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BBC Chinese: China’s Taishan Nuclear Power Plant Shut Down for Inspection

The BBC Chinese Edition recently reported that the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) announced on July 30 that “a small amount of fuel damage” occurred in Unit One of the Guangdong Taishan Nuclear Power Plant. The company decided to shut down the unit for inspection to identify the cause of the fuel damage and to replace the damaged parts. The Guangdong Taishan Nuclear Power Plant has the largest single-unit nuclear capacity in the world. In mid-June, the outside world questioned the safety of the plant. US media revealed that Framatome, the French supplier of the Taishan Plant,  asked the US Department of Energy for help, describing the Taishan Plant as facing “an imminent radiological threat.” At that time, CGN called the reports “rumor” and “hype” of the Western media. CGN’s latest announcement now says some small fuel damage does exist, but it was within the allowable range of the specifications. Framatome was once a subsidiary of Areva and was resold to EDF (Électricité de France) in 2009. In 2015, the French regulatory authorities found quality problems in Areva components. That brought the construction of three nuclear power plants in China, France, and Finland to a halt. The China Taishan Plant resumed construction later, but the plants in France and Finland remain delayed.

Source: BBC Chinese, July 31, 2021
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-58037951

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology Social Stability

LTN: Washington Pressured Netherlands to Ban Selling Lithography Systems to China

Major Taiwanese news network Liberty Times Network (LTN) recently reported that the U.S. Biden administration is putting pressure on the Netherlands not to sell lithography systems to Chinese semiconductor companies. The Netherlands’ ASML is the world’s top lithography systems manufacturer primarily for machines to produce computer chips. Even though China urged ASML to sell its EUV lithography system, the Dutch government still retained the export license of ASML EUV. So far, not even one has fallen into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, even though ASML’s CEO Peter Wennink said that export restrictions may backfire. Less than a month after Biden took office, his national security advisor Jacob Sullivan and his Dutch counterparts discussed the “close cooperation” between the two countries on advanced technologies. Sullivan’s top priority is to continue to restrict ASML’s business with China. The Chinese communists hoped to provide domestic chipmakers with US$150 million EUV lithography systems so that Huawei and other Chinese semiconductor companies can reduce their dependence on foreign suppliers.

Source: LTN, July 17, 2021
https://ec.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/3607159

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

One-Third of New Academic Degrees in Chinese Universities Are in AI

China’s Ministry of Education recently announced a list of new majors (in 2021) to be included in the catalog of undergraduate programs in higher education institutions. Among the 37 new majors (departments), engineering related programs occupy the lion’s share. About one third of the new majors are in AI and electronic engineering, including intelligent surveillance engineering, intelligent mining engineering and quantum information science.

Since the end of 2020, the president of China, Xi Jinping, has repeatedly stressed the need to strengthen national science and technology forces, to enhance the capabilities of controlling the industrial supply chain and to solve the problem of “being strangled” in key technologies.

In addition to AI, China is also trying to accelerate the development of its own semiconductor industrial talents. 2020 saw the establishment of an Integrated Circuits University in Nanjing, also known as the first “chip university” in China. In early 2021, Anhui University is also setting up an IC (integrated circuit) college. The Shenzhen University of Technology in Guangdong Province established the School of Integrated Circuits in collaboration with China’s leading semiconductor company SMIC in June of this year.

Source: Radio Free Asia, June 30, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/5-06302021102334.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

NASA Administrator: Support Permanent Exclusion of China from International Space Station

Global Times recently reported that, on June 23, at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that he supported the permanent “Wolf Clause” that excludes China from participating in the International Space Station. This means that China will never be allowed to participate in the Space Station’s research. Nelsen testified categorically that “America should be number one” in space technology. He also asked the House Science, Space and Technology Committee for a larger budget in order to produce greater results. In April 2011, on the grounds of so-called “national security,” the U.S. Congress approved the “Wolf Clause,” which banned any joint scientific research activities between China and the United States that were related to NASA or which the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy coordinated. With the recent space achievements China had, the EU and the U.S. started to worry. The European Space Agency (ESA) has already announced its 15 billion Euro new space program. The U.S. Biden administration just rushed a $24.8 billion 2022 NASA budget to Congress. Nelson seems to be familiar with the process of pumping more money into the Trump’s Artemis Program: play the “Watch the Chinese” card.

