generated.
Since the 1990s, Li Jiandong, head of Xidian University's communications engineering school in Xian, had been researching Wi-Fi technology on Xidian's placid, leafy campus. In 2001, as the technology was taking on wider commercial applications around the world and after a high-profile hacker case in Japan cast doubt on Wi-Fi security, Mr. Li and executives at a Xidian-invested technology company, China Iwncomm Co., saw an opportunity. "They felt the time was mature to bring together a lot of research organizations to put together an [encryption] standard," recalls a Xian group member.
Their timing was fortuitous. Chinese policy makers were just reaching a consensus that their efforts to swap market access for foreign technology wasn't working, and that they needed a new strategy to secure foreign know-how. Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturers of DVD players were embroiled in a widening spat for failure to pay royalties to foreign patent holders that culminated in January 2002 with the seizure of thousands of Chinese-made DVD players by European customs agents. The Chinese companies eventually agreed to pay royalties, but the incident, and the high amounts the companies were asked to pay, drove home to Beijing the crucial role that standards play in global trade.
The Xian group quickly won the go-ahead from the Ministry of Information Industry to design a new wireless encryption standard. Located in central China far from the eastern coast, where most foreign companies are concentrated, the Xian group is believed by some foreign industry executives to have ties to China's military and security apparatus. Xidian is a former military-run university, and like many companies in Xian, Iwncomm sells equipment to the military. Its general manager, Cao Jun, declined at a recent news conference to provide any details on his education or previous job experience. A main backer of the Xian group has been the State Encryption Management Commission, a conservative interagency group whose members include the state security arms of the government.
People close to the group, which later grew to include institutions from other parts of the country, say it was open to foreign input on how to draft the standard and that it issued several public updates on its progress, including to visiting Intel executives, but that foreign companies showed little interest. Intel executives declined to comment, but other U.S. industry executives disagree. They say their efforts to learn more about the standard in mid-2003 met with obfuscation from the Xian group and regulators. China declined to make the encryption codes public, making it impossible for foreign companies to ascertain whether the version is better or worse than ones used elsewhere in the world. Both Agere, the U.S. chip maker, and Texas Instruments Inc. say the parts of the Chinese system that have been made public aren't as secure as the existing one. More worrisome was China's requirement that foreign vendors cooperate with two dozen Chinese companies to obtain the encryption technology, potentially forcing the foreign companies to share technology and business secrets with Chinese rivals.
China's 11th-hour decision to indefinitely shelve the controversial encryption standard took even industry insiders by surprise. The about-face, announced in Washington on Wednesday by visiting Vice Premier Wu Yi, a widely respected former trade minister, was a decision made but top leaders, say people familiar with the situation. It appears at least in part based on the realization that the Xian group's approach is out of step with international practices, in which industry groups coalesce around certain standards and then apply to international bodies for approval. "The thinking was that China needs to consider its national character, but also how it could work more happily with the international community," says the Ministry of Information Industry's Mr. Chen. He predicts China will try and get the wireless encryption standard accepted as a global standard through the IEEE, a global Wi-Fi standards body.
Even before the announcement, some policy makers and Chinese companies were grumbling about the Xian group's approach. "To ensure our own interests, perhaps we didn't do thorough negotiations with the international community," allowed Zhang Weihua, an official of the National Institute of Standardization, China's main standards research group.
In some ways, the process underscores the bumpy learning process that China is undergoing as it seeks to take a more active role in defining global standards. "This isn't the last you'll ever hear of this debate" over whether China should use standards as a power game or work more closely with international bodies, says USITO's Ms. Stevenson-Yang.
On the tree-lined Xidian University campus where it all began, the debate continues. "If we just adopt other people's standards, we're just giving them money and turning into a follower," says Liu Shuaihong, a 28-year-old graduate student in electronics. "Why should we always follow other countries' standards when we can design our own?"
