This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.
It’s Ting, your digital Sherpa for all things US-China cybergames, and wow—these past two weeks have been peak tech drama, with a plot twist every day. So, buckle up and let’s break down the latest episodes in the world’s most electrified tech war: Beijing Bytes style.
First, let’s get right to the juiciest leaks—cyber, of course. Just this week, CrowdStrike called out China-linked Murky Panda, also known as Silk Typhoon, after they exploited vulnerabilities in Citrix NetScaler and Commvault. We’re talking zero-days—CVE-2023-3519 and CVE-2025-3928, if you want to sound cool at your next hacker party. These folks weren’t content with basic break-ins. They burrowed into the cloud supply chain, wormed through to SaaS platforms, and even used compromised routers in host countries as stealthy exit nodes. Basically, Murky Panda’s new trick is making trusted cloud relationships work for them—which kind of feels like having your best friend steal your snacks, and your WiFi, at the same time.
Speaking of state-sponsored drama, China last April actually admitted to being behind the Volt Typhoon attacks that targeted US critical infrastructure. That’s confirmation with Chinese characteristics, and it got every defense contractor checking their inbox for the 65,000th phishing attempt of the month. Add Salt Typhoon and the Treasury hack in December 2024—yep, over 3,000 sensitive US files swiped. If you’re counting, that’s a cumulative migraine for Uncle Sam.
On the policy front, the US export restrictions game keeps mutating—try to keep up! After a hot stint of blocking Nvidia’s ace AI chips, the H100s and A100s, the US cooked up a compromise: sell China the less powerful H20s but TAX those sales at 15%. Nvidia, not to be out-maneuvered, launched the H20s into China—while losing 8–10% of its margin, but keeping a foot in a $50-billion market. It’s like paying a cover charge to attend a party you helped throw.
But wait, plot twist! Chinese regulators just pressured local giants, like Alibaba and ByteDance, to slow-roll or cancel Nvidia H20 orders, all while grilling Nvidia over backdoor security rumors—even summoning Jensen Huang in July. Nvidia swears no security risks, but now they’ve halted H20 production entirely and are working overtime on a next-gen Blackwell-based B30A chip—faster than H20, slower than the US-bound rocket ship B300, and maybe on Chinese shelves by September. It’s the ultimate compliance limbo: how low can you go and still pass export control?
The strategic fallout is wild. While restrictions push China to embrace Huawei and Cambricon for homegrown AI chips, US policy is this weird barrier-bridge combo—yes, it slows China, but also gives them time to get their own silicon sorted out. Meanwhile, industry experts like Sam Altman from OpenAI keep warning the US not to sleep on China’s AI progress; he says the race is way more complex than it appears.
Looking forward, expect this regulatory cat-and-mouse to intensify, with chip R&D getting an even stronger nationalist push in both countries. If you’re a tech investor, welcome to “policy-driven volatility”—it’s the only market certainty left.
Thanks for tuning into Beijing Bytes, where the only thing faster than this news cycle is perhaps Jensen Huang’s flight schedule. Don’t forget to subscribe for more digital fireworks. This has been a Quiet Please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.
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