China’s tech news headlines in July 2023 covered a wide range of issues and technologies, including: China’s semiconductor industry supply problems and developments; Chinese satellite technology achievements with Tianlong-3; Huawei’s return to the global 5G market with home-grown tech; and many more.
Hit the China tech news headlines below to read each article in full.
UNCTAD Global Report on Blockchain 2023
- China’s Alibaba enters Spanish market with El Corte Ingles, Europe’s largest department store by sales, pursuing opportunities in digital retail and a common framework for omnichannel business
- ‘Having laid off more than half its US workforce and turned its attention to China, autonomous truck software pioneer TuSimple is taking steps to exit the US market it once led.’
- ‘Black Market A100s, and Twitter’s China Tech Connection’ from ChinaTalk
- “Led by a Chinese [VC] fund [Weichong Semiconductor Group] set up a sister company with the stolen technology in China and began to produce our technology and market to our customers from China.”
- Nikkei Asia: “Russia has for months been importing drones from Chinese companies explicitly for use in its invasion of Ukraine, despite denials from Beijing that such equipment is being deployed in the war…”
pwc Digital Trust Insights 2023: The Southeast Asia Perspective
- China: Meituan purchases Light Year AI firm – from former director who resigned days ago. Light Year, founded in February, has no operating activities – but raised $230M at $1BN valuation
- China to add export controls on gallium and germanium, rare metals essential for semiconductors, citing ‘security concerns’
- China cyber-threat actor found targeting Foreign Affairs ministries and embassies in Europe, part of a growing trend in targeting of European entities in the foreign policy space
- China’s WeRide autonomous driving firm gains UAE’s first national license for self-driving vehicles, allowing tests of Level 4 autonomous vehicles on public roads across the country
- China: Tianlong-3 kerosene-liquid oxygen rocket with reusable first stage aims to be operational in 2024, capable of 17-ton payloads to low Earth orbit and focusing on ‘megaconstellation’ satellites
What is secure? An analysis of popular messaging apps
- China & semiconductor self-sufficiency: “…advanced lithography machine is a significant chokepoint in China’s chipmaking capability. In this area, domestic substitution is currently less than 1%.”
- China: Alibaba unveils Tongyi Wanxiang in bid to compete with OpenAI’s DALL-E and Midjourney, tho although generative AI services have yet to gain regulatory approval
“You can find your way to banned semiconductors at, for example, various sprawling electronics markets in Shenzhen. Or you can go online — specifically to Douyin…or Xiaohongshu…”
- China’s Ant Group announces surprise share buyback, valuing the fintech giant at $78.54BN, far below $315BN of abandoned 2020 IPO target, and following $984M regulatory fine
- China releases its first ‘homegrown’ open-source desktop operating system, OpenKylin – built on Linux
- China: LandSpace to attempt 2nd launch of Zhuque-2, medium-sized rocket powered by liquid oxygen and methane capable of 4000kg of payload delivery to 200km low Earth orbit
- China: “…social media companies will now be responsible for the authentication of all content posted…and suspend or prohibit users who have not been granted ‘profit-making permission'”
“…Chinese market had an edge…when AI was in the ‘age of execution‘ because it has a huge amount of market data and applications… But in the era of generative AI, AI went from ‘execution’ back to ‘invention’.”
