Conversation

03.22.22

Will China Set Global Tech Standards?

Graham Webster, Helen Toner & more
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 China’s...

Viewpoint

02.28.22

In Xinjiang’s Tech Incubators, Innovation Is Inseparable from Repression

Jessica Batke
Innovation and its benefits to society in Xinjiang have come to encompass both the use of big data to enhance cross-border trade and the use of big data to monitor people inside their own homes. Official documents promoting innovation in Xinjiang...

Conversation

10.20.21

Tightening Up

Xibai Xu, Jude Blanchette & more
In what many observers have termed a “regulatory crackdown,” a wave of new legal restrictions and bans on business, technology, and entertainment has broken across China over the past several months, with what appears to be escalating velocity and...

Viewpoint

07.10.21

Why China Is Going After Its Tech Giants

Charles Mok
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 ordered...

Features

02.04.20

Human Resources Both Drive and Limit China’s Push for Automation

Muyi Xiao from New America
For China’s government planners, one of the most important roles for artificial intelligence (AI) and automation is addressing looming challenges in the labor market. After nearly four decades of the one-child policy, China’s aging population is...

Books

12.18.19

Tech Titans of China

Rebecca A. Fannin
Nicholas Brealey Publishing: The rise of China’s tech companies and intense competition from the sector is just beginning. This will present an ongoing management and strategy challenge for companies for many years to come. Tech Titans of China is the go-to guide for companies (and those interested in competition from China) seeking to understand China’s grand tech ambitions, who the players are, and what their strategy is.Featuring detailed profiles of the Chinese tech companies making waves, the tech sectors that matter most in China’s grab for super power status, and predictions for China’s tech dominance in just 10 years.{chop} Related Reading:“The Inside Story of China’s Stunning Rise from Tech Imitator to Innovator,” Marcus Baram, Fast Company, September 5, 2019

Made in China 2025

Paul Haenle & Paul Triolo from Carnegie China
China’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...

In China’s Booming Tech Scene, Women Battle Sexism and Conservative Values

Cate Cadell, Adam Jourdan
Reuters
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

Evelyn Cheng
CNBC
Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a speech this week that blockchain — the technology underlying bitcoin — has “breakthrough” applications.

U.S.and China Clash over 'Technology Transfer' at WTO

Tom Miles
Reuters
Chinese and U.S. envoys sparred over Trump’s claims that China steals American ideas.

The AI Arms Race: China and US Compete to Dominate Big Data

Louise Lucas and Richard Waters
Financial Times
Algorithms trained on mountains of Chinese data may soon be making decisions that deeply affect the lives of people in the US.

Former Google China Head Targets AI Opportunities with New $900M Sinovation Fund

Jon Russell
TechCrunch
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.

China’s Children Are Its Secret Weapon in the Global AI Arms Race

Alex Beard
Wired
China wants to be the world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030. To get there, it’s reinventing the way children are taught.

Chinese Man Caught by Facial Recognition at Pop Concert

BBC
BBC
Chinese police have used facial recognition technology to locate and arrest a man who was among a crowd of 60,000 concert goers.

Facial Recognition in China Is Big Business as Local Governments Boost Surveillance

Rob Schmitz
NPR
Dozens of cameras meet visitors to the Beijing headquarters of SenseTime, China’s largest artificial intelligence company. One of them determines whether the door will open for you; another tracks your movements.

The Battle for Digital Supremacy

The Economist
Economist
“DESIGNED by Apple in California. Assembled in China”. For the past decade the words embossed on the back of iPhones have served as shorthand for the technological bargain between the world’s two biggest economies: America supplies the brains and...

U.S. Firms in China Fear Fallout from Tit-For-Tat Trade War

Wendy Wu
South China Morning Post
American business group says Beijing could target sectors to send a political message across the Pacific.

China Harnesses Big Data to Buttress the Power of the State

James Kynge
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...

China Is Stumbling Hard at Acquiring the High-Tech Chip Companies It Wants So Badly

Josh Horwitz
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.

Conversation

08.03.17

As China Reins in Capital, What Next for Global Trade?

Yu Zhou & Peter Knaack
China’s Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping, are tightening controls on overseas spending by the country’s biggest companies and their highly visible billionaire CEOs. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Xi personally signed off on...
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...

