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UDN: Apple Sales Bucked the Chinese Market Trend, Surging 23 Percent

United Daily News (UDN), one of the primary Taiwanese news groups, according to data released by market research firm Counterpoint, Apple’s smartphone sales in China surged 23 percent in the first nine weeks of this year, bucking the trend of an overall market downturn and price increases by some Android phone brands due to rising memory chip costs.

From January to early March this year, China’s overall smartphone market shrank by four percent compared to the same period last year. Even with government subsidies introduced at the beginning of the year, it was unable to effectively boost weak consumer demand.

The Counterpoint report indicates that Apple’s strong control over its supply chain allows it to withstand the pressure of soaring memory chip costs more effectively than its competitors. Counterpoint anticipates that Apple will maintain its current pricing while competitors raise prices. The report stated “Apple is unlikely to follow suit with price adjustments; instead, it will absorb some of the profit pressure itself, thereby expanding its market share.” The Chinese smartphone market is expected to continue facing pressure between March and May.

Source: UDN, March 19, 2026
https://money.udn.com/money/story/5599/9390143

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Information/Technology

Open-Source AI “OpenClaw” Goes Viral in China but Raises Security and Cost Concerns

Open-source AI software OpenClaw—nicknamed “Little Lobster” because of its lobster icon—has recently become a viral trend on Chinese social media and technology communities. Originally developed by Austrian engineer Peter Steinberger and released in November 2025, OpenClaw functions as an AI agent capable of autonomously completing tasks once authorized by the user, such as reading documents, searching for information, writing code, and sending emails. Because of these capabilities, many engineers view it as a type of “digital worker.” Major Chinese cloud providers, including Tencent Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and Baidu AI Cloud, have already launched deployment services for the platform.

The surge in popularity has been amplified by major Chinese technology companies, smartphone manufacturers, and even local governments promoting the technology. Several local governments have introduced incentives to encourage adoption, including subsidies, computing resources, and free deployment support. For example, local authorities in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, have launched policy packages offering subsidies of up to 5 million yuan (US$720,000) to support development related to the technology. The trend has also gained traction online, with discussions about government officials experimenting with the system becoming a popular topic on social media.

However, the rapid enthusiasm has also raised concerns. Chinese authorities have issued warnings that OpenClaw could pose cybersecurity risks, including potential vulnerabilities to cyberattacks and data leaks. Users and industry observers have also complained about unexpectedly high operating costs. Running open-source AI agents like OpenClaw typically requires dedicated servers operating continuously, along with substantial computing resources and API usage fees. Some early adopters have reported large bills and technical problems such as accidental data deletion and privacy risks, leading some users to abandon the system despite the initial hype.

Source: Epoch Times, March 15, 2026
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/26/3/13/n14717851.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

CNA: After Banning Rednote, Taiwan Saw Average Fraudulent Cases Decreased by 73 Percent

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that, in December of last year, the Taiwanese Ministry of the Interior announced that the Chinese social media platform Rednote (a.k.a. Xiaohongshu) failed the information security screening and was involved in 1,706 fraud cases in the past two years. The Ministry later issued an order to suspend internet access to the platform in accordance with Article 42 of the Fraud Crime Prevention Act, which stipulates “emergency events for fraud crime prevention”. The order is temporarily set for one year.

According to latest statistics from the Taiwanese Executive Yuan’s Anti-Fraud Command Center, after the implementation of the Rednote suspension, the average monthly number of fraud cases decreased by 73 percent, and financial losses decreased by 51 percent. The Command Center said that, based on its assessment, the fraud risks arising from Rednote will become a source of rapidly increasing fraud cases in the future if left unchecked, and these cases will be completely unprosecuted due to legal barriers between Taiwan and mainland China.

In order to lift the ban, the Taiwanese government requires technical and management improvements, including passing 15 national security and cybersecurity examinations. However, Rednote failed to respond to the official notice within the specified period.

Source: CNA, March 8, 2026
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aipl/202603080102.aspx

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Information/Technology

Massive Lunar New Year Promotions Boost Chinese AI Apps—But Most Users Quickly Leave

Major Chinese technology companies spent heavily to promote their artificial intelligence (AI) chat applications during the 2026 Lunar New Year holiday. Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance invested tens of billions of yuan (several billion US dollars) in marketing campaigns for their AI products—such as Tongyi Qianwen, Yuanbao, and Doubao. These promotions relied on incentives such as digital red-packet rewards and special holiday activities to attract users, temporarily driving large spikes in downloads and daily active users across multiple platforms.

However, user engagement declined sharply once the holiday promotions ended. Industry data suggests that more than 80 percent of users stopped using the apps after the incentives disappeared, leaving an estimated 30-day retention rate of only about 12–13 percent. Many users reportedly joined primarily to collect promotional rewards rather than to use the AI tools regularly, highlighting the difficulty of converting short-term promotional traffic into sustained engagement.

