U.S. trade officials called on China to revoke an order for personal computers to be shipped with Web-filtering software, the highest-level U.S. complaint yet against the rule, as the two superpowers spar over a host of trade and security issues.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a letter to two Chinese ministries Wednesday that the requirement, which takes effect July 1, could conflict with Beijing's World Trade Organization obligations.
"China is putting companies in an untenable position by requiring them, with virtually no public notice, to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues," Mr. Locke said.
China notified manufacturers of the requirement in May, and made it public two weeks ago.
Wednesday's letter, sent to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which issued the rule, and the Ministry of Commerce, said the rule raises "fundamental questions regarding regulatory transparency." The MIIT declined to comment. The Ministry of Commerce couldn't be reached to comment.
U.S. officials have expressed concerns privately with Chinese officials about the Web filter, and the letter represents an effort to bring more public pressure on Beijing.
In another developing trade dispute, Beijing defended its curbs on exports of industrial raw materials against complaints by the U.S. and European Union and said Wednesday it has filed a challenge to a U.S. ban on imports of Chinese poultry imposed after a bird flu outbreak in 2004.
The U.S. and EU filed complaints to the WTO Tuesday accusing Beijing of unfairly favoring its steel, chemicals and other industries by restricting foreign access to key materials of which China is a major supplier.
With Wednesday's letter, the U.S. raised the specter of bringing a WTO complaint against China over the Web-filter software, which is called Green Dam-Youth Escort. The prospect of winning such a case is murky, however, since the WTO allows countries to impose regulations to protect public morals, as China says it is doing here.
U.S. officials argue the tight deadline for implementing the software requirement constitutes an unfair trade barrier. PC makers have expressed concerns about being able to meet the July 1 start date.
Foreign and domestic PC makers in China are required to begin shipping computers with the software on July 1, so the U.S. would have to show Chinese manufacturers had more notice or information to meet that deadline for a WTO complaint to succeed.
Wednesday's letter, however, adds to the growing pressure on Beijing over the requirement. Japanese officials met with MIIT officials Wednesday to express their "very big" concerns about Green Dam, according to a Japanese Embassy official.
U.S. officials from the State and Commerce departments, as well as U.S. Trade Representative officials based in Beijing, met Friday with officials from the MIIT and Ministry of Commerce to express concerns that Green Dam would restrict access to the Internet and infringe on "internationally recognized rights to freedom of expression," a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.
Also last week, a group of 18 business groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers, the Business Software Alliance and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, asked Chinese officials to revoke the new policy.
U.S. technology-industry groups say the filtering software could depress sales of PCs in China, the world's second-largest PC market in terms of shipments.
The top U.S. sellers of PCs in China, by market share, are Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. Lenovo Group Ltd. of China sells the most PCs in the country. The three companies have said they are looking into the matter. A Lenovo spokesman said "we obey the law and abide by local regulations wherever we do business and we will continue to do so."
A U.S. official familiar with Wednesday's trade letter indicated concerns about the rule have been magnified by Beijing's unwillingness to explain the intent and scope of the new measure. The software, which the government says was designed to filter out pornography and other content inappropriate for children, has been found by researchers to be capable of filtering political content as well. It would add an extra layer to Beijing's wide-reaching methods of regulating Internet use.
The researchers say the software has major security flaws, even after its primary Chinese creator, Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co., made alterations to it last week. They also say parts of the program were copied from software produced in the U.S. -- an allegation Jinhui has denied.
Jinhui's founder, Bryan Zhang, said his company has received more than 1,000 harassing calls, as well as attacks by hackers, since the Green Dam requirement was made public, China's Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday.
Separately, in the first high-level U.S.-China defense talks in 18 months, officials agreed to convene a special meeting of military experts in July to discuss a spate of run-ins between the two sides' navies.
Most encounters involved Chinese ships trying to hinder U.S. surveillance vessels from operating in China's economic zone, which Beijing says is off-limits to intelligence-gathering. A lasting solution will require higher-level discussions, a U.S. official said after the two-day talks concluded in Beijing Wednesday.
—Gao Sen and Ian Johnson contributed to this article.
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