Links for Wednesday, December 16, 2020

BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Baidu to make electric cars?
  China search giant Baidu considers making own electric vehicles — sources / Reuters
  “Baidu has held preliminary talks — without reaching any decisions — with automakers including Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd (GAC) and China FAW Group Corp Ltd’s Hongqi, on a possible venture.”
• State fund invests in hi-tech printer and chip firm
  Chinese printing technology firm Apexmic bags $488 million strategic investment led by ICF / Caixin (paywall)
  “Its pipeline products — cartridge chips, unismart printer chips — are widely used in defense, aerospace, healthcare, semiconductor, IoT, and internet security, among other sectors.”
• Another huge investment in biotech
  Genetic diagnostics firm Singlera nets $152.6 million in Series B round / Deal Street Asia via Caixin
• Another setback for chipmaking in China 
  China’s top chipmaker slides after co-CEO abruptly quits / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
  “SMIC is trying to reach co-Chief Executive Officer Liang Mong Song [梁孟松 Liáng Mèngsōng] after online media circulated a resignation letter they said originated with the industry veteran.”
  Previously on The China Project:

• July: China’s biggest chip maker set for massive IPO
• October: SMIC shares fall again after warning on U.S. sanctions, How China’s would-be silicon savior became a debt-ridden disappointment

SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT:

• COVID-19 origins and vaccine
  WHO-led team expected in China in January to probe pandemic origins / SCMP (porous paywall)
  China to get 100 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine / Caixin (paywall)

POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS:

• Spying on Africa
  Suspected Chinese hackers stole camera footage from African Union — memo / Reuters
  “Acting on a tip from Japanese cyber researchers, the African Union’s (AU) technology staffers discovered that a group of suspected Chinese hackers had rigged a cluster of servers in the basement of an administrative annex to quietly siphon surveillance videos from across the AU’s sprawling campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.”
• After the Hong Kong national security law
  China charges Hong Kong activists caught fleeing to Taiwan / NYT (porous paywall)
  “Ten Hong Kong activists who were captured at sea while trying to flee to Taiwan in August were charged in mainland China on Wednesday with illegal boundary-crossing offenses that could put some of them behind bars for years.”
• Germany leaves door open for Huawei
  Huawei gets conditional green light in Germany as government approves security bill / WSJ (paywall)
  “The German government on Wednesday moved to allow the use of Huawei’s technology in 5G mobile networks in exchange for assurances by the Chinese vendor about the safety of its gear, in a rebuke to the Trump administration.”
  Comment tweeted by Thorsten Benner of the Global Public Policy Institute:”Before jumping to conclusions on ‘green light for Huawei,’ let’s wait for full text of draft IT law and exact procedure for establishing political trustworthiness of suppliers. Let’s recall Bundestag is not rubberstamping agency and has power to tighten screws.”
• Alibaba, Huawei, and the repression of Uyghurs
  Alibaba’s software can find Uyghur faces, it told China clients / NYT (porous paywall)
  “Alibaba’s website for its cloud computing business showed how clients could use its software to detect the faces of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities within images and videos.”
  Huawei: Uyghur surveillance fears lead PR exec to quit / BBC
  Tommy Zwicky, a PR executive for Huawei in Europe, “has resigned from the Chinese firm over concerns about its role in the surveillance of Muslim Uyghurs. [He] had worked in the company’s Danish office for six months.”
• Think tank says Australia’s media faces “persistent” influence efforts by CCP  
  China’s Communist Party accused of influencing Australia’s Chinese-language media / ABC Australia
• Australia to fight back against Chinese tariffs
  Canberra confirms WTO complaint ‘logical next step’ on China barley tariffs / SCMP (porous paywall)
  Australia to challenge China at the WTO as tensions escalate / Bloomberg (porous paywall)
• The Hollywood Embassy in Beijing?
  Bob Iger, Jeffrey Katzenberg in the mix for Biden ambassadorship roles / Hollywood Reporter
• Iran sanctions on Chinese companies
  U.S. blacklists Chinese, UAE-based companies over sale of Iranian petrochemicals / Reuters via CNA
• “Iron brother” Pakistan
  Nearly half of China’s investments in India’s neighbourhood went to Pakistan / Hindustan Times 

SOCIETY AND CULTURE:

• Can fake news be stopped on China’s propaganda-fueled internet?
  Mike Pompeo’s dad was a Hunanese bandit and other real fake news / Sixth Tone  
  Disinformation rampages “across the Chinese internet partly because of its hermetic environment, which limits readers’ ability to visit foreign websites and find out for themselves what is true or false,” and for a number of other reasons,” says Wèi Xīng 魏星, founder of China Fact Check [in Chinese].
  Wei plans to “create an online platform to foster collaborative relationships between three parties key to stopping fake news: universities, the media, and social media platforms.”