Media File: 1983
Sinclair in the News

Financial Times
September 8, 1983

Sinclair opens up home computer market in China

By ALAN CANE

SINCLAIR RESEARCH, the UK computer group headed by Sir Clive Sinclair, has agreed to provide its best-selling ZX81 and Spectrum home computers in kit form for assembly by the Chinese in a purpose-built factory in Guangzhou (formerly Canton).

Mr Nigel Searle, managing director of Sinclair, said yesterday: "Under the agreement, we are already shipping small quantities of ZX81 and Spectrum computers for trial assembly.

"If this trial is successful I am confident it will lead to large quantities of Sinclair personal computers being sold in China in the coming years." Agreements have been signed with the South China Computer Company and the China Electronics Import and Export Corporation. The Chinese have committed an initial £10m to the venture.

Chinese hardware and software technicians are due to visit the UK in the next few weeks to gain experience in Sinclair's manufacturing and assembly techniques.

Mr Richard Hease, managing director of Prism Microproducts, Sinclair's UK distributor, said Sinclair was the first British company to approach the Chinese with a view to opening up their home computer market: "The Sinclair computer and its peripherals form an ideal entry point for the Chinese both in the home and in education."

The Chinese are taking home computing very seriously. A separate section within the Ministry of Electronics is responsible for developing the market for home computing under Mr Wang Yingquan, the deputy director general.

They are anxious to improve their skills in computing, microelectronics and related disciplines and see home computing as an ideal way of mass education.

China Computerworld, for example, a joint venture between the Chinese Ministry of Electronics and the large U.S.-based Computerworld publishing group, has more than 200,000 readers.

Special computer programs, which will make it possible for the Sinclair Spectrum to produce Chinese characters on its display screen, are being developed by the Beijing Software Academy. The Chinese are also keen to develop a version of Micronet 800, Prism's revolutionary system which uses viewdata technology (Prestel in the UK) to distribute computer software to computer owners, with a view to covering China's remoter provinces.

Prism Microproducts has a contract to mount a series of exhibitions and seminars in Peking, Shanghai and Guangzhou where British microcomputer companies which make peripherals for the Sinclair computers will be able to demonstrate their wares to the Chinese.

The first exhibition will be in November this year. The BBC is already known to be interested in showing its BBC microcomputer.