IBM partnership with Chinese company to make US unhappy

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-25

IBM's France headquarters at La Defense, Paris. (File photo/CFP)

IBM and China's Beijing Teamsun Technology recently announced their partnership allowing the latter to develop and sell domestic innovation products based on IBM's technologies — a move seen as disturbing for the US government, Shanghai-based outlet the Paper reports.

The Obama administration has been wary of the information security component in the draft of China's anti-terrorism law, and IBM's cooperation with a Chinese enterprise in handing over source codes will make the US government even more unhappy.

IBM will be open to Chinese enterprises, not only to share its designs with them but also to help them carry out design work on next-generation microchips, said Wang Yang, IBM senior vice president and general manager of its China Development Center, on March 21.

A day earlier, IBM and Teamsun jointly announced their cooperation program, with Teamsun agreeing to develop domestic innovation products based on IBM's technologies.

Last November, the two sides reached an agreement on data banks, with IBM authorizing Teamsun to use Informix software source codes.

According to foreign media reports, US trade bodies led by the American Chamber of Commerce in the past filed letters to the Chinese and the US governments respectively, calling for Beijing to postpone implementation of network supervisory rules and asking the US government to respond to the Chinese government on related rules.

On March 2, President Obama said in an interview with Reuters that the new rules crafted by Beijing would be unfavorable to US tech companies and called for China to change its policy.

IBM said its move is not intended in response to the new Chinese government policy; it said it is seeking a win-win situation allowing more people to understand and apply IBM's technologies.

Wang said IBM's opening is fully market-oriented, focusing on Chinese enterprises as China has the demand and a massive market. IBM also wishes to establish an industry ecosystem so that the cooperation will accelerate related development.

Beijing has cited the Edward Snowden revelations of US government surveillance as leverage to present foreign tech companies as potential threats to information security and to emphasize the domestic production of IT equipment. However, China trails behind in developing domestic operating systems, middleware, and high-end servers.

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