A China-made office suite will replace Microsoft Office in Shanghai schools, after a reported raid on schools by antipiracy officials and a demand from the software company for license fees. Chinese software company Kingsoft's WPS Office 2003 will replace the U.S. software giant's office applications in public schools in Shanghai, China, on Sept. 1, according to education officials in the city. The decision comes just after a similar announcement from China's governing body that states that all civil service PCs will gradually move to running WPS Office and other domestic-made software.

The Shanghai Education Research Center signed a contract with Kingsoft a week ago to buy the company's WPS Office 2003 software. The center acquires software for public schools in the city and has notified each school of the change, according to news Web site China.org.cn. Most schools have removed Microsoft Office programs to make way for the Chinese-developed software, which costs half the price of Office XP. A new computer textbook that contains little content about Microsoft Office will also be used from next month onward.