by Jie Weng, co-founder of ChinaRFID.org

In the past two years, RFID has been pushed to the forefront of emerging technologies. IDC predicts that RFID related spending for the U.S. Retail Supply Chain in 2005 will approach $800 million dollars. A key impetus to the widespread adoption of RFID is the standardization efforts originally pushed by the Auto-ID Center and now EPCglobal. Just when the standardization efforts are underway in the U.S. and Europe, recent articles pointed out that the Peoples Republic of China is in the process of developing its own RFID standards. Similar to efforts in standardizing wireless protocols and computer security, analysts believe that China is writing its own specifications in an attempt to protect intellectual property and its own technology companies. This has sparked concerns that protectionist efforts might hinder the adoption of the technology. So why is RFID technology important to China? What are the implications of different RFID standard specifications? What is the progress of standardization development in China? This article will address these questions and attempt to draw some conclusions concerning the future of RFID technology and standardization in China.