The Chinese government has rolled out some new policies that boil down to, "Two can play at this game." According to a new report from the Financial Times, the Chinese government has passed a nationwide ban on government computers using CPUs from Intel and AMD, and it's already gone into effect. The Chinese government is also trying to phase out its use of the Windows operating system, with these moves being seen as an attempt by Beijing to reduce its dependency on US-made technology.
The (paywalled) report said the new technology restrictions went into place on Dec. 26. They require government agencies higher than the township level to begin buying "safe and reliable" CPUs and operating systems, which translates to products made by Chinese companies. The new rules reportedly also include regulations about using foreign-made database software.
The country's finance ministry and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) introduced the new policies, requiring computer purchases to take stock of new "safe and reliable" guidelines when buying computers and software. The guidelines include 18 CPUs that are safe to purchase, with FT reporting the list includes chips from Huawei and a state-backed group named Phytium, both of which are on the US blacklist for export control. The "safe" CPUs use a mix of Intel's x86, Arm, and homemade instructions, with the approved operating systems all being variants of the open-source Linux OS.
The move by China could have a sizable impact on Intel and AMD's balance sheets. FT reports that China was Intel's largest market last year and was responsible for 27% of its sales. AMD also does a lot of business in China, with the country chewing up 15% of AMD's sales. Microsoft is apparently much less reliant on China, with only 1.5% of its sales going to the country.
Going forward, AMD or Intel chips will likely never be approved for use in China, as the new rules require companies to submit their entire documentation and code base to the country to be examined for consideration. The new rules also list criteria for these evaluations, with the top one being how much of a processor was designed and made in China.
