It's hard to know what's really going on on the other side of the Bamboo Curtain but initial reports suggest that the Chinese government has gone through with its threat to demand the keys to any technology it buys from foreign suppliers after May 1.

It started by demanding to know how any widgets sold anywhere in China work but fell back to just government procurements, just being a relative term since the government buys more technology than anybody else in China.

The defensetech.org web site says it impacts everybody and means firewalls (hardware and software); network security separation cards and line selectors; security isolation and information exchange products; secure network routers; chip operating systems; data backup and recovery products; secure operating systems; secure database systems; anti-spam products; intrusion detection systems; network vulnerability scanning products; security auditing products; and web site recovery products.