Windows 11 is now available to the public. Unfortunately, Microsoft's latest operating system has strict requirements that PCs must meet to qualify for the upgrade. The most important of those requirements is support for TPM 2.0. This is the main reason why some people (myself included) cannot update to Windows 11. However, there are workarounds for TPM checks, both legitimate and potentially dangerous; bypassing TPM checks is not difficult for most users around the world. For many Chinese citizens, however, it is currently impossible to update to Windows 11 because their country bans foreign-made TPM chips.

This ban dates back to 1999, when China banned foreign-made TPM chips due to national security concerns. This is related to the ongoing chip manufacturing war between China and the United States. Without the foreign-made TPM chips that Microsoft requires to update to Windows 11, Chinese users cannot update their operating systems.

"Today, Microsoft released Windows 11. However, Dell laptops sold in China have filtered TPMs according to Chinese policy. So I can't install it. A commenter on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, said, "I am looking forward to the Chinese version of Windows 11" (via South China Morning Post).

William Lee, a semiconductor analyst at Counterpoint Research, told the South China Morning Post that Microsoft has acknowledged several systems that can bypass Windows 11's TPM requirements. These particular products, Li said, "are tailored for countries that don't allow proprietary encryption technology, namely China and Russia." However, these exceptions do not apply to the average consumer.

Windows is the most popular operating system in China. Despite this, Microsoft has never drawn the bulk of its revenue from the country; in January 2020, the Redmond-based software giant derived only 2% ($2 billion) of its annual revenue from China. Software piracy is the main reason Microsoft is unable to extract more money from the world's largest PC user base. Microsoft does not lose much revenue if Chinese users cannot update to Windows 11, so it may not bother to address the issue, let alone ban the chips.

It is highly unlikely that this issue will be resolved, although it is hard to say when.