中国欲借本土技术标准立足世界舞台
2001年的古城西安，一组研究人员静悄悄地启动了一个项目，为的是强化互联网无线系统的安全性，免遭黑客的侵袭。本来他们的举动并不怎么为外界所知，但后来他们的工作在国内受到了出人意料的关注，原因是当时的中国共产党总书记江泽民视察了西安，并察看了由该研究小组开发的设备。
2003年7月，这些研究人员在北京的钓鱼台国宾馆召开了一次新闻发布会。在会上，他们向到场的大批高级官员展示了本土的数据加密标准。随后，国有媒体对这条消息进行了大肆的宣传。数月之后，监管当局责令所有在华销售无线保真（技术）(Wi-Fi)产品的中外企业都必须在今年6月1日之前执行这项标准。英特尔(Intel Corp.)就表示，可能在中国停售部分电脑晶片，因为它无法在截止日期之前推出符合这一标准的产品。诺基亚(Nokia Corp.)也表示，将无法在华销售一款新型手机，原因是这款手机使用的Wi-Fi技术与中国制定的标准不兼容。
对于中国来说，推出本土的技术标准是一个具有划时代意义的事件。虽然中国政府强调，推行中国自主开发的无线加密技术标准是出于安全方面的考虑，但实际上这只是中国雄伟蓝图的第一步。随著在全球贸易及外交领域的重要性与日俱增，中国准备把自己制定的一系列技术标准推向世界舞台。此举可能对诸多行业的产品产生影响，如3G手机、压缩技术、库存跟踪标签以及互联网相关软件等。
由于英特尔、诺基亚等企业表示反对以及美国政府施加了压力，中国于周三宣布无限期地推迟本土加密标准的实施。但中国表示，将继续同国际组织相互合作，制定出全球通用的标准。中国的一些政策制定者建议，中国应该把本土的加密标准提交给一个国际组织，并促使该组织把中国的加密标准接纳为全球性的技术标准。
围绕加密标准的纠纷表明，在民族自豪感、希望减少对国外技术的依赖以及追赶世界先进水平的雄心下，中国正在改变全球技术标准的格局。中国决心制定自己的技术标准向美国公司发出了一个不详的信号：在生产和贸易日益全球化的今天，美国公司有时不得不面对游戏规则是由他人制定的这一现实。欧盟已经在从转基因作物到反垄断行为等方方面面制定了自己的规则，这已经对企业的发展战略产生了影响。中国在这方面的努力尤为引人瞩目，因为中国不仅是世界工厂，同时也是全球最大的市场。 中国方面有自己的理由。中国信息产业部(Ministry of Information Industry)电信研究院交流中心主任陈育平称，如果外国公司想进入中国市场，就得采用中国的标准。身为高科技顾问的方兴东也表示，"中国庞大的市场是属于中国人自己的，但我们一直都是在被动地接受，而不是主动地选择。为了在与外国公司谈判时握有更多的筹码，我们需要有自己的王牌。推出本土标准就是中国的王牌。"
中国加入推出本土标准的行列时间并不长。以往，由于缺乏自己的专利，因此经常要为使用配件和软件向外国公司支付高额的版权费。在同外国公司商谈版权费或者技术转让时，拥有自己的标准将提升中国的谈判实力。另外，这种策略还将加快中国掌握新兴技术的进程，帮助本国企业在同外国同行竞争时处于领先地位。
中国推出本土标准最终会影响到许多行业，还会对全球各地的公司产生影响。一些外国公司担心其他国家会效仿中国的做法，也尝试推出本国的标准，这样会阻碍全球高科技的进步。美国通讯设备晶片制造商Agere Systems Inc.的董事富兰克?费罗(Frank Ferro)称，（中国推出本土标准）肯定会产生跟风效应。
行业团体美国信息产业机构(US Information Technology Office)驻北京代表处首席代表杨思安(Anne Stevenson-Yang)说，中国是手机、DVD等许多产品的最大市场，中国企业成为这些行业主要的标准制定者是件很自然的事。但中国应该通过诱导、而不是强迫的方式来推动这一进程，否则的话，本国企业将会失去出口市场、国际客户以及技术合作的机会。
随著中国作为消费市场和制造基地的重要地位日益上升，中国正在对射频识别技术(RFID)全球标准的制定施加影响力。RFID实际上就是更高版本的条形码。沃尔玛(Wal-Mart Stores Inc.)等企业采用这种技术是为了跟踪库存。中国和产品电子代码(Electronic Product Code, EPC)等全球性机构都在著手开发自己的RFID标准。
