China's Wired Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure (WAPI) Industrial Union was set up in Beijing yesterday, with 22 enterprises becoming the first batch of members.

"The union should serve as a communication bridge between telecommunications operators and enterprises and play a bigger role in the further research, development and industrialization of WAPI," according to Zhang Xinsheng, deputy director of the Technological Department of the Ministry of Information Industry.

The union, which includes the nation's four biggest telecommunications operators, as well as key enterprises including Lenovo, Huawei and Beijing Founder Electronics Co Ltd, aims to promote China's own technological standard for wireless local area network (WLAN). The union is also working toward establishing it as an international standard.

WAPI, which was developed by China, was listed as a state standard in 2003. The technology is a direct competitor to Intel's 802.11i standard, and has been touted as a solution to the security loophole of the current 802.11 WLAN standard.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2006)