BEIJING — Facing strong resistance at home and abroad, China on Tuesday delayed enforcement of a new rule requiring manufacturers to install Internet filtering software on all new computers.
The delay by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was announced through Xinhua, the official news agency, one day before the July 1 deadline for the software to be installed on all computers sold in China.
The software, called Green Dam-Youth Escort, has caused a torrent of protests from both Chinese computer users and global computer makers, including many in the United States, since the government order became public in early June.
The Obama administration has officially warned China that the requirement could violate free-trade agreements, and sent trade officials to Beijing recently to press the government to rescind the decision. In Beijing on Tuesday, a United States Embassy spokesman said Washington welcomed the announcement.
China has said the software is designed to filter out pornography and violence to protect minors, but many experts say it can also block any other content that the authorities deem subversive.
The ministry said the mandatory installation would be delayed for an indefinite period to give computer producers more time to put the order into effect.
As a practical matter, the abrupt postponement bows to reality because most of China’s computer retailers have large stocks of machines, manufactured months before the decree was announced, that have yet to be sold. Many global computer makers have declined to say how they would comply with the requirement, apparently hoping that the government would delay or reverse its decision under international pressure.
The filtering software has been the object of furious online debate since the requirement to install it was disclosed. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which licensed the technology from two Chinese developers, says the software automatically blocks Web surfers from seeing “unhealthy Internet content.” Updated lists of banned content are automatically downloaded onto users’ computers from the developers’ servers.
But the software’s current list of banned words, posted online by Chinese hackers, is laced with political topics. Businesses have complained that the software is so poorly designed that it opens computers not just to government snooping, but also to hacker attacks by vandals and criminals.
On Friday, the leaders of 22 international business organizations delivered a letter to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao arguing that Green Dam flouted China’s professed goal of building an information-based society, and that it threatened security, privacy and free speech. A day earlier, the European Union protested that the software was clearly designed to limit free speech.
Global computer makers have contended that they are being forced to install untested software for purposes that they may regard as objectionable.
In Washington, the Business Software Alliance, a group representing software makers worldwide, said Tuesday that it was encouraged by the government’s delay and hoped for “a thorough examination of the related technology issues.”
Green Dam works only on computers that use Microsoft’s Windows operating system. So far, no version has been released for Linux and Apple’s Macintosh systems. Nor would the software be required in Hong Kong or Macao, said one expert familiar with the government’s requirement.
The Chinese government has said little about the requirement. Zhang Chenmin, the founder of one Green Dam developer, Jinhui Computer System Engineering, has frequently described the software order as voluntary and innocuous, but he did not respond Tuesday to telephone calls and text messages seeking comment.
It appeared that many computer makers had yet to comply with the directive, not only in the hope that the government would alter its plans, but also because the order gave them scant time to test Green Dam with their machines.
Some did comply. Acer, a Taiwan manufacturer that assembles many of its products in China, has said that it will install Green Dam on its machines. A spokesman for Lenovo, China’s best-selling computer brand, did not respond to a question about its Green Dam policies, although some Beijing vendors said the software had been installed on some Lenovo models.
Hewlett-Packard — the No. 2 computer brand in China, according to IDC, a market-intelligence company — has been silent on its plans, as has Dell, the third-best-selling brand. According to the Web site Rconversation, which has published leaked documents regarding Green Dam, Sony has packaged a Green Dam software CD with some of its computers, along with a warning that it is not responsible for any problems the program may cause.
Major Beijing computer retailers said most computers being sold lacked the software. One of China’s biggest electronics chains, Suning, insisted Tuesday that the order applied only to computers made after July 1, not to those manufactured before that date but sold later at retail.
“Suning is an outlet, so we’re also playing the role of monitor” to ensure that the computers have the required software, said a company spokesman, Min Juanqing. “If the computer doesn’t meet the requirement, we won’t purchase it.”
Several other vendors said Tuesday that their existing stocks of computers were manufactured in April or May, and that computers with Green Dam were unlikely to reach their shelves for several weeks.
One vendor, identifying himself only as Mr. Wu, said some buyers saw little but trouble in the government’s order. “Some of our clients are concerned about the security of the software,” he said. “I myself haven’t tried it yet, but we’ve been paying attention to it. I personally don’t want to install this software, but the government has asked us to install it for our kids’ good.
“But we can help you uninstall it if you want,” he said. “It could be easy to erase it completely from your computer.”
Huang Yuanxi and Zhang Jing contributed research. Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York.
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