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

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.

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.