China’s technology news in February 2024 of course covered a huge range of technologies, developments and issues. These included, for instance: Shanghai’s 12000 satellite mega-constellation plan; the opportunities, developments and challenges in China’s bid for RISC-V semiconductor dominance; TikTok’s targeting of long videos as a competitive move on YouTube; digital yuan CBDC moves in Suzhou city; and many more, all available below.
For more technology news from across Asia and the Indo-Pacific, you should take a look at our daily editions and weekly newsletters.
Jamestown Fdn: Examining China’s Grand Strategy For RISC-V
- “…China’s leading chipmaker, predicted a ‘global supply glut’ in the types of semiconductors his company produces. Simultaneously, he announced a $7.5bn increase in capital expenditure…”
- China’s BYD EV maker plans growth in sales outlets in Singapore and the Philippines, building on Indonesia launch
- China: Nvidia reportedly is now taking distributor pre-orders for its new China-specific artificial intelligence chip, priced on par with more powerful Huawei rival product
- Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Tech raised $943M for low Earth orbit mega-constellation of 12000 satellites, with Shanghai gov’t aiming for end-to-end space ecosystem
MERICS: China’s data management – Putting the Party-state in charge
- TikTok Shop rolls out test feature that scans and identifies products in videos on the platform, and then generates a link to ‘Find similar items on TikTok Shop’
- “Prices of NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090… are soaring across Asian markets as people are willing to pay hefty sums of cash for them and then resell them in China or Hong Kong at a higher price…”
- China: Jielong-3, or Smart Dragon-3, vehicle launched from a mobile sea platform, delivering 9 satellites into orbit
- China: Geely automaker launched 11 satellites with aim of providing more accurate navigation for autonomous vehicles, with 72 planned to be in orbit by 2025 and a final constellation of 240
“…recent RISC-V breakthroughs and applications in China, many with government funding, have raised Beijing’s hopes that the open-source standard could one day threaten the x86-Arm duopoly…”
“Half of the more than 10 billion RISC-V chips shipped globally by 2022 were made in China, the state-run China Daily reported in August. Bao Yungang, deputy director of China’s Institute of Computing Technology, told a chip conference last June that funding for RISC-V startups in China had reached at least $1.18 billion to that point.”
- China’s BYD EV maker and Brazil’s sugar-and-ethanol firm Raizen partner for network of 600 charging stations for electric vehicles, installing in 8 Brazilian cities under the Shell Recharge brand
- China & semiconductor ‘chiplets’: “Wuxi’s government officials proposed establishing a $14 million fund to bring chiplet companies to the city, and it has already attracted a handful of domestic companies…”
- Xilinx, Huawei & tech restrictions: “I predict that Huawei will use up Xilinx FPGA chips in November… when they will switch to their own products. But this may reduce the appeal of Huawei 5G devices to global buyers…”
- China: Satellite launch prep underway for 3 sats focused on lunar far-side and south pole missions, testing navigation and comm’s and featuring sat-to-ground laser and microwave ranging
China, EU & 6G: “Huawei is one of 3 commercial organizations participating in a sensing project… by the European Telecomm’s Standards Institute…that feeds work into the 3GPP [mobile standards body]…”
- China: Tencent rolls out new version of DynamiCrafter, open source video generation AI model, moving further into the text- and image-to-video space
- China: Gov’t unveils Beijing Action Plan for Accelerating the Innovation and Development of the Commercial Space Industry 2024-2028, with sights on elements including ‘cross-border technology integration’
- China: Hainan Airlines rolls out trial of Rokid AR glasses for in-flight entertainment
- China: Baidu search giant partners Lenovo to feature generative AI tech on Lenovo smartphones, further growing-out applications for Ernie AI model
- “Soaring appetite for Huawei’s artificial intelligence chips coupled with manufacturing constraints has forced the Chinese tech giant to prioritise AI and slow production for its premium Mate 60 phones…”
“Embedding software tools with AI tech is allowing some companies to offer better-standardized products and cut back on development costs, potentially serving as a last resort for startups trying to secure backing…”
- TikTok continues moves into YouTube markets with trials of 30-minute video uploads for users, a significant expansion on the short-form video format in which it dominates
- China: An overview of BYD’s significant and fast-growing presence in energy storage, building on achievements to date in electric vehicles
- ICYMI: OpenAI terminates accounts believed to be operated by nation-state cyber-threat actors linked to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea
“The [Biden re-election] campaign’s launch on TikTok is notable given that the app, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, is under review in the US due to potential national security concerns.”
