Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates

This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

Listeners, fire up your VPNs—it's Ting at Beijing Bytes, here to decode the latest volleys in the digital trench war between the U.S. and China. We've seen more action these past two weeks than in an entire season of Mr. Robot, so let’s cut the preamble and jump right into the meat.

The story topping my virtual feeds: the high-stakes Trump-Xi phone call, as both leaders attempt a TikTok truce. Trump is working a deal that lets U.S. firms buy control of TikTok’s American operations, keeping that best-in-class algorithm licensed under strict terms. That’s supposed to ease U.S. national security hawks but steer clear of a total ban and, of course, score big political points for both sides. Xi, on the other hand, wants to remind D.C. that China still has the supply chain cards and could snap on tariffs, rare earth exports, or tech sanctions if pushed. Meanwhile, critics like Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi point out—algorithms and data aren’t going anywhere unless they’re “truly in American hands.” The TikTok saga is just a lens into a ground-shifting regulatory landscape: national security meets economic interdependence, with a dash of digital showmanship for the global audience.

But it’s not just TikTok. The Pentagon’s been cleaning house after that ProPublica exposé on Microsoft letting China-based engineers handle sensitive DoD cloud systems. Now, only personnel from non-adversarial countries can work on defense cloud tech. Every click, every line change, every digital “oops”—logged, tracked, attributed. Microsoft scrambled to comply, while Congress, especially Republicans, labeled the loophole “a national betrayal.” The Pentagon is running a hot investigation. In other words, the U.S. is raising a fortress around its cyber crown jewels and the moat just got deeper.

Let’s talk cyber ops: Just days ago, Chinese actors impersonated Rep. John Moolenaar, the House committee chair, launching a spear-phishing blitz targeting officials and major industries. This wasn’t some script kiddie hack—these emails looked legit, asking for input on draft sanctions bills and luring folks to click, reply, or forward. Even foreign governments got hit. The FBI and Capitol Police are all over it. The lesson? In this cyber war, trust can be weaponized as easily as malware, and the psychological game can hit harder than a zero-day exploit.

On the industry front, semiconductors are the battleground of choice. The U.S. slammed tighter export controls on advanced chips and added revenue-sharing strings for any AI chips Nvidia sells to China. China retaliated hard—huge antitrust headaches for Nvidia, $47.5 billion pumped into its semiconductor champions like Huawei and SMIC, and fresh export bans on minerals like gallium and germanium, jolting global supply chains. U.S. firms like Nvidia and AMD gripe about billions in lost revenue, while American supply chain managers are now obsessed with words like “friend-shor

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This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

Hey listeners, this is Ting, bringing you another fiery edition of Beijing Bytes, where I cut through the digital fog of the US-China tech war with equal parts brain and banter. Buckle up—these past two weeks were packed with enough cyber drama and policy chess to fill a data center.

First, let’s talk hacking. If you thought Beijing’s cyber actors were lying low, think again. The notorious threat group TA415—also known as APT41, Brass Typhoon, or “those guys who never sleep”—has been running a fresh phishing blitz, impersonating none other than John Moolenaar, Chair of the US House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition with the CCP, and even spoofing emails from the US-China Business Council. According to Proofpoint, these emails, sent in July and August, targeted US government offices, think tanks, and academics, all focused on America’s China policy and trade. The lures? Closed-door briefings, draft legislation, collaboration offers—classic social engineering. The payload? Not just malware, but a slick twist: using Visual Studio Code remote tunnels for persistent access, instead of the usual malware suspects. Proofpoint researchers noted that TA415’s infrastructure overlaps with historical Chinese state-linked operations, and let’s just say Chengdu 404 Network Technology’s fingerprints are all over this. The timing is spicy: right as US-China trade talks intensify, Beijing’s cyber warriors are clearly playing for intel dominance, not just control.

Meanwhile, on the hardware front, the chip war goes nuclear. The US Commerce Department, never shy to flex, just updated its Entity List to slap export controls on a bunch of Chinese tech firms, including the National Time Service Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics. The goal? Disrupt China’s military-civil fusion strategy, which aims to weave civilian tech prowess into PLA modernization. The Commerce Department’s reasoning: these firms are too cozy with the PLA, dabbling in everything from quantum computing to AI chips for the Chinese military. And let’s not forget the biotech angle—several Beijing and Shanghai firms are now under scrutiny for allegedly aiding PLA biodefense research. The message from Washington is clear: no more blurry lines between China’s commercial and military tech ecosystems.

Beijing isn’t just taking punches. China’s State Administration for Market Regulation fired back by launching an antitrust investigation into Nvidia, accusing the American chip giant of anti-competitive practices. Details are scarce, but the subtext isn’t: this is Beijing’s regulatory counterpunch to US export controls, and a not-so-subtle nudge for Chinese firms to buy local. The chip industry, already reeling from US restrictions on advanced semiconductor exports, is feeling the squeeze—both sides are escalating, and the global tech supply chain is caught in the crossfire.

Then there’s

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This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

Hey listeners, I'm Ting, and welcome to Beijing Bytes. Let me tell you, the past two weeks have been absolutely wild in the US-China tech war space, and honestly, I'm questioning whether anyone's actually winning this chess match anymore.

Just two days ago on September 13th, Beijing dropped what I'm calling the "revenge investigation special." China's Ministry of Commerce launched not one, but two probes targeting American semiconductor companies. They're going after US analog chips from heavyweights like Texas Instruments and ON Semiconductor, claiming these companies are dumping products while US import volumes surged over 30 percent between 2022 and 2024. The timing? Chef's kiss perfect, because these announcements came right before Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sits down with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Madrid this week.

But here's where it gets spicy, listeners. While everyone's focused on chips, we had the data breach of the century on September 11th. Over 600 gigabytes of China's Great Firewall documents got leaked online, exposing the inner workings of the world's most sophisticated censorship machine. We're talking source code, work logs, and evidence that Geedge Networks, led by Fang Binxing, the actual Father of the Great Firewall, has been exporting surveillance tech way beyond China's borders.

Then there's the Salt Typhoon saga that's gotten seriously messy. What started as targeted espionage in mid-2023 has exploded into a massive operation affecting millions of Australians and hitting dozens of countries. The Australian Signals Directorate just attributed this monster campaign to Beijing's Ministry of State Security and the People's Liberation Army.

Meanwhile, the export control game is backfiring spectacularly. Remember DeepSeek? That Chinese AI startup just wiped 600 billion dollars off Nvidia's market cap in January by proving you can build world-class AI models with way fewer, less advanced chips. Industry experts are now saying these restrictions might actually be accelerating Chinese innovation rather than slowing it down.

The semiconductor bundling technique Chinese firms are using is fascinating. They're linking hundreds of export-compliant chips together to match the power of restricted advanced GPUs. Sure, it's more expensive and energy-intensive, but as one expert noted, Chinese firms are happy to pay that price.

Looking ahead, these Madrid talks aren't going to solve much. Both sides are doubling down, and the semiconductor industry is bracing for prolonged uncertainty. The real question isn't who's winning anymore, but whether this tech cold war is pushing both nations toward more dangerous territory.

Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to subscribe for more Beijing Bytes updates. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

Hey listeners, Ting here with Beijing Bytes, your always-on radar for the latest in the US-China tech war — and believe me, if you thought things were cooling off, the past two weeks have seen more plot twists than a Black Mirror episode.

Let’s get straight to the juiciest byte: On September 11, China’s legendary Great Firewall suffered its *largest leak ever*. Over 500 gigabytes of internal documents, code, and logs dropped onto the internet, courtesy of what folks at the GFW Report are calling a cybersecurity mess of historic proportions. We’re talking trade secrets on blocking websites, screenshots of real-time monitoring, and a smoking gun showing Geedge Networks—brainchild of Fang Binxing, China’s so-called “Father of the Firewall”—has peddled censorship tools worldwide, from Myanmar to Kazakhstan. Thanks to WIRED’s deep dive, we now know European companies even helped Geedge sell these digital fences abroad. The global impact? Activists might soon have a leg up on evading censorship, but cybercriminals are drooling over this code for new exploits. Internally, this is a blow to the infallible image of Chinese cyber defenses, and you can bet the Politburo is fuming.