上海的复旦大学(Fudan University)正在为EPC提供关键的技术，但中国的政策制定者们希望中国能够扮演更大的角色。中国政府成立的一个工作组正在为制定中国自己的RFID标准和24家跨国公司进行商谈，目前进行的一个试验性项目是，通过测试全球各种相关技术在追踪库存情况方面的表现，博采各种技术的精华，整合出具有自主知识产权的本土标准。工作组成员之一实华开(Sparkice)首席执行长曾强(Edward ZENG)表示，中国、美国和日本都可能推出本国的标准，同时它们又能相互兼容。
曾强说，中国是新经济共同的推动者之一，还是全球的制造中心。中国不一定非得推出全球性的标准，但至少应该成为全球RFID标准的制定者之一。
中国还希望向全球推广另一项本土标准──视频压缩技术，并宣称中国的技术科技含量更高，在技术授权方面更加简便易行。目前，全球最流行的视频压缩技术是MPEG-2格式，虽然其改进版MPEG-4已经推出，不过并未被各广播公司广泛采用，原因是它的技术授权条款过于繁琐。
中国电脑科学家高文从中看到了发展的机遇。自1997年以来，高文一直率领中国代表团参加MPEG论坛。高文称，中国需要有自己的压缩标准。他表示，"我们在这方面应该有所作为，因为中国拥有广阔的市场，而且全球的制造商都聚集在这里。"
高文称，在微软(Microsoft Corp.)、思科系统(Cisco Systems Inc.)、诺基亚(Nokia)等跨国公司的协助下，中国开发出了自己的压缩技术标准──数位音视频编解码技术标准(Audio Video Coding Standard, 简称AVS)。高文称，该标准不但比MPEG-4技术先进，而且授权过程也比MPEG-4便捷。
中国推出本土标准对于外国公司来说并不一定是一条坏消息。许多外国公司都渴望和中国进行合作，因为这样的合作可以取得双赢的局面：中国可以掌握新技术，从而提高本国的科技水平；外国公司可以借此机会打入广阔的中国市场。
例如，诺基亚就正在和中国联手开发下一代互联网的标准。
诺基亚中国研发中心的经理马建表示，诺基亚愿意和中国合作开发任何一种全球技术标准。
中国国内关于是否应对全球标准的制定施加影响的讨论被赋予了浓厚的民族主义和国家安全色彩。对于许多中国人来说，制定全球标准已经超越了技术的层次、上升到了关乎民族荣誉感的高度。最近有一篇讨论无线加密技术的贴子说道，"为什么我们非得遵守美国人制定的那些标准？在美国人看来，由美国制定标准才是最合理的标准。"据一位与会者回忆说，去年秋天，在一次有西安的那个研究小组和英特尔、思科系统等美国公司出席的会议上，一位中国企业的老总甚至给美国企业扣上了"霸权主义"的帽子。
政策制定者和行业管理人士称，出于安全的考虑，中国正在为许多其他产品起草强制性标准，包括路由器、数字交换机及其他的互联网相关软硬件等。信息产业部的陈育平说，这样做的目的是要阻挡黑客入侵以及解决其他安全方面的担忧。但是，一些外国公司担心，安全问题可能成为实施贸易壁垒的一个借口。中国美国商会(American Chamber of Commerce)会长关德辉(Jim Gradoville)称，"希望国家安全问题能够限定在一定的空间内解决。"
中国在其他领域制定标准时则采取了更开放、更灵活的作法。在2003年，中国准备推出自己的全国产品代码系统，但当它从互联网和外国伙伴那里发现RFID技术之后，便决定将其计划束之高阁。RFID技术比它要推出的系统更先进、而且两者可能还不相容。政府的这一决定在国内许多领域都没赢得喝彩，保守人士称，中国应该推进自己的系统；而其他人说，它应该简单地采纳国际标准。
中国RFID小组的成员曾强表示，他个人曾劝说三位政府部长采取中间路线。他说，"我们可能会变得以自我为中心，固步自封，抑或成为RFID的殖民地。我认为我们应当在拥有自主知识产权的同时保持与国际标准的兼容。"
