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

Hello listeners, Ting here—your Byte-sized guide to the pulse of the US-China tech war, cyber skirmishes, and every byte in between. Buckle up, because these past two weeks have turned the rivalry into a full-on cyber-thriller with all the drama of a Zhang Yimou epic and the complexity of a quantum chip.

Let’s start with the juiciest plot twist: cyber-warfare. Williams & Connolly, the legendary Washington law firm representing folks like Bill Clinton, found themselves at the center of a Chinese state-sponsored hacker campaign. CrowdStrike and Mandiant swooped in after a zero-day exploit cracked some attorney emails. The FBI’s Washington field office leads a sprawling investigation, as nearly a dozen other law firms and tech giants appear caught in similar webs. The motive, according to sources briefed on the probe and Mandiant’s September report, isn’t financial ransom, but laser-focused espionage—China is after sensitive US national security intel and international trade secrets. Corporate America’s panic room just got a whole lot busier.

As government defenses sputter—thanks to the US federal shutdown that began October 1—groups like the Crimson Collective tuned their attacks to moments of maximum vulnerability. Their breach of Red Hat’s consulting division hit 800 organizations, including defense contractors, NASA’s JPL, and even the House of Representatives. Timing wasn’t just unfortunate—it was tactical, exploiting hollowed-out cyber defenses as CISA ran on a skeleton crew. The world watched as American response and reporting channels lagged, offering adversaries a golden cyber window.

Meanwhile, the export control slugfest escalated. President Trump’s administration broadened restrictions to hit not just chipmakers like Huawei, YMTC, and DJI, but their subsidiaries too—think whack-a-mole, but every mole is a billion-dollar tech firm. These rules, effective immediately, forced redesigns from companies like Nvidia and cut off whole fleets of Chinese supply chains. Just as the dust from the Nvidia H20 chip sales controversy settled, with Trump demanding a massive cut, Beijing shot back, choking off rare earth mineral exports critical for military and 5G tech. But in June, both sides dialed back tariffs and lifted bans—a truce, or just a tactical retreat?

Across the Pacific, the launch of broader US bans on chipmaking equipment crawled into the headlines after a report revealed Chinese firms bought $38 billion in gear last year from chip tool giants like ASML and Tokyo Electron—39% of their sales. Lawmakers screamed for tighter controls and more international coordination, as loopholes allowed non-US firms to keep selling advanced tools to Chinese manufacturers. The House panel flat-out accused the toolmakers of undermining American national security and fueling China’s AI ambitions.

China isn’t just sitting on its chips—it's doubling down. Made in China 2025 keeps powering ahead, flooding patents, dominating EVs and shipbuilding, and betting hard on AI governance and data standards. Beijing’s support for domestic chip innovation is rising, and strategic stockpiles of minerals from Mongolia to Sichuan are now serving both factories and diplomats.

Market reactions? Hong Kong tech stocks sagged, Asian allies feel the squeeze, and the entire semiconductor sector braces for more supply chain shakeups and price spikes. This rivalry isn’t settling down, folks—it’s evolving, and the next summit between Trump and Xi Jinping could bring more fireworks… or just another chess move.

Expert analysis says the battle is now about system-level leverage as much as technology. Controls slow China’s progress, but also force the US to reckon with dependencies—and to ask how far it’s willing to push before allies get caught in the crossfire. The forecast? More scrutiny, more creative...

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

Hey listeners, Ting here with your essential Beijing Bytes, zooming in on the latest from the relentless US-China tech slugfest. Buckle up, because the last two weeks have been a masterclass in digital maneuvering, innovation jiu-jitsu, and—yep—good old-fashioned hacking wars.

First, cyber-chaos. Booz Allen Hamilton just dropped a bombshell report dissecting how Beijing isn’t just hacking for sport—it’s building a permanent cyber-powered advantage. The playbook? Adopting AI supercharging for everything from reconnaissance to exploit development, targeting not just the US, but Five Eyes allies, and even embedding itself in the supply chains. If you’re thinking this means sneaky Chinese hardware lurking in US power grids and ports, you’re absolutely right. The report points out that whole swathes of critical infrastructure in the US are running on PRC-made routers or cranes, some with backdoors so subtle even savvy sysadmins might miss them. It’s all part of an organized, national-level effort that makes your average ransomware gang look like script kiddies.

