Microsoft outage leaves China largely untouched as tech self-sufficiency campaign pays off

[Nan Yang]

The Microsoft Windows recovery screen displayed at a currency exchange kiosk during a worldwide systems outage at Hong Kong International Airport on Friday. Photo: Edmond So

Microsoft outage leaves China largely untouched as tech self-sufficiency campaign pays off

• The Windows error that resulted in a bluescreen on computers became a hot topic on Chinese social media platforms

Wency Chen in Shanghai, Coco Feng in Beijing and Che Pan in Beijing
Published: 7:23pm, 19 Jul 2024

The Microsoft Windows outage that affected foreign businesses and luxury hotels in China on Friday left the country’s key infrastructure, from airlines to banks, largely unaffected, according to industry sources and social media posts.

As of 6pm local time, there have been no reports in mainland China of infrastructure breakdowns, while many airports in the Asia-Pacific region, from Hong Kong to Australia, were hit with disruptions. The international airports in Beijing and Shanghai were operating normally, according to their websites.

At the same time, the Windows error that resulted in a bluescreen on computers became a hot topic on Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo, as many foreign business offices across the country were affected by the breakdown.

Travelers queue at check-in counters for Hong Kong Express Airways at Hong Kong International Airport on Friday, after a worldwide systems outage. Photo: Bloomberg

A Shanghai-based staffer from a foreign company told the Post that her office started to experience computer crashes early Friday afternoon, and that almost everyone was affected. This employee’s laptop display was stuck on a blue screen with the message, “Recovery. It looks like Windows didn’t load correctly.”

The company’s information technology support then instructed everyone to shut down their computers, wait for further instructions and use mobile apps for instant messaging. The employee’s accounting work was subsequently delayed by the outage. “This month’s [financial] report will be late,” according to the staffer.

An employee from another foreign firm also reported experiencing blue screens around 1pm. While some of the employees could later restart their computers, they still could not access the company’s website, which displayed a “502 Bad Gateway” error. The company told staff that “global IT support has activated the highest level of response to address the issue”, according to the employee.

On Xiaohongshu, an Instagram-like Chinese social media platform, multiple users complained about the difficulty in checking into international franchise hotels such as Sheraton, Marriott and Hyatt in Chinese cities.

As China’s public services largely remained unaffected, Microsoft’s China website and social media channels did not issue any emergency notices. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

China’s relative immunity to the outage showed the country’s reduced reliance on foreign service providers such as Microsoft and the antivirus company CrowdStrike. In recent years, China has been rolling out a campaign across its government departments and key infrastructure operators to replace foreign hardware and systems with domestic ones.

The logo of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike on a smartphone, arranged in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, July 19, 2024. Photo: Bloomberg

The outages were caused by a software update from cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike, which hit Windows-based systems worldwide. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz confirmed on Friday morning local time via the social media platform X that his company was working to resolve the problem.

The minimal impact of the Microsoft outage in China has proved that the country has made progress in achieving its goal of “safe and controllable” computing systems, according to one Chinese government employee.

On Weibo, Chinese netizens joked that Microsoft “has given them a half-day off”. One commenter said that “our company just switched to new computers with the HarmonyOS system, so we can’t join in your celebration”.