- UN Industrial Development Org and others, including Huawei, launch Global Alliance on Artificial Intelligence for Industry & Manufacturing, for collaboration and knowledge-sharing
- China: Denglin Technology secures funding from state-run China Internet Investment Fund for development of GPUs capable of similar use cases to NVIDIA chips
World Economic Forum: Quantum Readiness Toolkit
- China: Huawei may return to 5G smartphone industry by year-end, using chips from its own semiconductor design tools and chipmaking from China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co
- China: Biren chip firm is considering Hong Kong IPO, seeking to capitalise on demand for its AI chips as an NVIDIA alternative, due to chip exports ban impact
- China: JDcom e-commerce giant launches ChatRhino large language model, looking to bring AI to bear on a range of industries
- “…Intel Corp has brought its latest processor for…AI…applications to mainland China, where massive demand for…advanced chips has created a major under-the-counter trade for smuggled graphics processing units…”
“Foreign equipment is increasingly hard to come by so local chipmakers…buy more units of less-productive local offerings… Efficiency and profits take a hit but…statisticians log a rise in industrial production…”
- China: ‘Temu sellers are cloning Amazon storefronts’ – the ecommerce app faces lawsuits for copyright infringement after sellers allegedly copied products and stole photos and text from Amazon
- China: Galactic Energy marks 6th launch with 2 satellites in orbit, delivery hyperspectral imagery in very low Earth orbits
- China: Zhipu AI, spun-out from Tsinghua University and pegged as a challenger to OpenAI, gains backing from Meituan food delivery giant
- China: Sovereign chip strategy steps towards RISC-V, open-source architecture, aiming for RISC-V as default domestically, with Alibaba et al interested and over 1BN startup funding to date
CSET: An examination of China’s cyber ranges
- China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp plans very-low Earth orbit constellation of 192 satellites, providing info services every half hour, with expansion goal of 300 satellites
- China: Central bank calls on financial sector to help fund tech research and M&A, latest bid to revive a private sector challenged by 2-year regulatory crackdown
“..the US and most of its allies have already banned…Huawei from building 5G infrastructure… the next frontier of the US-China war is most certainly the ‘next-generation’ vehicles.”
- China: Foreign visitors can now pay Chinese retailers by linking overseas credit cards including Visa, Mastercard and Discover with WeChat Pay and Alipay, no longer requiring local bank account
- Australia: “…audit that found 3114 drones and other technology manufactured by DJI were in use by at least 38 agencies and departments.”
- National Bank of Cambodia inks MOU with China’s UnionPay, enabling UnionPay payments in Cambodia’s national QR system cross-border interoperability
“Cryptocurrency transactions are illegal on the mainland, where Beijing has also banned overseas exchanges…But in Hong Kong, crypto trading is legal and the city is seeking to become a digital assets trading hub.”
- “TikTok’s Australian director of public policy Ella Woods-Joyce said she knew there were offices in China but didn’t know where the ‘formal headquarters’ were.”
- India: China’s BYD EV maker reportedly seeking regulatory approval for $1BN investment, partnering Megha Engineering to manufacture electric cars and batteries, and with sights on charging network
RadWare Live Cyber Attacks Threat Map
- Singapore-based Lazada e-commerce giant gains $845M from Alibaba, further deepening Alibaba’s controlling stake in the company
- India: Gov’t rejects recently-rumoured bid by China’s BYD to build $1BN electric vehicles-focused factory, with national security concerns cited
- Hong Kong SAR and China regulators ink agreement on cross-border data flows in Guangdong-HK-Macao Greater Bay Area, under national data security management framework
“Facilitating data flow in the bay area is an important initiative for promoting the integrated and high-quality development of the bay area, lowering the compliance costs of enterprises and driving the development of Hong Kong’s digital economy and proactively integrating Hong Kong into national development,” the tech chief said in the statement.
The deal comes after China introduced new laws in recent years tightening controls on the transfer of cross-border data. The Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law, which went into effect in 2021, impose tough penalties for the unauthorised collection, processing, storage and use of data generated in the country.
- Hong Kong: Court rejects gov’t attempt to ban broadcast or distribution of ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ protest song, online or in performance
- Japan and ASEAN to establish research center focused on free flow of data across borders in bid to counter China’s data restrictions, to maintain business ability to analyze markets
- Malaysia’s MY EG gains regulatory approval for blockchain-based customs clearance and processing on trade flows between the Philippines and China
United States, Taiwan & Semiconductors: Critical Supply Chain Partnership
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