Information/Technology - 12. page

According to Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition, a recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Research (CSIS) stated that China’s Huawei used shell companies to obtain more than 2 million TSMC-manufactured AI chips and to stockpile enough high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to last for more than a year.

Huawei placed an order from Taiwan’s TSMC through a shell company to mass produce Huawei’s Ascend 910B processor AI chips and ship them to China, violating US export controls. According to internal Huawei assessments, the HBMs it stocked can meet the needs of a full year of production, most of which were purchased from Samsung before the U.S. ban took effect last December, possibly through a shell company as well.

China’s SMIC, Huawei’s AI chip manufacturing partner, has had issues with low yields of about 20 percent it its own attempts at manufacturing AI chips. Its 7-nanometer process technology had a monthly output of 20,000 pieces, with low yields partly resulting from export controls imposed by the United States and its allies. In the AI competition, American companies are still ahead of China, but the gap has narrowed significantly.

Source: RFI Chinese, March 8, 2025
https://tinyurl.com/ycy2yhjy

According to the South Korean Personal Information Protection Committee, as of January 31, 2025, the personal information of 1.21 million South Korean DeepSeek users had been transferred to ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. The South Korean government has since banned downloads of the DeepSeek app, making South Korea the second country after Italy to ban DeepSeek.

The Personal Information Commission discovered that personal information was being exfiltrated to ByteDance during the confirmation process of DeepSeek’s network connection records. According to the Korean Domestic Personal Information Protection Law, one must specifically obtain informed consent from users when providing information to third parties; DeepSeek did not comply with this legal requirement.

American cybersecurity company Feroot Security deciphered DeepSeek’s code and confirmed that DeepSeek hides the ability to send user information to China Mobile, a state-owned communications company. DeepSeek even obtains the user’s keyboard usage patterns and does not allow the user to refuse collection of the user’s personal information.

Source: Chosun Chinese, February 18, 2025
https://cnnews.chosun.com/client/news/viw.asp?nNewsNumb=20250262403&cate=c01&mcate=

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that the iPhone 16e model newly launched by Apple will be produced in India. This means that all five models of the iPhone 16 series will be produced in India.

Nearly all of Apple’s mobile phones currently sold in the United States are made in China, but supply chain disruptions concerns have prompted Apple to seek diversification of production. Apple’s largest OEM, Foxconn, has established assembly factories in India. It is expected that, by 2027, the proportion of iPhones made in India will rise from 15 percent now to 25 percent.

In tapping India, Apple will need to face challenges in the form of power shortages, lower manufacturing capacity (as compared with China), as well as tariff policy risk. If President Trump imposes Tariffs on India then iPhones exported from India to the United States would likely be subject to those tariffs. According to internal Apple sources, however, Apple believes that India is likely in a better position to negotiate with the United States as compared to China.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, February 22, 2025
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/world/story20250222-5916146

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that, Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek shook the global industry overnight. However, from Washington DC to Seoul, multiple countries have prohibited its use on official devices citing security concerns.

Italy took the lead in taking action. The Roman authorities conducted an investigation on DeepSeek and banned it on Italian AppStore. Next, Taiwan prohibits government staff and key infrastructure employees from using DeepSeek, emphasizing the potential harm to national security. Australia followed suit a few days later. Then the South Korean Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Statistics and other ministries and police departments also prohibited the use of DeekSeek on military and government devices due to safety risks. In the United States, the state of Texas, the House of Representatives, the Department of Defense, the US Navy and NASA all banned DeekSeek on official devices and their networks.

The security concerns lie with the fact DeepSeek collects personal information and the chatbot can also collect a wide range of information in the conversation sessions with the users. In China, when the government requests, a company has legal obligations to provide user information regardless what is promised to the users. The Western countries start to realize it could be a national security issue given that DeepSeek is capable of collecting more data than other types of apps.

Source: CNA, February 7, 2025
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aopl/202502070305.aspx