China’s technology news headlines in July 2024 obviously covered a huge range of applications, implementations, successes and challenges. These included, for instance: China’s fast-accelerating space-launch and satellite placement schedule; China’s big-dollar moves to secure the global lead in semiconductors, and artificial intelligence services; the government’s proposed cyberspace ID program; and many more, each of which can be read here.
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- China: 20 localities selected for ‘vehicle-road-cloud integration’ pilot program for intelligent connected vehicles, moving towards a unified, shared standard system for the country / full item
- China: Tesla becomes the only foreign-owned EV car brand on purchase catalog of Jiangsu province gov’t, meaning gov’t agencies and public groups can procure them as service cars / full item
“Taiwan’s TSMC is increasing its supply of 3.5 nm semiconductors. However… China has no way to secure these products… we need to find ways to effectively utilize the 7 nm semiconductors.” / full item
- ICYMI: China’s Tianlong-3 rocket suffered an unintended launch and crash, with parent firm Beijing Tianbing, aka Space Pioneer, acknowledging a structural failure / full item
- ‘Underground network smuggles Nvidia’s AI GPUs into China despite US sanctions — some smugglers even sell entire servers’ / full item
- China: StarShine Semiconductor adds Series B funding of $137.6M with focus on radio frequency filters and modules, with China Mobile and Wenzhou City investment platform taking part / full item
- China: Huawei partners chip foundry, Wuhan Xinxin, and semicon packaging firms for high-bandwidth memory – HBM – chips, aiming for domestic control of AI-focused chips / full item
- A brief intro to 8 bioengineering startups, including firms from Japan and China working on alternative proteins, collagen products and industrial biocatalysts / full item
- China: Hozon EV firm preps for Hong Kong IPO, looking at funding to launch export of Neta electric cars into global markets / full item
China: ‘A distributed denial-of-service attack affected, among others, the websites of Macau’s security service, police, fire and rescue services, and the academy for public security forces’ / full item
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- China: 7th launch of iSpace Hyperbola-1 solid-fuel rocket fails, dropping successful-launch record to just 3 out of 7 / full item
- China: HongShan Capital, formerly Sequoia Capital China, has reportedly established a new $2.5BN tech investment fund, backed by city gov’t and private and state-owned insurance firms / full item
- Hong Kong arm of China Pacific Insurance Group partners Swiss crypto bank, AMINA Group, with both leveraging crypto investment advisory, on/off-ramping, trading and custodial services / full item
China: “Average vacancy rates at logistics properties in east and north China are approaching 20%, the highest in years… More warehouses are being built, which is making the problem worse.” / full item
- China’s Xpeng EVs maker unveils plans for cheaper mass-market brand, responding to fierce domestic EV competition, seeing HK share price rise in response / full item
- Huawei is suing Taiwan’s MediaTek mobile chip developer over alleged IP infringement, in part to offset impacts of US-led tech restrictions by generating licensing fees and royalties / full item
China’s robotaxis challenges: “Base fares start as low as 4 yuan (55 cents), compared with 18 yuan ($2.48) for a taxi driven by a human…” / full item
- China: Government is testing AI companies’ large language models to ensure systems ’embody core socialist values’ in latest expansion of the country’s censorship regime / full item
- China: 3rd phase of ‘Big Fund’ has been established with registered capital of $47BN to focus on semiconductors and other strategic, critical and emerging technologies / full item
- China: Huawei-ZGCMC partnership preps to integrate AI and LLMs across industries including mining, bulk transport, equipment manufacturing, cloud computing and beyond / full item
- China adds a 5th Gaofen-11 hi-res imaging satellite to CHEOS constellation, believed capable of image resolution of around 10cm, likely for both civil and military use / full item
China: “Operating 24/7 without human intervention, [Xiaomi] dark factory offers significant cost savings through reduced labor expenses and elimination of lighting, heating, and cooling costs” / full item
- Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering proposes 21-sat network around the moon to provide real-time, high-precision navigation and monitoring / full item
China: ‘The upper stage of China’s Long March 6A rocket appears to be creating numerous pieces of space debris, adding to the growing issue of orbital debris.’ / full item
- China: State-owned Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Tech preps for launch capability boost with approaching 1st launch of Long March 12, capable of 12000kg payload delivery / full item
