The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), working with its International Policy Advisory Group (IPAG) China Task Force, has submitted a coordinated response to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s recent Request for Information (RFI) on the Study on the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Policies and Influence in the Development of International Standards for Emerging Technologies. ANSI’s response was submitted on behalf of the standardization community.
NIST’s RFI, published in a November 2021 Federal Register notice, stems from the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 (Section 9414), which directs NIST “to enter into an agreement with an appropriate entity to conduct a study and provide recommendations with respect to the effect of policies of the PRC and coordination among industrial entities within the PRC on international bodies engaged in developing and setting international standards for emerging technologies.”
ANSI requested feedback from the standardization community to inform the NIST study and provide additional recommendations that captured the broad perspective of the standards community. In its response, ANSI submitted the following comments addressing the five question topics included RFI:
1. The participation of the People's Republic of China in international standards-setting organizations over the previous 10 years, including leadership roles in standards drafting technical committees, and the quality or value of that participation;
2. The effect of the standardization strategy of the People's Republic of China, as identified in the “China Standards 2035” plan on international bodies engaged in developing and setting standards for select emerging technologies, such as advanced communication technologies, or cloud computing and cloud services;
3. Whether international standards for select emerging technologies are being designed to promote interests of the People's Republic of China as expressed in the “Made in China 2025” plan to the exclusion of other participants;
4. How previous practices used by the People's Republic of China while participating in international standards-setting organizations may foretell how the People's Republic of China is likely to engage in international standardization activities of critical technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum information science, and what may be the consequences;
5. Recommendations on how the United States can take steps to mitigate the influence of the People's Republic of China and bolster United States public and private sector participation in international standards-setting bodies.
Read the full statement response, submitted on December 6, 2021.
Access the Federal Register for more details and read more about “China Standards 2035,” in the recent ANSI in China Newsletter, produced by ANSI’s international policy department.
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