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

Hey listeners, Ting here, bringing you another high-voltage Beijing Bytes. Forget trade talks over pandas and tariffs—right now, it’s microchips, machine intelligence, and some eyebrow-raising hacks driving the latest round of US-China tech showdowns.

In the last two weeks, the battle for chip supremacy has escalated, with both Washington and Beijing turbo-charging their semiconductor industries. According to Tom’s Hardware, the US has been tightening export controls on AI chips, with the Department of Justice recently indicting two Chinese nationals for trying to reroute Nvidia H100s through Malaysia and Singapore. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Industry and Security just dropped an eighty-name Entity List update—think of it as a giant “not invited” list for Chinese firms trying to buy critical US tech.

The Biden-era AI openness policy is history. Trump’s administration just swapped it for hard-nosed rules demanding rigorous due diligence on any investment headed for Chinese AI or semiconductor players. Treasury’s new outbound investment screening, effective this January, is laser-focused on advanced chip design, supercomputing, and AI software—basically, the crown jewels of digital military and economic power.

How’s the industry reacting? Companies like Nvidia and AMD are revamping product lines, offering special "lite" versions of chips for the Chinese market, while Intel and TSMC are literally pouring concrete in Arizona, New York, and even Germany to build “friendshored” fabs safe from geopolitics. But the real curveball? China’s RISC-V gambit. At the recent RISC-V Summit in Shanghai, China rolled out its secret sauce: doubling down on open-source CPU tech. Now, Chinese reps are chairing most major RISC-V committees, and Beijing just greenlit a wave of incentives to push RISC-V across industries. The goal? Cut the cord to Western chip tech once and for all.

But it’s not just supply chains and rules—cyberattacks are the new normal. Darktrace warns that Chinese APTs and RaaS groups have been exploiting zero-day flaws like CVE-2025-0994 against US city infrastructure and government agencies. The healthcare sector is bleeding data with record breaches—up to two a day. And then there’s “Lao Wang” and his criminal crew, recently profiled by gbhackers, whose smishing attacks have stolen hundreds of millions in payment credentials. What’s wild is their use of digital wallet tokenization, exploiting Apple Pay and Google Wallet to fly under the radar and launder money globally.

The strategic risk? Gladstone AI’s report for the US government says AI labs are “security equivalent of swiss cheese,” with Chinese hardware offering backdoor access and advanced espionage tactics that could theoretically paralyze data centers or reconstruct AI models just by sniffing electrical signals. Chris Wray of the FBI sums it up: China’s cyber theft campaign is “more damaging than ever”—and the US is stuck reacting, not preventing.

Looking ahead, expect deeper bifurcation—or tech decoupling—with both sides dependent on each other... for now. Experts like Chris Miller and William Matthews predict a split future: short-term pain and skyrocketing costs, but potentially a world where two rival digital ecosystems evolve. If China cracks advanced chipmaking, the global balance might tilt.

That’s your Byte for today. Don’t forget to subscribe if you want an edge in the world’s hottest tech war. Thanks for tuning in—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.

Ting here, your byte-sized guide through the cyber labyrinth of the US-China Tech War. Strap in, listeners, because these last couple of weeks have felt like a game of Capture the Flag—except the flags are AI models, rare earths, and, oh yes, military secrets.

Let’s start with headline-grabbing drama: Last week, China's Cyberspace Administration threw accusations at the US, claiming the Americans tried backdooring NVIDIA chips and leveraged Microsoft zero-days to snoop around Chinese military networks. Nvidia, summoned like a Hogwarts student caught with forbidden spells, had to explain if their new H20 chips—designed specifically to stay one step ahead of US export bans—were carrying secret American stowaways. And the plot thickened: China’s own CERT and the CAC accused US intelligence of hacking into a major Chinese military enterprise using Exchange zero-days, maintaining persistence for almost a year. The breach involved over 300 systems, SSH tunnels, and malware hot-potato. It’s the kind of cloak-and-dagger campaign that sends red teams everywhere scrambling for coffee and new passwords.

Cyber’s not a one-way street, though. In the aftermath of last year’s Salt Typhoon attack—where Chinese APTs infiltrated US telecommunications, snagging wiretap databases and confirming which spies were discovered—Four out of Five Eyes nations, the US included, recommended mandatory end-to-end encryption. Even the FBI agreed, setting aside decades of ‘strong encryption equals bad’ rhetoric, while London took its own path with new surveillance rules.

Turning to the policy chess match, the US has half-walked back some restrictions, reauthorizing exports of those same NVIDIA H20 chips to China, just as both sides prepare for trade talks in Stockholm. The Trump administration’s focus is split: shore up American alliances while dialing up tariffs and investment in domestic minerals. Washington is also investing in breaking China’s monopoly on minerals essential for batteries and smart tech. Meanwhile, China responds by further clutching its grip on rare earths. Western defense contractors are feeling the pinch—imagine your missile program stuck waiting for a shipment of germanium at Ningbo port, or pricing spikes 60 times the norm. That’s not supply chain risk; that’s strategic coercion.

Now, cue the AI arms race montage. The US and China both rolled out dueling national AI strategies in July. President Trump’s plan is all about removing bureaucratic chokeholds to keep the States at the front of the machine-learning pack. Premier Li Qiang’s counter, presented at WAIC in Shanghai, calls for a global AI rules framework but not-so-subtly blasts American “tech monopolies” and export restrictions. China claims this isn’t just about keeping up—it’s about ensuring AI’s benefits reach the “global community,” while US messaging highlights homegrown jobs and allied innovation. But even as decoupling fever spikes, their economies are like tangled earbud wires: China still processes 90% of the world’s rare earths, US tech still dominates high-end chips. Surprise: the US relaxed some chip controls in exchange for China relaxing rare earth bans, a reminder that zero-sum posturing only gets you so far.

Expert verdict? Protectionist moves, like early chip bans, backfired and turbocharged China’s self-reliance efforts, sparking a gold rush in domestic R&D. Alibaba, Huawei, and SMIC have all rolled out homegrown CPU and GPU alternatives, threatening Western hardware hegemony in AI.

Forecast ahead: Expect more tit-for-tat cyber ops as both sides ramp up digital espionage and accusations, especially as trade talks wobble. Policy shifts will keep coming, but the real battle is for global standards and supply chain control. If you’re in tech—or invest in it—watch regulatory changes like a hawk, because the rules are being rewritten as fast as the code.

Thanks for tuning in to Beijing Bytes—your essential update on the US-China cyber and tech war. Subscribe for weekly wisdom and don't forget, 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.

Welcome back, listeners! This is Ting with Beijing Bytes, your go-to for all things cyber, code, and clever in the ongoing US-China tech war. Settle in, because the past two weeks have been straight out of a John le Carré novel—with a dash of Silicon Valley swagger.

Let’s launch right into the big headline: the Trump administration made waves by lifting the ban on Nvidia’s H20 chip exports to China. Yes, you heard me—the same chips designed to skate just under US export restrictions are now fair game for Chinese companies. National Economic Adviser Kevin Hassett says the move is partly to stem a black market bonanza for high-powered chips, but also, US chipmakers argue, to keep their Chinese customers hooked on American tech. The goal? Outpace China through relentless reinvestment in R&D while dragging out China’s drive for chip self-sufficiency. Risky business! This isn’t a full-on tech détente, though. The AI Export Action Plan promises to patch any holes in current restrictions, especially on the high-end tools that China needs to build its own semiconductors. Basically, Washington is handing out swimming lessons but keeping the deep end roped off.

Of course, Beijing wasted no time firing back. Days after the export door creaked open, China’s Cyberspace Administration hauled Nvidia execs in for a grilling, demanding answers about alleged ‘backdoor’ features in those H20 chips. Chinese regulators cite concerns that these chips could be tracked or even shut down remotely—a plot twist straight out of a cyber-thriller. They invoked their own cybersecurity and data laws, warning that foreign tech will get intense scrutiny moving forward. Nvidia flat-out denied the existence of any backdoors, but in this trust-fall exercise, nobody’s exactly feeling warm and fuzzy.

On the cyber battlefront, both countries have been lobbing accusations like digital grenades. Microsoft just revealed that hacking groups tied to China, with cool names like Salt Typhoon, breached a US Army National Guard network for ten months—barely missing a cyber ‘season finale’ by going undetected for nearly a year. China, meanwhile, accused the US of exploiting Microsoft Exchange flaws to hack Chinese defense contractors, effectively hoisting the cyber blame flag right back. This tit-for-tat, experts say, erodes already fragile global cooperation against cybercrime and pushes both nations to double down on digital defense.

Industry ripple effects? American cloud giants are pulling up stakes: Amazon Web Services shuttered its Shanghai AI lab, admitting that rising US-China tensions have made cross-border research too risky. Yet, Chinese firms like Huawei and AI champions DeepSeek are pushing ahead, riding government support and growing their domestic AI market. According to the South China Morning Post, Chinese companies could grab a 55% domestic AI market share by 2027, no small feat given the headwinds.

Security experts are warning that the stakes go far beyond stolen emails or slow internet. TheStreet highlighted that suspicious code has been found in Chinese-made tech deployed in critical US infrastructure—think power grids and pipelines. One former tech CEO said this is the ‘Trojan horse’ moment America should be sweating. But with the US still heavily dependent on Chinese hardware, unplugging isn’t so simple.

So what’s the future forecast? Expect this digital slog to intensify. The US will close remaining loopholes but likely keep the tech juice flowing, hoping to buy time—and maybe influence. China will accelerate domestic innovation and keep up the pressure for tech self-reliance. And for cyber sleuths like us, this means more intrigue, more alliances, and more late-night patching.

Thanks for tuning in to Beijing Bytes! Hit that subscribe button if you want the freshest takes on digital diplomacy, cyber showdowns, and strategy. 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.

It’s Ting with Beijing Bytes, and listeners, the silicon sizzle between the US and China? It’s hit new heights—and that’s saying something in August 2025. Let’s blast straight into what matters most: a torrent of cyber salvos, a clampdown on chips, and enough policy jousting to keep your SOC team sweaty.

The last two weeks have been cyber-chaos. Just today, Beijing’s Cyber Security Association accused US intelligence of hacking Chinese military companies by exploiting Microsoft Exchange zero-days. According to The Register and China’s own cyberspace watchdog, US actors allegedly spent a year lurking on the network of a major defense-sector firm, hoovering up sensitive data. That’s not even subtle—more like a neon sign reading “Spy Games On.” Naturally, Microsoft pointed to China’s own infamous attacks on Exchange servers, SharePoint, and basically everything Redmond makes. Microsoft’s gotten so much cyber-flak from both sides, I’m convinced their incident response team has a direct line to every embassy in Beijing and D.C.

But China’s making this cyber confrontation a matter of national dignity, with the Foreign Ministry vowing tough retaliatory action and new cyber-defense mandates. Beijing’s messaging is a wild reverse Uno—“you hack us; we’ll hack right back”—while both capitals are publicly naming and shaming the other’s operatives. Analyst Jon Clay at Trend Micro nailed it: every nation runs offensive cyber campaigns, but now, attribution’s part of the diplomatic arsenal. Beijing’s not only counter-accusing the US over July’s SharePoint breaches but also reshaping how cyber-ops get covered globally.

Meanwhile, on the tech restriction front, Washington isn’t letting up. US restrictions targeting semiconductors—think anything cutting edge—just got a turbo boost. The Commerce Department expanded rules that make it even harder for overseas chipmakers, particularly in Korea and Taiwan, to sell advanced hardware to Chinese giants like Huawei. Research from CEPR shows these export controls are biting deep, as not only are US firms cutting off Huawei, but Japanese, Korean, and even unaffiliated Chinese firms are re-routing supply chains and scrambling for non-American tech alternatives. What’s the industry fallout? Higher costs, business acrobatics, and a lot of lawyers suddenly specializing in “Entity List” drama.

Policy-wise, both powerhouses are flexing their AI muscles. July saw synchronized announcements: Beijing’s AI development playbook dropped the same week Washington rolled out its post-GENIUS Act AI national strategy, both calling for more homegrown innovation and centralized AI planning. Experts like Marina Yue Zhang in The Diplomat warn this is the new cold war’s code war, and the fear is real: focus on rapid AI advances is overshadowing calls for robust regulation, as highlighted by The Japan Times. This could set the stage for unintended consequences, whether it’s unchecked algorithmic risk, shortsighted national security choices, or fractured transatlantic cooperation.

Strategically, what does this all mean? Both nations are now racing for dominance not just in hardware and software, but in the minerals and infrastructure underpinning the next tech era. RUSI points out that the so-called “lithium triangle” in South America is now battleground zero in the battery supply race, with China and the US vying for critical mineral access to feed their militaries and green tech ambitions.

The next phase: a more fragmented global tech landscape, persistence of tit-for-tat cyber ops, and a regulatory gap big enough for an AI-powered freight train. My forecast? Decoupling keeps accelerating, and for techies everywhere, prepare for more firmware updates—probably at midnight, and probably right before your coffee kicks in.

Thanks for tuning in to Beijing Bytes, where the only firewall is my sense of humor. Don’t forget to subscribe for the latest in everything cyber and China. 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.

Welcome back to Beijing Bytes! I’m Ting, your digital raconteur and self-confessed cyber addict, here to zap you through the sparks and subroutines of the US-China tech war’s past two weeks—all from my bunker of screens and caffeine in Beijing. Buckle your seatbelts! Let’s byte right in.

First, cybersecurity. The US Justice Department just unveiled indictments against two Chinese hackers, Xu Zewei and Zhang Yu, who allegedly worked with Shanghai Powerock Network and Shanghai Firetech, all under the cozy wing of the Shanghai State Security Bureau. SentinelOne’s latest report breaks down how these firms developed intrusive cyber tools, like remote cellphone evidence collection, hinting that China’s Ministry of State Security is now running a cyber contractor ecosystem so intricate that even their own propaganda campaigns synchronize with cyber threat reports. US agencies aren’t taking this lightly: indictments, sanctions, and a lot of public saber-rattling, but this “Silk Typhoon” of state-backed hacking just keeps evolving. Attribution has become a cat-and-mouse game—tools bounce between government offices faster than you can say VPN.

Meanwhile, on the home front, the US is exposing its own underbelly. The Trump administration’s sweeping layoffs, driven by the Department of Government Efficiency, have left the federal cyber workforce gutted. Experts like Michael Daniel, former White House cyber czar, are warning that the US digital shield is now full of holes just as China, Russia, and every black hat with a grudge are looking for a way in. State governments, says Tarah Wheeler from the Council on Foreign Relations, just don’t have the muscle to patch these gaping vulnerabilities.

Trade policy’s next. The summer’s main event: Trump extended the US-China trade truce, now set to expire August 12. Tariffs are paused at 30% for US and 10% on China’s side. A sliver of stability—AI chipmakers like NVIDIA are dancing on this fragile wire. Following the July decision to re-allow certain AI chip exports to China, NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang wasted no time dropping hints about China-only RTX Pro GPUs, designed to slip through export restrictions while sidestepping Huawei’s Ascend series. According to Bloomberg, Chinese companies are pouncing, with Beijing’s more favorable rules fueling ambitions to challenge US dominance in the $4.8 trillion global AI market.

Behind the curtain, Washington’s approach is shifting. Rather than blanket bans, officials like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick talk of making Chinese developers “addicted” to US technology—hello, dependency management! Meanwhile, TSMC, as always, is stuck in the silicon crossfire, its fabs and licensing drama still making global markets nervous—investors everywhere are recalibrating portfolios in this 90-day window.

China, for its part, is doubling down on AI strategy, accusing Washington at the World Economic Forum of weaponizing trade to suppress Chinese innovation. And Beijing’s recent AI Action Plan suggests the rivalry is only heating up.

As for what to expect: unless policymakers on both sides find reasons to pull back, we’re heading for deeper digital segmentation—each side nurturing walled gardens of tech, standards, and alliances. Others, including Europe, are anxiously watching, trying neither to freeze nor fry in this power circuit.

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

Hello, cyber-curious listeners! Ting here, your byte-sized expert in all things China, hacking, and the great digital tug-of-war. Let’s short-circuit the filler—because the US-China tech war just rebooted with more plot twists than a hacker convention’s afterparty.

The big bang these past two weeks? President Donald Trump’s “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan” dropped July 23, exploding onto the scene with 90+ new policy actions. Let’s be real—this is no containment shuffle. Trump kept the core export controls from the previous Biden days, but with rebranded, adrenaline-pumping rhetoric. Think: secure “AI export powerhouses,” aggressive deregs, and the Commerce Department getting a turbocharged license to close every chip loophole left in America’s firewall. Tech titans—Nvidia, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft—are already throwing patriotic confetti.

But, plot twist: pragmatic capitalism struck. The U.S. quietly greenlit Nvidia and AMD to resume selling “mid-tier” AI chips—like the H20 and MI308—to China. Nvidia rejoiced, watching shares pop 5% overnight, and AMD beat that with 8.5%. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick clarified: this move is stitched into a bigger trade negotiation tapestry. America's message? We’ll sell some tools, but not the crown jewels (the high-performance Blackwell Ultragigs still get the “nope” stamp). It’s AI chips for rare earths and calmer trade winds. The U.S. can't afford to cut China off entirely—Xinjiang still holds the keys when it comes to rare minerals and industrial supply chains.

Now, cyber’s shadow loomed large. Early July, Microsoft confirmed attackers—believed state-sponsored from China—took over Microsoft servers at hundreds of US government agencies, including the National Nuclear Security Admin. Even Microsoft’s vaunted “Active Protections Program” (MAPP) got pwned: a Vietnamese researcher at Pwn2Own outed a SharePoint zero-day, and next thing you know, a group dubbed “ToolShell” went wild before the official patch. Former GCHQ head Ciaran Martin and Jen Easterly said, cyber espionage is now “everything, everywhere, all at once.” This isn’t just about lost documents—it’s patient hackers hiding in the digital wallpaper, able to “live off the land” for months.

Meanwhile, over in China, resourceful engineers flipped constraints into superpowers. With tight U.S. controls on bleeding-edge chips, Chinese AI labs doubled down on efficiency—leaner models, smarter training, you name it. The DeepSeek R1 story is the ultimate flex: starved of fancy GPUs, they still shot up from 33 million to 97 million global active users in under four months. This shift could see China dominating emerging markets with cost-cutting, adaptable AI—leapfrogging the whole brute-force arms race.

Industry’s shell-shocked, wondering: Are we building two global tech stacks—an American fortress and China’s efficiency empire? Experts like Bo Zhengyuan think this is a marathon, not a sprint: expect divergent AI ecosystems, growing geopolitical influence, but no knock-out winner any time soon.

Forecast? The cyber clash is just heating up. The U.S. is optimizing for control; China’s playing the long game, autonomy and adaptation. Both sides are racing to secure their supply chains, lock down talent, and shape the next digital battlegrounds—from chips to rare earths and beyond.

That’s the download on Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates! Thanks for tuning in—make sure you subscribe for your next dose of Ting’s cyber wit and wisdom. 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.

Ting here, with your fresh Beijing Bytes—US-China Tech War Updates… and friends, if you thought summer was hot, you haven’t seen what’s sizzling between Washington and Beijing right now.

Let’s talk cyber fireworks first. This past week, Chinese hacker groups like Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, flagged by Microsoft’s threat research, managed to breach the US National Nuclear Security Administration—yep, they got into the agency that keeps watch on America’s nuclear arsenal. The vehicle of choice? A freshly exploited vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint. While officials from the Department of Energy assure everyone that the impact was “minimal” and no classified information leaked, hundreds of organizations worldwide were hit. This underscores a relentless, high-stakes duel: the US fortifying its cyber defenses, while Chinese threat actors continuously scout for new doors to pry open. It’s the cybersecurity equivalent of “two tigers fighting on a mountain,” except the mountain is full of zero-days and the tigers are sleepless[The Independent, Bloomberg, Security Affairs].

Now, onto the silicon frontlines. The US just rolled out even tighter export controls targeting AI chips—Nvidia must now get special licenses to supply even their China-focused H20 models. This comes hot on the heels of President Donald Trump’s deregulation-first AI Action Plan, which is designed to ‘cement US dominance in AI’ and accelerate tech exports to allies. Meanwhile, China isn’t just sitting on its hands. Premier Li Qiang, at Shanghai’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference, unveiled a proposal for a global AI cooperation organization. Think “UN for AI”—except headquartered in Shanghai and pointedly inclusive of the Global South to counter what they call the “exclusive game” of US chip “monopoly.” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who’s practically on a first-name basis with Beijing airport staff at this point, even called China’s domestic AI chip advances “formidable.” The AI tech stacks are fragmenting, folks, into two rival blocs, each with their own standards, partners, and rules—from joint research to regulatory philosophies[WAIC, The Asia Group, TS2].

Policy-wise, both economies are dancing delicately. Trade officials from Beijing and Washington are expected to extend their tariff pause another 90 days at talks in Stockholm—this means, for now, the tariff status quo holds. But behind the scenes, the sticking points remain: the US is fixated on China’s overcapacity and hunger for semiconductor know-how, while China wants to loosen the chokehold the US has put on its high-tech sectors. A recalibration is beginning, with Chinese state planners calling for more balanced regional industrial policies so every province doesn’t chase the same tech unicorn[SCMP, AP, World Bank].

The strategic implication? We’re watching the steady formation of two parallel tech universes—one US-led, one China-led—each racing to win the AI era and shape how the world is wired and governed. Experts like George Chen of The Asia Group say we’re heading for a “global alignment” where allies and Belt-and-Road countries pick sides or at least hedge their bets.

My take: if you’re in tech, security, or geopolitics, buckle your seatbelt. Both nations are tossing around offers of open-source AI and pragmatic cooperation on the surface, but under the hood, every move is about control—of supply chains, information, and digital sovereignty.

That’s the byte-sized drama for this week. Thanks for tuning in. Don’t forget to subscribe for all your Beijing Bytes on the US-China Tech War. 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.

Listeners, Ting here, your byte-sized portal into all things China, cyber shenanigans, and the digital duels shaping our world. No time to warm up—major sparks have flown in the US-China tech war the past two weeks, so buckle up.

Let’s start hot with the breaking Microsoft SharePoint cyber drama. According to both CBS News and Microsoft, state-backed Chinese threat groups Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon breached several US government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the National Institutes of Health, by exploiting an unpatched SharePoint vulnerability. Microsoft says these attackers even managed to deploy ransomware before the patch landed. The cyber fireworks triggered multi-agency responses—CISA was patching and locking everything down around the clock. Microsoft, caught with its pants down, issued urgent security updates, while the White House gamed out worst-case scenarios. No evidence (so far) of stolen data from Homeland Security, but NIH and Defense Intelligence had several hours of SharePoint blackout—never a good look.

Meanwhile, Microsoft found itself in yet another DC doghouse. After a ProPublica expose, the tech giant scrambled to end its long-running practice of using China-based engineers for US government cloud systems—even for the Pentagon! The Defense Secretary called this an unacceptable risk, and now Microsoft’s sweeping the decks industry-wide. The company is reviewing whether it needs even tighter controls—because, apparently, digital escorts for foreign engineers weren’t cutting it. This is amplifying the debate: can you really safeguard American government data if it's being serviced from Hangzhou? The policy blowback looks set to ripple into future contracts and cloud trust.

Now, let’s talk hardware—because what’s hotter than AI chip smuggling? Despite the Biden-Trump pivot in export controls, Nvidia H100, H200, and yes, the turbocharged B200 chips worth over $1 billion were smuggled into China since April, reports from Reuters and TechCrunch reveal. These chips, blacklisted by Washington, miraculously appeared in Shanghai and Shenzhen data centers via indirect supply chains—mostly through Southeast Asia’s Swiss cheese enforcement. Nvidia disavows these sales, warning buyers about technical headaches and zero warranty, but the damage is done. Chips banned one day show up on Taobao the next, igniting a regulatory panic.

