The United States’ National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) recommends that Congress tighten the chip manufacturing technology bottleneck to prevent China from surpassing it in the next few years. The NSCAI recommends limiting China’s purchase of advanced chip manufacturing equipment.
Category: China Freelancing Global Gig
China Freelancing Global Gig
In-home Tuition in China – An Endless Race for the Future
The first day being an in-home tutor, Chen only felt shocked. She was then majoring in Chinese literature at a prestigious university in Beijing. She saw a message in a Wechat group in need of an in-home tutor teaching both Chinese and English. Wanting to make some pocket money, she took the deal.
China — Xi Gives Jack Ma Certificate, Post Communist Takeover Ant Group IPO Worth Billions
The Chinese government has praised Alibaba Group for supporting its poverty eradication policy. This is because the firm has helped farmers sell over $150 billion worth of farm produce via its platforms. Due to its food distribution efforts, the agency has been hailed as a model for poverty eradication in the country.
Investors Take Second Look at Gold Following Bitcoin Decline
The price of Bitcoin, the virtual currency, has continued to decline. In the past 24 hours, it has fallen by up to 6.28% to a low of $43,119. According to coindesk quotation data, Bitcoin was quoted at $43,607, a drop of 7.23%. Compared with the record high of $58,354.14 on February 21, Bitcoin has fallen by more than 26%.
6G Technology, the Race for Telecommunication Dominance
The battle for 6G is already intensifying, although this communication standard remains purely theoretical, but it highlights how geopolitics is fueling the technological rivalry, especially between the US and China. However, it is highly likely the 6G technology will not be available until 2030.
Chinese Scramble to Dominate Food Market
Alibaba and Pinduoduo are pushing innovation in China’s agriculture industry as they strive to dominate the food distribution market. The current competition was triggered by the food distribution crisis that emerged last year following the onset of the corona virus crisis.
President Xi Restructures Ant Group Due to Alibaba’s Jack Ma Digital Yuan Trial Profits
Alibaba’s operations as well as those of its subsidiaries have come under intense scrutiny in recent months as Chinese authorities seek to rein in their dominance in the country. According to a new report, MYBank, an Ant Group subsidiary is set to take part in a government-backed Yuan digital currency program.
Russia and China to Build Moon Colony
Russia and China are ready to sign an historic deal to build the first lunar base. The two countries will cooperate in creating an international lunar structure that China developed. The information was released on the Russian government’s official site. The lunar base can be seen as part of a second space race against America.
Alibaba — China Deploys Ant Traps
Chinese authorities have, in recent months, clamped down on Alibaba Group, which is arguably the biggest e-commerce B2B platform in the country. The move came after founder Jack Ma’s controversial utterances about Chinese regulators stifling growth by implementing unfavorable rules.
The Poor Kid That Resembles Jack Ma is Home
The kid that looks like Jack Ma is finally back home. On February 19, Fan Xiaoqin’s father, Fan Jiafa, told journalists that his youngest son, after four years of fame, would come back to continue the 4th grade at a local primary school. The man that hired Xiaoqin, Liu Changjiang, terminated the contract earlier this year.
HSBC Exits U.S. Retail Banking Business
HSBC Holdings will announce its 2020 annual results on Tuesday, and the investment community is concerned about the results of its strategic review. The British Financial Times quoted a person familiar with the matter as saying that HSBC will revisit its “pivot to Asia” business strategy and withdraw from retail banking in the United States.
Chinese Internet Troll Arrested for Defaming National Heroes
Since the imprisonment of the provocative Spanish rapper Pablo Hasél on February 16, violent street protests have been going on every night across Spain despite the Covid-19 nightly curfew imposed by the Spanish government. For his “lyrics and tweets that compared Spanish judges to Nazis and called former King Juan Carlos a mafia boss,” among other accusations, Pablo was given a nine-month prison sentence.
Russia — ‘NATO Threat to Whole World’
The Russian Gosduma made a statement pertaining the NATO actions, which pose political and military threats not only to Russia, but also to the whole world. Moscow naturally wants to weaken the alliance. The statement was made by the First Deputy Head of the State Duma Committee on the International Affairs Dmitry Novikov.
