China is intensifying efforts to reduce its reliance on Western technology, with a surge in domestic substitution initiatives revealed through government tenders and research documents, as reported by Reuters. As Washington enforces tighter restrictions on high-tech exports to China, the country has increased spending to replace foreign-made equipment with homegrown alternatives. 

In the past year, state-owned enterprises, government bodies, and military entities have issued 235 tenders to nationalize equipment, doubling from the previous year. The value of these projects reached 156.9 million yuan, over triple the previous year’s expenditure.

Sensitive Sectors Targeted:

Sensitive sectors like computer equipment, telecom, and finance are being targeted, with digital payments particularly vulnerable to potential Western hacking. The government’s concerns about foreign powers infiltrating critical infrastructure have prompted moves to bolster cybersecurity measures and develop indigenous technologies.

Challenges and Strategies:

Despite significant investments, China faces challenges, particularly in advanced chip manufacturing, limiting its ability to entirely replace foreign products. Efforts to localize technologies were previously hindered by technical limitations. 

State-owned companies are increasingly winning major contracts, pushing away from US companies like Microsoft and Adobe. Huawei has emerged as a leading player due to its agility, diverse product suite, and robust cybersecurity offerings.

Market Impact:

These substitution initiatives have reshaped the software industry landscape, with major foreign makers’ combined market share dropping from 57.3% in 2018 to 27.3% by 2022. However, foreign firms still dominate in banking and telecoms database management, constituting 90% of the market share.

International Implications:

China’s substitution efforts do not violate international accords due to its non-signatory status in World Trade Organization clauses governing public procurement. However, these initiatives have raised concerns among foreign tech companies and trade organizations, leading to calls for fair competition and non-politicized procurement procedures.

China’s Tech Revolution Amidst Economic Shift:

In tandem with China’s push for domestic technology self-sufficiency, the nation is also embarking on a strategic shift towards a consumption-centered economy. Beijing plans to unleash spending power within the country. This shift towards a consumption-driven economy aligns with China’s overarching goals, including reducing reliance on foreign technologies and bolstering domestic innovation.

As China accelerates its drive towards technological self-reliance, the global tech landscape faces shifts in market dynamics, reshaped by Beijing’s strategic initiatives and growing domestic capabilities.

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• Chen Nanxiang Charts a Path for China’s Semiconductor Future Amid US Restrictions
• Chinese Consumers Desperately Scramble for Nvidia RTX 4090 Amid U.S. Sanctions & Rising Prices
• Taiwanese authorities investigate Local Firms’ Huawei links amidst US Sanction

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In a significant move towards revolutionizing the future of transportation, tech giants Huawei Technologies, Baidu Inc., and Alibaba Group Holding Limited are collaborating with China’s Ministry of Transport to establish crucial technology standards for autonomous driving on the nation’s highways. This collaboration, detailed in the “technical guidelines for highway engineering facilities supporting automated driving,” involves extensive efforts to integrate new technology into China’s road network, aligning it with the demands of the emerging autonomous driving industry.

These guidelines, slated to become effective from December 1, emphasize the implementation of centralized cloud control platforms, advanced traffic sensors, communication and positioning equipment, roadside computing facilities, power supplies, and network security measures. Cloud platforms will be optimized to store, process, and exchange traffic information with automated vehicles. Meanwhile, traffic sensors will play a vital role in monitoring traffic flow, incidents, and weather conditions, thereby supporting the seamless functioning of autonomous driving systems.

Roadside computing facilities will be responsible for gathering and disseminating traffic information collected from both roads and vehicles, contributing to the overall intelligence of highways. Equally essential, network security facilities will ensure the integrity and confidentiality of software and data, safeguarding them against any tampering, sabotage, or leakage.

This initiative is a part of China’s broader plan to modernize its highway system, with a substantial investment of $219 billion allocated in 2022 alone, reflecting a 7.3% increase from the previous year. The aim is to prepare the country’s roads for the imminent wave of autonomous vehicles. Furthermore, China has already approved various automated driving experiments conducted by local tech firms, including Baidu’s robotaxi fleets operating in designated areas within major cities such as Beijing, Wuhan, and Chongqing.

The collaboration between these tech giants and the Ministry of Transport represents a significant step forward in realizing China’s ambitions for autonomous driving technologies. By setting these crucial standards, the nation is paving the way for a future where autonomous vehicles can seamlessly integrate into the existing infrastructure, promising safer and more efficient transportation solutions. 

Related:

• Huawei CTR-AL20 is an upcoming budget smartphone with Mate 50 series design
• China’s Baidu launched an industry-grade medical AI model
• Baidu, ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba Purchase Hundreds of Thousands of Nvidia Cards Worth $5 Billion

(via)

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The world’s most populous country is currently battling to contain a lethal coronavirus similar to the SARs epidemic that originated in China in 2002. China has already reported 830 cases of the coronavirus and 26 deaths so far. The government has placed 13 cities under effective lockdown with transport restrictions, putting nearly 41 million under virtual quarantine. The city of Wuhan, the place where the coronavirus originated, is in a state of severe lockdown with all major flights and transport vehicles going in and out of the city suspended for the foreseeable future. While things are tense in China right now, tech companies from different parts of China are coming in to offer help. 

Companies like Xiaomi, Meizu, WeChat, Douyin (Chinese TikTok), and even Baidu have all taken efforts to educate and help combat the new virus in China. 

So let’s take a quick look at how tech companies in China are helping to fight the spread of the lethal coronavirus. 

• Xiaomi 

Xiaomi is shipping out N95 masks, medical masks, and thermometers worth 300K yuan (~$43.2K) to Wuhan’s epidemic control and prevention headquarters. The first batch was shipped out from various centers last night and will arrive in Wuhan tonight. The company added on its Weibo platform that they are monitoring the epidemic’s status and will continue to allocate supplies to help out the city in this time of crisis.