- China: Xiaomi smartphone giant unveils $330M fully-automated manufacturing, claiming 24/7 operation with no human intervention and targeting annual production of 10M phones / full item
- China: Huawei has completed construction of $1.4BN Lianqiu Lake R&D centre in Shanghai, with 30,000 personnel set to work on semiconductors, wireless technologies, IoT and more / full item
- China: Cyberspace regulator has proposed a ‘cyberspace ID’ for citizens, claiming a protective step for individuals and centralized, rather than per-company, data storage / full item
- China: Windrose electric truck firm aims to raise $200M round before pursuing US IPO, with manufacturing underway in Georgia and sights on European assembly plants / full item
- China: Baichuan AI completes $690M funding round, backed by major tech firms including Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi, becoming the country’s 2nd most-valued AI firm / full item
China: “The PRC’s advancements… in photonic technology aim to revolutionize the nation and military with chips potentially 1000 times faster than their electronic counterparts.” / full item
- On MIT Tech Review: ‘How to access Chinese LLM chatbots across the world’ / full item
- China’s International Lunar Research Station: “We hope to work with 50 countries by inviting 500 foreign scientific research institutions, and 5,000 foreign scientific research personnel…” / full item
- Peru inks deal with China’s Huawei to train 20,000 Peruvian citizens in new technologies, with a focus on AI tech / full item
- Amazon reportedly to add discount section to compete with Temu and Shein featuring low-cost goods for shipping from China to overseas consumers / full item
- Japan’s Toyota, partnering with China’s state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group, looks to launch autonomous driving-enabled EV in China, hoping to recover from sales slump / full item
- ‘China’s subsea strategy and a new data center for Singapore’ from Nikkei Asia and the Financial Times / full item
“…reports indicate that Chinese companies have accessed NVIDIA’s latest AI chips… on the US export control list, through overseas servers of American companies Google and Microsoft.” / full item
- China’s Chang’e-6 reentry capsule returned to Earth on June 25th, completing 53-day mission and returning with near 2kg of samples from the moon’s far side / full item
- Download: ‘How China’s Human Capital Impacts Its National Competitiveness’, a brief from CSIS, the Center for Strategic and International Studies / full item
- OnTime AKA Ruqi Mobility, a ride-hailing firm backed by Tencent, looks to raise $179MM in IPO, with trading set for Hong Kong Stock Exchange in July / full item
- China: First 18 satellites commencing build-out of China’s G60 Starlink mega-constellation of over 12,000 satellites is set for August 5th / full item
- China’s ByteDance, parent firm of TikTok, is now working with chips firm, Broadcom, on a restrictions-compliant 5 nanometer AI-focused processor design / full item
- China: OpenAI has warned developers in China it will begin blocking access to its tools and software from July, with reasoning not yet provided / full item
“For Chinese undersea cable maker Wuhan FiberHome Int’l Technologies, being banned by the U.S. government is nothing to worry about. It has, in fact, been good for business.” / full item
- Thailand: China’s BYD EV giant to open first SEA factory in Thailand’s Rayong province, a $486M facility producing 150,000 vehicles per year / full item
- Download: ‘Tokenization of Money – e-HKD and the future of global money movement’ from Visa with HSBC and Hang Seng Bank (pdf link) / full item
- Taiwan’s Foxconn unveils plans to invest $137M to construct a new business HQ – in Zhengzhou, China / full item
Cambodia: “Huione Guarantee operates the platform and acts as a guarantor or escrow provider for all transactions… targeted squarely at cyber scam operators.” / full item
- Nexperia, semiconductor maker owned by China’s WingTech, to invest $200M in expanding capacity at main production site in Germany, despite growing scrutiny around subsidies / full item
- European Union is drafting plans for customs duties on cheap goods from online retailers including Temu, Shein and AliExpress, scrapping duty-free thresholds / full item
- Japan to help Philippines with 5G as alternative to Chinese tech for Indo-Pacific infrastructure, building on Palau and Cambodia initiatives, potentially later adding Indonesia and Vietnam / full item
- Singapore state investment giant, Temasek, to invest up to $10BN in India over 3 years, seen in part as a response to underperformance on China investments / full item
- Australia is to establish a new ‘cable connectivity & resilience centre’ for Pacific Islands nations, looking to provide tech assistance and training across the Indo-Pacific / full item
ORF: China’s digital silk road in the Indo-Pacific
