Microsoft Abruptly Terminates Services for Chinese University and Genomics Company
US technology giant Microsoft Has suddenly halted certain services for several clients in mainland China, fueling speculations about an accelerated technological separation between the globe’s two biggest economic powers.
The Sun Yat-sen University located in Guangzhou issued a notification late Tuesday evening informing staff and students that Microsoft 365 services—such as OneDrive, OneNote, and SharePoint—are set to terminate operations on Thursday afternoon. The university’s network and information center advised everyone via an email obtained by the South China Morning Post: “Kindly access your Microsoft 365 account promptly to download any personal documents and files.”
A representative from the university's IT support center mentioned that it was Microsoft’s decision to end the institution's business account.
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This development occurred shortly after BGI Group, a prominent Chinese genomics firm, unexpectedly lost access to its Microsoft services such as the Outlook email system and OneDrive cloud storage platform. According to two company employees, they were unprepared for this abrupt interruption, causing them to urgently seek alternative solutions like using the WPS Office software provided by Kingsoft, based in Beijing. This information was initially brought to light by Nikkei Asia.
On Wednesday, Microsoft did not promptly reply to requests for comments regarding this matter. They have yet to make any official announcements clarifying the reasons behind these suspensions.
The BGI Group has faced scrutiny from U.S. authorities. In recent times, multiple subsidiaries of the company have been included in the trade blacklists maintained by the U.S. Commerce Department.
Recently, Microsoft has taken further steps to scale back operations in China. On Monday, Wicresoft, which is a jointly owned venture with Microsoft focusing mainly on offering consultancy, solutions, and product support, informed many workers were informed that they would be let go In an email to employees, the firm cited "geopolitical fluctuations and transformations in the international market conditions" as the reasons for the layoffs.
Following the Wicresoft announcement, a spokesperson for Microsoft stated that “the reports suggesting we might stop our activities in China are incorrect.”
earlier this year, Microsoft likewise closed its AI Lab In Shanghai's Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, this initiative was previously hailed as a model of cooperation between a U.S. tech firm and Pudong District’s center for innovation.
In the meantime, the Chinese government has been advocating for a decrease in reliance on Microsoft systems. Last July, an outage occurred in Microsoft's Windows system due to actions taken by the Texas-based cyber security firm CrowdStrike. left China relatively unscathed , partly due to the fact that major infrastructure providers within the country—from airlines to banking institutions—had decreased their dependence on external services.
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The article initially appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), which is the premier source for news coverage of China and Asia.
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