• Meizu

Another smartphone maker has come forward to offer support to the city of Wuhan. Meizu announced that it has donated 300K yuan (~43.2K) to fight the outbreak of the coronavirus in the city. 

• Huawei

While we haven’t heard of any donation from Huawei yet, the company has postponed its HDC.Cloud 2020 developer conference from Feb 11-12 to March 27-28. This event was expected to take place in Shenzhen, China, which is over 1000 km away from the city of Wuhan. So this was more of a precautionary measure from Huawei to eliminate a potential opportunity for the spread of the virus. 

Editor’s Pick: Xiaomi’s XiaoAi adds a pneumonia coronavirus shortcut card for live info on the epidemic

• E-commerce websites

China’s biggest online retailers like Jd.com, Taobao, Suning have all announced that they would freeze the prices of essential medical items such as masks and disinfectants on their platforms. Ever since the news about the outbreak of the virus, the prices for these essential items had shot up. However, the retailers have agreed to intervene and provide these medical supplies at reasonable rates. Moreover, Jd.com has also announced that it will donate 1 million masks and 60,000 medical supplies to Wuhan, in batches.

• Travel 

China’s aviation regulator has announced passengers can get free refunds for flight tickets booked before Jan. 24, 2020, across all airlines and ticket sales agencies in China. Multiple airlines like Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Airlines, and Qantas Airways are offering free cancellations for tickets booked to or from mainland China till the end of February. You can read more about airline refund announcements from this Reuters article.

• Entertainment

China’s TikTok – Douyin has a dedicated page that informs users about the coronavirus and its current status. The app also added a special ‘Jiayou video effect‘ to offer support to the medical staff and patients fighting the virus in Wuhan. 

Online movie ticketing platforms like Taopiaopiao and Maoyan are offering unconditional refunds for tickets booked between January 22 and the first week of February in the city of Wuhan. 

Moreover, six potential blockbuster hit movies, which were scheduled to release in theaters this weekend, have been postponed. In fact, in a surprising move, one of the most anticipated movies in China this year, ‘Lost in Russia’ or ‘Awkward Mother’ (Chinese translation), is now premiering online for FREE! The film will be made available to watch at midnight today in China via the movie studio’s in-house streaming platform. 

• Food Delivery

Popular food delivery apps like Meituan Dianping and Ele.me in China have promised to continue operations as usual during this period. To combat the spread of the coronavirus, they have announced precautionary measures such as masks and body temperature monitoring of its delivery drivers. These platforms have also reportedly stopped delivering to hospitals. 

• Other Apps

China’s most popular messaging app, WeChat, has a special ‘Fever Clinic’ Map that shows you where you can go for a check-up in over 14 cities in China. Some popular cities like Shanghai and Chengdu have over 100 listed clinics on the platform. 

Baidu has a dedicated anti-pneumonia page on its app that is updated with relevant coronavirus related news in real-time. The Baidu Maps app also shows you ‘Fever Clinics’ (similar to WeChat). But one of the best features of the Baidu Maps is the thermal heat map giving you a view of the busy streets in your area, in real-time. It’s an excellent way to identify crowded streets to avoid them. 

In a country like China, that’s obsessed with apps and social media; it’s good to see tech companies coming forward to educate people to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pneumonia. With over 830 cases reported so far, it remains to be seen whether China can contain this new coronavirus before it becomes as widespread as the SARs epidemic. 

UP NEXT: Huawei to soon face stricter restrictions from the US Government

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China Mobile Hong Kong will released LTE TDD / FDD converged networking start TD-LTE commercial network at the end-of this year. Prior to this, China Mobile Hong Kong Company has announced the introduction of TD-LTE the existing FDD LTE network technology, TD-LTE and FDD LTE dual mode converged network construction in Hong Kong.

In June of this year in Hangzhou, China Mobile Hong Kong demonstrated the world’s first TD-LTE and FDD LTE in Hong Kong for  roaming and demonstrated LTE TDD / FDD converged network technology. Expected that the end of this year, China Mobile Hong Kong Company will launch LTE TDD / FDD converged services in Hong Kong, which will be the first dual-mode LTE network in the Asia-Pacific region.

It is understood, the FDD (frequency division duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex) as the two different duplex mode, respectively, can be used the spectrum of the symmetric and asymmetric. The industry believes that, in the the 4G Internet age video streaming, interactive Web downstream position of absolute dominance, TDD high capacity, asymmetric advantages will gradually become apparent, especially in the increasingly tense situation FDD resources, to promote the integration of LTE TDD / FDD group The network will become an inevitable trend.

From a global perspective, LTE TDD / FDD converged networking has become an important global mobile broadband evolution direction. It is understood that the European Hi-3G in Sweden and Denmark, deployment and commercial TDD / FDD LTE converged networks; Japan’s Softbank has been the basis of commercial TD-LTE, FDD LTE commercial network was launched in the end of September this year, which converged networking operating ; European companies such as Vodafone and E-Plus have both TDD and FDD frequency and opened the fusion test network.

Currently, LTE TDD / FDD converged networking has achieved full integration of products from standard industry chain. Terminal manufacturer, the world’s leading system suppliers of Huawei, ZTE, Datang, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent launched a common platform products TDD / FDD, Total chip manufacturers at home and abroad has also become common R&D direction.

It is understood that China Mobile has now completed the testing of TD-LTE scale test work and officially launched the 10+3 city to scale trial network construction work, the construction of 20,000 base stations will be completed this year and in mid-2013 Complete the expanding scale pilot test work.

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