"Intel Corporation took a hard line today with the Chinese government in declaring it would not meet China's deadline for adhering to a new standard for wireless computing. Intel, the maker of computer chips, said the new Chinese standard presents serious security issues and would hamper the growth of the emerging wireless industry. The company said it began informing manufacturers of personal computers last week that they may need to find an alternate supplier of microprocessors if they want to keep selling wireless products in China after June 1," reports The New York Times.
"We won't be able to build a part that meets our requirements for quality," said Chuck Molloy, an Intel spokesman. Mr. Molloy added that China's promotion of an incompatible standard is likely to backfire, and has "historically been ineffective."
"In May, China announced that foreign makers of computers and microprocessors that want to sell Wi-Fi systems in China would have to adhere to the new Chinese technical standard for Wi-Fi, called WAPI, and work closely with Chinese computer makers on developing for it."
According to China's People's Daily: "Insiders analyzed why Intel is unwilling to comply with China's national standard is because it's reluctant to pay Chinese companies the expensive licensing royalties. Under the new wireless standard, foreign companies can only cooperate with the 24 Chinese companies with the encryption technique in order to get authorizations relating to the Chinese wireless technique. This involves the cost of authentication."
Comment: China's WAPI (WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure) is incompatible with the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) security protocol used by the IEEE 802.11 international open standard on which Wi-Fi is based.
