A Chinese nonprofit organisation linked to the government is reportedly coordinating efforts among major tech firms in China to develop open-source software with potential military applications, according to a report from the Jamestown Foundation, a US-based defence policy group. The OpenAtom Foundation oversees the development of open-source operating systems, including OpenHarmony, a variant of Huawei's Harmony OS that was developed after the company faced US sanctions.

OpenAtom's efforts extend beyond civilian use, with initiatives to develop alternatives to US technologies for defence applications, such as satellite systems. The foundation led the adaptation of OpenHarmony for Chinese satellites, which was launched in the previous year and is capable of capturing high-resolution images at a low cost.

Sunny Cheung from the Jamestown Foundation highlights OpenAtom's pivotal role in China's strategy for technological self-reliance, noting that many of its leaders have ties to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and a significant portion of its staff are affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. However, China's foreign ministry declined to comment on these allegations.

While most of OpenAtom's sponsors are Chinese firms like Alibaba and Tencent, US chipmaker Intel is also involved. Intel emphasised its commitment to fostering an open ecosystem strategy globally. The Jamestown Foundation suggests that the US should consider promoting its own open-source software initiatives to prevent China from gaining an advantage in this domain, which has largely been left to the private sector until now.