Source: Global Times, June 25, 2021
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3UGUbf5IV1ks2OWVLcfHhg

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

China Strictly Bans Bitcoin Mining

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that the Chinese central government required a ban on bitcoin mining across all provinces. Some provinces are leading the implementation of the policy. Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Yunnan and Sichuan issued local detailed requirements to power suppliers to cut off power to the miners. So far, large scale bitcoin mining has been brought to a full halt in China. Surprisingly, at the same time, some U.S. states are welcoming bitcoin miners. At the moment, there are at least five bitcoin mining companies being publicly traded in U.S. capital markets. For example, this year Marathon Digital Holdings acquired the Hardin Power Station in Montana to supply power for bitcoin mining. Emiliano Grodski, CEO of Bitfarms, said that, thanks to the Chinese government’s intervention, his company is seeing the most rapid growth in its history. In the U.S., The low cost of energy in Texas has attracted many bitcoin miners. In early 2019, Wyoming passed a bill to recognize virtual currency as an intangible personal asset. Last month, Miami had the world’s largest bitcoin conference. The mayor even welcomed Chinese bitcoin miners to come and offered a low-cost nuclear power supply. The Americans may bring China some enlightenment on this matter.

Source: Sina, June 23, 2021
https://www.163.com/dy/article/GD5V3H970552A0PE.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Information/Technology US-China Relations

China Enacted New Data Security Law

The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress passed the Data Security Law (DSL) on June 10, elevating government regulation of private sector data. The new law, which will take effect on September 1, regulates the collection, use, processing and transmission of data and demonstrates Beijing’s growing ambition for data control.

The DSL provides that companies that violate the national core data management system, “endanger national sovereignty, security and development interests,” or illegally transfer “important national data” overseas will face fines of up to 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) and may be forced to close down.

The law applies a broad definition of “core data.” It refers to any data “related to national security, the lifeline of the national economy, important people’s livelihoods, vital public interests, and other concerns.”

DSL details how data collected by enterprises inside China should be exported, including operators of “critical information infrastructures,” energy, transportation, finance, public communication and other fields. The cross-border transfer of such data will be subject to the provisions of the Cybersecurity Law.

In the Cybersecurity Law enacted effective in 2017, Chinese regulators formally made data localization a prerequisite for foreign financial institutions attempting to gain a foothold in China. In the same year the U.S. tech giant Apple promised to store its customers’ cloud-based data in a company owned by the Chinese government, and to set up data centers in China.

On May 12, China also released “Certain Regulations on the Security Management of Automobile Data Security (Draft for Public Opinion),” which prohibits the transmission of driving data involving road traffic, vehicle location, images and other data outside China. Soon afterwards, Tesla announced that it would set up several data centers in China. On June 11, the second of the enactment of DSL, Tesla posted on its Weibo account, “(We) will strictly comply with the data security law.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping is increasingly inclined to tighten data control. Radio Free Asia cites sources familiar with internal discussions that Xi once said in a closed-door meeting, “Whoever controls the data has the initiative.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, June 14, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/cm-06142021103254.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

COVID Is Shutting Down the Taiwanese Chip Making Industry

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that the COVID pandemic is spreading in Taiwan, impacting various world-class chip suppliers in the semiconductor industry. The latest bad news came from King Yuan Electronics (KYEC), which is the world’s largest semiconductor packaging and testing company. The company announced a 48-hour suspension of operations due to a widespread group COVID infection affecting 45 workers. KYEC services major downstream chipmakers like MediaTek (Taiwan), NVIDIA (USA) and STMicroelectronics (Switzerland). Currently, Taiwan is the world’s number one provider of foundry as well as packaging & testing. It is also the world’s number two IC design provider. The Taiwanese semiconductor industry is currently the second largest in size, only after the United States. In the meantime, Malaysia, another major chip packaging & testing country, already closed down the entire country and manufacturing lines are keeping only 10 to 20 percent of their labor, just to keep the machines powered, with zero production output.

Source: Sina, June 6, 2021
https://news.sina.com.cn/s/2021-06-05/doc-ikqcfnaz9279554.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Information/Technology

No Major Chinese Cellphone Manufacturer Plans to Use Huawei’s HarmonyOS

Well-known Chinese news site NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES) recently reported that Huawei just announced its mobile phone operating system HarmonyOS will replace Android and will challenge Google. However, none of the major Chinese domestic mobile phone heavyweights, such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo plan to use HarmonyOS. It’s worth noting that Android is an open-source system and anyone can use it. What Huawei cannot use is the Google suite of applications (such as Gmail), which do not have a large share of the Chinese market. To the Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, the important part of a mobile device operating system is its ecosystem. The Mobile device hardware profit margin for these manufacturers is extremely narrow. Software and related services provide their primary profitable income, and Huawei’s new HarmonyOS has a very limited number of apps. Also, in the past, Huawei took a very competitive approach in dealing with other domestic manufacturers. The mobile vendors are very hesitant to rely heavily on Huawei. In fact, Google has been a lot more neutral than Huawei when developing business relationships with the Chinese manufacturers. Huawei used to promise not to enter the mobile phone market – then it became the world’s second largest mobile phone maker, crushing all domestic competitors.

Source: NetEase, June 4, 2021
https://3g.163.com/dy/article_cambrian/GBJVC2ET0511DT6P.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology