China’s technology news in January 2024 spanned an obviously huge range of applications, issues, developments and challenges. These included, for instance: Geely auto-maker’s satellite launch, aiming for space connectivity for car services; a Russia-China quantum technology partnership; China’s bid for global metaverse standards and direction-setting; Huawei’s push for HarmonyOS adoption with key, large-scale partners; and many more.
SNA’s other editions: Asia’s tech news, daily (via LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter/X); and our Indo-Pacific technology newsletters, weekly.
Also available:
Critical technologies, quarterly across Q4 2023
MERICS: Fragmenting Cyberspace – The future of the internet in China
- China’s SEIDA, a case study in why containment efforts around access to high-end technologies is so challenging to implement, maintain and develop
- Russia and China report new quantum milestone with establishment of communications between the two countries, encrypted using secure keys transmitted by China’s Mozi quantum satellite
- China: Geely auto firm to launch 11 sats in early 2024, adding to 9 launched in June 2023 and targeting 72-sat constellation, ostensibly for integrated terrestrial-space ‘smart travel’ system
“The large-scale integration of the aerospace industry and the automotive industry will bring profound changes to commercial application scenarios.” In Geely’s view, Geespace, under Geely Holding Group, is laying out the entire commercial aerospace industry chain and building a low Earth orbit satellite constellation. This will empower the automotive brands under Geely Holding Group to achieve electrification and intelligent transformation. “
Other Chinese car makers are doing similar things. Changan Automobile showcased the prototype of a model equipped with “vehicle satellite communication” earlier this year. Through low Earth orbit satellites, it can achieve global coverage and constant connectivity, with production expected to start as early as next year.
The global satellite internet market size is expected to reach US$4 billion in 2023 and exceed US$17.1 billion by 2028, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 33.7%, according to MarketsandMarkets forecasts. A Chinese researcher Taibo predicts that the Chinese market alone expected to reach a scale of 2.8 trillion yuan by 2025.
- China: Nio EV firm livestreamed 1000km EV battery test roadtrip, with CEO completing a 14-hour journey of 1044km with 3% of the battery remaining
- China: 4 cyber-criminals arrested in first-of-its-kind case for developing ransomware using ChatGPT, demanding cryptocurrency in payment
WEF: Green hydrogen in China – A roadmap for progress
- China’s quest to become a robot superpower: ‘As its population shrinks, China hopes machines can pick up the slack’
- China’s GBA Capital unveils plan for $10BN fund to place Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao area as the ‘world’s meta-asset capital’, looking at metaverse, VR, NFT and similar investments
- China: Shanghai’s Fuxing Island to gain ‘metaverse center’ alongside 50 enterprize tech projects, backed by district’s $5.6BN funding
China: “The future prospects of the low-altitude economy are vast, potentially reaching trillion-dollar industry scales significantly sooner than that of autonomous vehicles…”
- The Netherlands’ ASML global semiconductor manufacturing equipment giant canceled export of chip-making machines to China, partly in response to US-led tech controls
- China: Gov’t launches Shangzhuang AI platform in bid to meet rising demand for AI-driven computing, with platform to deliver 500 petaflops of computing power in its first phase
CSET: An examination of China’s cyber ranges
- China: EpicMEMS raises circa $28M with RF chips focus – used in smartphones, tablets, IoT devices, communication networks and more – taking 3-year funding to at least $100M
- China’s Alibaba-owned Ant Group set to buy Dutch firm, MultiSafepay, in bid for Western payments presence, accessing MultiSafepay’s 18K+ SME customers with 100% ownership bid
- China: BYD EV auto-maker commences construction of its first sodium-ion batteries factory, just weeks after partnership announcement
“Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 9006C system-on-chip in the Qingyun L540 laptop was made by [Taiwan’s] TSMC using its 5nm-class process technology and assembled around the third quarter of 2020…”
- ICYMI: US-China research team makes chip breakthrough, producing world-first semiconductor constructed from graphene, potentially a leap forward in computing beyond traditional silicon chips
- China: Launch pad at Hainan Commercial Launch Site was completed December 29th, the first of 2 pads to host liquid propellant launch vehicles and aiming to speed constellation launch schedules
“But of all the major economic and societal challenges facing China, generative AI fixes none of them and may make a few even worse…”
- China: Orienspace’s Gravity-1 rocket launches via mobile sea platform, delivering 3 satellites using launcher and propellant capable of more than double the previous heaviest
- China: On January 18th, Huawei is to unveil HarmonyOS NEXT operating system, reportedly now entirely detached from its Android roots
MERICS: China’s data management – Putting the Party-state in charge
- China: ‘Digital yuan’ crime starts to emerge with theft of $1.4M in cash from more than 900 digital yuan accounts, simply using ATM machine CBDC functions
- China: Fraud ring arrested following detection of ‘digital yuan’ CBDC being used for money laundering, with processing of $70K via e-CNY wallets
“With estimates showing the EU’s mining industry is 15 years behind Beijing and a staggering 98% of Europe’s rare earth metals are imported from China, there is a lot of ground for the EU to make up.”
“One possibility for action is the EU’s forthcoming Critical Raw Materials Club for all like-minded countries, which seeks to strengthen the global CRM value chain in cooperation with allies and partners. At present, the Critical Raw Materials Club lacks structure, but it holds potential as a useful trade tool to pool investment into “resource rich” countries in the global value chain.”
- China: CAS Space, aka Zhongke Aerospace Exploration Tech Co, plans larger-scale liquid propellant launcher for 2025 capable of delivering 7800kg to sun-synchronous orbit, or 12000kg to low Earth orbit
- China: Huawei and Changan EV maker ink JV focusing on 7 key business areas for ‘smart car’ development including driving systems, cockpit, digital platforms, ‘car cloud’ and more
- China: Baidu tech giant shares tumbled in response to SCMP report, since denied, suggesting Ernie AI is used by the PLA for military purposes, with shareholders likely fearing US sanctions
World Economic Forum Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2024
- China: Huawei adds JD e-commerce giant as partner for HarmonyOS growth and adoption, following disconnection of the operating system from its Android origins
- China’s ByteDance, owner of TikTok, quietly launched 4 generative AI apps powered by OpenAI’s GPT rather than its own technology
China & processing power: “…one of the factories told the source that he had been responsible for disassembling more than 4000 NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards in December alone.”
- A brief overview of Indo-Pacific space-technology developments, and rising concerns, from Nikkei Asia
- China: Orienspace orbital rocket developer raised near $84M from state backers, looking to roll out reusable launch vehicles in 2025, and orders secured to ‘launch several hundred satellites’
- China: ShenTech Bootcamp hosted 45 founders from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science & Tech in Shenzhen, looking to better connect China to the Kingdom and wider Gulf region
Infosys: Generative Artificial Intelligence Radar – Asia-Pacific
- China: Researchers claim to have slowed speed of electrons in light-based photonic chips, boosting efficiency and reducing signall loss
- China: Biren Technology, China’s competitor to NVIDIA in chip design, sees second co-founder resign without official statement, raising concerns over Biren’s Hong Kong IPO ambitions
- China: Ministry of Industry & Info Tech convened 60 reps from firms including Huawei, Tencent, Baidu, Ant Group and Lenovo to set metaverse standards and direct development, with global intent
- Nokia to exit JV with Huawei-run, state-backed TD Tech, partly in light of TD potential for US tech curbs avoidance
- US Gov’t proposes US cloud firms be required to determine whether foreign entities are accessing US data centers to train AI models, widening chip restrictions to include services run on the chips themselves
PwC 2024 Artificial Intelligence for Business Predictions
- China-DR Congo Sicomines copper and cobalt joint venture formalizes agreement, with China to invest up to $7BN in mining infrastructure projects
- China: More on the recent, first instance of money laundering using China’s digital yuan and cryptocurrency, including a Shanghai court’s verdict on the case
“India’s stock market capitalization has overtaken Hong Kong’s for the first time… while global capital pours out of China….Indian exchanges reached $4.33TN as of Monday’s close vs $4.29TN for Hong Kong…”
- Malaysia’s MY EG and China state-owned Guangxi Beitou to use MY EG Zetrix blockchain platform to internationalize digital ID verification, integrating with China’s Public Blockchain
- Australia’s privacy watchdog launches privacy inquiry into how China’s TikTok harvests personal data, and whether it is being done with consent
Critical Scalability: TrendMicro Cybersecurity 2024
- Philippines is set this year to receive Indian-made BrahMos anti-ship cruise missiles, bolstering the Philippines Navy’s ability to safeguard its sovereign rights in the region
- Taiwan: Numbers Protocol rolls out blockchain content verification project aiming to ensure reliable and credible news for upcoming presidential election on January 13
‘Rare earth magnet production looks set to advance in the US and Europe in 2024 with market participants outside of China seeking to secure and onshore the supply chain…’
- Philippines: “…Chinese group known as Stately Taurus was blamed for an attack that had compromised a Philippine gov’t agency earlier in 2023, coinciding with clashes…in the South China Sea…”
- South Korea’s Coupang revives LG Rocket Delivery distribution partnership, with shared concerns over growing impacts of China’s direct-purchase services seen as underpinnings
Coinbase Institutional: 2024 Crypto Market Outlook
- Indonesia: China’s BYD electric vehicle maker to invest $1.3BN to build a manufacturing plant in Indonesia, targeting production capacity of 150,000 units
- Japan: An overview of the inroads made by China’s robotics firms into Japan’s logistics sector
- Singapore’s Scorpio Electric e-scooters contracts China’s BYD for assembly of first product in Shenzhen, with initial production using Samsung batteries but BYD batteries considered for future units
- China’s Alipay+ partners Pakistan’s NayaPay fintech, integrating with 25 global Alipay+ payment partners and widening NayaPay options beyond Pakistan’s RAAST instant-payments system
- Singapore’s InnoVen Capital launches second China fund, InnoVen China Fund II, USD-RMB dual-currency fund targeting a total size of $250M to back early-stage mainland China startups
Jamestown Foundation: Examining China’s Grand Strategy For RISC-V
- Samsung debuts Galaxy S24 series in China, ditching Google AI features in favor of ‘exclusive cooperation’ with Baidu to use Ernie artificial intelligence chatbot
- ICYMI: TuSimple shareholders gain court order against co-founders and other execs in bid to stop company leaders from taking assets and intellectual property overseas, specifically to China, following US closure
Russian senator: “Central Bank is ‘turning a blind eye; to firms that use crypto as a payment tool in international trade” with traders using crypto assets alongside currencies such as Emirati dirham and Chinese yuan…”
- Hong Kong: China’s Harvest Global asset-management firm applies for spot-bitcoin exchange-traded fund with HK Securities & Futures Commission; in discussions around HK stablecoins sandbox
- South Korea: Customs busts 3-year chip smuggling operation focused on China market, impounding 53,000 dual-use chips worth $11.6M
- ICYMI: European Union unveils long-delayed measures to protect deep-tech firms and prevent IP leaks, requiring foreign direct investment screening across all 27 EU countries
Lithium mining in Tibet: Impact on Tibet and Tibetans
Indo-Pacific Tech news: Daily
- Indo-Pacific tech, daily on LinkedIn
- Asia’s tech news, daily on Twitter / X
- Asia tech news daily – Facebook
Note: Our mobile app is offline due to the ongoing breakdown of Twitter/X. The app will be back, much-improved and with broader functionality, late in Q1 of 2024.
UNODC: Transnational organized crime in East and Southeast Asia
Weekly Asia Tech newsletters
In the January 23rd newsletter:
South Korea’s semicon mega-development,
India-Argentina lithium mining,
Singtel adds Starlink for maritime use,
India’s quantum technology moves,
Huawei adds Changan and JD for OS growth,
Google backs Pacific Connect undersea cable…
● January 23rd newsletter on LinkedIn
● January 23rd newsletter on Substack