In response to this enforcement fail, the US is now expected to tighten export rules again this fall—possibly even pressuring allies like Thailand and Malaysia to clamp down on rerouted shipments. The Nvidia H20 chip ban was even briefly reversed to allow legal exports, especially after Trump’s trade talks with Xi Jinping hinted export controls could be used as bargaining chips in broader negotiations. Still, the B200 ban sticks, and tech supply chains stay in limbo. US firms and trading partners are now caught in a fog of policy reversals, with chip sales fluctuating based on the latest summit handshake or Twitter jab.

But don’t think Beijing’s just a bystander! The Cyberspace Administration of China rolled out new draft amendments to the Cybersecurity Law, upping the penalties for breaches to nearly $7 million, aligning with their newer data protection rules. The message from China: keep your compliance sharp, or get ready to bleed RMB. This plays hand-in-glove with moves restricting the export of battery tech and mineral knowhow. China is fencing off its crown jewels like cathode and lithium patents, squeezing foreign EV and green tech makers.

Of course, US policy didn’t stay still. Just this week, President Trump made a splash with his AI deregulation plan—executive orders to turbocharge American AI with deregulation, simplify data center permits, and demand a “single federal standard” for AI model governance. This is marketed as a culture-war-fighting, innovation-driving package, meant to outpace China by unleashing private sector might and keeping progressive policies at the margins. David Sacks, the new White House point man on AI, vows this will “make America the AI export powerhouse.” Whether this blitz will spark another wave in the tech arms race or just whiplash for developers is hotly debated.

Here’s the real takeaway: the US-China tech war is now a digital Cold War where AI, chips, and cybersecurity define national power. Smuggled hardware, cyber sabotage, policy whiplash, and trade blackmail are the new normal. Expect the fall to bring even tougher enforcement, more supply chain intrigue, and both sides corralling more allies—think the US-Japan-Taiwan-Korea “Chip 4” versus China’s growing Digital Silk Road.

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

You’re plugged back into Beijing Bytes with me, Ting—your navigator through the zeroes and ones of the US-China tech war, where the only thing more volatile than chip prices is the policy ping-pong across the Pacific. Let’s skip the boot screen and dive straight into the latest data flood.

Just this week, US agencies were scrambling thanks to the finest in Chinese hacking innovation. Microsoft and Bloomberg have named names: Linen Typhoon, Violet Typhoon, and Storm-2603 are all groups tied to Beijing, and they used a nasty zero-day vulnerability in SharePoint to poke holes in American government servers, including a lateral scan of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Department of Energy says impacts were ‘minimal’—cyber lingo for ‘we dodged the big one’—but the breach underscores how even with all the patching in the world, you’re only as safe as your next undiscovered flaw.

While American agencies were restoring their backups, news broke that the Trump administration reversed the famous AI chip ban, giving Nvidia and AMD the OK to peddle their tailored H20 and MI308 chips to China. In April, these same chips were enemy tech non grata, so industry folks are calling this ‘policy whiplash.’ Why the sudden about-face? Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is playing some 5D chess with Beijing, tying the chip sales to rare earth minerals negotiations. Turns out, those shiny AI chips are a lot less useful without the rare metals that China practically has on speed-dial.

Congress, however, is in full ‘red alert’ mode. Representative John Moolenaar’s sounded the klaxons, warning that letting Chinese firms like DeepSeek bulk up on H20 chips turbocharges Beijing’s AI sector—letting their AI rivals pull closer to the US, both economically and, maybe, militarily. Moolenaar’s logic: every advance in China’s generative AI is a future threat to American tech hegemony.

Policy gets whiplashier still. Trump’s freshly minted AI Action Plan talks a big game on protecting chip tech but dodges the details—no sign yet of hard enforcement methods or coordination strategies with tech giants or international allies. The plan hints at new approaches like chip location verification and clamping down not just on whole chips but the bits and bobs that make cutting-edge processors run. So, yes, the future holds more executive orders, more ambiguous guidelines, and plenty of room for interpretation.

Industry’s reaction? Nvidia, AMD, and EDA software vendors like Synopsys and Cadence are popping the champagne—they just recovered a revenue stream and market access that Wall Street thought was lost. On the flip side, US hawks fear these concessions grease China’s path to self-reliance in AI hardware, putting America’s current edge at risk.

