Tech news headlines focusing on China in February 2023 covered items, issues and technologies including cultivated and cellular meats, the government’s censorship-breaking concerns around ChatGPT-like services, the emerging price war between China’s e-commerce giants, and many more.
Hit the headline links below to read each article in full.
For ongoing daily and weekly updates, see our other editions, including the weekly Asia tech newsletter.
Artificial intelligence as systemic risk in a polycrisis
- China: Little Red Book’s 200 million users now able to display NFTs minted on Conflux on their profiles, building on Shanghai gov’t $5M grant to Conflux in 2021
- China’s Spacety research institute hit with sanctions for providing satellite imagery of Ukraine to Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group for use in combat operations
- China: Recent reports of a state-owned ride-hailing launch turn out to be more likely a transport aggregation mini-app project by a Ministry of Transport body
- China’s JD e-commerce major to end services in Thailand and Indonesia, with online shopping sites in both countries to stop taking orders from mid-February
‘High-altitude balloons can also be “trucks for any number of platforms, whether it be communication and data link nodes, ISR, tracking air and missile threats – and without the predictable orbits of satellites“‘
- China may face additional sanctions over the more than doubled supply of China-made surveillance equipment to Iran in 2022 as citizen protests swept the country
- China: Wuxi city unveils country’s first regional guidelines for ‘internet of vehicle’ tech, alongside requiring officials apply the tech in public transport, traffic monitoring, logistics and deliveries
- China: Country’s first cultivated meat pilot plant to be constructed by CellX ‘cellular agriculture’ firm and Tofflon food manufacturing specialists
- China: Dalian Wanzhongyuncang to open warehouse store in China, selling goods from Japan and beyond, seeing renewed market for physical products, and offering lower, cross-border pricing
CSET: Chinese AI Investment in Southeast Asia
- China: National Blockchain Tech Innovation Centre approved for launch to develop software, hardware and theory
- ICYMI: Nostr’s Damus app banned from the China app store because of ‘Information Services with Attribute of Public Opinions or Capable of Social Mobilization’
- China: E-commerce giant JD to launch ‘industrial version’ of ChatGPT-like product for retail and finance, aiming to leverage expertise in e-commerce, logistics and payments
- ICYMI: China’s Fujian province to establish 2 industrial zones to draw in ethnic Chinese-owned businesses from Indonesia and the Philippines
- ICYMI: China’s Alibaba and VC fund backed by Saudi Public Investment Fund nears completion of $1BN fundraise to back tech startups in Asia and the Middle East
“Founded in 2019, the fund raised US$400 million for deals that year. It has already invested in 16 companies and plans to list three of them on the Saudi stock exchange and two in the US next year, Li said.”
“Existing investors in the first fund will be major contributors in the second funding round along with other international investors, he said. The firm will likely raise new funding every two years as it already has a large pipeline of potential deals.“
- Available to download: ‘Chinese AI Investment and Commercial Activity in Southeast Asia’ from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology
- China’s VSPO esports firm gains $265M backing from Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group, seen as part of Kingdom’s bid to become a global esports and gaming hub
- China: Cambricon chip firm gains approval to issue $244M in A-shares to specific target investors for chips in AI-generated content concept and applications like ChatGPT
- China’s gaming industry: “The market grossed 265.9 billion yuan ($39 billion) from video gaming sales in 2022, a 10.33% drop year-over-year…”
- China: State-owned China Telecom partners Conflux Network for blockchain-based SIM cards, aiming for BSIM pilot program in Hong Kong later this year
- China: A quick overview of the growth of ChatGPT-like AI services in China
Deloitte: 2023 Semiconductor Industry Outlook
- “Regulators have told major Chinese tech companies not to offer ChatGPT services to the public amid growing alarm in Beijing over the AI-powered chatbot’s uncensored replies to user queries…”
- ICYMI: European Commission bans TikTok from employee phones, and employees’ personal phones if they have an EU app on it, citing cybersecurity concerns
- China: Nio electric vehicles maker to build 1000 battery-swap stations countrywide this year, focusing on tier 3 and 4 cities, upping total to 2300
- China: Regulators block access to ChatGPT, in part over lack of ability to censor references to Xinjiang human rights violations, Taiwan issues and more
- China: Alibaba reportedly reduced its workforce by 19K across a Covid-challenged 2022, although it remains one of the largest private employers
Semiconductors: “The former employee, who was based in China, was identified as having potential ties to a Chinese state-sponsored entity and stealing the data on its behalf…”
- China: Price war emerges as business segments overlap, with JD e-commerce giant rising to Pinduoduo challenge, and Douyin’s (TikTok) challenge to Meituan and Alibaba
- ICYMI: “…US is launching a series of ambitious technology, space and defence initiatives with India…designed to counter China in the Indo-Pacific and wean New Delhi off its reliance on Russia for weapons…”
- ICYMI: A round-up of the semiconductor space’s funding news from January 2023, with 138 startups raising over $2 billion
- Japan: Government to restrict exports of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, most likely primarily impacting China, following amendment to foreign exchange law
- Australia: Defense Department to remove surveillance cameras made by China’s Hikvision and Dahua from gov’t buildings, firms already sanctioned
CSET: An examination of China’s cyber ranges
- Japan’s NTT Docomo and Rakuten Mobile set for R&D information-sharing on Open RAN with UK enterprises and institutions
- Nat’l Bank of Cambodia preps to join China’s RMB Cross-border Interbank Payment System, CIPS, looking at int’l payments and more via yuan-denominated transactions
- Australia: China’s Alipay+ preps for activation in 8000 retailers using Australia’s epay, boosting cross-border mobile payments with global wallets
- Australia: Vic gov’t now conducting audit of all security cameras at gov’t-owned sites to identify China state-owned companies, with likely replacement required due to espionage concerns
- New issue of the Hong Kong Media Bulletin is out! It includes updates on the trial of 47 pro-democracy advocates, tech self-censorship by firms like Apple and Disney, but also notable pushback like this new documentary by Acton Institute
Recorded Future: Chinese Cybercrime in Neighboring Countries
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