[vbezhenar]

English is a world language, at least when it comes to engineering. I don't understand why chinese people prefer to write chinese documentation. Surely they can read and write English. I'm from Kazakhstan and when it comes to comments or other technical docs, I prefer to use English, it's just lingua franca of IT.

[foldr]

Remember that China is the electronics manufacturing hub of the world. A lot of Chinese component manufacturers don't care that much if people outside China can use their products, because by far their biggest market is within China. Chinese companies aren't going to take the time to translate their datasheets just so a few hobbyists can play around with their chips. And if a company in the US really wants to use that chip, they'll probably just hire someone who speaks Chinese to read the datasheet. There are plenty of Chinese speakers around.

[kragen]

Not for hardware. Lots of chips are made in China and only sold in China. It's true that Chinese is harder to learn to read than English, especially if you're from Kazakhstan or other Indo-European-language-speaking countries, but lots of hardware manufacturers just aren't concerned about non-Chinese customers.

Chinese is the command line of the 21st century. (I think it was Naomi Wu who said that.)

[throwaway4good]

If you go to Japan you will find something similar.