Bonum Certa Men Certa

Cablegate: Microsoft Lobbies China to Attack Microsoft 'Addicts', Use “Minimum of Two-or-three Enforcement Showcases”

Cablegate



Summary: A look at how Microsoft is gently pressuring China to suit Microsoft rather than China

MICROSOFT along with its bully, the BSA, have been busy trying to make Chinese law a little more China-hostile, in order to increase Microsoft profits after it seeded the market. "They’ll get sort of addicted," Bill Gates famously explained about Chinese people, "and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."



Disgusting. Greed, addiction, exploitation. Cornerstones of Microsoft?

The Cablegate cable from 5 years ago shows us how Microsoft gently blackmails the Chinese, promising jobs only if they change Chinese practices to suit Microsoft:








VZCZCXRO1395 OO RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC DE RUEHGZ #0810/01 2700601 ZNR UUUUU ZZH O 270601Z SEP 06 FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4043 INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC 0912 RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 030810

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/CM AND DRL USDA FOR FAS/ITP AND FAS/FAA USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN USPACOM FOR FPA

SENSITIVE SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON, EINV, KIPR, CH SUBJECT: Microsoft Growing Rapidly in South China

(U) This document is sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly.

1. (SBU) Summary: Microsoft representatives told the Consul General September 21 that with the company's rapid growth in Shenzhen and elsewhere, they expect sales in South China to surpass those in Hong Kong. Company representatives complained about weak copyright enforcement and asked the Consulate to continue to highlight the need for improved IPR protection with local government leaders. End summary.

South China: a fast-growing key market for software --------------------------------------------- ------

2. (U) The two representatives - Ni Jianbo, General Manager of the Branch Office, and Zhong Weidong, Southern Regional Manager of Microsoft's branch company in Guangzhou - were bullish on the company's overall development and future plans, but more tentative about prospects for protecting Microsoft's intellectual property rights (IPR) in southern China. South China accounts for about 30% of the Microsoft's overall revenues countrywide, of which half comes from Shenzhen. Some of Microsoft's businesses, such as its enterprise partnership group, have grown by 200 times since the establishment of the Shenzhen branch office in 2005. Ni and Zhong believe Microsoft's sales in South China will exceed that of Hong Kong next year, while sales volumes in East China have already surpassed those of Hong Kong and are expected to exceed those of Taiwan next year. The Greater China market (mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) is so important to Microsoft that it is one of the company's seven key subsidiaries in the world that reports directly Microsoft's headquarters in Seattle.

3. (U) Microsoft's clients in Shenzhen include China's giant telecommunication groups of Huawei Technologies and ZTE (Zhong Xin) as well as local governments. Microsoft established its branch office in Shenzhen to provide a quicker response to local clients, to save operation costs and to better compete with other software companies, such as Oracle, which came much earlier than Microsoft to Shenzhen. Currently Microsoft has three sites in Shenzhen, dealing with sales, technical support, research and development and training.

4. (U) According to Ni and Zhong, Microsoft is building close relationships with the local government in Shenzhen. To demonstrate its long-term commitment to Shenzhen, Microsoft plans to upgrade the branch office into a branch company, which would then pay tax locally instead of to the main office in Beijing, to make more investments, and to merge its three scattered office sites into one in Shenzhen. Following a nationwide "cooperation" model with local governments, Microsoft is partnering with a local company designated by Shenzhen Government to set up a cooperation program called "MSTC" (Microsoft Training Center) which helps local governments by providing technical support, training, and solutions to e-government projects; this also ensures the use of legal software. In the Guangzhou consular district, Microsoft has opened one MSTC in Xiamen, Fujian Province, is planning to open one in Hainan next month, and has plans to open a center in Guangxi.

