ChinaFile Recommends
11.21.17Skype Vanishes from App Stores in China, Including Apple’s
New York Times
For almost a month, Skype, the internet phone call and messaging service, has been unavailable on a number of sites where apps are downloaded in China, including Apple’s app store in the country.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.21.17Chinese Social Media Giant Is Worth More Than Facebook
CNN
Tencent shares closed more than 2% higher in Hong Kong on Tuesday, valuing the social media and gaming giant at around $522 billion, according to FactSet. Facebook is currently worth a little over $519 billion.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.21.17China's Revealing Spin on the ‘Sharing Economy’
New York Times
China is the first country to frame “sharing economy” as a “national priority.” It fits with the image that Beijing wants to project: warm, generous, egalitarian.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.20.17China on pace for Record Solar-Power Installations
Bloomberg
China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, is poised to install a record amount of solar-power capacity this year, prompting researchers to boost forecasts as much as 80 percent.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.17.17China's Nuclear Spaceships Will Be 'Mining Asteroids and Flying Astronauts to the Moon' as It Aims to Overtake US in Space Race
South China Morning Post
China is on course to develop nuclear-powered space shuttles by 2040, and will have the ability to mine resources from asteroids and build solar power plants in space soon after, according to state media.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.14.17Amazon to Sell Part of Its Cloud Business in China
Wall Street Journal
Amazon.com Inc. said it would sell computing equipment used for its cloud services in China to its local partner, Beijing Sinnet Technology Co., in a move analysts said underscores the increasingly chilly atmosphere for foreign companies here.
ChinaFile Recommends
11.14.17China Suddenly Has Way More of the World's Most Powerful Computers Than the US
Quartz
China has surpassed the US by a record margin—nearly 60—to become the nation with the most supercomputers, according to the latest Top 500 survey,
ChinaFile Recommends
10.27.17China Harnesses Big Data to Buttress the Power of the State
Financial Times
The sinologist Simon Leys has described consuming China’s communist literature as akin to “munching rhinoceros sausages”. But amid the leathery verbiage generated by the 19th Communist party congress there were also some extraordinarily piquant...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.25.17Tesla Strikes Deal with Shanghai to Build Factory in China
Wall Street Journal
Electric-car maker Tesla Inc. has reached an agreement to set up its own manufacturing facility in Shanghai, according to people briefed on the plan, a move that could help the company gain traction in China’s fast-growing EV market.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.17.17Tiangong-1: Chinese Space Station Will Crash to Earth within Months
Guardian
The Tiangong-1 or “Heavenly Palace” lab was launched in 2011 and described as a “potent political symbol” of China, part of an ambitious scientific push to turn China into a space superpower.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.17.17The Communist App Store: China's Endless Apps for Tracking, Organizing, and Motivating Party Members
Quartz
China’s Communist Party is getting into app development big time, with dozens of apps to educate and promote social networking among party members hitting the country’s Apple and Android app stores.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.16.17China’s Huawei Could Overtake Apple This Year in Smartphones, Top Analyst Says
CNBC
In the second quarter of this year, Huawei held a 11.3 percent market share, shipping 38.5 million units, IDC data show. Apple meanwhile shipped 41 million iPhones and had a 12 percent market share in the same period.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.16.17In China, Trading Begins on WeChat
Bloomberg
Regulators elsewhere may be clamping down on the financial industry’s use of private messaging apps, but in the world’s second-largest economy the practice is flourishing.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.16.17China Seeks Dominance of Global AI Industry
Financial Times
While the National Science Foundation in the US has no increase in funding this year, China has promised to “vigorously use governmental and social capital” to dominate the industry.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.12.17China’s Tightening Grip on Tech Giants: DealBook Briefing
New York Times
If the Chinese government goes through with a plan to gain board seats at some of its country’s top technology players, will that cause problems when those companies go hunting for deals overseas?
ChinaFile Recommends
10.10.17While U.S. Moves toward Coal, China Bets Big on Solar
CBS News
In southern China, the country flipped the switch on the world's largest floating solar installation - built on top of a lake created by an abandoned coal mine. Projects like these helped China double its solar capacity last year. It is now...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.09.17Accelerating Fintech in China
TechCrunch
China’s expeditious adoption of fintech is generating profits not only for startups, but also the companies investing in them. Sitting in the headquarters of FinPlus, a fintech venture capital firm and accelerator, its CEO, Mosso Lau, said, “There...
Conversation
10.06.17
Is China the Future of Bitcoin, or Its Past?
China often dominates the market for Bitcoin, a virtual currency managed by a decentralized network of computers: at points over the last few years, China may have accounted for more than 75 percent of Bitcoin trading. Energy subsidies there make it...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.06.17It's Not Just Amazon: Chinese Tech Giants Are Selling Groceries Too
CNN
Amazon (AMZN, Tech30)'s move to swallow Whole Foods for $13.7 billion grabbed attention in the U.S., and the internet giant has also been dabbling in cashier-less grocery stores. But experts say China is already ahead of the curve.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.28.17China Gives Carmakers More Time in Biggest Electric-Vehicle Plan
Bloomberg
China unveiled a comprehensive set of emission rules and delayed a credit-score program tied to the production of electric cars, giving automakers more time to prepare for the phasing out of fossil-fuel powered vehicles.
China in the World Podcast
09.25.17
Cyber Norms in U.S.-China Relations
from Carnegie China
The United States and China agreed in 2015 that neither government would support or conduct cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property and committed to working with international partners to identify appropriate norms in cyberspace. Both countries...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.21.17Europe Is Designing a New Particle Collider to Take on China
Bloomberg
CERN, the European nuclear physics research organization, is contemplating the development of a particle accelerator three times larger than the Large Hadron Collider that confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson, a move intended to match growing...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.20.17The Timing May Be Right for Facebook to Enter China next Year, Analyst Predicts
CNBC
A Mizuho report pointed out that Beijing tends to lessen its media scrutiny during an administration's second term, and Facebook may have “an opening” after Xi Jinping begins his second five-year term in November.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.20.17China Rushes to Surpass U.S. In Decoding Citizens' Genes
Wall Street Journal
In this western Chinese city famed for panda conservation, scientists are advancing the world’s most ambitious effort to save a far less-endangered species: humans.
Viewpoint
09.15.17
The Unprecedented Reach of China’s Surveillance State
The Chinese Party-state is building a social credit system for collecting information about all of its citizens by police, courts, and other institutions. This enables the government to reach into society to a degree unprecedented in history...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.15.17China's WeChat Crackdown Drives Bitcoin Devotees to Telegram
Bloomberg
With administrators personally liable for what is said on groups they run, users of bitcoin exchanges OKCoin, Huobi and BTCChina are migrating to services beyond the Chinese government’s reach.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.14.17China Is Stumbling Hard at Acquiring the High-Tech Chip Companies It Wants So Badly
Quartz
US president Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed a Chinese private-equity firm’s proposed $1.3 billion purchase of Lattice Semiconductor, an Oregon-based chip manufacturer.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.14.17VW, China Partners to Recall 4.86 Million Vehicles over Takata Airbags
Reuters
Official Chinese estimates show over 20 million cars in China had air bags made by Takata, which have been linked to at least 16 deaths and 180 injuries globally. The air bags have the potential to explode with too much force and spray shrapnel.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.13.17China's Two Largest Tech Companies Sign a Deal over the West's Biggest Music
NPR
Among the deals being signed that shape the way the world experiences culture, a new partnership will exert a great influence on the flow of content from the world's three remaining major record labels to an enormous and growing marketplace —...
