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China Plans to Issue National ID Intermediating Citizens’ Internet Access

The Chinese authorities have announced the “National Network Identity Authentication Public Service Management Measures (Draft for Comments),” jointly issued by the Ministry of Public Security and the National Internet Information Office. According to the document, the “network number” (网号) is composed of letters and numbers and is linked to each person’s individual identity. The “network certificate” (网证) refers to the network authentication credential that carries the “network number.” These pieces of information, issued by authorities at the national level, can verify a natural person’s true identity when they use internet services.

Since 2017, Beijing has mandated a comprehensive real-name registration system for Chinese users of the internet. This enables the CCP to control people’s interactions online, as users are required to use their real identity when registering accounts on any major online platform. Each online platform has thus has collected users’ critical personal information. The authorities state that the recently-announced national “network number” and “network certificate” system will allow users to verify their identity using a government-issued app, meaning that individual commercial internet platforms will no longer need to be responsible for verification of users’ identities.

Although the draft specifies that the deadline for feedback is August 25, the “National Network Identity Authentication Pilot Version” app has already been launched on several mobile app stores in China. Users can now verify their identity and obtain an electronic network identity certificate with a “network number.” This pilot includes 10 government service apps and 71 internet apps, including Taobao, WeChat, and Xiaohongshu.

Critics pointed out that there is no legal basis for the government to require people to use “real name” to access Internet, and that requiring the use of a national-level identity will make it easier for authorities to completely block a person from using the internet.

Source: BBC, August 6, 2024
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-69244432

Briefings | | |   @CS Information/Technology Social Stability

Lianhe Zaobao: China Plans to Issue Unified Internet IDs to Netizens

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that the Chinese government plans to issue unified internet ID numbers and certificates to members of the Chinese public in order to verify the true identity of users. This raised concerns over control of speech.

China’s Ministry of Public Security and the Chinese Cyberspace Administration just released a document titled “National Internet Identity Authentication Public Service Management Measures (Draft for Comments).” According to the document, the purpose of the internet ID is “to strengthen the protection of people’s personal information.”

Some scholars said that the implementation of internet identification numbers and certificates will help avoid information leakage, reduce network violence, and combat telecommunications fraud. Skeptics expressed the belief that this is yet another way for the authorities to tighten control over speech. Some netizens commented that “in the future, if the government wants to block anyone, it only needs to block an online ID to ban the user across the entire network. Isn’t it scary?”

China has fully implemented an online real-name system since 2017. There have been many suspected database leaks. Some people found that their real personal information registered with Chinese social media platforms had been leaked to the dark web.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, July 29, 2024
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/china/story20240729-4389461

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics Information/Technology Social Stability

US House Bans Use of All ByteDance Apps on Staffer Devices, Extending Policy Beyond TikTok

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that, according to a memo sent to staff by the U.S. House of Representatives on July 30, all apps from TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance will be banned from all House staffers’ devices in two weeks. ByteDance’s flagship product, TikTok, has been banned from official U.S. government devices since 2023. Now, the policy will be extended to ByteDance’s other products, including Lemon8, Capcut, Lark and Hypic.

The Congressional Cybersecurity Office will follow up with staff, asking them to remove any ByteDance apps on official devices. The memo explains that all ByteDance products will be blocked and removed from House-managed devices, starting with mobile devices.

The move comes after the Senate approved a House measure in April that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok in the U.S. lest the app be banned from Google’s and Apple’s app stores. President Biden later signed the measure into law. ByteDance has vowed to fight the bill in court. Oral arguments on a potential injunction against the new law will be held on September 16.

Source: NetEase, July 31, 2024
https://www.163.com/dy/article/J8DJ2PHN0511A6N9.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

China Tests Robotaxis in 20 Cities

Similar to the pilot test of General Motor’s Cruise and Alphabet’s Waymo in San Francisco and Pheonix within the U.S., China now allowing domestic companies to test driverless taxis. Recently, China approved an initial 20 pilot cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, and Wuhan, for self-driving tests. These cities have already allowed driverless taxi operators to test vehicles in suburban areas.

Starting in March, Apollo Go, one of China’s largest autonomous taxi companies under Baidu, began offering 24-hour driverless car services in some areas of Wuhan City, Hubei Province. It has more than 500 autonomous taxis in operation, which will increase to 1,000 by the end of the year. In fact, this test started in 2022.

Baidu CEO Robin Li told investors in May that over 70 percent of Apollo Go’s driverless taxi rides in April were fully autonomous. According to netizen’s posting, Baidu has human drivers in a service center. Using high-bandwidth, low-latency 5G networks, these “remote safety drivers” observe the 360-degree conditions around the cars from a screen array and can manually drive the unmanned vehicles using controllers such as steering wheels, gear sticks, and pedals. China allows the ratio of remote safety drivers to vehicles to be 1:3.

Sources:
1. VOA, July 11, 2024
https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-s-robotaxi-push-sparks-concerns-about-job-security-for-drivers–20240711/7693880.html
2. Guancha.cn, July 13, 2024
https://www.guancha.cn/economy/2024_07_13_741368.shtml

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

China Develops Solar-Powered Micro-Drone

Solar power is a key technology for continuous drone flight. The technology to power large drones exists, but powering micro-drones via solar panels has been a challenge. Xinhua reported that a research team from Beihang University (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) has successfully developed a solar-powered micro-drone weighing only 4.21 grams, capable of sustained flight under natural sunlight. The team created a new electrostatic drive scheme and developed a micro electrostatic motor with low rotational speed, low heat generation, and high efficiency. They also built an ultra-lightweight high-voltage power converter weighing only 1.13 grams, which boosts the voltage generated by solar cells from around 4.5 volts to 9000 volts, creating an electrostatic system.

Source: Xinhua, July 18, 2024
https://app.xinhuanet.com/news/article.html?articleId=d1b63946dc0ec93f9132f654cf97be27

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Lianhe Zaobao: Germany Starts Removing Huawei and ZTE 5G Components

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that the German government has imposed a ban on Chinese telecom equipment giants on national security grounds and will remove Huawei and ZTE components from Germany’s 5G network in two phases over the next five years. The German Interior Ministry negotiated an agreement with three domestic telecom providers operating 5G networks to protect Germany’s critical infrastructure from Chinese influence. This is Berlin’s latest move to reduce economic dependence on Beijing, a dependence which some fear could leave Germany vulnerable.

The three domestic German telecom operators are Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica Deutschland. According to their agreement with the German government, these telecom operators will remove key components of Huawei and ZTE Technologies from the 5G core network by the end of 2026 and will replace all components of Huawei and ZTE Technologies in the 5G network access and transmission infrastructure by the end of 2029.

The German government has informed Beijing about the agreement and does not expect retaliation for the move. Other European countries including the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania have already imposed bans on components from Huawei and ZTE. The United States began to impose restrictions on the use of Huawei equipment as early as 2019. Germany is considered to have lagged behind in implementing EU 5G network security measures.

The Chinese Embassy in Germany criticized Germany’s move on its official website, saying “the so-called cyber security risks are just an excuse.”

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, July 12, 2024
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/china/story20240712-4249314

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Information/Technology

UDN: Amazon E-Book Store Officially Withdraws from China

United Daily News (UDN), one of the primary Taiwanese news groups, recently reported that, Amazon China announced on its official website on June 30 that the Kindle China e-book store has ceased operations on June 30, 2023, and will stop cloud download services on June 30, 2024. After that, undownloaded e-books will not be available for download. Already downloaded e-books will remain readable on the local Kindle device. Kindle customer service will also remain only until June 30, 2024. After the news of Kindle’s complete withdrawal from the Chinese market came out, many Mainland China netizens expressed regrets on “yet another foreign investor leaves China.”

Amazon initially launched Kindle in 2007, setting off a global e-book reading craze. Kindle officially entered the Mainland Chinese market in June 2013. In 2018, the sales of Kindle Readers in China exceeded one million. Amazon announced in 2022 that its e-book business will withdraw from the Chinese Mainland market in three phases.

Source: UDN, July 1, 2024
https://money.udn.com/money/story/5603/8065269

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

CNA: Chinese AI Companies Restricting Services Due to Chip Shortage

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that, affected by the U.S. chip export ban, Chinese technology companies have reported chip shortages leading to insufficient computing power. These companies are restricting artificial intelligence (AI) related services. This reliance on chip imports may put China’s technology industry at a disadvantage in the AI competition. China’s semiconductor industry may have found a way to produce advanced chips for 5G smartphones, but it has yet to make chips powerful enough to run AI applications. For example, in order to avoid insufficient computing power, China’s short video and live broadcast platform Kwai had to limit the number of users to test its text-generated video model Kling. Kwai uses Nvidia’s A800 chips to train it AI models. AI startup Moonshot that was recently valued at US$3 billion, also warned its users of their popular chatbot that their computing power may be insufficient during peak hours. Companies such as Alibaba, Baidu and ByteDance that offer large-scale language model applications are telling their enterprise customers who need heavy use to wait in line. All above-mentioned companies declined to comment on this matter.

Source: CNA, June 28, 2024
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aopl/202406280418.aspx

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations