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

Alright listeners, Ting here, your one-stop byte for all the delicious drama—digital and otherwise—in the US-China tech war. Let’s plug in, because these last two weeks have been anything but dull on the Beijing Bytes cyber airwaves.

First up, Taiwan dropped a semiconductor bombshell. On June 10, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs slapped Huawei and SMIC with new export controls. Now, any Taiwanese chip gear or know-how sent their way needs government approval. This turbo-charged Washington’s earlier sanctions, sealing a loophole and slamming the brakes on China’s ability to leapfrog into advanced chipmaking. Huawei just had to delay mass production of its shiny new 910C AI chip, and SMIC’s dreams of catching up took a hit too. According to Isaac Lane at AInvest, this is forcing China to double down on its homegrown chip drive—Beijing’s “China Chip 2.0” has a $1.4 trillion warchest to make sure China isn’t left behind in the silicon dust.

But hold up—while the US and Taiwan are putting up walls, Chinese tech is taking the lemons and hacking lemonade. Edwin Foster at AInvest notes that US tariffs and controls have been, ironically, a growth hormone for Chinese resilience. US semiconductor output is down 12% while China’s tech sector ballooned 25%. As American fabs run into labor bottlenecks (Arizona, I’m looking at you) and inflation eats away at competitiveness, Chinese companies are thriving, innovating under pressure, and making investors look east for the next big thing.

Meanwhile, the cyber frontlines are heating up. Italian police nabbed Xu Zewei—a notorious hacker tied to Silk Typhoon, or Hafnium—at Milan’s airport. US prosecutors say Xu, with a buddy named Zhang Yu, hacked into the Texas research university’s COVID-19 data, then helped pillage Microsoft Exchange Servers and poke around for US government secrets. While Xu awaits extradition, Washington is touting its crackdown on threat actors and rallying partners like Italy to turn up the heat, according to reports from Security Boulevard and SC Media.

If that’s not enough digital cloak and dagger for you, Canadian media titan Rogers just confirmed it was targeted by the Chinese group Salt Typhoon. This outfit, previously flagged for sneaking into US and UK telecoms, aims for nothing less than global communications supremacy. Think intercepted calls, emails, and a front-row seat to government gossip.

On the policy side, Washington’s new budget bill really puts the “you shall not pass” into clean tech credits for companies with Chinese ties. The Prohibited Foreign Entity Restrictions are squeezing China out of competing for US green energy tax perks. As if that weren’t complicated enough, Trump 2.0’s tariff tracker is revving up with new Section 232 probes, higher tariffs on everything from chips to cranes, and a persistent squeeze on Chinese tech imports. All the while, US supply chain “friendshoring” is hitting turbulence, making things costlier and more fragmented.

Strategic analysts are calling this the end of American semiconductor hegemony. Both nations are playing hardball—Washington is trying to bottle up high-tech secrets, while Beijing is hustling for chip independence and cyber leverage. The world? It’s left navigating a fractured, multipolar, chip-powered future.

My forecast? More sharp elbows, creative policy pivots, and definitely more digital sneak attacks. Don’t blink, listeners—one byte missed is an eternity lost in this game.

Thanks for tuning in to Beijing Bytes! Subscribe if you love a little semiconductor sizzle with your cyber intrigue. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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