Want another flavor of cyber mischief? Enter UAT-8099, the globe-trotting Chinese cybercrime group uncovered in April this year. According to Cisco Talos and ESET, these folks don’t just hack—they hijack Microsoft servers, manipulate search engine rankings, and swipe high-value credentials, affecting universities, tech firms, and even telecom giants across Brazil, India, and Vietnam. If you notice bizarre SEO spikes, it’s not just Google playing games.

Now, onto the tech restrictions carousel. US export bans on advanced chips keep tightening, with Nvidia caught in the vice grip. Beijing, apparently unamused, has countered by banning the purchase of Nvidia’s China-custom A800 chips by key local firms. And here’s the kicker: Nvidia must now hand 15% of certain China AI chip revenues to Uncle Sam—a move that did *not* make Jensen Huang’s week. Nvidia’s still the MVP for AI training globally, but as iFLYTEK’s Chen Cheng cheekily quipped, they’re switching to Huawei chips, the new local champion, to dodge US controls.

Meanwhile, Washington’s not just looking at semiconductor bans. The FCC, prodded by think tanks, is pushing to tighten restrictions on any foreign-owned (read: Chinese-owned or CCP-influenced) gear in US networks, aiming to close those legal grey areas where China’s National Intelligence Law might force commercial partners to play spy-on-demand.

Zooming out, let’s hit the *industry impact*. China’s firehose of investment—think 14th Five-Year Plan and its “Made in China 2025” predecessor—is about more than factories and code. It’s a strategic push for tech sovereignty, flooding R&D into chips and AI to reduce reliance on US tech and future-proof Chinese industry against sanctions. Analysts warn catching Nvidia is still a moonshot—high-bandwidth memory and system packaging remain soul-crushingly hard—but even incremental progress means China chips away at dependency and boosts resilience.

Strategically, we’re seeing a grind: the US is sprinting to cordon off its high ground, while China is laser-focused on eroding that advantage, one edge device and zero-day at a time. Expect the new 15th Five-Year Plan set for 2026 to double down on domestic tech self-reliance and global market expansion, likely reshuffling alliances and trade routes in ways we’re only starting to grasp.

Expert watchers agree: the tech war isn’t producing Hollywood fireworks, but a marathon of steady, strategic erosion—every chip shipment blocked, every server infiltrated mattering more than yesterday’s news cycle. This—right now—is when tomorrow’s superpower status is being coded, hacked, and exported, one innovation or intrusion at a time.

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

Hey listeners, it’s Ting here with Beijing Bytes, slicing straight into the hottest chips and coldest cyber plots from the US-China tech standoff. Buckle up, because the past two weeks have been all microchips and macro sabotage, with more plot twists than your favorite police drama.

Let’s start with the **telecom bombshell** out of New York. Federal investigators, led by the US Secret Service, just busted a massive plot tied to Chinese entities that was set to paralyze NYC’s cell networks right before the United Nations General Assembly. Think underground SIM farms—over 100,000 cards hidden around Manhattan—with enough juice to jam emergency calls, blitz cellular grids, and even enable cloak-and-dagger cyber comms. ABC News says these low-tech weapons could have knocked out 911 calls and first responders—imagine trying to order a bagel, and poof! your phone is down. It’s a wake-up call for telecom security, showcasing how everyday tech can shape modern espionage and disrupt critical infrastructure during high-stakes events.

Shifting gears to the **chip war**, it’s no longer about who has the coolest phone—it’s about who controls the brains of global AI. The US, still wielding its mighty CHIPS and Science Act, tightened export controls on advanced GPUs and semiconductor equipment to China yet again, with the Trump administration’s latest AI Action Plan doubling down on reshoring efforts. GlobalFoundries threw $16 billion at fabs in New York and Vermont, while Taiwan’s TSMC became everyone's favorite date at the supply chain prom, carefully guarding its “silicon shield.” Despite heavy American courtship, Taiwan rejected a split of chip production, keeping over 90% of the world’s best processors on home turf. Talk about strategic leverage—no silicon, no AI, no fun.

