5G Technology

Is China emerging from the chip chokehold with Huawei's Mate 60 Pro smartphone?

Amid the China-US tech war, US sanctions dealt a great blow to Huawei's growth and development. However, the company's launch of a new, apparently 5G, phone was announced during US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo's visit to China. Is it sending a message to the US that China's technological development cannot be stopped? Lianhe Zaobao associate editor Han Yong Hong gives her take on the issue.

Han Yong Hong

Biden's tech investment ban: What's at stake for China?

The US's latest round of investment restrictions on China hits the country where it hurts - access to innovation ecosystems. Will China develop its own ecosystems fast enough? Researcher Ding Ke weighs in on the issue.

Ding Ke

Taiwan lacks young passionate workers in semiconductor industry

Taiwan's semiconductor sector is booming, but the long hours and tough work is driving away the younger generation, who are opting for careers that provide work-life balance. How can the Taiwan government and tech enterprises attract new blood into this industry that is critical to Taiwan's economic growth?

Lee Chee Yang

China's 5G ambitions undiminished by pandemic and sanctions

While China has accelerated its push to build the infrastructure and to promote 5G among telcos and subscribers, it still faces a shortage of exciting new 5G applications that will draw in a constant stream of consumers or find wider industrial use. Amid a hostile external environment, it also faces some challenges in rolling out 5G and other advanced digital technologies through the Digital Silk Road. Nonetheless, it plans to go full steam ahead.

Erik Baark

Metaverse: What is it and who's in control?

The phrase "metaverse" has been bandied about but what exactly is it and how far along is the project? Academic James Pang and entrepreneur Liang Xinjun explain that the implications of this development are larger than most think. The metaverse is not so much a sub-world to enter into on the side but the integration of the real and virtual worlds and economic systems, essentially creating a new world with new governance structures and norms. US and Chinese firms are, of course, racing to get a big slice of the future.

James Pang

Huawei: China's Tesla challenger in the making?

Huawei has long denied that it will enter the auto manufacturing industry. Instead, the company has emphasised its partnership with automakers to build autonomous driving technology. However, since the launch of a luxury electric SUV, the M5, the market has begun speculating whether Huawei's stance on the auto business has changed.

Caixin Global

Metaverse: A chance to build a better world

Academic Pei Sai Fan says that one should dream big with the metaverse and not only see it as a new avenue of making money. By creating a new virtual universe from scratch, we can make good use of the blockchain-based metaverse to promote an equitable, more transparent and more inclusive rules-based international digital currency and financial system and enhance the global governance system to deal with issues facing all countries. This would require a global approach and China is well placed technologically to actively participate and lead the effort with like-minded nations in creating such a metaverse. It would be a pity if countries squandered such an opportunity to truly build a better world for all mankind.

Pei Sai Fan

China's cloud war: Huawei leading the three-cornered fight? [Part 1]

In recent years and since the pandemic led to the surge in live streaming, e-learning and other online activities, the demand for cloud computing and related services has increased significantly. Chinese companies led by frontrunners Huawei, Tencent and Alibaba are launching into all-out competition in the cloud services sector. In particular, Huawei Cloud experienced a surge in year-on-year earnings of 168%, despite US sanctions. Huawei Cloud is also aiming to clinch the top spot in the sector, erstwhile occupied by Alibaba Cloud. Caixin journalist Zhang Erchi takes a deep dive into the issue to get a sense of who's really leading the fight. In part one of the story, he focuses on Huawei.

Caixin Global

Didi COO and family called 'traitors': Chinese tech entrepreneurs now public enemies on social media?

If being removed from app stores is not enough, ride-hailing giant Didi is making the headlines for another debacle. COO Jean Liu; her father, Lenovo founder Liu Chuanzhi; and her grandfather, the late patent lawyer Liu Gushu, are being vilified on Weibo for alleged misdeeds and being "traitors to the country". Amid tense US-China relations and domestic nationalism in overdrive, will internet giants like Didi be easy targets and buckle under the pressure? Zaobao's China Desk files this report based on various Chinese media sources.

China Desk, Lianhe Zaobao

A former Singapore journalist remembers a very different China in the 1980s

Former journalist Teo Han Wue chuckles as he recalls his first assignment in China covering an international Confucianism conference in Qufu, Confucius' hometown in Shandong. Telecommunications facilities then were a far cry from the advances in 5G or AI that China enjoys now. Even sending a facsimile was a comedy of errors.

Teo Han Wue

Fukushima wastewater: Why China is protesting while the US gives the nod

Japan's neighbours, China the most vociferous among them, have protested against Japan's decision to dump contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean in two years' time. On the other hand, Western countries have been accused of making minimal noise on account that it's Japan. Is this another case of geopolitics politicising the situation? Would the world have reacted differently if it were China doing the dumping?

Yang Danxu

Has China surpassed the US in the 5G race?

In the development of 1G to 4G technology, the US, Europe and Japan took turns to dominate. When it comes to 5G, China says that it has built the largest 5G network globally with other 718,000 5G base stations throughout the country, which is at least ten times the network in the US. China is also strong in 5G chip design and is making inroads in setting global standards for wireless networks. Is China getting a leg up in the tech race?

James Pang