The Evolution of Browser Engines and Why China Lacks Its Own
Browser engines handle rendering and JavaScript, evolving from Norway’s Qt to KDE’s KHTML, Apple’s WebCore, Google’s Blink, and others, while China’s weak 1990s software base and the massive, long‑term investment required have prevented it from creating a domestic engine, leading Chinese firms to rely on repackaged foreign technologies.
Browser engines have two main functions: rendering/layout and executing JavaScript.
Although many browsers in China are based on foreign open‑source engines, none has originated domestically.
Tracing the history: In the early 1990s two Norwegian programmers developed Qt, released in 1995, and later founded Trolltech.
Qt inspired KDE, whose Konqueror browser introduced the KHTML and KJS components.
Apple forked KHTML/KJS into WebCore and JavaScriptCore, releasing Safari in 2003.
Google incorporated WebCore and the V8 engine into Chrome, then forked WebKit to create Blink in 2013.
Today the major engines are Blink (Chrome), WebKit (Safari), Gecko (Firefox), and Trident (IE).
The Chinese software industry in the 1990s was too weak to start its own engine, and modern engines require massive codebases and long‑term investment, making it hard for newcomers to catch up.
Consequently Chinese internet giants focus on applications rather than building their own engines, opting to re‑package existing ones.
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