For many years, when it comes to e-commerce, there has been one undisputed leader — Amazon. However, as consumers began changing their buying behaviour, newer brands began to pop up to upend the online shopping juggernaut. Take Shein for instance, the Chinese company that only recently took the world by a storm for its ultra fast fashion approach has overthrown Amazon, topping the chart as one of the most downloaded shopping apps in the world in 2021.

In fact, Shein is not the only one. According to the newest data from Apptopia, two other e-commerce companies leapfrogged Amazon in the global rankings: Shopee, based in Singapore, which serves Southeast Asia and Latin America; and Meesho, based in India, which specializes in social e-commerce for categories including fashion and home products.

All data is iOS + Google Play combined, except for data from China which is iOS only. Source: Apptopia

The US e-commerce giant came in fourth place overall in global shopping app installation last year. Just the year before, Amazon had the most app installs worldwide. It is fair to note though that Amazon is still first in Apptopia’s US rankings for shopping app installs in 2021. This is given considering data from Statista that shows the Seattle-based company holds 41% of the US e-commerce market in 2021.

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Singapore-based Shopee came in first with a total 203 million downloads while China-based Shein came in second with 190 million downloads and the company has been a growing force in the fast fashion market. India-based Meesho took the third spot with 153 million downloads.

Amazon, Shein, Shopee vs social commerce

At this point, online is growing at a torrid pace. New data from fintech and payments research specialists Kaleido Intelligence has found that B2B and B2C e-commerce spend on physical goods and digital services will reach US$6 trillion this year, up from US$4.8 trillion in 2020. 

But it is shopping on social media platforms that will top the chart as it is currently growing three times faster than traditional e-commerce platforms. In fact, it is on pace to reach US$1.2 trillion globally by 2025, according to a study by Accenture. Most of that growth (62%) will be driven by Gen Z and millennial shoppers.

“The social commerce opportunity will nearly triple by 2025. Growing at a CAGR of 26%, the social commerce opportunity will reach $1.2 trillion by 2025. This accounts for 16.7% of the US$7 trillion e-commerce total spend,” Accenture said in a separate report.

The report also believes that China will remain the most advanced market both in size and maturity, yet the highest growth will be seen in developing markets such as India and Brazil. As for the US, social commerce is expected to more than double, reaching US$99 billion by 2025.

The post Shein, Shopee and Meesho overtake Amazon in 2021 appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

China was the first major economy to pilot a sovereign digital currency, also known as a CBDC (central bank digital currency).

In fact, it is the only country that has continuously made strides with its new electronic payment system while the rest of the world is still in the research phase. That said, after having run numerous trials over the last two years for its digital yuan, the People’s Bank of China is now aiming for a wider reach by launching an e-CNY wallet app in the country.

To recall, over the past two years, cities throughout China have even been holding lotteries, distributing a total of 10 million digital yuan (worth about US$1.47 million at the time) to people in Shenzhen in October 2020, 20 million digital yuan (or US$3 million) in Suzhou in December 2020, and 40.2 million digital yuan (or US$6.2 million) in Chengdu in February 2021.

For context, e-CNY is essentially physical cash converted into a digital form, and it’s been in the works since 2014.

Distribution of the digital currency takes place using a two-tier system that transfers e-CNY from the PBOC to commercial banks. Banks will then distribute the currency directly to consumers.

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In November last year, PBOC’s Governor Yi Gang had said that China would continue to advance the development of its central bank digital currency and improve its design and usage, including increasing its interoperability with existing payment tools.

As of November 2021, the central banks said around 140 million Chinese citizens have opened digital yuan wallets.

As per the Reuters report, a notice in the app said it is in a research and development pilot phase and is only available to selected users through supported institutions that provide e-CNY services, including major domestic banks.

That said, the new e-CNY app is accessible on both China’s Android and Apple app stores since Tuesday, but only to people in 10 specific cities, including Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Shanghai.

Test run at the Winter Olympics for China’s digital yuan

So far, Beijing seems to be focusing on ensuring the release and use of the digital yuan at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February this year — the first chance for the outside world to have a glimpse of the virtual currency.