China Focus: China’s New High-Speed Train Debuts on Beijing-Shanghai Route

Xinhua
China’s next generation bullet train, “Fuxing,” ran for the first time on the Beijing-Shanghai line on Monday. CR400AF departed Beijing South Station at 11:05 a.m. for Shanghai, while, at exactly the same time, CR400BF left Shanghai Hongqiao Station...

China Propels Rise of Electric Ultra-High-Performance Cars

New York Times
Want an insanely fast ride with zero emissions? Startup NIO has the car: An electric two-seater with muscular European lines and a top speed of 195 miles per hour (313 kilometers per hour). The catch: The EP9 costs nearly $1.5 million. NIO, a...

China’s Answer to Airbus, Boeing Due to Take off on Friday

Daniel Ren
South China Morning Post
After a three year delay the long-awaited maiden flight of China’s 158-seat C919 passenger aircraft is scheduled for Friday, the latest step by the country to break the duopoly of Western giants Airbus and Boeing.

China Tech Investment Flying under the Radar, Pentagon Warns

New York Times
China is investing in Silicon Valley start-ups with military applications at such a rapid rate that the United States government needs tougher controls to stem the transfer of some of America’s most promising technologies, a Pentagon report says.

How China Is Preparing for Cyberwar

Adam Segal
Christian Science Monitor
The U.S. and China have made progress on curbing commercial cyberespionage. Now, the global powers need to set limits when it comes to digital warfare.

China’s Plan to Build Its Own High-Tech Industries Worries Western Businesses

Keith Bradsher and Paul Mozur
New York Times
China has charted out a $300 billion plan to become nearly self-sufficient by 2025 in a range of important industries, from planes to computer chips to electric cars, as it looks to kick-start its next stage of economic development. 

The Biggest Loser If Trump Ignites a Trade War with China

Benjamin Carlson
CNBC
There’s at least one big loser if President Donald J. Trump ignites a trade war with China: Taiwan. The island democracy has a heavily export-dependent economy enmeshed in billions of dollars in U.S. and China trade.

Conversation

02.16.17

Can China Become a Leader of Innovation?

Jost Wübbeke, Yu Zhou & more
China’s ambitious high-tech strategy is raising alarm in industrialized nations. From American and South Korean chipmakers to German car and machine manufacturers, some industry leaders expect the imminent arrival of strong Chinese competitors. Does...

Plan for $10 Billion Chip Plant Shows China’s Growing Pull

Paul Mozur
New York Times
On Friday, the California-based chip maker GlobalFoundries announced a $10 billion project in China, showing how the center of gravity continues to shift across the Pacific.

China’s Intelligent Weaponry Gets Smarter

John Markoff and Matthew Rosenberg
New York Times
The Pentagon’s plan to bring A.I. to the military is taking shape as Chinese researchers assert themselves in the nascent technology field.

Books

01.23.17

China as an Innovation Nation

Edited by Yu Zhou, William Lazonick, and Yifei Sun
This volume assesses China’s transition to innovation-nation status in terms of social conditions, industry characteristics, and economic impacts over the past three decades, also providing insights into future developments.Defining innovation as the process that generates a higher quality, lower cost product than was previously available, the introductory chapter conceptualizes the theory of an innovation nation and the lessons from Japan and the United States. It outlines the key governance, employment, and investment institutions that China must build for such transition to occur, and examines China’s challenges and strategies to innovate in the era of global production systems. Two succeeding chapters explain the evolving roles of the Chinese state in innovation, and the new landscape of venture capital finance. The remaining chapters provide studies of major industries, which contain analyses of the evolving roles of investment by government agencies and business interests in the process. Included in these studies are traditional industries such as mechanical engineering, railroads, and automobiles; rapidly evolving and internationally highly integrated industries such as information-and-communication-technology (ICT); and newly emerging sectors such as wind and solar energy.Written by leading academics in the field, studies in this volume reveal Chinese innovation as diverse across industries and enterprises and fluid over time. In each sector, we observe continued co-evolution of state policy, market demand, and technology development. The strategies and structures of individual companies and industrial ecosystems are changing rapidly. The sum total of the studies is a great step forward in our understanding of the industrial foundations of China’s attempt to become an innovation nation. —Oxford University Press{chop}

Chinese Access to U.S. Semiconductor Industry May Be Curbed

Ian Talley
Wall Street Journal
The Obama administration is finalizing a study that could lead to restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S. semiconductor sector.