Chinese Young People Rush Into National Civil Service Examination in Hope of Stability
Having graduated from one of the best universities in China, Na still hasn’t found a job in six months. “Sometimes I even think about becoming a waitress. But my family wouldn’t allow me. It’s a disgrace for their reputation. But here in Xinjiang, there are barely any good job offers.” Finding no better way out, she signed up for the next National Civil Service Examination (NCSE), which led to a second problem: should she sign up for a training course?
The Hague —Karim Khan Elected ICC Chief Prosecutor
A majority of the 72 signatory countries of the Rome Statute on Friday elected the British Karim Khan as the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court ( ICC ) to replace Fatou Bensouda, who took office in 2012. The new chief prosecutor will be the third to hold this position in the history of the organization.
Poaching vs Protection of Endangered Tibetan Antelope
Tibetan antelope, also known as Chiru, is an animal regarded as elves on the Tibetan Plateau. Chiru Tibetan antelope is unique and rare species in China, and one of the ancient and mysterious ones. Suddenly one day, countless Tibetan antelopes were illegally hunted and killed, and it was only because of soft chiru wool that can be used to produce a shawl called “Shahtoosh”. The Chinese government has stepped up its crackdown on poaching to protect the endangered antelopes. IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) included Tibetan antelope on the protection list too. Let us approach the world of Tibetan antelope.
Baidu Climbs 6% on Investor Speculation
When Baidu stocks began to climb high up to 6%, it did so on a lot of investor speculation. Sponsored ADR Class A currently traded at $295.14, up $18.55, or 6.7%. Many Chinese internet-savvy persons saw the potential of this stock and invested in Baidu stock as a long-term investment.
Coronavirus — WHO Echoes China’s Origin Findings
The World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origin of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, has certified the animal origin of the virus. However, it considers that no sufficiently solid evidence has been found to conclude that it originated from bats or pangolins, which it has identified as “potential candidates.”
Mastercard, SAP Concur Team Up in APAC
Mastercard has partnered with SAP Concur in the Asia-Pacific region. SAP Concur and Mastercard are not competing for customer business, they are actually complementary partners. SAP Concur and Mastercard provide cardholders with discounts and other benefits, such as travel insurance, extended payment terms, and more.
Oil Prices Recovered After 5 Year Low
The oil prices continue to climb higher. The price of oil has now recovered after it dropped to a five-year low. In fact, the price of oil is now up over $60 a barrel, which makes many people wonder what will trigger the price of oil to go even higher.
Hyundai Motor Says No Joint Car-building Plan with Apple
In recent years, there have been many sources of news that have confirmed that Apple has started a car project internally, but it has not been fully implemented. Recently, there have been many rumors that Apple will cooperate with Hyundai’s Kia Motors.
Young People Rush into Financial Market in China
A recent report by Tencent shows that in China, over 84% of post-90s (people born after 1990) are doing some sort of personal financial planning (PFP), especially investing in the stocks and the funds. It’s like suddenly, everyone is talking about “Baijiu” (a Chinese liquor), one of the most speculated funds during the last year along with medical stocks.
Belarus Forum — Belarusian People’s Assembly
The Investigative Committee of Belarus formally sent the documentation for the extradition of the founder of the Telegram channel NEXTA Stepan Putilo and his former editor-in-chief Roman Protasevich from Poland under the International treaty. The Belarusian KGB previously included these individuals on the terrorist list.
Young People Find Construction Sites More Comfortable Than Factories in China
Born in 1999, Yang is the youngest construction worker on his team. He has no regrets about working a blue-collar job. Six years ago, dreaming to shine in a big city, Yang came to Xiamen with some friends after finishing only junior high school.
In the beginning, not knowing what to do, he listened to a friend’s idea and signed up for a training course to become a hairdresser. During a whole month, he did nothing but washing hair. “The final exam was to wash the instructor’s hair. If he felt comfortable, course completed. I didn’t even touch any scissors there.”
Gold Sees Worst Week in Two Months
Gold faces its worst week by a few notches, as it attempts to hold onto its recent gains. There are mixed signals coming from the market, and traders have become divided in their opinion of whether this is a good or a bad week for gold. Gold gained 0.3% to $1796.77 an ounce by 06:22 GMT after slipping more than 2% to the lowest level since last December.