Foreign visitors will be able to use the digital yuan to pay for things like accommodation and transportation within major venues at the Games, according to the government. 

There will also be ATM machines throughout the Games that can convert foreign currencies, including US dollars, into virtual Chinese money, which will be carried in a digital yuan card.

The Chinese government even urged American companies, including McDonald’s, to accept digital yuan before the 2022 Olympics. 

In fact, according to the Financial Times, the fast-food giant has been forced to expand the digital yuan trial to more of its restaurants in the nation in anticipation of the Winter 2022 Beijing Olympics.

The post China’s digital yuan app now available on Chinese Android, iOS appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Around the world, a shortage of semiconductors, the tiny but critical chips used to calibrate cars’ fuel injection, run infotainment systems or provide the brains for cruise control, has upended automaking. Making matters worse is the supply chain crisis. To beat both the crisis, China’s carmakers are walking down the self-sufficient path.

Like many other large auto players around the world ,China’s big players too are taking matters into their own hands to build stronger domestic supply chains. The push comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping is pressing for stronger domestic supply chains that are less vulnerable to US sanctions and the pandemic. 

Earlier this month, China’s leading private automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group’s unit SiEngine Technology unveiled a cutting-edge automotive chipset–Dragonhawk 1. Geely Chairman Eric Li during the unveiling admits that “Semiconductors are extremely important for the country. 

They are the key to establishing secure and stable supply chains.” Dragonhawk 1, according to reports, is designed to serve as the brain behind smart cockpits, which include dashboard displays, navigation systems and cloud-based services. 

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The chip is built with 7-nm technology and is one of the most advanced automotive systems on a chip in the world. Its mass production will begin within the July-September quarter of 2022, and the chips are expected to be incorporated into Geely vehicles by the end of next year.

Among it’s added advantages includes allowing the cars to quickly process images and other data collected by driver-assistance systems, as well as external communications. Reports claim that the DragonHawk 1 has already received orders for several vehicle models and by 2023, it is expected that there will be at least two or three automakers choosing the chip.

To recall, SiEngine was formed by Geely unit EcarX and Arm China, the local unit of British chipmaker Arm. SiEngine aims to launch a new 5-nm chip as early as 2024 to meet the demands of constantly evolving self-driving technologies.

Other automakers upping China’s supply chain

SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile, a joint venture between China’s state-owned SAIC Motor and General Motors, has also begun developing its own chips. The joint venture plans for at least 90% of chips used in its EVs to be made in China by 2025, according to a local media report.

Separately, even Dongfeng Motor has begun mass production of power semiconductor modules for new energy vehicles, while BYD looks to list a semiconductor unit to bolster development capabilities, Nikkei reports.

According to Nikkei, China is said to have a self-sufficiency ratio of about 20% for all semiconductors, and 5% or less for automotive chips specifically. British research company LMC Automotive separately reports that the global semiconductor shortage dented the supply of passenger cars in 2021 by more than two million, or the equivalent of around 10% of the Chinese market.

The post This is how China’s automakers deal with supply chain mayhem appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

In 2020 alone, some 1.7mb of data was created every second by every person. To top it off, a whopping 90% of the world’s data was created in the last two years alone. In short, energy use by data centers and IT will only continue to rise–ultimately speeding up the development of green data centers.

Vertiv, a global provider of digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, in its recently released annual list of the key data center trends to watch in 2022, also emphasized on a dramatic acceleration in actions to address sustainability and navigate the climate crisis. “As we move into 2022, data center operators and suppliers will actively pursue strategies that can make a real difference in addressing the climate crisis,” Vertiv CEO Rob Johnson said.

Now, as we near the new year, we look at possible data center trends we may see in 2022 and beyond, as highlighted by experts.

Green data centers: tackling sustainability and the climate crisis

According to Vertiv, the data center industry has taken steps toward more climate-friendly practices in recent years, but operators will join the climate effort more purposefully in 2022. On the operational front, Vertiv experts predict some organizations will embrace sustainable energy strategies that utilize a digital solution that matches energy use with 100% renewable energy and ultimately operates on 24/7 sustainable energy. 

“Such hybrid distributed energy systems can provide both AC and DC power, which adds options to improve efficiencies and eventually allows data centers to operate carbon-free. Fuel cells, renewable assets, and long-duration energy storage systems, including battery energy storage systems (BESS) and lithium-ion batteries*,all will play a vital role in providing sustainable, resilient, and reliable outcomes,” the report added. 

On lithium-ion batteries, Vertiv experts expect the lithium battery recycling infrastructure to expand in 2022 and eliminate one of the few remaining barriers to widespread adoption of lithium-ion batteries in the data center. In a more immediate term, extreme weather events related to climate change will influence decisions around where and how to build new data centers and telecommunications networks, Vertic predicts. 

“Other factors, including the reliability and affordability of the grid, regional temperatures, availability of water and renewable and locally generated sustainable energy, and regulations that ration utility power and limit the amount of power afforded to data centers, play a part in the decision-making as well,” it added.

Artificial Intelligences in data centers gets real

The need for real-time computing and decision-making are becoming more critical, given how today’s networks get more complex and more distributed. To top it off, the augmented and virtual reality demands of the metaverse too are becoming more prominent. 

“This real-time need is sensitive to latencies, and under the increasingly common hybrid model of enterprise, public and private clouds, colocation, and edge, full-time manual management is impractical, if not impossible,” the report states.

That said, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will be critical to optimizing the performance of these networks, Vertiv said. “It will take focus and time to collect the right data, build the right models, and train the network platform to make the right decisions. 

Even smaller companies are embracing AI, according to the report, given the availability of AI hardware from established vendors, cloud options for the same, a simplified toolchain, and an educational focus on data science. “It all adds up to accelerated AI adoption in 2022,” Vertiv noted.

The post-pandemic data center will take stage

According to Vertiv’s data, some 2.9 gigawatts worth of new data center construction is underway globally. “Those data centers will be the first built specifically to meet the needs of a post-COVID world. More activity will be focused at the edge, where VMware projects a dramatic shift in workload distribution – from 5% currently to 30% over the next five years,” it added.

While availability will remain the top priority, even at the edge, Vertiv noted that lower latency is a rising need to support healthy buildings, smart cities, distributed energy resources, and 5G. “[Overall]2022 will see increased investment in the edge to support this new normal (remote work, increased reliance on ecommerce and telehealth, video streaming) and the continuing rollout of 5G,” it concluded.

The post 2022: Green is the color of data centers appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

India has always been the country with state-of-the-art research and development centres focusing on chip design–but never one that produces chips locally. The government however plans to change this with a US$10 billion incentive scheme intended to boost the country’s semiconductor and display manufacturing. So far, the announcement has managed to lure American chipset giant Intel Corp to set up its first semiconductor manufacturing unit in India.

Currently, India relies on overseas manufactures for almost all of its semiconductor requirements. Since the world is fighting a severe chip shortage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is even offering about US$30 billion in incentives to woo some of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers to set up shop in India and give the domestic industry a fillip.

Overall, India is looking to push electronics manufacturing to be worth US$300 billion in the next six years from the current US$75 billion now. The bigger dream though, is to turn India into a global electronics production hub.

What does the plan entail?

Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told a news briefing the plan would help develop “the complete semiconductor ecosystem – from the design of semiconductor chips to their fabrication, packing and testing in the country”. 

Additionally, as the government statement reads, the program will usher in a new era in electronics manufacturing by providing a globally competitive incentive package to companies in semiconductors and display manufacturing as well as design.”

Currently, under the plan, the government will extend fiscal support of up to 50% of a project’s cost to eligible display and semiconductor fabricators, the government’s statement shows. The country’s administration expects the scheme to create about 35,000 high-quality positions, 100,000 indirect jobs and attract investment worth 1.67 trillion rupees (US$8.8 billion).

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According to Ashwini, the government is looking at least two greenfield semiconductor fabs and two display fabs in the country, while at least 15 units of Compound Semiconductors and Semiconductor Packaging are expected to be established with government support under this scheme.

Under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme, support will be provided to 100 domestic companies of semiconductor design for Integrated Circuits (ICs), Chipsets, System on Chips (SoCs), Systems & IP Cores and semiconductor linked design. It is under the DLI scheme that an incentive of up to 50% will be offered to eligible expenditure. Besides that, product deployment linked incentives of four to six percent will be provided on net sales for five years.

An independent ‘India Semiconductor Mission (ISM)’ will also be set up to drive the long-term strategies for developing a sustainable semiconductors and display ecosystem in the country. According to reports, it will be led by global experts in the semiconductor and display industry, and will act as the nodal agency for efficient and smooth implementation of the scheme.

So far, as per reports by local media, guidelines will be issued in early January 2022 on modalities of applying for semiconductor incentives, and that players will be given about 45-90 days to respond.

Intel joins the semiconductor league in India

Just days after the government announced the scheme promoting semiconductor manufacturing in India, Ashwini welcomed Intel to India in a response tweet to Intel’s India SVP and the president of Intel Foundry Services.

Intel – welcome to India. https://t.co/1Wy90HfAjy

— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) December 28, 2021

Intel, however, told Business Today that it has no new plans to announce at this time. “Intel India is Intel’s largest design centre outside of the US and we have been investing towards accelerating innovation and design engineering in India over the last two decades. However, we have no new plans to announce at this time,” a company spokesperson said.

The post India to allocate US$10b to boost semiconductor sector appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The automotive industry has entered into an intense era of collaboration among carmakers, technology giants, and even software start-ups, among others.

This trend comes as countries, including China, accelerate into increased usage of EVs and AVs. Numerous partnerships have sprouted up in the past year, adding density and life to this ecosystem. 

Among Chinese automakers themselves, a handful of significant partnerships were made to accelerate the developments of EVs and AVs within the country.

In fact, China is shaping up to be the first real test of Big Tech’s ambitions in the world of car making. 

Take tech giant Baidu for an example, just 11 months after announcing that it is collaborating with automaker Geely to start a new company to build connected, autonomous electric vehicles, Baidu, which runs Chinese top search engine and a mapping app, announced that they would start mass production of its first “robot” EVs in 2023.

JiDU Auto, the electric vehicle venture between Baidu and Geely, would make EVs that are of the autonomous Level-four (L4), which needs no human intervention, Baidu Chief Executive Robin Li said during the company’s Baidu’s annual developers’ conference on Monday. 

JiDU was established only in March this year and in a mere 207 days, the venture reached the stage of developing intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit for a SIMU car.

This has set a new record in the industry, according to the CEO — last August, the internet company had launched a robocar with L5 autonomous driving capabilities. 

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This time, the automotive robot, deemed by Baidu as the ultimate form of vehicle transportation in the future, will demonstrate JiDU’s three aspects of their product philosophy.

First, the vehicle will have L4 autonomous driving capabilities to empower freedom of movement.

Second, the robot vehicle can communicate naturally with human beings thanks to the accurate recognition of human-vehicle interaction and speech semantics. 

Finally, the robocar is expected to have the capability to self-learn and self-iterate, which will continue to study user habits and improve user experience based on the habit data.

According to Baidu’s vision, intelligent transportation is the result of the deep integration of technologies as Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G, and cloud computing into the transportation segment, based on autonomous driving, smart vehicles, and intelligent roads. 

The company also said that intelligent transportation can cut traffic accidents by 90%. Baidu’s autonomous driving capabilities have made rapid progress in recent months. As autonomous driving technologies develop, these vehicles will eventually be safer than human drivers, the company claims.

According to reports, with 115,000 rides provided in the third quarter of the year, Baidu’s autonomous ride-hailing platform Apollo Go has become the world’s largest autonomous mobility service provider.

Just last month, Baidu and self-driving startup Pony.ai won approval to launch paid, driverless robo taxi services that will see the firms deploy not more than 100 vehicles in Beijing.

According to Baidu’s statement, it would be its Apollo Go service’s first commercial deployment on open roads. The company is aiming for the Apollo Go service to be in 65 cities by 2025 and 100 cities by 2030, Li said during its latest quarterly results.

Besides Baidu, Geely and Pony.ai, Chinese electric-car maker BYD Co. is also apparently building a joint venture with tech startup Momenta to develop autonomous driving technology, according to Reuters.

It is said that BYD and Momenta have established a 100 million yuan three-way partnership to deploy autonomous driving capabilities throughout BYD automobile mannequin strains.

Known as DiPi Intelligent Mobility Co, the new partnership will combine BYD’s expertise in the auto sector with Momenta’s experience in smart driving algorithms, the startup said in a statement on Monday.

Reports are claiming that the preliminary scope of labor will embrace deploying “Level 2 plus” autonomous driving functionality throughout some car mannequin strains.

Separately, even SAIC Mobility, a unit of Chinese automaker SAIC Motor and Momenta, started providing autonomous robotaxi test rides to the general public in a Shanghai district as a part of a trial, earlier this month.

The post More Chinese automakers collaborating on EVs, AVs appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

China is not slowing down its crackdown on Big Tech — if anything, it keeps widening.

After recent back and forth over regulatory loopholes, the country’s internet watchdog finally unveiled draft rules to regulate how domestic firms can list overseas.

The move by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) is seen as a step to govern companies in China applying for overseas IPOs “without complete restriction.”

The draft rule, released over the weekend, is basically an upgraded regulatory framework based on the overseas listing rule drawn up in 1994.

The changes were triggered mainly by the New York IPO by ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc., which went ahead to list, in defiance of Beijing’s orders to halt. 

Following that, authorities have moved to halt the flood of firms seeking to go public in the US over the last six months.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), however, emphasized that the draft rules aren’t meant to tighten policies for overseas listings.

According to Beijing, these rules are to ensure companies comply with domestic laws governing foreign investment, cybersecurity, and data security.

Laws Chinese companies have to comply with before foreign IPOs

For starters, businesses holding information of over a million users in China must undergo a regulatory review after applying for an overseas IPO.

Given the countless internet platforms in China that have stored information of over 10 million or even 100 million users, this means almost all platforms operating in China that aspire to sell shares abroad need to go through a cybersecurity review.

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Additionally, firms whose overseas listings could threaten national security will be barred from listing abroad.

Details of what Beijing deems as a “threat to national security”, however, vary widely and are detailed in various domestic laws, including the new data security law. 

To top it off, companies whose activities raise cybersecurity concerns would have to go through security reviews.

“Improving the oversight of firms listing abroad comes against the backdrop of opening capital markets, and the regulations are to facilitate more healthy, sustainable and longer-term development,” the CSRC said, according to Bloomberg.

Firms involved in major domestic disputes over assets or core technology will also have their IPOs banned, added the regulator.

The CSRC would also require firms in certain sectors to obtain approval from industry watchdogs before registering with the securities regulator — “The direction of opening up remains intact,” CSRC added.

Debunking rumors, CSRC also noted that companies in China using the so-called variable interest entities (VIE) structure would still be allowed to pursue IPOs overseas after meeting compliance requirements.

The VIE structure has been used since the early 2000s by virtually every Chinese internet company to get around China’s tight restrictions on foreign investments in domestic businesses. 

Overall, the rules are applicable to those companies that are seeking to sell shares abroad and will be also applied to those seeking secondary listings, backdoor listings, or listings via special-purpose acquisition companies.

For those that have already been listed overseas, there will be a grace period of an unspecified duration to comply with local regulations, the CSRC said.

The new rules also raise the cost of violations in the wake of Didi’s delisting. Companies that don’t comply with registration rules could face fines of up to 10 million yuan (US$1.57 million), or face a suspension of the business and/or license.

Currently, regulators are seeking public consultation on the draft rules until January 23, 2021. 

The post China to tighten screws on all foreign IPOs appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Around a week ago, Chinese electric car start-up Nio unveiled its second sedan, considered as the latest competitor to Tesla Inc.

While the latter may be the world’s best-known manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs) – Chinese brands are quickly catching up. This time, adding to the list of companies that are giving the American EV giant a run for its money is mobile tech giant Huawei Technologies Co.

Huawei, best known for its telecommunications products and smartphones, isn’t making electric cars of their own but is working with automakers on car technology such as autonomous driving.

At its maiden launch, Huawei introduced the Aito M5–the first model under the Aito brand, (an acronym for “adding intelligence to auto”). 

Huawei’s consumer and business group executive director Richard Yu at the company’s winter product launch event yesterday said that the Aito M5 is part of automaker Seres.

Seres’ cars have previously only incorporated Huawei components, but not Huawei’s design.

That said, Aito M5 is the first car running on Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system (OS) and it runs on both electricity and fuel, according to Yu.

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Prior to this, Huawei had collaborated with Chinese automobile companies to launch cars like the SERES Hybrid sedan and the Avatar 11 electric SUV.

That said, this is not Huawei’s first foray into the automobile industry.

How do Huawei and Aito M5 come together?

Integrating the HarmonyOS into the new Seres car in China is a concept that is sought after by many electric car start-ups.

Many reckon that automobiles will eventually grow into a role not unlike the one smartphones play in the lives of consumers.

Reports quoting Yu’s one-hour presentation highlighted the features of Aito M5 which include peak power and driving range that is better than Tesla’s Model Y. 

Unlike Tesla’s cars, however, the Aito M5 is not purely powered by electricity as it has a fuel tank for extending driving range when the battery runs out of power.

“This model also has the ultimate cornering performance, which is stronger than McLaren. Its performance surpasses many fuel vehicles and surpasses many pure electric vehicles,” added Yu.

The Aito M5 interface also provides advanced sense and intelligent functions, “surpassing all models and car companies, such as L2 + level intelligent driving assistance, HarmonyOS smart split-screen”, and others.

To top it off, Huawei’s OS will integrate some of its smartphone-oriented technology into the vehicle. A Huawei smartwatch, for example, can be used to start the Aito M5.

Huawei’s push into electric cars signals a major shift in business focus for Huawei after two years of US sanctions that have cut its access to key supply chains, forcing it to sell a part of its smartphone business.

Even mobile giants such as Xiaomi Corp have been stepping up efforts in the world’s biggest market for such vehicles, as Beijing heavily promotes greener vehicles to reduce carbon emissions.

The post China’s electric car industry heats up as Huawei joins the race appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Update: Intel issued an apology statement briefly after this article was published.  The tech giant said that its commitment to avoid supply chains from Xinjiang was an expression of compliance with US law, rather than a statement of its position on the issue.

The United States has long criticized China over the alleged widespread torture and repression of the mostly Muslim Uyghurs and other religious and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

At the same time, Beijing has repeatedly dismissed all those allegations and claimed it to be borne of “political motivation” and “disinformation.”

Allegations and retaliation from both parties have resulted in continued tit-for-tat sanctions with Washington banning imports from the region and China taking “necessary measures” to prove its steadfastness.

To recall, the Chinese government’s oppression of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the region is not a new phenomenon, but in recent years, has reached unprecedented levels.

By July this year, the White House opted to issue a tough warning to US companies doing business in the Xinjiang province.

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Calling US investments a potential threat, the government has warned American firms that they may wind up breaking the law if they don’t leave the region, a move that has prompted accusations of hypocrisy from Beijing.

In a Xinjiang Supply Chain Business Advisory published jointly by the State Department, Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security, Labor, and the Office of the US Trade Representative, it was stated that “Businesses and individuals that do not exit supply chains, ventures, and/or investments connected to Xinjiang could run a high risk of violating US law.”

Between a rock and a hard place, there is Intel

In 1985, when Intel entered the Chinese market, it was one of the first American companies to do so following China’s reform and opening-up.

Inevitably, the company has reaped huge benefits from China over those decades — by 2020, 26% of Intel’s revenue came from mainland China and nearby Hong Kong.

Nearly 10% of the company’s properties, factories, and equipment are located in China. 

Yet, to the surprise of many, especially Chinese netizens, the US chipmaker told its suppliers in a public letter to not source products or labor from the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

According to a report by Reuters, Intel said it had been “required to ensure that its supply chain does not use any labor or source goods or services from the Xinjiang region”, following restrictions imposed by “multiple governments”.

Intel just joined sanction on suppliers frm #Xinjiang, China pic.twitter.com/2T7TSJEd1Q

— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) December 21, 2021

The letter has caused a stir and led to severe criticism from Chinese users on Chinese social media, especially Twitter-like service Weibo.

In fact, Bloomberg said a hashtag on the topic has generated more than 250 million views on Weibo.

