There are other reasons to ship recent versions.

That about Google is bollocks for a start...they just can't win in China so they choose not to be there. They took their toys home.

China doesn't use the same systems as in the US, but they do have a process to go through.

It turns out the USA isn't so different, actually...but Google et al seem happy enough to be there.

I wonder if it supports PWAs, unlike Firefox (though they're working on it).

PWAs are "under attack in China" with Huawei dropping support in their browser. Others seem to be OK for now (eg xiaomi/redmi), but it seems inevitable that they will all try to develop their own walled gardens ala Apple eventually. Even the decent unlocked phones seem to be difficult to find these days (eg OnePlus) or are losing their ability to be unlocked.
It's all going to cr*p.

> who'd want it

Someone who CAN make a profit from it, obviously.

Are you talking about China or the USA?

I'd imagine that a replacement IT system would be "lesser" somehow than before, because of the split, though perhaps not...at least it should be because there are now so few Post Offices because so many have closed?

Be aware that the Post Office is a shell of what it once was. I doubt it presents as much of a s/w engineering challenge as it once did.

Everyone (else) should be an *adversary* to the USA's tyrannical obsession of controlling the whole world to it's own benefit.

There'll always be one somewhere, or a first one...

China seems to be doing "just fine" without Google, and increasingly without Microsoft (Windows) too. I'm sure Europe can manage too. Maybe it'll be painful to quit the habit, but ultimately it will be worthwhile.

Even NON-FOSS is better. Skype was great (feature-wise) until Microsoft got to it, and eventually killed it with no equivalent (feature-wise).

The regulations are there for a reason. The USA should implement them too.

I was thinking of (eastern) Egypt. Americans don't seem to understand what "Asia" is, and how big and heterogeneous it is. Calling someone "Asian" is almost meaningless.

It's a fight against the sponsorship provided by the US government for anything that vilified China...there is money up for grabs for anything "China bad".
Anything China does to counter it is peanuts in comparison.