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For the past decade, China has been trying to reduce its reliance on US technology in government computers, and it's now blocking Chinese government agencies from buying computers built with AMD and Intel chips.
China is doing so by enforcing new purchasing guidelines for government computers, according to The Financial Times. The country quietly introduced the guidelines on Dec. 26, and they cover desktops, laptops, and servers.
The guidelines are designed to force Chinese government agencies to buy computers with “safe and reliable” processors. These include Arm-based and x86-based chips from Chinese companies such as Huawei’s HiSilicon, Loongson, Zhaoxin, and Phytium, a developer of server-level computing.
The new guidelines don’t call for a complete ban on Intel- or AMD-powered computers. Rather, they offer some leeway for a government group to procure them, as long as the purchases are explained, made in a limited number, and operated under certain procedures.
Still, the guidelines will be far reaching and impact even Chinese state-owned companies, along with government agencies and party organs above the township level, the FT reports.
“We are replacing old computers that have foreign chips,” one Chinese government procurer told the FT. “After this purchase, basically everyone in the office will have a domestic computer. The old computers we have left with Windows systems can still be used under certain situations.”
The stricter rules arrive when China has also been pushing for the adoption of Chinese-developed software operating systems on government computers. Back in 2022, the country began ordering some government staffers to turn in their foreign-made PCs for local alternatives, a move that likely benefited PC maker Lenovo, along with Huawei.
It now looks like China is going beyond software to also target US-made chips. According to the FT, both Intel and AMD could theoretically try to secure Chinese government clearance to sell the chips, but this would require handing over the “complete R&D documentation and code" for their chips—information far too sensitive for the companies to give up.
Intel told PCMag it didn't have a comment at this time. AMD didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.