The business of security secrets

It's no secret that I don't think obscurity is a security feature (it's not, it doesn't work). It seems the Chinese government wants computer security technology to be submitted for government approval.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jDnJ0C2BTOmQa_hn3Kw0dph-EfoQD94UJST00

I'm sure that this is really more political than anything, but this is really the way it should work. Security is too important for it to be a closed up black box. My favorite example of this has to be the Sniffex device. A company had a product that did literally nothing, but called it a bomb detection device, so people bought it. Granted, testing such a physical device such as this is a lot easier than deciding if a given algorithm is properly implemented, but it's the same basic idea. When you trust a black box device manufacturer for a product you need because dishonest people exist, there is quite a bit of irony there. Who will you trust to trust the device maker?

All software has bugs. If you hide how your tool works, it's quite unlikely that the good guys will notice your mistakes. It's also quite likely the bad guys won't notice either, but that's a most dangerous bet to make.