U.S., EU Urge China To Drop Tech Security Rule

Global technology suppliers face a looming Chinese deadline to reveal the inner workings of computer encryption and other security products in a move the United States and Europe say is protectionist. _ _ Suppliers must comply with the rules that take effect Saturday or risk being shut out of the billions of dollars in purchases that the Chinese government makes of smart cards, secure routers, anti-spam software and other security products. Encryption codes and other trade secrets would have to be disclosed to a government panel, and the foreign companies worry they might be leaked to Chinese rivals. _ _ It is the latest in a string of disputes over complaints Beijing is using regulations to support its companies at the expense of foreign rivals. It comes less than a month after China defused a separate conflict with the United States and Europe by scaling back a plan to favor Chinese technology in government procurement. Washington and the European Union say no other nation imposes such a demand and wa

"We see many actions in the area of innovation, in other areas of industrial policy, which suggest to us that in the future in a number of areas, the market opportunity will begin to get narrower," said the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, Christian Murck. _ _ Any reduction in foreign access to government purchasing could mean a windfall for China's own fledgling computer security suppliers, some of which are owned or linked to its military or security agencies. _ _ When the disclosure rules were first announced in 2008, the president of a Chinese state-sanctioned business group was quoted in state media as saying they were meant to help the country's computer security industry develop. He said the rules would shield Chinese suppliers from foreign rivals that controlled 70 percent of the market.