Olga Ponomareva, expert at the Economic Policy Foundation of the Gaidar Institute, spoke to Nezavisimaya Gazeta about the implications of the investigation into Chinese office equipment and the potential impact of this situation on Russia.
According to the expert, this is not yet a matter of an import ban, but merely an investigation, so the immediate consequences will depend on its outcome. At the same time, the very choice of printers and multifunction devices (MFDs) as the subject of the investigation is telling: modern office equipment is closely integrated into organizations’ information systems, interacts with computers and networks, and sometimes processes and stores documents and data. Therefore, such devices are increasingly viewed not only as hardware but also as a component of information security.
For China, the situation could serve as an additional incentive to develop its own technological ecosystem, primarily in the public sector, critical infrastructure, and large companies. This could involve not only the complete displacement of foreign manufacturers but also the localization of their products.
For Russia, according to Olga Ponomareva, the consequences are likely to be indirect. On the one hand, the development of Chinese printers, multifunction devices, drivers, and software could expand the range of solutions on the Russian market that are technologically independent of Western suppliers. On the other hand, there is a risk of replacing one form of import dependence with another.
“It is fundamentally important for Russia to look not only at the origin of the device itself, but also at the software component, updates, and service. The accelerated development of the Chinese ecosystem can indeed expand the availability of solutions that are technologically independent of Western suppliers; however, at the same time, there is a risk of a new dependency—this time on Chinese goods and software. “Therefore, it is particularly important for the public sector to be able to control the software component of the product, its updates, and support, as well as to develop its own solutions and implement domestic technologies,” noted Olga Ponomareva.
The expert also views these developments not so much as the emergence of a new technological divide in the world, but rather as another manifestation of an already existing trend. Whereas semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and telecommunications were previously at the center of the technological standoff, attention is now expanding to include connected devices that form part of organizations’ information infrastructure. In the future, a similar approach may extend to industrial equipment, data storage systems, and other corporate electronics.