China has ordered central government agencies and state-backed corporations to replace foreign-branded personal computers with domestic alternatives within two years, marking one of Beijing’s most aggressive efforts so far to eradicate key overseas technology from within its most sensitive organs.
Staff were asked after the week-long May break to turn in foreign PCs for local alternatives that run on operating software developed domestically, people familiar with the plan said. The exercise, which was mandated by central government authorities, is likely to eventually replace at least 50 million PCs on a central-government level alone, they said, asking to remain anonymous discussing a sensitive matter.
The decision advances China’s decade-long campaign to replace imported technology with local alternatives, a sweeping effort to reduce its dependence on geopolitical rivals such as the U.S. for everything from semiconductors to servers and phones. It’s likely to directly affect sales by HP Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc., the country’s biggest PC brands after local champion Lenovo Group Ltd.
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Lenovo erased losses to climb as much as 5% on Friday in Hong Kong, while software developer Kingsoft Corp. also recouped its earlier decline to gain 3.3%. On mainland Chinese exchanges, Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co., a server maker, gained 6% while peer Dawning Information Industry Co. jumped more than 4%. Inspur Software Co., an affiliate of the Inspur group, and China National Software & Service Co. both soared their daily 10% limits.
Read more: Bloomberg
