Hong Kong police, railway, and power companies ditch US tech as China offers alternatives
The Hong Kong Police Force has replaced Microsoft SharePoint with software from Chinese firm Seeyon without much fanfare. But the move is part of a pattern now visible in different parts of the world, with European governments reducing their dependence on American technology.
Hong Kong's shift is being driven by fear. Specifically, fear of being cut off. Since the US stripped Hong Kong of its special trade status in 2020 following Beijing's imposition of a national security law, the threat of American export controls has loomed over the city's technology infrastructure.
"In an era of unpredictable US export controls and sanctions, the Hong Kong government views over-reliance on Western 'black box' technology as a strategic liability that could be deactivated or restricted at any time," said Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation.
That anxiety is reshaping procurement decisions across the city. MTR Corporation, Hong Kong's railway operator, and CLP Power, one of its largest electricity providers, are both under pressure to move away from US technology, from semiconductors and routers to operating systems, according to local media.
The shift has been brewing for some time. Sangfor Technologies, a Shenzhen-based cloud and cybersecurity firm, tripled its revenue and market share in Hong Kong between 2024 and 2026.
The company's cloud business director, Keith Lee, said government, education, and banking were among the biggest growth sectors for the company, and added that the IT replacement initiative accounted for about half of Sangfor’s business in Hong Kong over the past two years.
Same destination, different maps
Europe is undergoing a parallel shift, but for different reasons. Where Hong Kong's pivot is driven by fears of being locked out of US technology, Europe's is driven by fears of being locked in. In fact, a recent poll found that 73% of Europeans believe their societies are over-reliant on US technology companies.
Europe’s push for digital sovereignty saw the European Commission recently award €180 million in contracts to homegrown cloud providers, in a move to reduce reliance on US hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
France, too, has announced it will replace Microsoft Teams and Zoom with a domestically built video conferencing platform, Visio, by 2027. Just earlier this month, Dutch universities joined a broader continental effort to migrate away from American software.
The political dimension has added urgency to what began as a procurement debate. After the US sanctioned the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, reports that Microsoft had blocked his email account, something the company denies, helped push the ICC toward a European alternative, openDesk.
Interestingly, neither Hong Kong nor the EU has framed their moves as a wholesale rejection of American technology.
Hong Kong's Digital Policy Office said the government's approach remains "technology-neutral and vendor-neutral," adding that it stays "open to technology solutions from a wide range of providers."
The European Commission has similarly stopped short of mandating outright replacement of US platforms, instead requiring that critical infrastructure operators diversify their sourcing.
The official line in both places is one of neutrality. But the changes happening inside server rooms point in a clear direction.
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