EAST-WESTEAST-WEST CENTER CENTER WORKING WORKING PAPERS PAPERS Economics Series No. 117, April 2011 A Brief History of Standards and Standardization Organizations: A Chinese Perspective Wang Ping Wang Ping is the deputy chief engineer and principal researcher of China National Institute of Standardization (CNIS). He was educated in radio science and automation engineering and worked in an enterprise of the Railway Ministry of China. Since 1989, he has been working on standardization, involved in China’s standard- ization strategy and International Standardization Organization (ISO) activities. This working paper is based on the author’s research with help and cooperation from Dr. Dieter Ernst, senior fellow at the East-West Center. East-West Center Working Papers: Economics Series is an unreviewed and unedited prepublication series reporting on research in progress. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Center. 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The Center is an independent, public, nonprofit organi zation with funding from the U.S. government, and additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and governments in the region. East-West Center Working Papers are circulated for comment and to inform interested colleagues about work in progress at the Center. For more information about the Center or to order publications, contact: Publication Sales Office East-West Center 1601 East-West Road Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96848-1601 Telephone: 808.944.7145 Facsimile: 808.944.7376 Email: [email protected] Website: EastWestCenter.org EAST-WEST CENTER WORKING PAPERS Economics Series No. 117, April 2011 A Brief History of Standards and Standardization Organizations: A Chinese Perspective Wang Ping Wang Ping is the deputy chief engineer and principal researcher of China National Institute of Standardization (CNIS). He was educated in radio science and automation engineering and worked in an enterprise of the Railway Ministry of China. Since 1989, he has been working on standardization, involved in China’s standard- ization strategy and International Standardization Organization (ISO) activities. This working paper is based on the author’s research with help and cooperation from Dr. Dieter Ernst, senior fellow at the East-West Center. East-West Center Working Papers: Economics Series is an unreviewed and unedited prepublication series reporting on research in progress. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Center. Please direct orders and requests to the East-West Center's Publication Sales Office. The price for Working Papers is $3.00 each plus shipping and handling. A Brief History of Standards and Standardization Organizations: A Chinese Perspective Wang Ping Bionote: Wang Ping is the Deputy Chief Engineer and Principle Researcher of CNIS. He was educated in radio science and automation engineering and worked in an enterprise of the Railway Ministry of China. Since 1989, he has been working on standardization, involved in China‟s standardization strategy and ISO activities. Abstract: This paper reviews the history of standardization, from firm-level standardization at the early Industrial Revolution, to private standardization organizations and voluntary standards in the market economy, and national or international standardization organizations that emerged as a result of industrialization and international trade as well as their national or international standards. The paper examines the driving forces, principles and methodologies of standardization and addresses the position and role of technical standards and standardization organizations in the context of market economies. The author argues that standardization enables optimizing resource allocation in market economies and that standardization is the root cause of Adam Smith‟s “invisible hand”. The paper proposes a strong relationship between innovative technologies and standards in the ICT industry and demonstrates that ICT standards are of strategic significance and have a great effect on the industry. Key Words: standard, standardization, industrialization, market economy, WTO/TBT Acknowledgments: I would like firstly to acknowledge very helpful and important suggestions from Dr. Dieter Ernst, Senior Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu. This paper has benefited greatly from discussions with him. Secondly, I also would like to acknowledge copy and style editing support by Diana Lu, Project Assistant at the East-West Center. 1. Introduction Since the advent of 21st century, the Chinese economy has grown at a high rate so that its competitiveness has always increased. According to Global Competitiveness Report 2010 – 2011 published by the World Economic Forum –WEF, China ranks the 27th on the list. China has been a member of WTO for 10 years, during which it met many technical barriers involving international trade and challenges from standard-related conflicts in Chinese market, from Positive List System upon agricultural products in Japan and RoHS in Europe, through 1 WAPI as a bargaining counter during negotiation between governments, to market segmentation in China by Chinese TD-SCDMA and overseas standards. All these things suggest that technical standards play an increasingly important role in international trade. During the period under The Ninth Five-year Plan, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) included standardization as one of three strategies for technological development. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has also included national standardization as an important policy for less emission and energy saving. This author published an article titled The Property and Status of Standardization Organizations in the View of Historical Development i in 2005, which proposed ideas arising from research on Opportunities and Challenges upon Chinese Technical Standards, a task assigned by the MOST. It examined the nature and position of standards and standardization organizations in the context of a market economy and justified the examination as necessary for development of standardization theory and reform in the standardization system in China. In May 2008, this author published an article titled Standardization Historical Overviewii in China Standardization of English version, which gave a primary summary of and examined historical events in the standardization community. This article repeats the subject matter because this author has developed new ideas from further examination and hopes this article will shake up the discussion in the standardization community. 2. A few concepts As far as the definitions of standard and standardization are concerned, everyone in the standards community in China is familiar with the one made by ISO, which is also used by GB/T20000.1, a national standard in China. As defined by ISO, standards refer to “documents, established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context”. This definition is accompanied with a note, which read: “standards should be based on the consolidated results of science, technology and experience, and aimed at the promotion of optimum community benefits”. As such, standardization refers to activities of establishing, with regard to actual or potential problems, provisions for common and repeated use, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context (GB/T20000.1). iii The above mentioned definitions however are made in a narrow sense and only in terms of standardization among standardization organizations. It is obvious that they do not completely accommodate in-company standardization. In 2006 IEC held the conference IEC Centenary Challenge 2006 and published the symposia titled International Standardization as a Strategic Tool in celebration of the 100th anniversary. The introduction in the first few pages reads: “Successful societies have flourished by their ability to trade effectively. Trade has always been supported by perceptions of value based on standards of function, quality and performance. These 2 „standards‟ can be explicit or implicit, and formal or informal. Whatever the „business context‟, whenever a transaction takes place there is always a question of „what are the standards of function, quality and performance being offered?‟”iv This statement reveals a truth that standards may be defined in a broad sense. They may be not only developed