China Resumes Imports of Foreign Scrap Metal
China, which is the biggest steel user in the world, has resumed the import of foreign scrap metal into their country. It is the first such shipment since China outlawed international waste. News sources report that Australian iron ore miners were in attendance at the China-Australia Industry Forum last Friday.
Shanghai Police Arrest Members of China’s Leading Fansub Team
On February 3, Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau hosted a special press conference that caused deep sadness all over the internet in China.
“The suspects have created several companies since 2018 with overseas servers. They download videos via illegal foreign torrent websites and hire translators to make Chinese subtitles for $60 per episode.
Alibaba — Ma Omitted from List of Business Leaders
Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma has not been included in a list of Chinese business leaders published Tuesday in a front-page article in the state-run Shanghai Securities News, Reuters reports. The list does include Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huawei Technologies, Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, and Wang Chuanfu, founder of BYD Auto.
Alibaba Group to Post Quarterly Earnings on Tuesday
Alibaba Group will post its first quarterly profits ended December 31, 2020 before the U.S. market opens on Tuesday, February 2, 2021, and will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results. The report does not mention the reason why the company is releasing its earnings reports quarterly.
Working Overtime Becomes Normal in China
Everyone knows that Chinese white-collars work overtime, but to what extent? Recently, a study by Zhaopin, one of China’s largest online headhunters, has given us a peek at the truth.
About 81.95% employees work overtime every week, 77.61% of whom do it for free. 24.70% of them even work overtime every day without being paid. The average overtime is 6.45h per week. In 2016, Chinese mobile transportation platform DiDi published a ranking of the companies with the most overtime, the top 3 being JD, Tencent and 58Ganji. The average time of leaving the office at JD was 23:16. DiDi has stopped publishing this ranking, possibly due to PR pressures from such companies. But the situation apparently didn’t improve just because the statistics are no longer disclosed.
HNA Group Disclosed Years of Suspicious Money Flow
Recently the HNA Group, which is headquartered in the Cayman Islands, has revealed unusual cash movements in its previous and current accounts. The company made three bankruptcy petition filings by its creditors on behalf of its debtors. There also may be an investigation into whether any of the transactions were improper or incomplete.
Russian — Space Program Launches 2021
The 2020 was not a good year for the Russian space program. Even though, Russia continues to be in the top 3 nations pertaining the space launches. Roscosmos is showing a negative trend. The US remains at the number 1 spot, followed by China. Chinese launches in majority were not successful. Last year, Russia only had 4 out of 11 flights to the International Space Station (ISS).
China — Pressures Alibaba to Bring Ant Group Under China Central Bank Oversight
Alibaba’s Ant Group is looking to sell its EyeVerify a biometrics firm venture in 2021. Also referred to as Zoloz, EyeVerify uses ISO/IEC standard presentation attack detection (PAD) technology for identity verification. The EyeVerify software is presently used by US banks, and other financial institutions to verify user identity.
FTC — Claims Xiaomi Conducting Unauthorized Wireless Access
Xiaomi Corp, the third-largest mobile phone maker in the U.S., has filed a case against the United States. Xiaomi hopes that the court must force the US government to reverse the blacklist. The case names Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. as claimants.
Alibaba to Become a Financial Holding Company
Alibaba’s Ant Group is working to restructure its business before February in a bid to meet regulatory compliance guidelines. This is according to a Fox Business report. According to people familiar with the matter, the firm is looking to convert into a financial holding company.
Xi and China at the World Economic Forum
Chinese president Xi Jinping spoke at the Davos Economic Forum. President Xi’s speech touched on the equality of the international relations. However, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the forum was held in the online format. Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the forum as well.
Coronavirus — 2020 Worst Year on Record for Tourism
The year 2020 closed as the worst year in the history of tourism, with 1 billion fewer international arrivals in the world and losses estimated at more than €1 trillion caused by the coronavirus pandemic. As reported on Thursday by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the figures represent a 74% drop in the volume of tourists compared to 2019.
