The U.S. May Be Overstating China’s Technological Prowess
China’s technological prowess is frequently invoked by U.S. policymakers hoping to get votes, attention, or enough bipartisan support to pass a bill. Competition with China was a central motivating factor in federal legislation like the CHIPS and...
Can Chinese Payment Apps Gain Traction Globally?
Chinese-owned social media app TikTok is a global phenomenon. Yet, for every TikTok, there is a WeChat, an app that is ubiquitous in China but that has failed to catch fire abroad. WeChat is just one of many Chinese apps incorporating financial...
New Export Controls on Chinese Semiconductors May Prove Self-Defeating
New restrictions are not only likely unnecessary, they may ultimately prove self-defeating. Overly zealous controls that limit older semiconductor equipment sales to China will inflict collateral damage on American, and potentially international...
Is Beijing Changing Tack on Big Tech?
In recent weeks, news has emerged that China may be slowing its Big Tech regulations. On Tuesday, the CPPCC held a special meeting on the digital economy, with Vice Premier Liu He highlighting the need “to support the platform economy.” This...
Will China Set Global Tech Standards?
In early February, the European Commission issued a sweeping strategy for setting global technology standards. Coming on the heels of Beijing’s latest standards strategy, released in October, it reflects Europe’s efforts to push back against...
In Xinjiang’s Tech Incubators, Innovation Is Inseparable from Repression
ChinaFile Presents: In the Camps—China’s High-Tech Penal Colony
Darren Byler joined ChinaFile’s Susan Jakes and Jessica Batke to discuss his new book, In the Camps: China’s High-Tech Penal Colony. Evidence has mounted in recent years that China’s government has incarcerated more than one million Uyghurs and...
Why China Is Going After Its Tech Giants
Just days after its lucrative listing on the New York Stock Exchange, China ride-hailing giant Didi Global was hit with another round of sanctions by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). On July 4, the country’s Internet regulator...
How Should the U.S. Respond to China’s Military-Civil Fusion Strategy?
During Donald Trump’s presidency, the term “military-civil fusion” (MCF) came to feature prominently in U.S. officials’ characterizations of their concerns about China. While efforts to integrate China’s civilian and defense economies have been a...
Meeting the China Challenge: A New American Strategy for Technology Competition
Is China or the U.S. ahead in artificial intelligence? What is the best way to counter security threats in 5G technology? How do we best maintain American leadership positions in fundamental research and biotechnology?
Vernacular Industrialism in China
In early 20th-century China, Chen Diexian was a maverick entrepreneur—at once a prolific man of letters, captain of industry, magazine editor, and cosmetics magnate. He tinkered with chemistry in his private studio, used local cuttlefish to source magnesium carbonate, and published manufacturing tips in how-to columns. In a rapidly changing society, Chen copied foreign technologies and translated manufacturing processes from abroad to produce adaptations of global commodities that bested foreign brands. Engaging in the worlds of journalism, industry, and commerce, he drew on literati practices associated with late-imperial elites but deployed them in novel ways within a culture of educated tinkering that generated industrial innovation.
American Company Sold DNA Analysis Equipment to Security Officials in Xinjiang, Documents Show
In 2015, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Public Security Bureau announced it planned to purchase equipment from the U.S.-based biotechnology company Promega for the purpose of analyzing DNA and adding it to a national database,...
The Scientist and the Spy
In September 2011, sheriff’s deputies in Iowa encountered three ethnic Chinese men near a field where a farmer was growing corn seed under contract with Monsanto. What began as a simple trespassing inquiry mushroomed into a two-year FBI operation in which investigators bugged the men’s rental cars, used a warrant intended for foreign terrorists and spies, and flew surveillance planes over corn country—all in the name of protecting trade secrets of corporate giants Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer. Hvistendahl gives a gripping account of this unusually far-reaching investigation, which pitted a veteran FBI special agent against Florida resident Robert Mo, who after his academic career foundered took a questionable job with the Chinese agricultural company DBN and became a pawn in a global rivalry.
Human Resources Both Drive and Limit China’s Push for Automation
from New America
The Future of Huawei in Europe
On October 9, the European Commission and the European Agency for Cybersecurity released their long-awaited risk assessment of the region’s 5G network. Written with input from all 28 European Union members, the report warned about a 5G supplier...