But if you thought the motherboard-melting drama was limited to the cyber realm, buckle up for the latest round of chip wars. Just yesterday, China’s Ministry of Commerce rolled out two high-profile investigations: one accusing the US of unfairly targeting Chinese semiconductor firms—the kind of policy spat that’s been brewing since the Trump administration—and another probing US analog chip dumping after imports spiked 37% since 2022 while prices nose-dived by 52%. Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, ON Semiconductor—watch your market share, because domestic Chinese players like Silergy and SGMicro are ready to eat your lunch. This all hit the news right before Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent landed in Madrid for crunch trade talks with Vice Premier He Lifeng. Timing, as they say in cryptography, is everything.

On the US side, retaliation came fast. Just as the anti-dumping probe hit headlines, the US Commerce Department added another 23 Chinese entities to the restricted trade list, citing national security fears, especially around military and AI tech. Washington’s tightening restrictions on advanced chips and AI exports continue to squeeze Chinese tech growth, and the pressure’s hitting hard—Dell just cut jobs in China, and tech darlings like Synopsys have seen their sales tumble after new rules.

Meanwhile, at the policy level, we’ve got White House AI adviser Kratsios telling Congress that defending America’s AI lead is now a national mission, while NASA banned Chinese nationals with US visas from its facilities as the lunar space race heats up.

So what’s coming next? Experts like those at the National War College are warning that China’s cyber incursions into US critical infrastructure aren’t just espionage

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This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

Hey listeners, it’s Ting with Beijing Bytes bringing you the real juice on the US-China tech war—and wow, the last two weeks have been a full stack of drama, code, and geopolitics. Strap in, because whether you’re a cyber fan, a policy junkie, or just here for the chip gossip, you’ll want to catch every update.

Let me cut straight to the big hack attacks. According to the China Cyberspace Security Association, over 600 advanced persistent threat, or APT, attacks targeted Chinese institutions this year, with most traced back to foreign groups launching from places like Germany, South Korea, Singapore, and the Netherlands. Guo Jiakun, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, pointed fingers directly at the United States, saying Uncle Sam’s been moonlighting as a global botnet wrangler—using friends’ servers to poke at Chinese critical infrastructure. Beijing’s official line: “cybersecurity is a common challenge.” Translation? “Back off and let’s talk before we all end up fighting malware, not each other.”

But don’t for a second think the US is kicking back. Congress is in a panic because the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act—CISA 2015—is about to expire at the end of this month. For a decade, it’s been the encrypted email thread between Washington and the private sector to spot and stop China’s hackers, ever since infamous operations like Volt Typhoon and the OPM personnel file mega-breach. With CISA on the brink, security hawks are warning we risk flying blind just as Chinese cyber espionage is at full throttle, and private companies are left refreshing firewalls like it’s a competitive sport.

And then—oh, the chips. In a move that belongs in a season finale, President Trump’s administration tightened the screws with export restrictions on advanced AI and semiconductor tech, blocklisting scores of Chinese entities and throttling China’s access to the GPUs that drive military AI and economic growth. Yet in August, plot twist—NVIDIA and AMD brokered a 15% revenue share deal with Washington, letting some specialized AI chips slip through in exchange for more paperwork and less uncertainty. Meanwhile, the earlier ban on key chip design software got lifted, so Cadence, Synopsys, and Siemens are back to selling EDA tools to China, at least for now.

This tug-of-war is sending industry heavyweights into a tailspin. Shares of Synopsys performed a nosedive, thanks to lost Chinese sales. Dell is axing China jobs, and US pressure is forcing global tech firms to rethink their China exposure from hardware to the cloud. But, resilient as ever, China’s not just watching—Beijing’s beefing up its own chip industry with a new $3 billion integrated circuit venture from YMTC, and cities like Wenzhou are now opening dedicated AI bureaus because, why not turn every municipality into an AI powerhouse?

Experts warn that this game of sanctions and counter-sanctions is likely to keep splitting the world’

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This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

If you’re tuning in to Beijing Bytes, you want your US-China Tech War scoop with extra byte—so let’s dive straight into the cyber trenches, chip skirmishes, and digital salvos lighting up the headlines this past fortnight. I’m Ting, your cyber sherpa, and the sparks have been flying from Beijing to DC.

Let’s start with a little phishing, and I don’t mean the kind you do with a bamboo pole at Houhai Lake. Just days before trade talks in Sweden, the notorious China-linked APT41 hacking group, which the cybersecurity wizards over at Mandiant say operates under China’s Ministry of State Security, waged a sophisticated phishing campaign targeting US trade officials, law firms, and anyone who might whisper policy into Washington’s ear. These cyber ninjas impersonated Republican Congressman John Moolenaar by email, and the bait was a file titled “proposed sanctions”—which, when opened, was basically a malware welcome mat for deep espionage. The goal? Swipe sensitive docs and gain backdoor access to negotiation playbooks. Chinese officials, as you’d expect, denied any involvement, calling the whole thing political theater—but trust me folks, this dance is far from over.

Not to be outdone, ONCD chief Sean Cairncross at the White House bluntly called China “the most aggressive adversary in cyberspace,” name-checking APT campaigns like Volt and Salt Typhoon, and launched a unified strategy to defend weak spots in America’s critical infrastructure—think water systems and rural hospitals. The message: locking down against Chinese state hackers isn’t just patriotic, it’s existential.

Now, about those silicon chips—the beating heart of this tech tussle. The US isn’t just tight-fisted with Nvidia’s shiny new AI chips; the Trump administration’s recent ban barring Nvidia and AMD from selling their most powerful models—even the watered-down H20—to China, triggered a rally in Chinese chip stocks so electric, the Hang Seng Tech Index shot up 67% this year. Investors are piling into local champions like DeepSeek, built using budget chips but making waves in AI. The US did let up slightly, allowing Nvidia to sell some chips as long as they hand over 15% of China revenue, but plans to revoke TSMC’s export licenses for its Nanjing fab could kneecap China’s chipmaking ambitions just as YMTC launched a $3 billion flash memory venture.

Meanwhile, policy chess is in full swing. US Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security—BIS, in case you like acronyms—pledged a “dramatic increase” in enforcement and criminal penalties for tech transfer violations. Companies dealing dual-use tech are under the microscope, with President Trump’s spring executive order stressing national security above all else. Over on Capitol Hill, Senator Ted Cruz unveiled an “AI sandbox” bill to ease regulatory burdens on US tech so they can fight fire with fire, though consumer watchdogs worry it’s Americans who’ll be the lab rats.

Ind

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This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

It’s Ting here, bringing you the inside scoop on Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates, and oh boy, has the past couple of weeks been a front-row seat to global cyber drama. Grab your popcorn—this script’s hotter than a red-hot GPU.

First, cyber mayhem took center stage—a coordinated Chinese cyberattack called Salt Typhoon. Salt Typhoon wasn’t a little drizzle; experts say this assault targeted critical telecommunications infrastructure across 80 countries, amassing personal and sensitive data, possibly on nearly every American. Security officials called it “unrestrained,” with the scope only now coming to light after years of patient infiltration. The FBI and U.S. Capitol Police are busy tracing clever impersonator emails sent from a faux Congressman John Moolenaar to U.S. trade groups, trying to fish for legislative secrets just days ahead of crucial trade talks in Stockholm. The payload? Sophisticated malware traced to APT41, a flagship Chinese state-linked hacking crew. If opened, these emails would have handed Chinese spies a portal into U.S. negotiations—think Mission Impossible, but with more email and less Tom Cruise.

The trend behind the carnage—cyber attacks have practically doubled since 2023. Chinese state hackers no longer work alone; private firms act as force multipliers for Beijing’s ambitions, all thanks to 2017’s National Intelligence Law. Odessa in the narrative is the Shanghai contractor I-Soon, outed in 2024 for running a cyber-espionage factory, giving us a rare glimpse into the marriage of state and private cyber muscle.

Now, onto the silicon skirmish. Chip controls are back in the headlines. Washington’s export controls are no band-aid—these are surgical strikes designed to keep China away from power AI chips, neural networks, and advanced memory. A new deal last month allowed Nvidia and AMD to sell “lesser” chips to China… for a price. The U.S. government pockets 15 percent of sales, a spicy compromise after six years of ever-tightening controls. But the Semiconductor Industry Association is lobbying hard against any tougher restrictions, worried about locking out American firms from a billion-customer market and losing the innovation race.