China, not to be out-flexed, is turbo-charging domestic chip innovation under slogans like “Independent and Controllable,” and the new “Big Fund 3.0.” Companies like Huawei and SMIC are cranking out credible 7nm chips—enough for most AI showdowns—while simultaneously flexing rare earth muscle by banning exports of gallium and germanium to the US. These minerals are like the yeast in your sourdough starter—absolutely essential, rarely appreciated, and not easily replaced. Meanwhile, China’s AI scene is ablaze with homegrown alternatives, with Tencent and ByteDance pushing home-cooked models to chip away at American platform hegemony.

Cybersecurity? Oh boy, it’s been a Target-rich environment. According to the EU cyber agency ENISA, Chinese-linked groups are prowling European digital infrastructure, going after government networks and critical industries from Germany to Ireland. In the US, September alone saw 313 ransomware victims, new actors like Arachna Leak and LunaLock popping up, and everything from government agencies to hospitals getting a taste of the dark web. It’s not just the code—it’s the geopolitics behind every single exploit, every server ping, every supply chain move.

If you’re looking for expert hot takes, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang drops the mic by saying China’s just “nanoseconds behind” in AI chips, while others warn we’re witnessing the balkanization of global tech—a new Cold War in ones and zeros. No more “rising tide lifts all boats”—now it’s, “whose digital harbor are you anchored in?”

Looking ahead, expect more fragmentation. The AI cold war and chip decoupling aren’t just policy debates—they’re the blueprint for the next decade of innovation, defense, and maybe even daily life. Neither side is blinking, and the rest of us? We’re just hoping our WiFi holds out.

That’s the byte-sized drama for this edition of Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates. Thanks for tuning in—hit subscribe so you’re never out of the loop. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot...

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

Listeners, Ting here with another crunchy byte from the virtual trenches: the US-China tech war is firing on all digital cylinders, and this past fortnight has been anything but boring. Let’s debug what’s happened, why you should care, whose servers got toasted, and whether your favorite AI is about to swap citizenship.

First up in the cyber drama, Cisco Talos just blew the whistle on a group they call UAT-8099—yeah, it sounds like a Star Wars droid, but this one’s far more dangerous. Chinese-speaking hackers went all-in on Internet Information Services (IIS) servers across India, Thailand, Vietnam, Canada, and Brazil, hijacking legit organizations from universities to telecoms. The goal? Classic SEO fraud, shuffling users to sketchy ads and illegal gambling dens via server redirects, and raking in data. The tools? Vintage web shells, Cobalt Strike, a beefy VPN arsenal—think SoftEther and EasyTier—and fresh flavors of BadIIS malware flagged just days ago. They’re slick, buddies, with new samples sliding past antivirus like a ninja at DEF CON. The kicker: they love RDP and establish persistence that would make any red teamer blush. According to Cisco’s own words, they’re cemented in and happy to run the show until patched out.

Switching from shell injections to policy salvos, let’s talk export controls. The US Bureau of Industry and Security, not to be outdone, just rolled out what compliance pros now call the Affiliates Rule. Now, if a company is fifty percent or more owned by a Chinese Entity List or Military-End-User suspect, it counts as listed too. That’s a big line in the sand. Companies have till late November to get their act together, but if you’re a purely Chinese-owned shop—even without a Western JV partner—congrats, your embargo starts today. Expect serious headaches up and down global supply chains as every chief compliance officer mutters in Mandarin and English, dusting off denial lists.

Meanwhile, on the high-altitude diplomacy front, China just lobbed a trillion-dollar investment proposal at Washington if the US softens those tough national-security trade rules. According to QuiverQuant, this is all linked to the recent TikTok licensing deal where the algorithm—China’s crown jewel—stays home while US investors mind the shop. The mood in Beijing? Pragmatic, not desperate. President Xi told Trump directly: “Let our companies in, and we’ll build factories, invest, maybe even boost Apple’s new India and Vietnam strategies!” At the same time, Trump’s been touting a $17 trillion total in new investment “promises,” with analysts on Semafor and Bloomberg noting that, in some sectors—think EVs and batteries—China is not just neck-and-neck but, as Ford’s Jim Farley put it, “completely dominating.”