Weak IPR enforcement remains a big challenge --------------------------------------------

5. (SBU) Ni and Zhong commented that while local governments have been making progress in IPR protection, copyright protection for software was a low priority for local officials, particularly in Guangzhou. Zhong said local Copyright Bureau officials focused mainly on developing the local cultural industry, including publishing and audio and video products. Local government agencies have made little effort to enforce the rights of stakeholders in the software industry (both domestic and foreign), despite Microsoft's lobbying efforts during the past several years. According to Zhong, the main reason behind the relative absence of copyright enforcement was that software industry contributes a very small portion of local GDP, the majority of which relies on manufacturing. They also thought that officials might be concerned about the impact of rigorous enforcement on the local business environment since many manufacturers use pirated software. Local officials often do not attend copyright protection seminars or events that industry chambers such as the Business Software Association (BSA) or Chinese Software Association (CSA) organize. Both Zhong and Ni said that the lack of interest in protecting software copyright puts Guangdong at a disadvantage when competing with Shanghai; in addition, lack of

GUANGZHOU 00030810 002 OF 002

protection will not help upgrade Guangdong upgrade knowledge-based industries.

6. (SBU) Zhong, who had previously worked in Microsoft's branches in Southwest China for three years, pointed out that officials in those areas were more cooperative than Guangdong. Microsoft was successful in getting enforcement action in Southwest China by adopting a "top-down" strategy to build relations with local provincial and municipal leaders and thus encourage them to order local enforcement agencies to take more action. A similar strategy in South China had not been as successful, though Ni acknowledged this effort was new. In Guangxi, Microsoft got a commitment from the local Copyright Bureau to take two enforcement cases, starting in October. Zhong commented that most enforcement agencies just want a few "showcase" actions they can point to and then do nothing further. Microsoft's goal is to have local agencies do a minimum of two-or-three enforcement showcases to achieve successes and hope this will encourage them to do more. At the same time, the company also realizes that it is impossible for local government to do too many cases, given their limited resources.

7. (SBU) Zhong asked the Consul General to urge local government leaders in Guangdong to be more cooperative in copyright cooperation, since they found "Top-down" strategy is very helpful in other areas where they also first encounter officials unwilling to cooperate.

Comment -------

8. (SBU) Microsoft's experience in South China highlights regional differences in China's IPR enforcement. Enforcement is often subject to local protectionism. Local officials often believe that enforcement conflicts with the need to develop the economy in order for them to get promoted. Until they can be persuaded that enforcement actually helps development the economy, we will continue to have problems such as those described above.

GOLDBERG







We sure hope that Goldberg understands why Microsoft's behaviour is wrong. It knowingly turns a blind eye to counterfeiting when it suits it, later calling everyone a "pirate" and demanding payments or jail time. Microsoft makes entire nations look bad, collectively criminalising its own clients.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 16/07/2025: Tmux and OCC25 Working TLS
Links for the day
Reboots Should Never be Necessary
"BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY!!"
There's Still Hope for the World Wide Web
Let's hope that the trajectory of the Web won't be leading us to over-reliance on Google, nor will it reward worthless slopfarms
 