Coronavirus — WHO Team Begins Investigation
On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s team will visit laboratories and markets in Wuhan, China, as part of an investigation into the origin of the emerging virus, which infected and killed millions around the world within about a year of its discovery. More than 2 million people have died as a result of more than 101 million infections worldwide.
Regulator: Ant Group Probe Won’t Undermine Growth
Liang Tao, the vice president of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), has underlined that the recent probe into Ant Group’s workings won’t undermine its growth and development. He said this during a press conference in which he quelled fears that the government was targeting private firms.
B2B — SAP Hong Kong, Deloitte Team Up
SAP Hong Kong and Deloitte have teamed up to bring an enhanced product solution to their customers. The union deal allows Deloitte to extend SAP products to clients, including SAP GTS which is ideal for global companies that have to deal with international B2B trading compliance issues.
Chinese Couples Get Poorer After Marriage
Recently, a new opinion thread opened on Douban, a Chinese social website where people discuss anything: “How much does a wedding cost? My boyfriend and I are getting married as soon as we’ve saved enough money.” The answers, however, are a bit intimidating.
Even people from small cities or towns claim that a wedding could easily cost them over $30,000, three times the annual GDP per capita in China. Are Doubaners being extravagant or is that the reality nowadays?
The Most Dangerous Items to Buy on AliExpress
The e-commerce market continues to grow around the the globe. This year, it is expected that e-commerce retail sales worldwide will reach $4.9 trillion. It should be noted that in 2019, American consumers spent $601.75 billion shopping online. However, there are certain items that should never be bought, particularly on Alibaba’s AliExpress.
UNCTAD — Global FDI Plummets
Foreign direct investment, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, plummeted 42% globally in 2020, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on Sunday. UNCTAD indicated that the recovery from this indicator would be likely be delayed until 2022.
AliExpress and Amazon Customer Fail
The Coronavirus pandemic changed the way people live and shop. Recently, I purchased a product from AliExpress, a popular online marketplace based in China. The tracking number proved the item was never received, and in fact never left China. My appeal for a refund was denied.
Creator of WeChat Blames Keyboard Apps for Stealing User Data
Allen Zhang, known for leading the developments of WeChat, QQMail and FoxMail, three major products of Tencent, announced on this year’s Night of WeChat that WeChat will soon have its own virtual keyboard app. Why? ‘To keep other keyboard apps from stealing user information and chat history.’
“On a daily basis, there are 1.09 billion users texting on WeChat, 330 million of them use it to have a video call. 670 million photos are uploaded on WeChat Moments and over 100 million short videos every day.” Since its first version in 2011, WeChat has now become a must-have for the Chinese people. It’s an app for everything: messaging, social media, mobile payment, food ordering, train and flight tickets booking… Many companies even use it as their main communication tool.
Chinese Firms have Been Buying Venezuelan Crude Oil Despite Sanctions
Some unscrupulous Chinese oil-dealing companies have been buying Venezuelan crude oil and mixing it with additives to disguise its true origin. This is according to a new Bloomberg report. It reveals a range of crafty methods used by guileful dealers to skirt US sanctions imposed on the Venezuelan oil industry.
Alibaba’s Ant Group’s Valuation Estimated to Drop by 50 Percent
Alibaba’s Ant group valuation is likely to fall to $108 billion. This is according to Bloomberg Intelligence. The dip is attributed to the company’s currently ongoing anti-trust probe being undertaken by Chinese authorities. According to Bloomberg analyst Francis Chan, Ant Group is likely to see its valuation slashed in half due to the recently updated regulations.
Russia — AliExpress Future is Bleak
The e-commerce wholesale platforms continue to grow. In 2020, online retailers saw a sharp increase in sales. The Coronavirus pandemic that spread around the world contributed to a change in shopping preferences for consumers. However, China has been one of the largest contributors of counterfeit products’ sales and manufacturing.
Bitcoin’s Volatile Week Lowers Confidence in Crypto Resurgence
Bitcoin’s January 8 record of nearly $ 42,000 embodied risk acceptance in stimulus-flooded financial markets. This week’s strong bitcoin sell-off is raising new questions about the sustainability of the cryptocurrency boom. Digital asset prices have fallen 14% this week, marking the highest drop since March.
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