All posts tagged: China

Rednote Draws a Line Between China and the World

Rednote Draws a Line Between China and the World

Some Rednote users have reported that their accounts were automatically converted from the Chinese to the international version of the website recently. One American user, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid being punished by the platform, shared a screenshot with WIRED showing that when he logged into the platform in April, a banner appeared that read “Your account is a rednote account. We have automatically redirected you to rednote.com.” The user says he registered his account with a Chinese phone number years ago, but suspects his account was converted because of using a non-Chinese IP address. “I have never posted from China. It’s always been in the United States. Obviously, in one glance, they can see this is an American posting in English,” he says. Looming Split After TikTok sidestepped a US shutdown by selling a majority stake in its American business, most of the “refugees” who had fled to Rednote went back to the video app or to other platforms. Those who stayed often did so because they value reading about and talking …

Trump admin. warns China entities are ripping off U.S. AI tech

Trump admin. warns China entities are ripping off U.S. AI tech

The Trump administration on Thursday accused Chinese entities of waging “industrial-scale campaigns” to rip off U.S. artificial intelligence systems, and said it will explore ways to hold the foreign actors accountable. “There is nothing innovative about systematically extracting and copying the innovations of American industry,” Michael Kratsios, the top science and technology advisor to President Donald Trump, said in a memo on alleged Chinese “distillation” operations to train smaller AI models off of larger ones. The U.S. government has previously accused China of targeting American AI technology and intellectual property. Kratsios warned that as it gets easier to detect and prevent large-scale “distillation” operations, the entities that “build their AI capabilities on such fragile foundations” should lose confidence in “the integrity and reliability of the models they produce.” U.S. information indicates that the campaigns to “distill” U.S. frontier AI systems are coming from mostly China-based entities, he said. The efforts involve using tens of thousands of proxy accounts and jailbreaking techniques to secretly “expose proprietary information,” Kratsios said. Attempts to copy U.S. models through “surreptitious, …

The Devil Wears Prada 2 trailer faces ‘racism’ backlash in China

The Devil Wears Prada 2 trailer faces ‘racism’ backlash in China

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Some online communities in East Asia have called for a boycott against The Devil Wears Prada 2 after a promotional clip featuring a Chinese assistant character drew criticism over her name and portrayal. The highly anticipated sequel will see the return of the core original cast, including Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci. The backlash centres on Qin Zhou, a character played by Chinese American actor Helen J Shen, who appears as an assistant to Andrea Sachs (Hathaway). The controversy began after 20th Century Studios uploaded a clip to its official YouTube and social media channels on Friday, prompting a flurry of reactions online. Several people have argued that the character’s name sounds similar to a historically racist term used in the West to mock Chinese people. According to The Korea Herald, Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily News described …

China urges further build-up on islands amid territorial disputes

China urges further build-up on islands amid territorial disputes

BEIJING: China said on Wednesday (Apr 23) it will further build up more than 11,000 islands it calls its own, so as to better govern them, in a long-term campaign to strengthen maritime power, secure more natural resources, and reinforce territorial claims. China has built artificial islands, airstrips, and military facilities during extensive land reclamation efforts over the years in disputed waters in the South China Sea. Islands are a strategic frontier and key to unlocking the development of deep-ocean resources, the People’s Daily, owned by the party, said in an article attributed to the party leadership at China’s natural resources ministry. “Major countries around the world are vying to shift their development focus to the ocean,” it added, without identifying any countries. It urged greater efforts to protect the islands China claims, by upgrading infrastructure and boosting connectivity and access. China is spending billions of dollars on its navy, from nuclear-powered submarines to aircraft carriers as it pursues a goal of becoming a “great maritime power” dating from 2012, when Xi Jinping became leader …

German government slashes growth forecast amid Iran war fallout – POLITICO

German government slashes growth forecast amid Iran war fallout – POLITICO

Inflation to rebound Rising energy prices will likely push inflation back toward 3 percent this year and next, the government said — prompting financial markets to expect two European Central Bank rate hikes this year. ECB officials say they won’t overreact to what may be a short-lived blip, but have warned that they will raise rates if they see any signs of inflation taking root again, only four years after the last such shock. German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche — whose past employment at energy giant E.ON has made her a target for criticism from the left and environmentalists — was quick to blame factors beyond her control for the latest downgrade. “The recovery that we expected this year will once again be derailed by external geopolitical shocks,” Reiche told a press conference. “The war in Iran is driving energy and commodity prices through the roof. That is hurting households and raising costs for the German economy.” However, German business and independent economists have both accused the government of failing to do what is in …

China denies US-detained ship in Middle East contained ‘gift’ for Iran

China denies US-detained ship in Middle East contained ‘gift’ for Iran

BEIJING: China on Wednesday (Apr 22) denied again that a ship intercepted by the United States contained a “gift” from Beijing for Iran, a day after US President Donald Trump made the accusation. Trump had said that an Iranian-flagged ship seized by US forces in the Gulf of Oman on Sunday contained “a gift from China”, which “wasn’t very nice”. His comments came after former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley wrote on X that the ship was travelling from China to Iran and was linked to chemical shipments for missiles. Responding to Haley’s accusations at a regular news briefing on Tuesday, foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the ship was “a foreign container ship”, and that China opposed “any malicious association and speculation”. Asked about Trump’s comments on Wednesday, Guo said China had already stated its position. “As a responsible major country, China has always set a good example in fulfilling its due international obligation,” he added. Trump had said on Tuesday that he was “a little surprised”, given he thought he …

AITO joins BMW, Mercedes-Benz charging JV in China as equal partner

AITO joins BMW, Mercedes-Benz charging JV in China as equal partner

SERES Group’s Huawei-powered AITO brand is joining IONCHI, the premium charging joint venture between BMW and Mercedes-Benz in China, as an equal 33.3% shareholder. The deal restructures what was a 50:50 German partnership into a three-way collaboration with one of China’s fastest-growing luxury EV brands. The move signals a significant shift in China’s EV charging landscape, where German and Chinese automakers are now directly collaborating on premium infrastructure rather than competing on separate networks. The IONCHI joint venture was originally formed by BMW and Mercedes-Benz in late 2023 as a 50:50 partnership between Mercedes-Benz Group China and BMW Brilliance Automotive. The goal was ambitious: build at least 1,000 high-power charging stations with approximately 7,000 charging points across 100 Chinese cities by the end of 2026. Progress has been steady but faces a significant ramp. By December 2025, IONCHI had connected around 430 fast-charging stations with 2,408 charging points across 37 cities. That means the network needs to more than double its station count and nearly triple its charging points in 2026 to hit the original …

How China Is Building Its Next Outpost at Sea

How China Is Building Its Next Outpost at Sea

Source: Satellite image from Vantor on Apr. 10. Over the last few months, China has been quietly and quickly building an island in disputed waters off the coast of Vietnam that will help Beijing continue to dominate one of the most crucial waterways in the world. China claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea, including parts that are also claimed by several Southeast Asian countries. Satellite imagery going back to November shows Chinese dredgers building a crescent-shaped island on Antelope Reef in the Paracels, a cluster of islands and reefs where China, Taiwan and Vietnam have competing claims. By April, the edges of the island had been shaped and jetties, a helipad and unpaved roads were visible. It was almost twice the size of New York’s Central Park and appeared to still be under construction. Analysts say that given its size and the ongoing expansion, Antelope Reef is likely to become one of China’s largest military outposts in the region. Such islands typically have airstrips, radar, electronic warfare facilities and missile bunkers. The …