"We Might Save Somebody's Life"
I follow the example of my father
Why I am Suing the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, in the UK High Court This Week
Out of respect to the process and to the Court, I shall not share any pertinent details about the case
Links 16/07/2025: China’s Economy Grows Steadily, France Takes Action Regarding Harm to Children by GAFAM and Fentanylware (TikTok)
Links for the day
It is Not About Politics
Beware the people who try to make this about politics
Good Journalism Saves Lives
a shocking number of women die or get seriously hurt every day due to violence from a partner
Recognition of Women's Contributions to Free Software
Being passive is not an option when bad things are happening
Slopfarms Are Going to Perish Because Public Opinion is Changing
Many slopfarms will simply go offline
19 Years of Standing Up for Justice, Equality, and Truth
This week we shall take it up a notch
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 15, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Links 15/07/2025: LLM Pollution and Pushback in Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: xkcd, New Cert, and Alhena Gemlog
Links for the day
Links 15/07/2025: Press Freedom at Risk and New Facebook Blunders
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Smolweb and Alhena 5.1.7
Links for the day
The Danes Want GNU/Linux
David Heinemeier Hansson recently moved to GNU/Linux
Cory Doctorow Explains Why Software Freedom Matters, Whereas "Open Source" Misses the Point and Helps Monopolies
It's a very long article
BillPR (EpsteinGate-Bribed NPR) is Turning Into a Partial Slopfarm that Promotes Slop
"I went on a date with a chatbot!"
Two Weeks Passed Since Latest Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, More Expected Next Month
Blaming the debt on "AI" is just self-serving storytelling
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 14, 2025
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Gemini "Style Sheets" and Switching From Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg
Links for the day
Coming Soon: Another OSI Scandal, This One Implicating Molly de Blanc
OSI has been fairly quiet lately
Outreachy & Debian pregnancy cluster, Meike Reichle evidence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Again, "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
Microsoft Lunduke is not trying to "protect" Linux
XBox is Rapidly Turned Into a Slopfarm by Microsoft
Slop isn't about efficiency and saving money
One of the Most Hilarious Things About the Microsoft SLAPPs
It's so ridiculous
Financial Support for the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project
The FSF has extended until Friday its fund-raising campaign
Illegally Hiding (or Demanding Secrecy Around) Illegal Requests or Attempts at Extortion
unlawful communications like threats
Microsoft's Halloween Documents and systemd, Wayland, Etc.
Maybe one day Wayland will be widespread. Or maybe not.
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: BOFH Archive, Updating Old Palm PDAS, and Nginx vs Slop Bots
Links for the day
Ubuntu is Becoming GAFAM-Like
What does that say about Canonical and Ubuntu?
Slopfarms Which Take Real Articles About GNU/Linux and Turn Them Into Copycats Which Are False
Even before the LLM hype those were quite common
The Firm That Picks on Techrights is Accustomed to Working With Criminals
Techrights never did anything illegal. So why is it being picked on by people who work with criminals?
Microsoft Said the Mass Layoffs Were for "Investment" in "AI", But It's Also Laying Off the "AI" and "Copilot" Staff
Months ago we showed many so-called "AI" people were getting the boot and this time it's the same
DryDeadFish is Dead, Long Live DryDeadFish
We kept checking, hoping it can recover from some temporary technical issue
For Quite Some Time Already Microsoft Attracts Crackpots, Scams, and More
Occasionally we talk about the situation at IBM as there are many parallels
Links 14/07/2025: Chatbots Broken Again, McHire LLM Shows Limits of the Hype
Links for the day
Changing One's Name Won't Change One's Past
People who have earned a bad reputation are not magically "entitled" to reset
People Who Assault Women Are Not Victims of "Distress"
It seems like an American tradition. In a country with almost 50 presidents, not even one was a female.
Slashdot Media Turned Linux Journal Into a Slopfarm and Now Slashdot Actively Promotes Anti-Linux Slopfarms
Yes, "no-nonsense" apparently means actual nonsense
Adoption of Gemini Protocol Still Growing
Gemini Protocol is being obscured by the media - it doesn't help that Google 'hijacked' the word "Gemini" - but people still manage to find out about it, download a client, and use it
Links 14/07/2025: Arresting Photographers, Threats to Revoke US Citizenship Over Criticism
Links for the day
More EPO Leaks on the Way
We hope that Mr. Rowan will actually try to refute what we say and show, not merely point the finger at the messengers
Decommodification is a Corporate Strategy Against Communities
systemd is led by Microsoft and hosted by Microsoft
copyleft.org 'Hijacked' by the People Who Attack the Person Who Created Copyleft
So far there's nothing "tasteless" in copyleft.org, but that can change at any time in the future
Asking People to Take Down Articles and Videos Only Makes These More Popular and "Viral"
If you do something bad, one of the worst things you can possibly do it try to silence those who speak about it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 13, 2025
Two-Thirds Towards FSF Goal, Richard Stallman to Give Talks in Europe
There are 67 left before reaching the target
Brett Wilson LLP "Takes it Personal" (Character Assassination, Not Professionalism). Everybody Can See That.
On behalf of violent men
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: Politicised Tech and "Leaving GitHub"
Links for the day