The More Than Middling Middle Kingdom

The news that the Chinese Lemote Technology Corporation has released its first PCs based on the Loongson/Godson chip is interesting for a number of reasons. First, because the chip was designed and made entirely in China, making the country independent of Western chipmakers; and secondly, because as a non-standard chip architecture, the new chip can't run Windows. Which, means, almost inevitably, that it runs GNU/Linux. If China wants to be truly independent, free software is the quickest and easiest way to do it.