Strategically, there’s an arms race not just in hardware, but in innovation theft. The US Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property claims as much as $600 billion a year is siphoned to China via tech theft, IP infringement, and old-fashioned cyber-espionage. China’s game plan? Out-innovate, out-scale, and undercut the West—building tomorrow’s tech stack with today’s borrowed, stolen, or bought expertise.

Every signal says the cyber front is just heating up. With vulnerabilities like SharePoint’s ‘ToolShell’ now being weaponized at scale and chip export rules in flux, expect Beijing and Washington to keep playing leapfrog, each scrambling to define—and secure—the next global standard for AI and cybersecurity.

That’s your download from Beijing Bytes! I’m Ting, grateful you survived this torrent of tech drama. Don’t forget to subscribe, patch your systems, and tune in next time for the hacks, the hijinks, and the headlines shaping our digital age.

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

Hey listeners, it's Ting! Buckle up for today’s Beijing Bytes, where your favorite tech whisperer wraps up a wild fortnight in the ongoing US-China tech chess match. The weather in Washington is hot and steamy—and the news in cyber and semis is even hotter.

Right out of the gates: a plot twist no one saw coming. July delivered a rare ceasefire in the infamous chip war. After years of exports bans piling higher than my overdue code reviews, the US actually dialed things back. On July 3, President Trump’s administration suddenly lifted a ban on vital chip design software sales to China, undoing a move that rattled EDA goliaths like Synopsys and Cadence. Their stock popped instantly—and for one golden moment, analysts dared to praise a “small ceasefire” between Washington and Beijing. Not to be outdone, the US greenlit Nvidia to resume some advanced AI chip sales to China, just months after a blanket ban choked off the last pipeline. Traders on Wall Street cheered, but Capitol Hill? Far less amused. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on China, fired off a warning that selling Nvidia’s H20 chips could “provide substantial increase to China’s AI development”—which, translation, means sleepless nights for US national security hawks.

What’s the game here? Simple: negotiation. Beijing responded by softening its rare earth embargo, and the two giants have opened up high-level trade talks. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed, “trade is in a good place,” hinting at more pragmatic—if fragile—tech diplomacy ahead. Yet, don’t get comfy. Deep distrust lingers. Congress is actively debating outbound investment curbs for US money into Chinese AI and semiconductors, and new strategic export controls are popping up among US allies like the Netherlands. Meanwhile in Beijing, the foreign ministry keeps railing against “tech containment,” doubling down on self-reliance and blasting what it calls the “weaponization” of science and technology.

Now let’s click over to cybersecurity—a truly nail-biting few weeks, if you’re running on-prem SharePoint. Microsoft and CISA urgently warned that hackers are exploiting a critical flaw, ToolShell, letting them waltz through SharePoint servers globally. Dozens of government and energy orgs breached, including at least two US federal agencies—ouch. Google’s Threat Intelligence Group spotted attackers planting web shells and yoinking cryptographic secrets. Recommendation: patch yesterday, assume you’re breached, investigate everything. Microsoft also faced flak after journalists revealed that China-based engineers were working on tech used by the US Department of Defense. Frank Shaw from Microsoft hastily declared: no more China-based teams on Pentagon projects, effective immediately.

Meanwhile, across the globe, China-linked hacker group APT41 embarked on fresh cyber espionage campaigns in Africa, leveraging, you guessed it, compromised SharePoint servers. Their malware cleverly avoids activating on systems set to Chinese, Japanese, or Korean—no friendly fire for these pros.

Big picture: Industry is feeling the whiplash. Nvidia expects $15 billion from China this half alone, but new export controls could still bite hard if the rules shift again. Export restrictions help US national security but sap US firm innovation if taken too far—everyone’s walking a tech tightrope.

Expert consensus? We’re in for more seesawing: fleeting détente, then new friction. Policymakers and CEOs alike are balancing innovation, revenue, and risk as China sprints toward indigenous chip design and AI. My bet? The “chip war” takes a summer breather, but the race to rule AI and cyber is only getting started.

Thanks for tuning in to Beijing Bytes. Smash that subscribe button for your next dose of cyber drama. This has been a Quiet Please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

For more http://www.quietplease.ai


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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI