Tech in China
April, May & June 2021
Q2 2021 tech news headlines from China
The China tech news round-up for second quarter 2021 gathers headlines on subjects including: Alibaba’s moves into autonomous trucks; ongoing ‘digital yuan’ trials of China’s central bank digital currency; the government’s ban on cryptocurrency mining and related financial services; Baidou’s launch of Apollo Robotaxi’s autonomous services in Beijing; and many more.
Each headline links directly to the China tech article behind it – no middleman, no advertising and free-to-read.
Hit the jump links below to go directly to the China technology news collections for April 2021, May 2021 or June 2021, or simply browse the listings for the headlines that most interest you.
April 2021 | May 2021 | June 2021
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China’s tech news: June 2021
- China: Past digital yuan project head talks of CBDCs in future working on Ethereum smart contract basis rather than as digital cash, executing functions when set conditions are met
- China’s TikTok privacy policy update allows future collection of new types of biometric data including ‘faceprints and voiceprints’
- Mapping China’s Tech Giants: Mapping overseas expansion of 27 key tech firms, featuring 3800+ entries, spanning up to 15 categories and providing 38000+ data points
- Exporting Chinese surveillance: the security risks of smart cities, from The Financial Times
- China: Tencent lists more than 70 things resulting in a ban from WeChat livestreaming, including nose picking, visible tattoos, fortune telling and more
- China: Military tech suppliers CETC and Potevio state-owned enterprise to merge, forming country’s 3rd-largest info-tech company after Huawei and Lenovo
- China: ‘Tech workers pushed to limits by surveillance software’
- China: Red Date Technology, technical firm behind state-backed Blockchain-based Service Network, raises $30M Series A, with BSN Int’l to run as Singapore foundation
- TikTok changed the shape of some people’s faces without approval, applying or testing what appeared to be a beauty filter – and which they couldn’t turn off
- China: Alibaba Group to develop self-driving trucks with Cainiao logistics subsidiary, aiming to introduce 1000 autonomous delivery robots over the next year
- China: Beijing Sinoits Tech raises $3-$5M pre-Series A with vehicle recognition tech, AI-driven traffic analysis and more
- China: Facetech Holdings gains funding to further develop tech using AI and neural networks to identify faces obscured by protective equipment or other coverings
- China: Industrial and Commerce Bank of China the first bank in the country to launch feature allowing conversion of cash to ‘digital yuan’ at 3000 ATMs in Beijing
- China: Xiong’an government launches digital yuan pilot using Blockchain Fund Payment Platform to pay some builders’ wages
- China: An overview of 22 of the country’s top players in the UAV and drones industry, dominating some 70,000 smaller outfits in components, software etc
- China: Huawei launches ‘Global Cyber Security and Privacy Protection Transparency Centre’ in Dongguan
- China: Taobao, e-commerce giant owned by Alibaba, hit by data leak exposing 1.1BN items of user data including IDs and phone numbers
- China: Sichuan, the country’s second-largest bitcoin mining province, added to crackdown, ordering cryptocurrency mining projects to shut down
- China targets 2030 for commercial launch and standardization of 6G, tying with China Standards 2035 goals which include increasing the number of China-based global standards
- China: iBox launches following incubation with Huobi X Center, focusing on premium market for NFTs in Asia with low-cost on-chain dApps, smart contacts and digital assets
- China: Germany’s Beiersdorf expands NX NIVEA Accelerator to Shanghai, unveiling 5 startups selected for the first batch
- China: BIT Mining delivers first batch of 320 machines to Kazakhstan after operations in Sichuan province were suspended in gov’t crypto mining crackdown
- China: Will digitization change the status of the yuan at home and abroad?
- China: WeRide self-driving auto firm raises over $600M across last 5 months, building on $30M fundraise in 2018 via alliance with Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi
- China: “…Cyberspace Administration released a separate policy specifically targeting the automotive industry’s collection and use of location-based and geographic data.”
- Lofty principles, conflicting incentives: AI ethics and governance in China
- China: Ant Group in talks with state-owned enterprises to create credit-scoring firm, putting 1BN citizens’ data under regulator purview – a move towards ‘social credit’?
- ICYMI: Senegal hopes to boost digital sovereignty by moving all gov’t data and platforms from o’seas servers to a national data centre supplied by Huawei, financed by China
- China: “… startups are offering an inexpensive and extremely direct form of marketing, in which the people who manufacture products also become the influencers selling them.”
- China: Raythink Technology secures Series A funding with augmented reality software for cars, projecting information onto a car windshield
- China, global trade & CBDC: “The only question is how far-reaching the ramifications will be across issues related to who controls access to capital and its movements.”
- Hong Kong to test connecting China’s e-CNY, the ‘digital yuan’, with its domestic payments network, heralding second stage of digital currency trials in the city
- India: TikTok short video firm has written to Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology claiming compliance with Code, seeking lifting of in-country ban
- South Korea: Gov’t revokes authorizations for 224 Hikvision products over faked test reports, forcing Hikvision to withdraw products for at least one year
- Philippines: Alibaba Cloud to build data center to support digital transformation and expand footprint in Asia, building on 2019 entry to the country
- Alibaba Cloud launches Project AsiaForward with $1BN funding, aiming for 1M-strong digital talent pool, 100K developers and to grow 100K Asia-Pac startups over 3 years
- ICYI: Swedish court system upholds ban on Huawei equipment in the country’s 5G systems, citing security service concerns
- “Even now, satellite-borne internet traffic is dwarfed by subsea cables, which carry an estimated 95% of all traffic between continents and islands.”
China’s tech news: May 2021
- Beijing launches check on data centres involved in cryptocurrency mining to measure energy consumption, seeking amount and share of power consumed by mining
- China’s share of Bitcoin hash rate reportedly diminishing, likely in part due to expected increase in crypto and mining-related regulations and gov’t scrutiny
- Internet regulator to ban some mobile app notifications and tighten regulations, ramping up campaign to rein in the growing influence of internet companies
- Industrial and Commercial Bank, one of world’s largest banks by assets, enables public users to activate CBDC wallet in its mobile app, widening ‘digital yuan’ adoption
- A look at the increasing moves by tech giants into the electric vehicles market, with Baidu allocating $7.7BN over 5 years and Xiaomi’s $10BN
- Soulgate preps for $100M US IPO with gamified approach to app-based social networking
- Innovusion lidar firm, supplier to EV major Nio, secures $64M in round led by Singapore government’s Temasek sovereign wealth fund
- YouKuai gains $7.3M Series A to expand Zrou, plant-based pork brand
- PonyAI autonomous trucks gain permission to transport cargo in Nansha district, Guangzhou
- TikTok begins testing in-app shopping, aiming to replicate overseas the success of Douyin which generated $26BN in e-commerce transactions in its first year
- Gov’t bans financial institutions and payment companies from providing services around cryptocurrency transactions, warning investors against speculative trading
- Tencent launches Xiao’E Pinpin, social e-commerce platform similar to Pinduoduo, along with WeChat mini program and WeChat account
- BMW Startup Garage China and Alibaba launch Joint Innovation Base, aiming to boost at least 300 firms focusing on internet, IoT and automotive industry tech
- China’s Alibaba backs South African telco group Vodacom’s ‘super app’ launch, providing peer-to-peer and QR payments, alongside loans and online shopping
- China’s PonyAI gains approval to test 6 autonomous vehicles in California, without human safety drivers
- “If you have bitcoin or ethereum, and I want to buy some, I can just send money to you through banks. Just don’t write down anything like bitcoin or ethereum”
- A brief look at the rise of AI and automation in funds management
- China’s TikTok adds feature allowing bulk deletion of comments, including those a profile doesn’t like, potentially enabling curated disinformation
- CSIS Reconnecting Asia Project identified 70 deals in 41 countries between Huawei and governments or state-owned enterprises for cloud infrastructure and e-gov’t services
- Download: Understanding Chinese Consumers – Growth Engine of the World, from McKinsey & Company (pdf)
- An intro to WalletsClub, providing a Visa-like service for digital wallets, enabling money transfers possible between hundreds of electronic money services
- India: Telecom ministry grants 12 international equipment makers participation in 6-month 5G trials; notably absent are Huawei and ZTE
- ICYMI: British Telecom commences $701M rip-and-replace program to remove Huawei equipment from national 5G – and 4G – infrastructure
China’s tech news: April 2021
- China: Military opens 5G signal base at Ganbala radar station in the Himalayan region of Tibet
- China: AgFunder unveils China 2021 Agrifood Startup Investing Report, latest edition of its annual deep-dive on the country’s foodtech and agritech trends
- China: Huawei deactivates AI and cloud business group in restructuring move, continuing difficulties in transitioning from hardware maker to service provider
- China: Baidu to launch commercial Apollo Robotaxi services in Beijing from early May
- Romanian gov’t approves bill barring Huawei, and China, from 5G networks, citing national security concerns and ‘protecting Romania’s future generations’ personal data’
- China: E-commerce giant JD has paid some employees using ‘digital yuan’ in what’s believed to be part of central bank’s move to expand the scope of its use
- China: Douyin, in-country brand of TikTok short video platform, makes bid to draw merchants from competitors Alibaba and Pinduoduo with ecosystem conference
- China: Huawei and Arcfox launch 5G-equipped luxury sedan, autonomous electric car running on Harmony OS
- China: Xiaomi smartphone giant official launches electric vehicle move with initial investment of $1.5BN, expecting to spend up to $10BN over the next decade
- China: Nio EV maker unveils Power North Plan – 2K fast-charge stations at 500 locations, over 10K destination chargers, 100 battery exchange stations, 120 mobile power banks
- China: Huawei acquires Shenzhen payments firm, gaining payments license in likely move into mobile financial services
- PayPal to establish e-wallet services in China, focusing on cross-border payments in attempt to avoid direct competition with e-payments giants WeChat and AliPay
- China: Shenzhen Tengyin gains $15.3M led by Tencent with WeChat-based client acquisition and marketing solutions for retail banks
- “Fintech lending is at peak proliferation in China. Among the top 50 most popular apps…33 offer lending services in two main categories – payday loans and consumer credit services”
- China: “When completed in 2023, the CENI facility will become a prototype ‘future internet’ connecting to almost everything – from computers at home to cars on the street…”
- China: Telecom Italia reportedly considering canceling contract with Huawei for equipment to build out part of the telco’s 5G network
- China: Government reportedly considering establishment of new stock exchange to attract overseas-listed firms
- China: “Tencent…underwent its most aggressive period of investment last year …nearly a quarter of its yearly revenue, or US$17BN was channeled into foreign investment alone”
- ICYMI: German lawmakers pass IT Security Law 2.0, providing tougher 5G legislation and requiring security policy to match those of NATO and allies
- China: “The court ruled that searching for public information or access to public data is no longer allowed in Hong Kong”
- ICYMI: India blocks bank accounts of China’s ByteDance over tax evasion, directing Citibank and HSBC to prevent ByteDance India from withdrawing funds
- Tencent Cloud launches first Indonesian data centre with sights on a second, and Thailand and South Korea by year-end
- Japan: Daiei supermarket chain, affiliate of Aeon, to open cashierless store in Tokyo in partnership with China’s Cloudpick
- Singapore-based ImToken blockchain startup and crypto wallet developer raises $30M to build out decentralized finance services and expand blockchain research
- Singapore Deep-Tech Alliance launchs SDTA22 venture builder in partnership with XNode, Enterprise Singapore Global Innovation Alliance partner in China
- A look at the 15 startups selected for Big Idea Ventures’ 3rd accelerator cohort, working on the future of food, protein alternatives and beyond
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