China state-backed firm apologises for ‘home developed’ software based on Microsoft source code
- Digital Guangdong published an apology after it was revealed that its CEC-IDE software application was based on Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code
- Chinese authorities have demanded ‘safe and controllable’ technology for key infrastructure, prompting some firms to make false claims to win business
A Guangdong-based state-backed enterprise in charge of e-government projects in the Southern Chinese province has apologised after admitting that its “home-developed” software was based on open-source code from US tech giant Microsoft.
Digital Guangdong, known as DigitalGD, published an apology last week after it was revealed that its CEC-IDE software application, which helps programmers write code, was based on Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code (VS Code), with just minor modifications and certain functions added.
VS Code is available under the Massachusetts Institute of Technology licence, a permissive open source licence allowing for reuse even for commercial purposes.
DigitalGD said this fact was not disclosed due to “negligence”, and admitted that its description of its software as “self-developed” has met scrutiny and doubt from Chinese programmers. “We are deeply sorry and humiliated for this, and relevant teams have been ordered to make rectifications,” the company said.
The incident comes as many Chinese tech firms, including software developers, are trying to prove that their systems are self-developed so they qualify for use by government and state-owned clients.
