China has ordered government agencies and state-supported companies to replace all overseas-branded PCs with Chinese models.
This may be the prompt that leads to Australian Government departments banning Chinese products.
The move, mandated by central government, is likely to see at least 50 million PCs replaced “on a central-government level alone” according to an anonymous source cited by Bloomberg.
According to the source, government staff were asked after a week-long May holiday to return foreign PCs to be replaced with local models with Chinese operating systems.
The PCs need to be replaced within two years. The order will be extended to provincial governments later, who will also have to abide by the two-year window.
China has been moving towards such sanctions for government agencies for at least a decade. They regularly ban certain overseas products from government procurement lists, but this is by far the biggest push to embrace its local industry.
This is good news for Lenovo, who are currently the biggest PC brand in the country. Its closest rivals, HP and Dell, will no doubt see sales dwindle following these changes.
Lenovo’s shares have risen 5 per cent in Hong Kong since the announcement was made.