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

This is Ting with your latest Beijing Bytes, where cyber drama meets geopolitical theatre and the tech war’s only getting hotter. Let’s dive right into this epic US-China tech standoff, where hacks, laws, and chip wars have packed these past weeks tighter than a Beijing subway at rush hour.

First, cybersecurity—oh, what a show. Just last week, CrowdStrike’s 2025 Global Threat Report confirmed what every hacker and grandma with a webcam already knows: Chinese state-backed hacking has exploded, clocking a 150% jump in activity. The headliner? Chinese espionage groups running amok, like Salt Typhoon compromising not just random small fry but giants such as Viasat and the US Treasury, with malware that’s so sneaky it makes your VPN blush. Meanwhile, Phantom Taurus, a newly dubbed China-nexus group, is hitting ministries and embassies across Asia and Africa with their own flavor of custom malware—imagine malware with a ninja invisibility cloak. Palo Alto Networks barely tracked them, but one thing is clear: these folks are all about stealth and persistence.

Meanwhile, over in China, regulators say nyet to cyber-edge-case reporting delays. Under the new Cyberspace Administration rule, critical infrastructure operators who get hacked must spill the beans within one hour—yup, while your coffee’s still hot. Fail to do so? Prepare for legal doom. Ironically, China is tightening its domestic cyber fortress while its own hackers roam far and wide—the digital equivalent of locking your doors while launching water balloons at the neighbors.

Stateside, all eyes are on the evolving TikTok saga—Donald Trump dropped a fresh executive order to force TikTok’s US spinout, with Oracle and Silver Lake now in the driver’s seat. ByteDance gets only a 20% stake and no peeking at security decisions, but Beijing’s keeping its poker face, signaling a “basic framework consensus,” but final approval’s still up in the air. Experts say this TikTok deal sets precedent for global tech de-coupling, but leaves both sides with new leverage plays for months to come.

Industry-wise, the chip wars are anything but chill. While Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says China is “nanoseconds behind” the US in AI chips, Beijing’s AI ecosystem is sprinting. Companies like Huawei and DeepSeek are now building advanced homegrown AI chips, luring away the dependency on Nvidia. Meanwhile, Shanghai green-lit the IPO of Moore Threads, a US-sanctioned AI chip developer, proving China’s not just playing catch-up, but changing the game—in a very literal sense. Supply chain paranoia is rising on both sides, with Apple ramping up its “China plus one” strategy, shifting more assembly to India and Vietnam—Tim Cook’s personal version of strategic ambiguity.

On Capitol Hill, tech is the new frontier for legislative land wars. Congress added amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act targeting competition in AI, semiconductors, and rare earths. Trump signed off on a $100,000 H-1B fee to restrict foreign tech talent, nudged by rising nationalism but irking Big Tech. Meanwhile, the FTC and courts are slapping AI firms with new privacy and copyright scrutiny, and a pile of fresh American bills aim to pre-empt state AI regulations and build federal regulatory sandboxes, courtesy of Ted Cruz and Michael Baumgartner.

Where is this headed? The next Trump-Xi showdown at the APEC summit in Seoul looms huge, with tariffs cooling off for now but no shortage of drama expected—think trade policy wrapped in 5G wires and robot boot camps. The biggest strategic implication? According to South China Morning Post, both powers are hardening for a protracted, zero-sum contest where innovation, security, and influence will be measured in machine learning cycles and lines of code. My forecast: the tech decoupling dance is far from finished, so keep your eyes on Shanghai,...