The trend suggests, as analysts argue, that the long-term success of AI products cannot rely on financial incentives alone. Instead, it depends on factors such as model capability, reliability, and integration within broader digital ecosystems.

Source: Epoch Times, February 28, 2026
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/26/2/27/n14707559.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

People’s Daily: China’s Robotics Industry Entering a “Golden Opportunity Period”

An article published by People’s Daily reports that China’s robotics industry is entering what it describes as a “golden opportunity period,” driven by technological progress, expanding applications, and growing market demand. The article highlights the appearance of robots from Unitree Robotics during the China Central Television Spring Festival Gala, where dozens of machines performed synchronized dance and martial arts routines. The performance attracted widespread public attention and was presented as a symbol of the rapid advancement of China’s robotics technology and manufacturing capabilities.

The article also emphasizes the expanding role of robotics in scientific research and industrial innovation. It describes the emergence of so-called “scientist robots,” which combine automated laboratory equipment with Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to conduct experiments, analyze data, and accelerate scientific discovery. Companies such as XtalPi are developing robotic laboratory platforms capable of supporting research in pharmaceuticals, materials science, and energy technologies. These systems integrate robotic “hands” that carry out experiments with AI “brains” that design and optimize research processes.

According to analysts cited in the report, China’s robotics sector is developing along two major tracks: consumer-oriented robots that capture public attention and high-end industrial or research robots that generate long-term technological and economic value. Together, these developments are described as elevating China’s position in global technological competition.

Source: People’s Daily, February 18, 2026
http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2026/0218/c1004-40667251.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

China Times: OpenAI Reveals Shocking Evidence on DeepSeek Stealing U.S. Technology

Major Taiwanese newspaper China Times recently reported that, U.S. AI leader OpenAI filed a memorandum with the U.S. House of Representatives, accusing Chinese AI vendor DeepSeek of using so-called “distillation techniques” to obtain the hard-earned model results of OpenAI and other U.S. AI developers, and then using these techniques to train its own AI models.

DeepSeek, a rising star in Chinese AI, has stunned the world since launching its R1 model last year, but it has also been embroiled in allegations of technology theft. Foreign media reports indicate that OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has warned that DeepSeek is targeting several U.S. AI companies, including OpenAI, attempting to replicate their model outputs and use them as the training basis for its own systems.

In its memo, OpenAI stated that they observed accounts associated with DeepSeek employees attempting to bypass OpenAI’s access restrictions through third-party routers and various obfuscation methods, and to massively scrape model outputs using programmatic code for distillation purposes.

OpenAI points out that large-scale language models developed in mainland China are “actively taking shortcuts” in knowledge training, rather than relying on their own research and development. The company emphasizes that once it discovers users attempting to build competitive models through distillation, it will proactively remove the relevant violating accounts to protect its technology and usage policies.

Source: China Times, February 13, 2026
https://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20260213002208-260410?chdtv

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology US-China Relations

Chinese Smartphone Market Sluggish in January, Except for iPhone

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that, according to market research firm Counterpoint, all major Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, from Huawei to Xiaomi, have experienced sales declines, with the overall market down 23 percent.

However, data shows that Apple’s iPhone was the only smartphone to see sales growth in the Chinese market in January. The iPhone 17 series helped Apple achieve an eight percent sales increase, raising its market share to about one-fifth, tying with Huawei for first place. Counterpoint points out that Apple’s competitors in China benefited from massive government subsidy programs for low-priced devices last year, but face greater challenges this year amid weak consumer confidence.

Researchers said Apple was the only major brand to achieve year-over-year growth, with its market share reaching a five-year high. Its base model of the iPhone 17 is now also eligible for government subsidies, improving its value proposition and driving a nine percent month-over-month increase in sales in January. The discounts or price reductions for the iPhone 17 series so far have been minimal, leaving room for future adjustments or profit margin optimization.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, February 12, 2026
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/finance/china/story20260212-8451673

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Information/Technology

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Launches Interstellar Navigation School

The University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences officially inaugurated its Interstellar Navigation School on January 27. Academician Zhu Junqiang, the school’s dean, said he hopes that through sustained effort the institution will develop into three centers of excellence: a leading hub for foundational aerospace research within the Chinese Academy of Sciences to support major national missions; a center for cultivating high-level innovative talent, preparing individuals willing to explore the unknown and capable of assuming significant responsibilities; and an open platform for international academic exchange, contributing China’s perspectives and expertise to the global community through substantive research achievements.

The coming 10 to 20 years are widely viewed as a pivotal period for breakthroughs in interstellar navigation. Advances in fundamental research and key technologies are expected to reshape the landscape of deep-space exploration, strengthen national core competitiveness, and help propel humanity’s space ambitions further into the cosmos.

Source: Xinhua, January 27, 2026
https://www.news.cn/20260127/9aea5bd2de7342cba77c08ee80bb9b96/c.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology