Why does China embrace open source?

Why Does China Embrace Open Source?

June 18, 2025, 15:03 by Nobby, Long, and Conscious Nebula

The digital economy is built on the foundation of open source. Most websites run on open - source Apache and Nginx, most servers run on the open - source Linux system, and the most popular mobile system, Android, is also based on Linux. Kubernetes, which is used to manage cloud computing workloads, is also open source. The open - source movement gained attention in China in the mid - 2010s. Richard Lin, a co - founder of the Open Source Community, recalled that in the early days, the people who adopted open source were mainly developers who wanted to use free software. When they realized that contributing code to open - source projects could help improve their job prospects, they began to embrace the open - source movement. Large enterprises followed suit. Embracing open source is considered to help reduce dependence on Western technology. Open source provides technology companies with a quick way to use existing code and build their own programs with the help of a large developer community. In 2019, Huawei was banned from using Android by the United States. In 2020, Huawei launched the open - source project OpenHarmony. Huawei also partnered with Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, etc. to establish the OpenAtom Foundation, which is committed to open - source development. China has not only become an important contributor to open - source projects but also an early adopter of open - source software. JD.com was one of the first companies to deploy Kubernetes. The recently popular AI has further promoted the open - source movement in China. Both enterprises and the government regard open - source large models as the fastest way to narrow the gap with the United States. DeepSeek has open - sourced its large model, Alibaba has open - sourced Qwen, and Baidu is also preparing to open - source its Wenxin large model.

news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/17/2123211/why-china-is-giving-away-its-tech-for-free

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