What Exactly Is the Story with China’s Rare Earths?
from ChinaFileDeng Xiaoping reportedly said that while the Middle East has oil, China has rare earths. On May 29, Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily warned of the United States’ “uncomfortable” dependence on Chinese rare earths: “Will rare earths...
What Are We Getting Wrong about the Trade War?
from ChinaFileSince the collapse of trade talks in mid-May, voices from both sides have warned of the economic havoc their side can unleash while boasting of their economy’s resilience. Academics in China speak about weaponizing the country’s foreign exchange...
The Messy Truth About Social Credit
from LogicAlmost every day, I receive an email from Google Alerts about a new article on China’s “social credit system.” It is rare that I encounter an article that does not contain several factual errors and gross mischaracterizations. The social credit...
In Reassessing China, Europe Sharpens Its Approach
from Carnegie ChinaIn recent weeks, Beijing has both won victories and suffered defeats during important summits and dialogues with France and Italy, as well as the European Union. French President Emmanuel Macron invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel and...
Susan Thornton on a Crisis in U.S.-China Relations
from Carnegie ChinaOver three years into Trump’s presidency, U.S.-China trade and economic issues remain unresolved while security concerns are creeping into the bilateral agenda. Thornton contends that Washington and Beijing should quickly agree on an initial...
What Do the Huawei Indictments Mean for the Future of Global Tech?
The United States indictments against Huawei look set to significantly worsen already tense relations between China and the U.S. As America pressures allies to drop Huawei and other Chinese firms, U.S. and European officials point to China’s own...
Is this the Beginning of a New Cold War?
Beyond complicating trade negotiations between the United States and China, the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou has renewed concerns that the two countries are embarking on a new Cold War, based on economic preeminence and technological...
Devising a New Formula for Global Leadership
from Carnegie ChinaYan asserts the U.S.-China relationship is experiencing structural disruptions, the resolution of which will have a lasting impact on the two countries. He says the tensions in the U.S.-China relationship are primarily due to the narrowing gap...
How to Be a Chinese Scientist without Being China’s Scientist
As trade tensions between the United States and China worsen, a new technological cold war looms, casting its shadow over American universities and research institutions. How should individual scientists of Chinese origin decide whether to accept...
The Promise and Peril of Chinese Tech Investment in Africa
In this week's show, we bring you two perspectives on the promise and peril of increased Chinese technology investment in Africa.
Harriet Kariuki is an emerging markets analyst in Kenya where she surveys the digital...
How Will China Respond to Global Concerns about its Trade and Economic Policies?
from Carnegie ChinaOfficial Chinese narratives about the U.S.-China trade war have not included Chinese reflection or discussion of what role China’s own policies have played in creating trade tensions. Many of the concerns on structural issues, such as market...
Banning Chinese Students is Not in the U.S. National Interest
President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to radically revamp America’s immigration policies. Indeed, his family separation policies, which sparked nationwide protests and public revulsion after they were rolled out in May 2018,...
Technology and Innovation in an Era of U.S.-China Strategic Competition
from Carnegie ChinaChina has taken significant steps to implement national strategies and encourage investment in order to surpass the U.S. in high tech fields like artificial intelligence. In this podcast, Paul Haenle sat down with Elsa Kania, adjunct fellow at...
China Has Outspent the US by $24 Billion in 5G Technology since 2015, Study Shows
China has in recent years outspent the U.S. by $24 billion in the area of next-generation mobile internet technology known as 5G, potentially creating a "tsunami" that will be difficult to catch up with, according to a Deloitte study...
Whistleblower Reveals Google’s Plans for Censored Search in China
According to internal documents provided to The Intercept by a whistleblower, Google has been developing a censored version of its search engine under the codename “Dragonfly” since the beginning of 2017. The search engine is being built...
Trump’s Tariffs Push Electronics From China to Southeast Asia
A number of Taiwanese firms that form a crucial plank of the global supply chain have in recent days signaled their intention to diversify away from the world’s No. 2 economy. Delta Electronics Inc., which supplies power components to Apple Inc...
China Set to Leapfrog US in the AI Race
It’s only been a year since TNW reported China’s announcement it was shifting its national strategy to claim the artificial intelligence crown. In that time China has advanced its agenda to a startling degree, at least according to the experts....
China May Become the World’s Leader in AI. But at What Cost?
The unprecedented amounts of data Chinese tech giants like Baidu and Alibaba collect is helping accelerate China’s development of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) applications, including facial recognition, automated retail operations,...
Facebook’s Return to China Thrown into Doubt
The company, like all major US tech platforms, has been blocked in the country since 2009. Facebook said on Wednesday it had secured a licence to set up an “innovation hub to support Chinese developers, innovators and start-ups”. But 24 hours...
U.S.-China Tensions over Trade and Technology
from Carnegie ChinaChen says deteriorating bilateral relations are due to both the Trump administration’s trade policies and to a growing U.S. consensus that foreign policy toward China should be reevaluated. The Chinese government’s view that industrial policy is...
Inside China’s Dystopian Dreams: A.I., Shame and Lots of Cameras
In the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, a police officer wearing facial recognition glasses spotted a heroin smuggler at a train station.
Made in China 2025
from Carnegie ChinaChina’s “Made in China 2025” policy to upgrade its industry plays a central role in the ongoing U.S.-China trade tensions. Paul Haenle sat down with Paul Triolo, practice head of Geo-technology at the Eurasia Group, to discuss how the Chinese...
Meituan Wants to Be the Grubhub of China (and the Yelp, and the Groupon, and the Kayak)
China’s burgeoning middle class, which increasingly is going online for everything from ordering lunch to booking hotel rooms, is fueling expectations that an 8-year-old startup with an innovative smartphone app will go public at a lofty $60...
In China’s Booming Tech Scene, Women Battle Sexism and Conservative Values
Ms Li has a day job in the marketing department of one of China’s biggest tech firms.
Chinese President Xi Jinping Calls Blockchain a ‘Breakthrough’ Technology
Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a speech this week that blockchain — the technology underlying bitcoin — has “breakthrough” applications.
In Silicon Valley, Chinese ‘Accelerators’ Aim to Bring Startups Home
Beijing’s unslakeable thirst for the latest technology has spurred a proliferation of “accelerators” in Silicon Valley that aim to identify promising startups and bring them to China.
OneSpace Launches China’s First Private Rocket
OneSpace, a startup based in Beijing, on Thursday became the country’s first private company to launch its own rocket.
ZTE Is Now Center Stage in the US-China Trade Fight
The smartphone and telecom equipment maker announced Wednesday that it has halted its main operations after the US government last month banned American companies from selling it vital components.
For Better or Worse, Africa’s Digital Future is Tied to China
Chinese tech companies are now the most important players in Africa’s rapid emergence as one of the world’s fastest growing digital markets. People’s Republic of China companies, private and state-owned, are working with local telecom operators...
China Plans $47 Billion Fund to Boost Its Semiconductor Industry
In a move that could further heighten tensions with the U.S., China is poised to announce a new fund of about 300 billion yuan—$47.4 billion—to spur development of its semiconductor industry as it seeks to close the technology gap with the U.S....
The AI Arms Race: China and US Compete to Dominate Big Data
Algorithms trained on mountains of Chinese data may soon be making decisions that deeply affect the lives of people in the US.
U.S. Considers Tightening Grip on China Ties to Corporate America
Any broad effort to sever relationships between Chinese and American tech companies - even temporarily - could have dramatic effects across the industry.
Exclusive: Chip Wars - China Closing in on Second $19 Billion Semiconductor Fund: Sources
China’s state-backed semiconductor fund is near to closing a 120 billion yuan ($18.98 billion) investment round for a second fund to support the domestic chip sector and help cut reliance on imports amid a bruising trade standoff with the United...
Police in Chinese City Seize 600 Computers Used to Mine Bitcoin
Police in the north China city of Tianjin confiscated 600 computers used to mine bitcoin cryptocurrency after the local power grid operator reported abnormal electricity usage, Xinhua reported Wednesday.
Former Google China Head Targets AI Opportunities with New $900M Sinovation Fund
Sinovation Ventures, one of China’s prominent funds which is helmed by former Google China head Kaifu Lee, has announced a new investment fund that’s targeted at a total raise of $900 million.
Chinese Man Caught by Facial Recognition at Pop Concert
Chinese police have used facial recognition technology to locate and arrest a man who was among a crowd of 60,000 concert goers.
China Now Has the Most Valuable AI Startup in the World
Facial recognition company in China becomes richest-valued private AI startup.
If There’s a U.S.-China Trade War, China May Have Some ‘Unconventional Weapons’
There are ways to make life harder for American companies in China that need not be formal, or widely publicized.