“China on Friday strongly denied a state-run media report that
the government prohibited agencies from using Microsoft’s updated
Windows operating system.”
“Besieged by queries, the Ministry of Information Industry
office that oversees national computer technology policy took the
unusual step of posting the denial on its Web site.”
“Denials, however, are unlikely to quash the rumors. In
reporting the ban, the Yangcheng Evening News, a popular newspaper
based in the business-savvy southeastern provincial capital of
Guangzhou, cited tactics and nationalistic appeals the communist
government has frequently used to thwart foreign companies.”
“Yangcheng Evening News noted that “Red Flag-Linux” was
developed by a software research institute under the government-run
Chinese Academy of Sciences. The newspaper welcomed the
independently developed operating system as a modern-day version of
the “the two bombs and the one satellite.”