Microsoft unveils more ways to work with the Chinese government and raise Chinese children

Microsoft is continuing to integrate and adapt its services in China, executives from the company announced at an AI developers’ conference in Beijing on May 21. To help win more clients in China, Microsoft’s data centers are to triple, its cloud services to be boosted, an open platform with leading universities created, software tailored to government needs, and the XiaoIce voice assistant has learnt to convert books into fully dramatized audio shows for Chinese children.

Opening the “Microsoft AI Innovate” event of 1,000 developers, Alain Crozier, chairman and CEO of Microsoft Greater China Region said, “We’re the first global cloud partner to provide a fantastic, compliant and legal cloud with Azure and Office365 in China. With Windows 10 Government Edition we are designing the first ever Windows 10 for government and SOEs.”

Here “global” should be understood as “foreign” as Chinese competitors are operating around the world. Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform is in direct competition with the fast-growing domestic suppliers such as Tencent Cloud, Baidu Cloud and Alibaba’s Aliyun and party to the country’s strict data handling legislation and is now having to adapt to compete.

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