New U.S. chip rules, and an 18-year low in foreign investment in China

Here’s what else you need to know about China today:

Top story: Chinese autonomous vehicle companies collectively drove more than 450,000 miles in road tests in California in 2022, but they might be headed into a dead end as American legislators have begun asking if the data collected by self-driving cars might present a national security risk to the U.S. Scroll down for a summary or click through for the whole thing.

U.S. chipmakers have been grounded at home for a decade if they want a slice of a juicy $39 billion federal fund. Companies that receive funding must agree not to expand overseas for at least 10 years, according to new commerce department rules today. The move marks the latest aggressive attempt by the Biden administration to boost its homegrown semiconductor industry and slow China’s access to crucial chipmaking equipment, after it passed the landmark $52 billion CHIPS Act last year.

TikTok must be removed from all U.S. federal government devices within 30 days, in the latest American restriction on the short-video app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.

Foreign investment in China hit an 18-year low in the second half of last year, dropping to $42.5 billion between July and December 2022, compared with over $160 billion in half-year totals between late 2020 and early 2022. Companies are scaling back their Chinese operations or pulling out entirely to trim their exposure to the geopolitical headwinds between the world’s two largest economies.

Fake accounts posing as two Reuters journalists were used to question Chinese activists on several social media platforms, to seek information about activists’ ties to a protest group around the time of the COVID-zero demonstrations late last year. Bādiūcǎo 巴丢草, a well-known Chinese activist and dissident artist based in Australia, first tweeted about one of the impersonations on Saturday. Reuters has been unable to verify the people behind the fake personas.

Russia is ditching the dollar for the yuan, slightly moving the needle in China’s yearslong but mostly frustrated attempt to compete with the U.S. in global finance and commerce. Russia’s growing use of China’s currency is the latest indicator of stronger ties between the new nations, given their shared ideological positions and grievances with the West. “Moscow has jettisoned concerns about giving China too much leverage over its economy,” said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Biotechnology firm BeiGene has reported 2022 annual revenue of 9.56 billion yuan ($1.34 billion), a year-on-year increase of 26.1%, and a net loss of 13.64 billion yuan ($1.96 billion), which is 40% greater than the previous year. In 2019, BeiGene’s zanubrutinib became the first cancer drug developed in China to gain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Also in today’s Business Briefs from the Chinese media: Hong Kong will abolish its COVID-19 mask mandate from March 1, after 945 days; electric car company Li Auto reported 2022 annual revenue of 45.29 billion yuan ($6.50 billion), a year-on-year increase of 67.7%, and a net loss of 2.03 billion yuan ($291.78 million); and Tencent’s foreign investments in 2022 decreased by 77.6% year-on-year.