ISO rejects China bid for own encryption system

The global standards body International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has thumbed down the Chinese government's controversial wireless encryption system, dealing a blow to Beijing's efforts to promote its homegrown protocol around the world, an Associated Press report said.

 

The report said members of the Geneva-based ISO rejected the technology known as WAPI in favor of an American standard known as 802.11i.

 

Reports said China was promoting WAPI and other technologies in a campaign to reduce reliance on foreign technology and give its companies a competitive edge.

 

But Chinese officials still planned to press ahead with the campaign to promote WAPI and to use it domestically, the Chinese government's Xinhua News Agency, quoted by Associated Press, said.

 

The agency did not cite a source, and it was not clear whether or not the dispatch was an official announcement, the report said.