The SNA monthly round-up of key technology headlines from China, gathered and selected from online news outlets throughout August 2022.
Headlines here span the full range of tech news from China in August of 2022, touching on fields as diverse as the digital yuan, driverless robotaxis, and data security, and related venture capital funding. Hyperlinked headlines below are direct click-thru’s – one click and you’re reading the China tech news that interests you most.
We’ve also recently launched weekly tech news updates on Substack, alongside weekly startup news summaries on LinkedIn, and the less-frequent SNA e-newsletter on Revue.
US-China: Mid-Decade Challenges to National Competitiveness
- China: Xinjiang’s woes deepen with introduction of 20 driverless electric patrol vehicles, each fitted with eight 360-degree facial recognition-capable surveillance cameras
- China’s virtual influencers: “…behind the perfect faces of China’s $16BN virtual celebrity industry is an angry, overworked labor force.”
- China’s driverless vehicles: “In Shenzhen, the capital cost is one third to California, because we have the battery suppliers..sensors…integration. But the revenue is one-twelfth to California…”
- China: Alibaba e-commerce giant and Xpeng electric vehicle firm partner for Mongolia center for driverless car software, aiming to bring core software ‘training’ time down
- China: Agricultural Commerce Bank of Zhangjiagang issues 500K ‘digital yuan’ loan with intellectual property as collateral, adding to 15-province e-CNY testing site moves
Southeast Asia’s digital consumers / Meta and Bain & Co (pdf)
- China: 70/30 Foodtech preps to debut mycelium-based alt-meat meal products focused on mimicking shredded chicken, with sights on bid for Series A funding
- China: More on gov’t expansion of digital yuan loans to businesses and individuals, potentially allowing real-time monitoring, tracking and recording of every transaction
- China: Baidu gains approval for 5 fully driverless robotaxis in districts in two cities, covering 13km in Wuhan and 30km in Chongqing
- China: ByteDance, parent of security red-flagged TikTok, steps further into healthcare with acquisition of Amcare, network of high-end children’s and women’s hospitals
- China: Biren Technology launches its first graphics processing chip, claiming a peak hash rate higher than Nvidia’s products
- “Based on the number of cameras per 1000 people, these cities are the top 10 most surveilled in the world…”
- Musk takes backlash after writing column for China’s censorship agency, the Cyberspace Administration, adding uncomfortable counterpoint to Musk’s recent ‘free speech’ bid for Twitter
- Sequoia China establishes new accelerator program, YUÈ, providing courses and resources for Chinese entrepreneurs from angel-round to A-round, with graduates potentially in line for $1M Sequoia backing
- “When TikTok users enter a website through a link on the app, TikTok inserts code that can monitor much of their activity on those outside websites, including their keystrokes and whatever they tap on the page…”
Protect Your Democracy / Tools from Google and Jigsaw
- Deloitte and Alibaba partner for Deloitte-Alibaba Cloud Auto Industry Center in Hangzhou to focus on computing aspects of driverless vehicles
- China: Tech majors including Huawei, Tencent and Epic Games partner universities for Joint Research Institute of Metaverse and Virtual-Real Interaction
- China: Nreal AR glasses firm gains $15M from South Korea’s Licombined, parent of Gentle Monster sunglasses brand, in likely move towards partnership rather than single investment
- China: Digital Yuan payments trials roll out in public transport sector, with expansion of subway transport payment trials and first addition of road transport payments
- China: Beijing launches metaverse development plan requiring municipalities to track NFT trends and integrate metaverse-related tech into education and tourism
- China: Country’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing Int’l Corp, inks agreement for new $7.5BN foundry in Tianjin despite US sanctions, on back of near-7-nanometer chip production success
Chinese Cybercrime in Neighboring Countries / Report
SNA: other editions
Startup News Asia editions go out on a variety of channels –
mobile app, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
and via the weekly e-newsletters below.
Weekly Asia-Pacific tech news on Substack
E-news weekly: Asia tech news via LinkedIn
Weekly e-news: Startup News Asia on Revue
