China’s growing rare-earth export controls unveiled earlier this month are refueling concerns that a fragile trade truce with the U.S. is unraveling. But while that message was quite strong, some investors focused instead on the more subtle message of how Beijing’s latest bold declaration was delivered over the actual content.
Instead of attaching documents created by Microsoft’s PDF or DOCX formats on its website as usual, China’s Commerce Ministry created its Oct. 9 rare earths announcement using a file in WPS, a free word-processor developed by Kingsoft Corp. Ltd. (3888.HK; 688111.SH), widely viewed as China’s answer to Microsoft’s (MSFT.US) Office suite.
While never formally confirmed as new policy, the quiet shift would mark another step in Beijing’s accelerating efforts to achieve tech self-reliance and preempt future blows created by U.S. export bans on American software. An internal document released in September 2022 by SASAC, which oversees all centrally administered state-owned enterprises, showed the agency is requiring all companies under its supervision to replace foreign IT systems with domestic ones by 2027.