The Register's Andrew Orlowski reports that the Chinese delegation walked out of an IEEE meeting regarding China's WAPI wireless encryption technology last week in Prague, accusing the IEEE of engaging in a "conspiracy" and "amoral behavior" in opposition to WAPI.

"The monopoly force from the American standard maker IEEE poisoned the voting process and created an unfair atmosphere at the Prague meeting," a Chinese delegate stated.

Orlowski says the Chinese do have a right to complain. "The standards process began in 1994, but products didn't reach market until the end of the decade," he writes. "When 802.11b finally appeared, it featured a risible encryption technology, WEP, which could be cracked in seconds. And 802.11 has failed to produced much of a standard since, endorsing an alphabet soup of quasi-'standards' that confuse the public and IT buyers. With 802.11 in such a mess, one can hardly blame the Chinese for trusting their own technology rather more."