There’s more policy churn: America wants to switch Samsung and SK hynix—the memory kings—from open-ended permissions to annual site licenses for China-bound chip equipment. South Korea’s execs are sweating about bureaucracy slowing down repair cycles and upgrades, and the proposed system aims to keep Chinese fabs running without letting them reboot and leapfrog into next-gen chips.

Meanwhile, China’s “military-civil fusion” is juicing AI progress. Civilian universities and private drones companies now feed the People’s Liberation Army, with this month’s military parade in Beijing flaunting AI drones, laser weapons, and more. This blurring of lines makes it brutally hard for the U.S. to strike a balance—how do you p

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This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

You’re tuned to Beijing Bytes and it’s Ting here, giving you all the spiciest updates on the US-China tech showdown straight from the heart of the cyber trenches. No fluff, just the latest bites. Let’s plug in.

Where do we start? The last two weeks have been a cybersecurity feast—if malware is your idea of a snack, anyway. Google’s Threat Intelligence crew just exposed an operation linked to Chinese group UNC6384 (a Mustang Panda alias), which quietly hijacked Southeast Asian diplomatic web traffic in March. They used a tricky backdoor called SOGU.SEC—so stealthy it had cyber-nerds everywhere swooning. Meanwhile, Microsoft found Chinese exploitation of SharePoint vulnerabilities, prompting alarm bells in US critical infrastructure circles and another round of “Wasn’t us!” from Beijing. The FBI says China’s hacking squad is still the world’s biggest. Tell me another state actor that keeps all global IT folks sleeping with one eye open.

Right as American trade negotiators were dusting off their Swedish passports, cybersecurity drama hit Congress itself. Hackers impersonated Rep. John Moolenaar—yes, the chair of the House China Committee—to seed malware via email targeting trade groups. The prime suspect? Beijing-backed APT41. US Capitol Police and the FBI are on the case. So if you got draft legislation in your inbox recently, maybe don’t open the attachments.

Now, let's talk chips and dips. Washington just revoked export privileges for chipmakers like TSMC, Samsung, and SK Hynix to their China fab plants. That means every microchip shipment needs a license, delaying upgrades and new launches, squeezing the supply chain tighter than a VPN in a Shanghai Starbucks. The experts, like Troy Stangarone at Carnegie Mellon, warn this could make Chinese firms like CXMT and YMTC look a whole lot more attractive inside China, especially as US heavyweights face new equipment bottlenecks.

On the US policy front, the GAIN AI Act is out here stirring up drama! Nvidia is downright grumpy, saying the Act’s “America First” chip rule is fixing a problem that doesn’t exist. Nvidia’s not thrilled about being forced to prioritize US orders over foreign ones, fearing it could throttle global AI innovation and, let’s be real, their own bottom line. Rumor has it even Donald Trump struck a deal with Nvidia allowing some restricted exports to China—for a cool 15% cut of China sales. High stakes, high drama!

Meanwhile, China rolled out strict AI labeling rules—every AI-generated text, image, or video now needs a clear tag, effective September 1. Wenzhou, Zhejiang just launched China's first city-level AI bureau. Who said second-tier cities can’t join the AI party?

Industry impacts are massive: cybersecurity investment is surging (to a projected $425B by 2030), supply chain attack rates are up 42%, and more AI-powered ransomware shells are floating around than ever. For tech firms, from Cloud9 to HackerStrik

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This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

Listeners, buckle up because I’m Ting, your high-voltage, tea-spilling guide to the US-China tech war—where code is sharper than swords and the stakes? Oh, just global dominance. Let’s dig into what’s gone down these last two weeks, because Beijing Bytes waits for no one.

First up: the shockwave called Salt Typhoon. Picture this—a Chinese state-backed hacking campaign on international beast mode. According to The New York Times and echoed by cyber agencies from the US to Poland, Salt Typhoon went well past the usual digital peep show, snagging call records, law enforcement notes, even political communications. Not content to just eavesdrop, these hackers burrowed into power grids and telecom backbones, embedding what experts now believe could be destructive capabilities. The FBI and Justice Department are basically waving red flags everywhere—this isn’t cyberespionage as usual, it’s cyber-chaos potential. If you’ve made a phone call in America lately, you might be caught in the net, and yes, that includes people in the White House.