- China: Gov’t initiates national China All-Solid-State Battery Collaborative Innovation Platform program to dominate solid-state battery supply chains, with 6 of the top 10 global auto battery makers involved
- China: “…Huawei Ascend 910B currently achieves near 80% of the performance level of Nvidia’s A100. Data-center service providers consider this chip to be the preferred alternative for domestic companies.”
- An overview of the China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp’s progress on hyperloop trains, using using magnetic levitation and operating in a vacuum
- China: Space Circling space launch firm secures $13.9M to focus on launch vehicle engines for commercial space activities, with sights on mass production by year-end
- China: Moonshot AI hits $2.5BN valuation following new $1BN backing from investors including Alibaba and Xiaohongshu
“Saudi Arabia is mandating that leading Chinese technology companies invest in the Gulf kingdom in return for huge deals, as it leverages its petrodollar wealth to boost its domestic tech industry.”
- China: HaomoAI, autonomous driving firm backed by Great Wall Motor, raised $14M with focus on self-driving logistics vehicles and driver-assistance systems for passenger cars
- China: Release of OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video capabilities prompts concerns from policymakers, China’s AI industry and observers over competitive pressure
- China: Ministry of Education issues list of 184 primary and secondary schools to run artificial intelligence-focused curricula in bid to boost technology competencies in children
- China: Xpeng enters auto dealer agreements for EV sales in UAE, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Jordan and Lebanon, building on existing footprint in Europe
- China: Suzhou city reports that more than 29M residents now have digital yuan wallets, with near 2M firms, public bodies, and state-run organizations now holding corporate digital yuan accounts
“It turns out [Virtual Power Plant] technology has a particularly good synergy with the EV industry, which is why the Chinese government has started to invest in VPPs.”
- China Aerospace Science & Tech Corp unveils 2024 plans for 70 launches of more than 290 spacecraft into orbit, with further 30 or so launches by commercial launch sector
- Huawei cloud services to expand footprint with new data centres and launch of cloud service in Egypt, and AI-focused cloud computing centre in Hong Kong
- China’s Nio EV major inks global licenses to UAE’s Forseven electric cars firm for use of Nio technical info and software for R&D, manufacturing and distribution of its vehicles
- Thailand: An overview of Huawei’s involvement in all aspects of the tech behind Thailand’s smart cities projects – 5G, IoT, monitoring, language recognition, data management and beyond
BRICS currency:
‘… there are imbalances within the BRICS economies…
all essentially run current account surpluses (except India)… [And] would most likely depend on the Chinese economy and yuan as the backbone of a currency bloc.’
- Japan and Italy to step up defense and economic ties as Rome positions for a greater Indo-Pacific role, shortly after Italy’s exit from China’s Belt and Road Initiative
- Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce proposes issuance of ‘RMB stablecoins or stablecoins backed by a basket of different currencies, including RMB, in addition to HKD or USD stablecoins’
- “Japan expects to expand the number of specialized cyber units to approximately 4,000 by the end of 2027 from approximately 890 in 2022…”
Hong Kong: “…not known how many surveillance cameras are already installed in public places… The Security Bureau told HKFP… that the government did not maintain the number of CCTV cameras in the city.”
- “Or said another way, if they [BRICS economies] want to cut out the dollar – and essentially the West – who will run the deficits required to absorb the BRICS excesses?”
- Malaysia: Maxis, the country’s leading telco, and China’s Huawei complete 5G-Advanced tech trial, achieving ultra-fast peak speeds of up to 8Gbps
- “TikTok’s tactics… use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans…”
- “In 2022, the bulk of its research and development engineers were based in China but [Taiwan’s] Alchip has begun moving roles overseas, many to Japan…”
Critical technologies, globally: February 2024
Asia’s tech news: Other editions
Deloitte: Global Semiconductor Industry Outlook in 2024 –
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