曾强的办公室即是他所信奉哲学的一个证明。一面墙上悬挂著列出全球RFID软硬件领域现有和潜在领头羊的三幅挂图。他指著其中一幅标有许多跨国公司识别标志的彩色同心圆挂图说，他每周都更新一次。这样就能知道哪家公司在推动市场，哪家公司因拥有有用的技术而可能成为标准制定工作的参与者。
创造无线加密标准的西安小组似乎是处于保守人士阵营中。但它和中国政策制定者都没有预计到此举带来的抵触反应。
自从上世纪90年代以来，西安电子科技大学通信工程学院院长李建东一直在安静的校园里从事Wi-Fi技术的研究。 2001年，该项技术在全球得到更广泛的商业应用，此后日本发生的一起高水平黑客案给Wi-Fi的安全性蒙上了阴影。李建东和该校投资的科技公司捷通通信(China Iwncomm Co.)的管理人士从中发现了机会。
西岸研究小组的一位成员回忆道，他们当时觉得联合大量研究机构制定加密标准的时机已经成熟。
他们真是幸运得很，中国的决策当局刚达成共识：他们以市场准入获取国外技术的努力没有奏效，需要一种新的策略来获得国外专有技术。与此同时，中国DVD机制造商正在卷入一场不断扩大的纷争，2002年1月，由于没有向外国专利权持有者支付专利费，数以千计的中国产DVD机被欧洲海关扣押。中国公司最终同意支付专利费，但该事件及他们所需支付的高昂费用令中国政府认识到，强制性标准在全球贸易中所扮演的角色是何等重要。
西安研究小组很快获得了信息产业部的许可，著手设计一种新的无线加密标准。由于远离外国公司聚集的东部沿海地区，一些国外业内人士认为，该小组一定与中国的军事和安全机构有关联。西安电子科技大学以前是军队院校，和西安的许多公司一样，捷通通信也向军方出售设备。该公司总经理曹军在最近的一次新闻发布会上拒绝提供有关其教育和先前工作经历的细节。西安小组的一个主要后盾是国家密码管理委员会(State Encryption Management Commission)，这个跨部门组织的成员包括政府的国家安全机构。
知情人士表示，西安研究小组(这时已有中国其他机构加入进来)愿意听取国外对其如何起草无线加密标准的意见，并已多次公开发布了这方面的最新进展情况，包括拜访英特尔(Intel)的管理人士等，但外国公司对此兴趣不大。英特尔的管理人士拒绝置评，但美国其他业内人士则不同意这种说法。他们表示，他们在2003年年中曾希望了解关于这一加密标准的更多情况，但没有得到西安小组和监管部门的许可。中国拒绝公开加密密码，使得外国公司无从比较该标准与全球其他标准的优劣。美国晶片厂商Agere和德州仪器(Texas Instruments)均表示，中国标准中已经公开的部分在安全性方面比不上现有标准。更令人担忧的是，中国要求外国销售商与20多家中国企业合作获得这项加密技术，这可能会迫使外国公司与中国竞争对手共享技术和商业机密。
中国在最后时刻决定无限期推迟执行这一备受争议的加密标准，对此就连业内人士也大感惊讶。中国副总理吴仪周三在访美期间宣布了这一消息。知情人士透露，这一重大政策转变是由高层领导人做出的。其中至少一部分原因在于政府认识到，西安小组的方法不符合国际惯例。
信息产业部的陈育平说，中国不仅需要考虑自己的国情，还要考虑如何同国际社会更愉快地合作。他预计，中国将试图让全球性Wi-Fi标准机构IEEE认可其无线加密标准，使之成为一个全球性标准。
就在决定宣布之前，一些决策者和中国企业还对西安小组的方法颇有微词。中国主要标准研究机构──中国标准化研究院(National Institute of Standardization)的官员郑卫华说，"为了确保我们的自身利益，也许我们没有和国际社会进行彻底的磋商。"
从某种程度上讲，这一过程反映出，为寻求在全球标准制定中发挥更积极作用，中国正在经历坎坷的学习过程。
美国信息产业机构的杨思安说，关于中国是应使用自定标准来加强自身地位，还是应和国际机构更紧密合作的争论今后会不绝于耳。
在绿树成荫的西安电子科技大学校园里，争论仍在继续。电子学专业28岁的研究生刘帅洪（音译）称，"如果我们只是采用其他人的标准，我们只能付给他们钱，变成一个追随者。我们为什么总要遵循其他国家的标准呢？我们自己也能制定标准。"