Sinica Podcast
09.11.17
China’s Tightening Grip on Cyberspace
from Sinica Podcast
Adam Segal returns to Sinica to comment on China’s recent cybersecurity law—where it came from, how it changed as it was being drafted, and how it may shape the flow of information in China in the future. Other issues discussed include the...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.11.17China to Shut Bitcoin Exchanges
Wall Street Journal
Chinese authorities are ordering domestic bitcoin exchanges to shut down, delivering a heavy blow to once-thriving trading hubs that helped popularize the virtual currency pushing it to recent record highs.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.11.17China Steps up Curbs on Virtual Currency Trading
Chinese regulators ordered a halt to all virtual currency trading platforms in the country, acting to further rein in risks related to cryptocurrencies, Caixin learned from a source close to regulators.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.11.17The Chinese Female Gamers Putting Male Players in the Shade
BBC
In the world’s newest superpower, professional video gaming is a booming industry set to be worth billions. Female players struggle to earn as much as their male competitors – but that's not stopping one talented team of young women.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.07.17Blocked in China, Facebook Is Said to Seek a Shanghai Office
New York Times
The social media giant in recent months has quietly scouted for office space in Shanghai, according to two people with knowledge of its efforts there. Those offices would house employees working on Facebook’s effort to make hardware but could also...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.07.17Trump May Have Pushed Mexico into the Arms of China's Alibaba
CNBC
Mexico's Ministry of Economy and Alibaba will partner to get more Mexican products onto the tech firm's popular e-commerce platforms.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.07.17China Brings Mars a Little Closer with Replica on Tibet Plateau
Guardian
The “simulated Mars station” – a 95,000 square-kilometre tribute to the solar system’s second-smallest planet – will be built in Qinghai province’s Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan autonomous prefecture, not far from the westernmost tip of the Great Wall.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.05.17China’s Top Bike-Sharing Groups Battle for London
Financial Times
China’s top bike-sharing companies are taking their rivalry to London after local supplier Ofo revealed plans to roll out a smart bike service this week in the UK to compete with rival Mobike.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.05.17Google Continues to Hire in China Even as Search Remains Blocked
Bloomberg
Google’s search service may be banned in China but parent Alphabet Inc. is hunting for workers in a further sign it has ambitions in the world’s biggest internet market.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.30.17What’s Yours Is Mine in China but Is Sharing at a Peak?
BBC
Ok, so car sharing makes perfect sense. And we get bike sharing, too. But ball sharing?
ChinaFile Recommends
08.30.17Alibaba and Tencent Are Showing How Companies Can Get around Beijing's Crackdown on Foreign Deals
CNBC
The firms, among China’s most important tech giants, are overseeing the merger of two companies they back. Chinese delivery firm 58 Suyun is combining with Hong Kong logistics company GoGoVan — both have raised funds from Alibaba, and Tencent backs...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.17New Silk Road: Japan to Counteract China in Kazakhstan with New Asia-Europe Rail Deal
Forbes
Japan continues standing in the ring with China, exchanging blow for blow as the Asian rivals both compete and cooperate with each other in the creation of the trans-Eurasian mega-project that has been...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.17In China You Now Have to Provide Your Real Identity If You Want to Comment Online
Quartz
The Chinese government under president Xi Jinping is continuing to make life on the internet difficult for its potential detractors. Yesterday (Aug. 25), the country’s highest internet regulator released new rules that govern who...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.22.17China to Rev up Bullet Train Revolution with World's Fastest Service on Shanghai-Beijing Line
South China Morning Post
China will soon start official operation of the world’s fastest train service, knocking an hour off the 1,318km journey between Beijing and Shanghai.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.22.17Ford in Talks to Launch Fully Electric Cars in China
Financial Times
Ford is in talks to launch fully electric cars for the Chinese market as the US carmaker plays catch up to international rivals in the race to develop battery vehicles.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.15.17Trump Administration Goes After China Over Intellectual Property, Advanced Technology
Washington Post
President Trump signed an executive memorandum Monday afternoon that will likely trigger an investigation into China’s alleged theft of U.S. intellectual property, a measure that could eventually result in a wide range of penalties as the...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.15.17Facebook Tests Way Into China Via Secret Photo—Sharing App
Financial Times
A photo—sharing app has appeared on Apple’s App Store in China that looks exactly like Facebook’s Moments app, and analysts say it may be a way for the US tech group to finally break into its most coveted market.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.14.17China Must Stop Forcing U.S. Firms to Share Intellectual Property: Trump Trade Official
USA Today
President Trump is scheduled to sign an executive action Monday directing the United States Trade Representative to determine whether to investigate any of China’s acts, policies or practices that may be harming American intellectual property,...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.09.17SoftBank Partners with China’s Ofo to Bring Its Dock-Less Bikes to Japan
TechCrunch
A month after committing to help WeWork enter Japan, SoftBank is lending a hand to another global unicorn with its sights set on the country. Today, it announced a tie-in that will bring Ofo’s dock-less bike rental service to Japanese soil.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.03.17Holes close in China’s ’Great Firewall’ as Apple and Amazon snub apps to bypass censors
Los Angeles Times
Moves by business giants Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. to stop people from using censorship-skirting apps in China have renewed questions about the extent to which U.S. companies are willing to work with authorities to operate in the vast but...
Environment
08.02.17
Crowded Beijing Revives Old Plan for New Overflow City
from chinadialogue
On April 1, 2017—April Fool’s Day—the government made a surprise announcement that a satellite city bigger than New York would be built from scratch on the outskirts of Beijing. Official news site Xinhua described Xiong’an New District as the “plan...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.02.17Apple’s Decision to Remove VPN Apps from the App Store in China Explained by Tim Cook
Independent
Tim Cook has responded to criticisms that Apple is quietly removing apps from the App Store for the Chinese government.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.02.17China Chatbot Goes Rogue: ‘Do You Love the Communist Party?’ ‘No’
Financial Times
Two chatbots with decidedly non-socialist characteristics were pulled from one of China’s most popular messaging apps after serving up unpatriotic answers about topics including the South China Sea and the Communist party.
08.01.17
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Urumqi High-Tech Industrial Development Zone Innovation and Entrepreneurship Demonstration Base Work Plan
The Economic and Development Reform Commission of the Urumqi High-Tech Industrial Development Zone
In 2017, the Economic and Development Reform Commission of the Urumqi High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, issued a work plan for the zone. The work plan describes the overall goals of the zone as well as...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.31.17Apple ‘Pulls 60 VPNs from China App Store’
BBC
The BBC understands that as many as 60 VPNs were pulled over the weekend. Apple said it was legally required to remove them because they did not comply with new regulations. It refused to confirm the exact number of apps withdrawn, but did not deny...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.26.17China Agency Targets High-Tech Weapons Development
Financial Times
China has launched a military agency to develop state of the art weapons, the latest step in the country’s ambitions to transform its army into a modern fighting force. The Scientific Research Steering Committee was set up earlier this year but its...
Environment
07.25.17
China Enters the Garden of Eden
from chinadialogue
Built on the site of an abandoned clay pit, the Eden Project has never been short of grand vision.Its iconic biomes house the world’s largest captive rainforest and have become a landmark of the local Cornish countryside. Since opening 16 years ago...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.17.17In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete
New York Times
Almost everyone in major Chinese cities is using a smartphone to pay for just about everything. At restaurants, a waiter will ask if you want to use WeChat or Alipay — the two smartphone payment options — before bringing up cash as a third, remote...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.13.17Apple Opening Data Center in China to Comply with Cybersecurity Law
New York Times
Apple said Wednesday that it would open its first data center in China, joining a parade of technology companies responding to growing global demands to build facilities that store online data closer to customers.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.11.17In China, Shoppers Buy Bad Loans Online with Their Groceries
Bloomberg
Among the sneakers, diapers, and pet food for sale on Taobao, China’s biggest e-commerce platform, is a listing that may take up a little more space in the online shopping basket.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.07.17Chinese Umbrella-Sharing Firm Remains Upbeat Despite Losing Most of Its 300,000 Brollies
South China Morning Post
Just weeks after making 300,000 brollies available to the public via a rental scheme, Sharing E Umbrella announced that most of them had gone missing, news website The Paper reported on Thursday.