Nuclear summer is coming – China’s latest business and technology news

Many countries reevaluated plans for nuclear power after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, but on MacroPolo, Damien Ma says that in China, “the setback was temporary, as the government soon decided to push forward with its nuclear power strategy.”

• China is the largest nuclear market in the world, “with nearly as many plants under construction as the next four markets combined.”
• Because of the size and speed of nuclear power development, “China could well set the industry and technology standards on nuclear power, especially as it eagerly eyes the export market.”
• Reuters reports that China’s first offshore nuclear reactor will soon be completed, quoting an engineer with the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), who said “the technology was ‘mature’ and the first demonstration project would be deployed soon at drilling platforms in northern China’s Bohai Sea.”

Meanwhile, efforts to shut down polluting industries and power plants continue:

• Reuters says that “Tangshan, China’s top steelmaking city, plans to temporarily halve its iron production capacity from mid-November until mid-March” as part of an effort to ameliorate winter smog. Separately, Reuters notes that the city will place restrictions on personal driving, and aims to have 70 percent of its public transportation fleet consist of clean energy vehicles by the end of 2020.
• China will ban sales of diesel with sulfur content higher than 10 parts per millions (ppm), “typically used by tractors and ships,” starting November 1 as part of pollution crackdown efforts, according to Reuters.
• Sixth Tone reports on a program in northern China to replace the coal burning stoves many rural families use with gas.

—Jeremy Goldkorn

• Insider trading
  US charges founder of China state-backed fund with insider trading / Financial Times (paywall)
  “In an indictment filed in New York federal court, the U.S. justice department alleged Benjamin Chow, founder of Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, conspired to commit securities fraud… Canyon Bridge was started only last year, with direct backing from China Reform Holdings, a state investment fund. It came under fire after an attempted $1.3bn buyout of Lattice, which would have been the largest acquisition of a U.S. microchip company by a Chinese state-backed firm.”
  Chinese scientist at MIT pleads guilty to insider trading, after Googling ‘insider trading’ / SCMP
• Drones
  China tests new spy drones in near space ‘death zone’ / SCMP
  Could drone that can deliver cargo to islets in South China Sea secure presence in disputed waters? / SCMP
• Mobile payments and artificial intelligence
  China’s AI revolution advances, one mobile payment at a time / MacroPolo
• Tencent
  Pony Ma takes aim at competition with open letter days before China’s largest shopping spree / TechNode
• Google
  Google has a new plan for china (and it’s not about search) / Bloomberg
• Apple
  Ahead of iPhone X launch, China vendors cut prices of iPhone 8 models / Reuters
• Cryptocurrencies
  No bit player: China’s outsized role in cryptocurrency world expected to continue despite its bans / Caixin