Maverick China Research

We wrote this month’s Guest Word column for China Economic Review, which has a series of stories about technology and the Olympics:

“The Beijing Olympic Games is to serve as a window to showcase the city’s high-tech achievements and its innovative strength…”

The high-tech focus has been especially strong in the telecommunications and media sectors, which have long been subject to heavy-handed state control but are flourishing due in large part to a steady series of reforms.

But recently Beijing has been forced to deal with several setbacks in its Olympic master plan…

Click here for the full article.

The China Daily printed a rambling, belligerent "special suppliment" today on the idea of "soft power" in nations and companies. One technology was singled out for its leading role in China's telecom industry:

Currently, most of China's national enterprises are still in the lower stages of the industrial circle and depend on foreign core technology. However, by developing technology like that used in Chang'e I, and nuclear technology in civilian use, China's telecom industry star TD-SCDMA carries the mission of national development forward and leads the international market with its advanced telecom technology.

Statements like this unintentially reveal the reason for the endless delays in bringing 3G to China. Quite simply, TD-SCDMA is China's telecom industry star, at least in the government's blueprint. And if the star of your grand performance hasn't learned his lines in time for opening night, what do you do? Postpone opening night, of course.

China Daily reported today that Korean telecom operator, SK Telecom, will build TD-SCDMA trial networks in South Korea with plans to "use the standard to develop 3G applications." With WiBro launched earlier in the year and 4G in the works, SK Telecom has absolutely no use for TD-SCDMA networks in its home market.

SK Telecom, already one of the most successful foreign operators in China in terms of current operational business, is using this opportunity to help itself jockey for a favorable position with the Chinese government, and most notably the MII. When it comes time for the MII to issue 3G licenses and licenses for other related third-generation value-added services, look for SK Telecom to be among one of the best-positioned foreign operators to cash in on the huge market potential that first led them to China in 2000.