In recent days, when the Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued export control measures for rare earth materials and related technologies, the attachments were all in WPS format from the domestic software company Kingsoft Office. Against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the US-China trade war, this official move has sparked discussions on the internet.
On October 9, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued Announcement No. 61 and No. 62 of 2025, respectively announcing the decision to implement export controls on relevant rare earth materials overseas and on related rare earth technologies.
The attachments to the two announcements, which used the WPS format from Kingsoft Office, were previously in the internationally common Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF formats.
The format of the Ministry of Commerce’s announcements quickly became a topic of discussion online.
Netizens expressed, “WPS is difficult to use, the computer becomes very slow after installation,” “WPS is quite difficult to navigate, the interface is not as user-friendly as Microsoft’s, WPS needs improvement,” “The software is free but has too many ads,” “WPS has many functions, but it’s too chaotic and has ads, it feels messy and I hardly use any functions. Currently, it’s more comfortable to use Office,” “As a long-time Word user, although most of WPS’s functions are similar to Office, there are still many compatibility issues in terms of format. Also, WPS lacks highly specialized tools like Visio and Project,” “WPS is a bit problematic, uploading files to the cloud can easily lead to leaks.”
Some netizens also mentioned, “From what I know, most government agencies are using WPS,” “Units have switched to WPS documents long ago, it’s just not working well. Hopefully, there will be more improvements,” “The signal is already very strong, all industries should be prepared in advance for comprehensive localization,” “This is a signal for full decoupling.”
Overall, the introduction of WPS format for official documents by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has not only triggered debates on the usability and security of the software but also hints at a broader movement towards localization and self-sufficiency in various sectors in China.