WAPI's Chinese puzzle

By Ellen Messmer, NetworkWorld.com, 03/15/06

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has shot down the Chinese bid to have the WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure (WAPI) security protocol accepted as a global wireless LAN standard for security. Instead, ISO members voted for for the IEEE's 802.11i submission as a WLAN security standard. The Chinese are furious.

"This is unacceptable," was the response yesterday from the China Broadband Wireless IP Standards Working Group (BWIPS), the Chinese industry organization with ties to the Chinese government. BWIPS accused IEEE, the U.S. standards organization, of spreading false information about WAPI and deceiving the public. "We express our indignation and resolute opposition against IEEE and its agents for their complete disregard for the position of the Chinese side and blind opposition to WAPI," BWIPS stated, according to IDG News Service.

BWIPS says it's unwilling to accept the decision and plans to request an ISO investigation into IEEE's activities during the voting process.

The rancor over the ISO vote on a WLAN wireless standard come in the wake of more than two years of years of trade scuffles between the U.S. and China over WAPI.

The fundamental objection to WAPI from the U.S. side was that it was never clear to anyone other than the Chinese government, and select manufacturers with close ties to it, what exactly WAPI is.

That's because the Chinese have kept the encryption algorithm for WAPI a secret. In addition, non-Chinese companies weren't able to get working versions of a WAPI device.

WAPI has become a Chinese puzzle, an intricate and difficult puzzle, at a time when there's a need for better understanding between countries. WAPI has highlighted differences that like a Chinese puzzle, form a box within a box.

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