US-China tech war

A US judge on Sunday ordered the Trump administration to delay its ban of the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok, temporarily suspending a restriction set to go into effect on Sunday night. On August 6, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening to ban TikTok and WeChat, a Chinese-owned messaging app. The government said the companies pose a national security risk and could be required to turn over users’ personal data to Beijing.  The ruling comes within a week of a federal judge in California ruling on September 19 that the US government failed to provide enough evidence that WeChat posed enough of a security threat to justify a proposed ban. TikTok is a wildly popular s

Huawei Technologies, currently the world’s biggest smartphone maker, said it is preparing to switch from Google’s widely-used Android operating system to its own Harmony OS.  It is a pivotal move for the world’s largest smartphone maker as it seeks to remain competitive after the US moved to blocked its access to US-origin technology. In May last year, Huawei’s addition to the US entity list barred Google from providing technical support for new Huawei phone models using Android. It effectively cuts Huawei off from Google-made apps like the Gmail, Google Drive and the Play app store.  The Android operating system powers the millions of smartphones that the Shenzhen-based company ships each

Every Tuesday and Thursday, China Trends takes the pulse of the Chinese social media to keep you in the loop of what the world’s biggest internet population is talking about. Sticking it to the man A top Chinese semiconductor manufacturer has been accused at home of “kowtowing” to the American government in an effort to avoid being punished by the United States. Angry comments have flooded Chinese social media criticizing the Chinese chip maker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), for “submitting” to US pressure, after the company vowed to “clarify any misunderstanding” with the Trump administration a day after Reuters reported that the US was considering sanctionin

After the United States further tightened its restrictions on Chinese telecoms maker Huawei on Monday, analysts had only one word to describe the situation facing the company: impossible. In what has become a major battleground in the growing US-China tech rivalry, the Trump administration – which claims Huawei products could be used to facilitate spying by the Chinese government – has blacklisted a further 38 Huawei affiliates from buying US products. It aims to strangle the Chinese company by cutting off its ability to buy semiconductors produced using American technology. Since May, foreign chip makers using US technology have been required to apply for a license to sell chips to Huawei.

ByteDance has been forced into a corner by the Trump administration, which now says it must sell the US version of its global short video hit TikTok within 90 days if the app wants to stay in business. Analysts say pulling off a sale is easier said than done due to a complex array of legal and technical obstacles. Plus, TikTok, and Bytedance, have too much at stake in the US market to simply leave.  “There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,” Trump said in the order announced on Friday. Trump originally signed an executive order on August 6 that would prohibit certain transactio

US President Donald Trump has ordered fresh restrictions on Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat as tech companies become a focal point of the increasingly bitter stand-off between Beijing and Washington. The Trump administration announced executive orders on Thursday evening banning “to the extent permitted under applicable law, any transaction” with TikTok owner ByteDance, or concerning WeChat via its parent company Tencent, taking effect in 45 days. The executive orders said that the spread of Chinese-owned mobile apps threatened “the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States,” and that data collection by WeChat and TikTok threatened to “allow the Chinese Communis

The United States should prepare for an “ascendant” Communist-led China, according to a report released by Rand Corporation, the US government-funded think tank. The compilers of China’s Grand Strategy: Trends, Trajectories and Long-Term Competition examined how successful the Chinese Communist Party was likely to be in achieving the goals it has set for the country by 2050. They considered four possible futures in which China is “triumphant” (having achieved all of its goals), “ascendant” (having achieved some), “stagnant” (having failed in its ambitions) or “imploding” (the regime is under threat). Compiled for the US military and published last week, the report concluded that “ascendant”

Americans’ negative views toward China have reached a “new historic high” amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report published by the Pew Research Center on Thursday. “Around three-quarters (73%) of Americans have an unfavorable view of China today – the most negative reading in the 15 years that Pew Research Center has been measuring these views,” wrote the authors of the report, Laura Silver, Kat Devlin and Christine Huang. “The percentage who say they have a very unfavorable view of China is also at a record high of 42%, having nearly doubled since the spring of 2019, when 23% said the same.” Pew’s survey is the latest piece of evidence in an impossible-to-miss trend: distrust

When senior Chinese and American diplomats met in Hawaii last month, for the first time in nearly a year, the stakes were unusually high amid fears their acrimonious tensions are drifting imperceptibly towards war. The secret meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Yang Jiechi, the top diplomatic aide to Chinese President Xi Jinping, took place at Pearl Harbor. The military base was the scene of a pivotal moment for the US and world history when it was bombed by the Japanese nearly 80 years ago. The two superpowers are decoupling their economic and technological cooperation amid an unfolding new Cold War. Beijing and Washington have engaged in a global blame-game over the deadl

As US-China relations hit new lows, Washington is redoubling efforts to address a major Achilles’ heel: its dependence on Beijing for rare earth elements – essential materials in various hi-tech products from smartphones and electric car batteries to Javelin missiles and F-35 fighters. Republican senator Ted Cruz recently introduced a bill to spur US production of critical minerals, one of several bills before Congress prompted by rising concern that China could use this as leverage. “It’s making people in Washington wake up and say this is not sustainable,” said Martijn Rasser, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “If China really is willing to restrict exports, we’re in for