SHANGHAI (Reuters). – An European business group stated Thursday that Chinese companies face a “new battlefield” when it comes to technical standards. They urged Beijing for fair treatment of all the firms who are involved in the setting of such standards.

“While China may have influenced the process of standardization, the politicization of it does not serve China’s interest,” said the European Chamber of Commerce in China as well as the Swedish Institute of International affairs in a jointly released report.

The Chamber claims that China is currently responsible for only 1.8% international technical standards. These are frameworks used by industry to create new technologies and ensure compatibility between a wide range of products.

This percentage is rising rapidly because China is working hard to expand its role in standard-setting.

China is now a leader in standard development for specific domains such as 5G. Companies like Huawei Technologies Co Ltd are leading many contributions to 3GPP (a global industry group that focuses on the telecom sector).

China published in October a draft of its strategy to encourage a national strategy in technical standards. It calls for greater participation in international standards setting, and for a shift away from state-led development towards a model that is “state- and market-driven.”

Joerg Wuttke is the Chamber’s president. He said that China’s standards associations will sometimes exclude foreign members from informal or formal discussions.

Wuttke said that discussions can sometimes take place “outside of the committee” in one Chinese workgroup for standards on telecommunications with international members.

While Beijing is urging the authors to limit state direct involvement in standard development, they argue that China’s state-owned research institutions and enterprises are a major source of government influence.

This increases the chances that China’s contribution to international standard-setting will be used for its own political and/or economic agenda. It is likely to diverge from the European market-centric model of standard setting, as described by the authors.

It is stated that China should cooperate with the EU, but it must be clear on reciprocity and international rules.

The authors state that “the EU does not have an interest in bifurcation or fragmentation of technical standardization into more than one sphere”

“Another decoupling will lead to a shrinking of markets and international trade, as well as reducing innovation.”