Meanwhile, international nerves are twitching. The US National Security Agency and more than twenty top cyber agencies issued a blunt warning about persistent Chinese state-sponsored attacks. Salt Typhoon wasn’t a solo act—groups like Operator Panda and RedMike have been running wild too. The Five Eyes alliance and European partners say, in diplomatic speak: brace yourselves, cyber-defenses are now mission critical.

But wait, there’s more. Washington just slid a new batch of tech restrictions onto the table—think tighter chip export bans. Nvidia and Alibaba are nervously watching their cross-Pacific business dances. Nvidia’s new Blackwell chips? China wants them badly, but US policy is tightening the nozzle. This is squeezing Chinese AI giants—Baidu, ByteDance, Alibaba—who are sprinting to design their own chips and AI infrastructure to avoid being left in the digital dust.

In response, Beijing has rolled out a national action plan for tech self-sufficiency—soaring investment into domestic AI, 5G, and semiconductor technologies. Huawei claimed an ecosystem “entirely independent of the United States.” There’s talk of supply-chain fortresses for critical telecommunications equipment and moves to take supply chain control from Singapore to home turf, especially by players like ByteDance.

On the tit-for-tat front, Beijing slapped anti-dumping tariffs on US fiber-optic products, a direct retaliation for new American sanctions on Chinese chemicals. Meanwhile, the US Data Security Program kicked in for all American businesses, expanding export controls into the digital realm. If your company’s data crosses borders, congratulations: you’re in the regulatory crosshairs.

On the industry side, impacts are rippling. BYD, China’s EV darling, may slash annual sales targets—signaling that even mainland demand is feeling the squeeze from global trade headwinds and t

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Listeners, Ting here with your hypercharged Beijing Bytes—buckle up because US-China tech tensions have just gone quantum. In the past two weeks, cyber warriors and policymakers on both sides have gone from code red to code, “What the heck just happened?” Let’s zip through the news.

Last week, every major cyber agency from the US to Australia put out a panicked advisory about Chinese state-sponsored hackers. Names like Salt Typhoon pop up—these aren’t Pokémon, these are threat actors burrowing their way across American telecoms, government, even utilities. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called out campaigns targeting over 200 organizations and warned that these APT actors are executing a slow-burn, “hide in plain sight” strategy to position themselves for later disruption. The impact? Last year, 73% of US critical infrastructure organizations reported successful intrusions, with breach costs averaging $5.56 million—and those numbers are still climbing. Water treatment plants, police systems, university servers—nothing is sacred. This is espionage tailor-made for 2025, folks.

Fresh off the policy assembly line, the Biden administration revoked Validated End-User (VEU) status for tech giants Samsung and SK Hynix, making Korean chip operations in China look shakier than a new Linux distro on launch day. The revocation could hasten a split in the global semiconductor chain that neither Seoul nor Beijing wants to see. And China, not content to play defense, is closing out its 14th Five-Year Plan with a Wild West flourish—expect a spike in AI-powered phishing, zero-day exploits, and stealth campaigns into Q4. If you work in state IT anywhere in the US, now’s the time to audit your network twice and panic later.

Meanwhile, European agencies sound klaxons about data transfers to China-controlled territories. Czech intelligence publicly named and shamed Chinese group APT31 for attacks on their Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Cyber and Information Security Agency warns that the very devices wiring up European critical sectors—think smart meters, EVs, cloud servers—could be quietly phone-home tools for Beijing.

Turning to high drama in hardware, a lavish Beijing military parade yesterday was like China flexing its digital and kinetic muscles for the world to see. With President Xi Jinping declaring China will not be “bullied” and that it is “rejuvenating the nation,” the message is not just for the domestic crowd but straight at Washington’s strategic planners. Former China correspondents remind us that the real signal is Beijing’s intent: push the world towards a tech order less centered on the US, more integrated with, well—Beijing.

On the industry front, despite Alibaba’s rally wowing markets, global analysts like Investment Week point out that China remains “a distant second” to the US in AI and especially semiconductor prowess. The US holds the u

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