Last week, when the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced the expansion of rare earth export control measures, there was a particularly noteworthy detail: Notice documents were issued in an unofficial format.
For the first time, China has released official documents that users can only open directly using WPS Office software, a Chinese-made product to replace Microsoft Office.
This shows that China is stepping up efforts for technological autonomy, reducing dependence on foreign products.
WPS Office is a product of software company King soft soft, headquartered in Beijing. This software uses a separate file format, different from Microsoft Office. Therefore, users cannot open a WPS file directly with Microsoft word without a conversion tool. This change is noteworthy, as the Chinese Ministry of Commerce previously mainly issued documents in Microsoft Word format.
The change comes amid escalating US-China tensions, as Washington regularly uses its technological strengths to pressure Beijing. Most recently, after China's tightening of export control, President Donald Trump threatened to respond by banning exports of "all US critical software".
In recent years, Beijing has stepped up efforts to reduce its dependence on foreign information technology, especially software and systems used in government agencies, state-owned enterprises, universities and key strategic industries.
Many foreign software providers that have been widely used in China - including Adobe - have left the Chinese market or narrowed operations in recent years.
Earlier this year, Microsoft closed its artificial intelligence research facility in Shanghai, after closing all retail stores on the continent by 2024.
The change in the document format of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce immediately created an impact on the stock market. As of October 13, the stock price of King soft Corporation, the parent company of developer WPS, has skyrocketed to 18.9% in Hong Kong (China). King soft Office shares also rose 18% on major exchanges.