As the nationalist tabloid run by the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily, Global Times puts it, the move by Intel is “an attempt to prove the company’s own innocence under the pressure of the extreme political environment in the US, as well as pleasing US society with some fine words.”

To date, not many American companies have done what Intel did.

Global Times, in a separate report, added: “Most US enterprises, which Chinese people are familiar with, hesitantly and negatively support Washington’s demands to boycott Xinjiang’s products made by the so-called forced labor,”

Experts reckon that Intel “could afford this move simply because there are very few Xinjiang products in its current supply chain, and its CPU is rigidly demanded in China.”

It seems that Intel isn’t worried about retaliation from China and sees this as a move that favors the US and Western world, never mind that China is Intel’s largest international source of business revenue for six consecutive years. 

Even in Europe earlier this year, French authorities opened a “crimes against humanity” probe into four fashion brands namely Uniqlo, Zara-owner Inditex, and French textile firm SMCP (not to be confused with news outlet South China Morning Post).

The move came after complaints from the European Uyghur Institute and other pressure groups that those retailers were profiting from the use of forced labor from Xinjiang.

For context, the Xinjiang region produces 85% of China’s cotton and accounts for about a fifth of global cotton supplies.

A quick apology

Briefly after this article was published, Intel issued an apology statement over its open letter to suppliers. “We apologise for the trouble caused to our respected Chinese customers, partners and the public. Intel is committed to becoming a trusted technology partner and accelerating joint development with China,” Intel said as per Reuters‘ report.

The post Intel under fire in China after shunning Xinjiang appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

In January this year, Chinese autonomous vehicle startup AutoX, backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, opened its autonomous Robotaxis services to the Chinese public for the first time. Now, the company announced the completion of its first locally dedicated production facility that would allow more production of their Level 4 fully driverless vehicles.

Being one of the front runners in Level 4 fully autonomous RoboTaxis in China, AutoX said fleets of its Gen5 system-equipped RoboTaxis – which were officially launched in July this year and operate without accompanying safety drivers – are already rolling off the production line and getting ready to hit the road as demand continues to soar for autonomous vehicles (AVs).

In a statement to media, the startup said since the factory opened in July 2021, the production line has completed three rounds of design and process optimizations to churn out AutoX’s signature RoboTaxis with an extremely high level of accuracy and consistency. “Purposefully designed and built by AutoX, the factory produces the company’s cutting-edge Gen5-powered RoboTaxi fleet,” AutoX said.

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Currently, AutoX operates China’s largest service area for fully driverless RoboTaxis across 65 square miles of Shenzhen. The vehicles are able to navigate all public roads in the Pingshan District of Shenzhen, which makes AutoX the first driverless RoboTaxi service to cover an entire district in a Chinese megalopolis.

A facility that is China’s first of its kind, the new production facility marks a major milestone in China’s AV industry as “a dedicated production line is critical to guarantee the quality, safety, and consistency of every RoboTaxi,” AutoX said.

The production lines are also equipped with a range of advanced production technologies and systems, including ABB robots, and control and transmission systems designed by Siemens, Omron, Schneider Electric, Philips, SEW, and Mitsubishi. AutoX said it is to ensure the production-level quality of the complex autonomous driving system.

In a new video of the RoboTaxi factory while it is in operation, viewers are given a peek at the AutoX Gen5 system for the first time, giving them a close look at the wiring and assembly of the two main sensor towers and blind-spot sensor suites. 

“Hidden in the trunk of the RoboTaxi is the AutoX XCU, the vehicle computing unit that powers the autonomous driving software stack as well as all of the vehicle’s high resolution sensors via automotive-grade connectors. The computer is connected to liquid cooling devices integrated with the vehicle’s thermal management system. After installation, the compact AutoX XCU is tucked neatly under the trunk bed, leaving enough room for passengers’ luggage,” the company said.

Every RoboTaxi coming off the pre-delivery inspection line then proceeds to the automatic multi-sensor calibration turntable, and goes through wheel calibration as well as temperature and waterproof testing. As AutoX puts it, “as soon as a RoboTaxi leaves the facility’s gates, it is ready to operate autonomously.”

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