The China National Certification and Ratification Regulatory Committee announced that it will defer implementation of its “IT Product Safety Forced Certification System” for one year. The scope of the forced certification has also been reduced to government-procured IT products only. However, Japan, European countries, and the US all expressed concerns about China’s policy.
The certification system dictates that makers of thirteen IT products, which have been either imported or produced in China, including anti-spam software, firewalls, network monitoring and control systems, and OS for IC chips, must disclose the source code to Chinese government for certification. However, the source code is the intellectual property and core compatibility of the software producers. Foreign countries are concerned that Chinese producers may produce copycat products once businesses disclose these trade secrets to China. Also, exposing source code for network tools will allow China freedom to browse private information on the Internet.
Source: The Liberty Times, May 1, 2009
http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2009/new/may/1/today-int2.htm