China wants to rid itself of Western tech by 2027 -- outlines domestic alternatives in 'Document 79'

News
By Aaron Klotz
published

The Chinese government wants all of its state-wide institutions to get rid of Western technology by 2027.

China and the US chess board
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

The WSJ reports that China is on an extensive push to drive out Western tech companies from the country and replace them with domestic alternatives. China reportedly started its domestic expansion in 2022 with a highly secretive "Document 79," an initiative focused on deleting Western tech companies from the country. Since then, China's new plan has been in full effect — domestic alternatives have replaced most Western software providers.

When initiated two years ago, Document 79 was a super sensitive document that only high-ranking officials were purportedly shown. Security was so paramount that copies of the document were not allowed to be made. The initiative set out by Document 79 is to replace foreign software in China's IT systems by 2027, with state-owned firms required to provide quarterly updates on their progress in replacing foreign software with domestic alternatives.

Two years later, the fruits of Document 79 are now apparent. Microsoft, HP Enterprise, and Cisco's market share in China has fallen drastically in the past several years. In 2018,  HP Enterprise had a 14.1% market share in China, but in 2023, that has fallen to just 4%. Cisco's market share has halved in the past five years down to just 8%. Microsoft's Chinese sales today account for just 1.5% of the company's overall sales.

Most government institutions in China are now buying domestic technology over Western solutions, even if the Western solutions are superior due to Document 79. This includes everything from software to hardware solutions. Chinese customers who were buying IBM-powered rack-mount servers five years ago are now requesting Chinese-made rack-mount servers utilizing Huawei chips.

Communications platform WeChat is also following this trend and shifting its hosting and data management from Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft to Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Huawei, which have developed their own database management to replace American tech. 

Chinese software is also maturing at an accelerated pace thanks to the extra demand now sought after by large Chinese corporations and the Chinese government. KylnOS, a Chinese home-brewed operating system, is reportedly now comparable to Windows 7 from a decade ago. That might not sound great, but Windows 7 is argued among many people as the best Windows operating system ever. 

The WSJ reports that China-based vendors took over half of the $6.3 billion Chinese market for the first time in 2022. This trend has only increased since then, meaning the vast majority of the Chinese tech market is now dominated by domestic solutions. If Document 79 comes to full fruition, all of China's governmental entities will use domestic technology by 2027.

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Freelance News Writer

Aaron Klotz is a freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering news topics related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Unolocogringo
    old news with an update.
    This started years ago.
    The only real news is that they did not meet their original deadline and extended it a few more years.
    Reply
  • Ktbpylon
    But then who will they steal 100% of their tech from? :sneaky:
    Reply
  • _Shatta_AD_
    The only real hurdle preventing them from fully realizing such initiative is chip fab, in terms of yield and ultra-high efficiency processes(Gate pitch, nano-ribbon, backside power delivery, substrate, 3D vias, ultra high throughput interconnect, etc.). Not even CPU or GPU(drivers dev including) is a problem right now. Since there’s a lack of momentum and most software and fabless engineers lack a properly defined process roadmap to work towards, they lack motivation and the drive to really double down on development work. Everything is in flux now in the industry due to sanctions, post pandemic uncertainty, lack of prior momentum, general economy. You can’t work on a car engine while the car is in motion where the car alludes to proper guidelines in this instance.
    Reply
  • _Shatta_AD_
    Ktbpylon said:
    But then who will they steal 100% of their tech from? :sneaky:
    100%…you must be delusional, in recent years, Chinese researchers submitted way more peer-reviewed papers and patents than the whole of Europe combined and more than American peers. China have been developing new tech where they can and ‘copying’ where they don’t see necessity to re-invent the wheel. To catch up, you NEED to work smarter not harder. If in reverse, China has an existing tech lead, western countries trying to catch up would do exactly the same thing. They would spy, they would steal and they would copy. In a race where everyone runs at max speed, the only way to take the lead is to take shortcuts. Of course the leader will scorn and lash out at the nearest competitor but they should realize in any competition, you can’t be the winner everytime. So how about showing good sportsmanship?
    Reply
  • Notton
    I think it's a good thing that China is working towards their technological independence day.
    Reply
  • TheOtherOne
    We all know USA just pays a lot more to bright minds and "steal" them from all over the world to work in USA. If Chinese born smart minds stay in China and do not migrate to USA regardless of how tempting the pay and benefits offers are, they sure can invent and produce things at home.
    Reply
  • Geef
    There is one thing your ALL missing.

    China will not be able to keep up with current gaming hardware standards. Imagine playing Palworld but your CPU/GPU is only able to handle 20FPS vs everyone else with 60+FPS.

    That will piss off more than a few Chinese gamers so they will need to have two machines. Government machine, and a Gaming Machine.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    as others stated this is not new.

    Chinas trying to become self dependent and has for many many yrs now.
    Geef said:
    China will not be able to keep up with current gaming hardware standards. Imagine playing Palworld but your CPU/GPU is only able to handle 20FPS vs everyone else with 60+FPS.

    That will piss off more than a few Chinese gamers so they will need to have two machines. Government machine, and a Gaming Machine.
    the Chinese Gov doesn't care about that.

    I mean they care so little CHina has its own version of steam and other services.

    Also fact China has been limiting gaming over years as they see it as dumbing down society (which isnt entirely false tbh)

    also long term they will be fine.
    Yes, China has a seedy past but they are also not only that they are able to make stuff on their own. When forced to do so that will only improve over time.
    Reply
  • ThomasKinsley
    This article doesn't go deep enough explaining how much China has replaced Western software. In addition to Kylin OS, there's Deepin and Unity Operating System (UOS), WPS for office suites. and HarmonyOS NEXT instead of Android.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Notton said:
    I think it's a good thing that China is working towards their technological independence day.
    You guys who are cheering them on should consider what they'll do next. They won't stop at just dominating their own, internal market. They'll push these products into lots of developing markets.

    The effect will be to make as many countries as possible even more dependent on them. On one level, it will just be a repeat of what they've done in so many other industries. On another level, because this is software and computing services we're talking about, they'll have a direct line back to the mothership. If you go against their interests, all of a sudden, your critical infrastructure could go down. Or, maybe the just exercise softer influence through the pricing of service contracts and upgrades.
    Reply