As for AI and chips, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says China lags just “nanoseconds” behind the US, a jarring reversal from earlier boasts that China was still stuck in neutral. But Chinese tech champions like Huawei and DeepSeek are racing to build their own silicon, snubbing American chips and, in the process, turbocharging national AI projects and shaking off dependencies.

Pulling back for the thirty-thousand-foot view: Washington and Beijing are fighting for the digital steering wheel, but the game leans pragmatic. Licensing, investment diplomacy, and realpolitik beat ideology every time, as experts from Columbia’s Andrew Kennedy to troupes of American VCs have observed. The competitive edge increasingly lies not in defending old ground but inventing new platforms, and—surprise, surprise—consumers and hackers alike hold the ultimate sway.

Looking ahead, expect the rules of engagement to keep mutating, way more ransomware headlines with international flavor, and the global supply chain map to look like a Jackson Pollock painting. Both countries crave tech independence, but they’re so...

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,...

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

You’re plugged in with Ting on Beijing Bytes—yes, it’s actually Ting, your favorite tech geek and certified China watcher, here to break down the latest twists in the US-China tech slugfest that’s been hotter than a data center meltdown.

Let’s get straight to the juiciest byte: just today, the US Commerce Department slammed down an export control rule that expands the blacklist to hit subsidiaries majority-owned by sanctioned Chinese companies like Huawei and Yangtze Memory Technologies. It’s a move designed to keep US tech—from AI chips to the fanciest chipmaking tools—out of Chinese reach by closing the classic subsidiary loophole. Now if a company is 50% or more owned by a blacklisted parent, boom, you’re blacklisted too, and good luck getting that GPU or advanced photolithography kit. China’s Commerce Ministry, predictably, isn’t thrilled, calling it “unreasonable suppression” and vowing countermeasures. Washington, meanwhile, claims it’s just about plugging national security leaks but let’s be real, this is about squeezing China’s ambitions in AI, semiconductors, and next-gen comms while Beijing scrambles to harden supply chains with its own “tech self-reliance” push.

But these new rules are also giving every export compliance officer on both sides a splitting headache. Disrupted supply chains, more due diligence, and a serious chill in international chip and telecom trade—analysts at Asia Financial think this will make it even harder for global firms to figure out if they’re running afoul of Washington.

Shifting to the digital trenches, there’s been a major cyber drama. Cisco just confirmed a wave of hacks targeting hundreds of their firewall devices inside US government systems. CISA—the US government’s cyber body—sent out a full-blown emergency directive because hackers exploited zero-day flaws that persist even through reboots, giving them persistent access to sensitive networks. Intriguingly, Cisco’s investigation and independent threat intel firms like Palo Alto Networks are connecting these attacks to Chinese espionage groups—they call this campaign ArcaneDoor. Attackers disabled security logs, dodged forensics, and basically went full spy-ninja.

And not to be outdone, Cisco Talos threat researchers surfaced fresh attacks using the PlugX and RainyDay backdoors—malware families linked to the Naikon group out of China—mainly hitting Asian telcos and manufacturing. The code is slick: DLL sideloading, encrypted payloads, and a tendency to share algorithm tricks across malware strains. The big brains at Talos think there’s real crossover between Naikon and BackdoorDiplomacy, hinting Chinese offensive cyber teams might be sharing tools or working off the same blueprint—imagine rival ninja clans using the same set of lockpicks.

On the industry front, the US compelled a TikTok restructuring that’ll leave 80% of the US arm with American investors, but China’s ByteDance keeps a minority stake. Oracle and a phalanx of US national security goons will now watch TikTok’s algorithm and US user data like hawks. Experts say this could become the model for “clean” foreign tech allowed into the States. If enforced as promised, TikTok may go from data privacy pariah to poster child of American digital hygiene.

Looking ahead, strategic thinkers from Foreign Affairs are ringing the alarm bell—the old US tech edge is eroding as China ramps up shipbuilding, missile inventory, and military AI crunch. The US is betting on a “third offset” of networked sensors, unmanned systems, and precision weapons to keep pace, but some Pentagon folks like Admiral Paparo are nervous that the Chinese defense-industrial complex is now out-iterating Washington.

Long story short: both sides are innovating, hacking, and restricting at breakneck speed. The US wants to freeze China out of tomorrow’s chips and...