As China Pivots, Trump Risks Fighting an Old War

Andrew Browne
Wall Street Journal
Incoming U.S. administration highlights trade retaliation as Beijing shifts to a form of high-tech protectionism

After 1,000 Year Slumber, China Vows to Invent Again

Eva Dou
Wall Street Journal
Beijing spends billions on moonshot projects, hoping to shake off its reputation as a copycat economy and curb dependence on foreign powers

Silicon Valley’s Culture, Not Its Companies, Dominates in China

Paul Mozur
New York Times
Looking to break from a rigid workplace culture, Silicon Valley has captured the minds of China’s young entrepreneurs and investors

Microsoft, Intel, IBM Push Back on China Cybersecurity Rules

Eva Dou
Wall Street Journal
Comments offer rare glimpse at tussle between Beijing and U.S. tech companies

Reports

11.30.16

Made in China 2025

Jost Wübbeke, Mirjam Meissner, Max J. Zenglein, Jaqueline Ives, and Björn Conrad
Jost Wübbeke & Mirjam Meissner
Mercator Institute for China Studies
This report analyses China’s ambitious plan to build one of the world’s most advanced and competitive economies with the help of innovative manufacturing technologies (“smart manufacturing”). China’s industrial master plan “Made in China 2025” aims...

China’s Controversial, Out-Sized Role in Africa’s Digital Revolution

Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more
Africa is home to one of the fastest growing technology markets in the world. In fact, more African households own a mobile phone than have reliable electricity or clean water. The combination of a young population, quickly growing economies, and...

Germany Inc. Is Not for Sale to China, Berlin Says

Emily Tamkin
Foreign Policy
And Beijing has made clear that it has “great concern” over this turn of events

Made in China

Bruce McKern
Quartz
Once known for cheap knockoffs, Chinese companies are now the world’s innovators

Apple Opening a $45 Million Research Hub in China to Develop Hardware, ‘Advanced’ Tech

Arjun Kharpal
CNBC
The center will be located in Beijing's version of Silicon Valley, the Zhongguancun Science Park

Apple Raises Bet on China as It Faces Scrutiny From Beijing

Paul Mozur and Mike Isaac
New York Times
Apple invests $1 billion in a Chinese ride-hailing app to show the Chinese government it is interested in supporting local business.

Xi Jinping’s Upcoming Seattle Tour— Tech, Tech, And More Tech

Josh Horwitz
Quartz
His visit to the White House looks to be preceded by a pit stop in Seattle.

Caixin Media

09.01.15

Quantum Computing and Alibaba’s Leap of Faith

Building a quantum computer that processes data at speeds trillions of times faster than the world’s fastest computer, China’s supercomputer Tianhe-2, is the goal of a potentially game-changing venture launched by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and the...

China’s Troubling Robot Revolution

Martin Ford
New York Times
China may face a staggering challenge as it attempts to adapt to the realities of a new age.

HP Sells Control of China Units for $2.3 Billion to Tsinghua

Tony Robinson
Bloomberg
HP Sells Control of China Units for $2.3 Billion to Tsinghua http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-21/hp-says-tsinghua-holdings-to-buy-control-of-chinese-asset

This American VC Thinks He’s Getting Out of China Just in Time

Bloomberg
The 52-year-old began venture investing in China in 2009 and ended up putting money into 50 startups.

China is Still Rising, Just More Slowly

Hu Angang
Foreign Affairs
Embracing China's "new normal" or why the economy Is still 
on track.

Stiffer Bank-Technology Rules Loom in China

Eva Dou and Gillian Wong
Wall Street Journal
Beijing presses for secure and controllable systems; suppliers fear intrusive measures. 

China Says Tech Firms Have Nothing to Fear From Anti-terror Law

Paul Carsten and Gerry Shih
Reuters
Obama this week said China would have to change the draft law if it were "to do business with the United States".

Reports

04.01.14

High Tech: The Next Wave of Chinese Investment in America

Thilo Hanemann and Daniel H. Rosen
Asia Society
In this report, we explore the advent of Chinese investment in U.S. high-tech sectors in order to provide an objective starting point for debate about this nascent trend. We use a unique dataset on Chinese FDI transactions in the United States to...