Upgrading China’s ITC Standards Strategy

“A variety of constituencies from the West have taken it upon
themselves to reach out to China to “educate” the Chinese about the
existing global standards development infrastructure, and to urge
them to take part in that infrastructure in the same way as do
other countries. Clearly, having China, with a single national
vote, participate in ISO, IEC and ITU would be best for the status
quo players that have become skillful in participating in those
organizations through decades of effort. It’s interesting to ask,
however, whether that course of action, without more, would truly
be best for China and its people.

“If I were a policy maker in China, the most obvious question
that I would be asking would be what strategy Chinese industry
should follow as regards consortia, as well as the “Big I’s.” To
date, China has participated primarily in the latter, and in only a
few of the former (e.g., OASIS and the W3C). But China has launched
a number of domestic consortia open either largely, or only, to
domestic companies, to develop “home grown” standards. And that
seems backwards to me.”

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