DeepSeek, AI Agriculture, and China’s Zhejiang Province

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Category: SinoExpress™

Image: Piotr Siedlecki, Rays of Vegetables (Publicdomainpictures.net)

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison’s struggle to transform agriculture with AI applications through his venture Sensei Farms may prompt one to wonder whether his vision to “improve human nutrition while preserving the world’s natural resources” can be realized. Chinese leaders share a similar vision. They feel compelled to turn this idea into reality because of the formidable challenge posed by the need to feed the country’s 1.4 billion people with the limited arable land available. To overcome this challenge, the Chinese leadership has set ambitious goals to develop agriculture utilizing AI and has designated Zhejiang Province—home to DeepSeek and a few other key AI companies—to lead the endeavor.Read more

Data as Property in the AI Era: How China Formulates Related Rules Incrementally

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Category: SINOTALKS® In Brief

Image: Gerd Altmann, Big Data (Publicdomainpictures.net)

Chinese President XI Jinping’s mid-February meeting with founders of China’s innovative companies showcases the country’s “new quality productive forces”—a term coined by the president in 2023 to emphasize the role of innovation in driving the country’s long-term development. Despite the apparent collaboration prevailing in the meeting room, behind the scenes there is fierce competition among these and other innovative companies on many fronts, including the use of data, a valuable property in the era of artificial intelligence. China is acutely aware of the need to regulate the use of data, but the challenge is how to do so properly. Incremental steps taken by the judiciary and the executive in China provide a glimpse of the country’s exploratory approach to such regulation.Read more

Bolstering High-Tech Development: China’s “Supply” and “Demand” Solutions

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Category: SinoExpress™

Image: Mohamed Mahmoud Hassan, Got Talent, Skill, Assessment (Publicdomainpictures.net)

The sudden emergence of DeepSeek has awakened the world to China’s high-tech capabilities. In the coming years, the country is expected to continue strengthening its efforts to increase such capabilities and nurture the development of its high-tech industries. To this end, China needs to ensure a continuous supply of high-tech talent and a strong demand for high-tech products from its population, which includes segments with limited digital and scientific literacy that may have the opposite effect, i.e., weakening such demand. To address these needs, China recently introduced certain measures.Read more

Private Economy and China’s Credit System for Enterprises

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Category: SINOTALKS® In Brief

Image: Gerd Altmann, Business People (Publicdomainpictures.net)

China is seeking public comments on a draft law aimed at promoting the development of the country’s private enterprises. The draft law requires Chinese authorities to timely update a private enterprise’s records publicized on official “credit information platforms” after the enterprise no longer has irregularities undermining its credibility. Having clean records on these platforms is important as private enterprises’ business partners and clients are increasingly relying on these platforms to assess where these enterprises stand. However, these platforms have limitations, which, if not addressed properly, could compromise the development of Chinese private enterprises and, thereby, the country’s private economy.Read more

WeRide Zooms into the Global Autonomous Vehicle Industry

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Category: SinoInsights™

Image: Petr Kratochvil, Busy Road Light Trails (Publicomainpictures.net)

After BYD announced that it has licenses to test Level-3 (i.e., “conditional automation”) autonomous driving on high-speed roads in China, the company’s ambition to move into the autonomous vehicle industry has become clear. However, BYD’s path to success in this industry is unlikely to be smooth because of competition from WeRide, a forerunner with a strong foundation in the industry. Equipped with Level-4 (i.e., “high driving automation”) technology, WeRide has put into operation multiple innovative products, including Robotaxis, Robobuses, and Robovans. What factors contribute to WeRide’s success? Drawing on her extensive experiences in studying Chinese companies, especially those in the technology industry, and her meetings with specialists who are familiar with the autonomous vehicle industry in China, Lin Liu shares her analysis in this article.Read more

Tesla, Data Transfers, & China’s Digital Economy

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Category: SINOTALKS® In Brief

Image: Gerd Altmann, Binary Contacts (Publicdomainpictures.net)

In mid-May, the Lin-Gang Area of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (“FTZ”) issued trial measures to allow eligible companies in the area—criteria used suggest that Tesla is eligible—to export certain data without going through China’s complicated approval system. Similar measures were adopted by Tianjin’s FTZ in early May, while other FTZs in China are expected to follow suit. These measures can benefit foreign investors in China significantly. Yet, the fundamental goal of their issuance is not a mere increase in domestic foreign investment, but rather the implementation of China’s plan to develop its digital economy globally.Read more

The Moon, Artificial Intelligence, & U.S.-China Relations

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Category: SinoExpress™

Image: Irina Pechkareva, A Space with the Moon (Publicdomainpictures.net)

China’s ongoing mission to collect rocks and soil from the far side of the Moon marks another milestone in the country’s space exploration despite its exclusion from U.S. space projects. This accomplishment should make U.S. policymakers ponder whether adopting a similar exclusionary approach will help or hurt the United States’s efforts to secure the lead in the U.S.-China AI race. More importantly, the potential catastrophic consequences of AI manipulation demand a better approach that focuses on generating benefits at a global level, rather than devolving into a simple win-lose race between two international powers.Read more

In Brief

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Category: SINOTALKS® In Brief

Image: Gerd Altmann, Binary Thinking (Publicdomainpictures.net)

The OpenAI drama made my preplanned talk on AI legal tools delivered last Friday to a delegation of Chinese lawyers visiting Washington D.C. unexpectedly timely. The firing and re-hiring of CEO Sam Altman inspired in-depth discussions of opportunities and concerns related to these tools. In the case of China, the Chinese leadership may come to the conclusion that the opportunities presented by these tools outweigh the concerns and move to take steps that can directly help develop more reliable AI legal tools and indirectly bring about effective legal reforms in the country.Read more

SinoForum&Foresight

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Category: SinoInsights™

Image: Gerd Altmann, The Age Of AI Has Begun (Publicdomainpictures.net)

To compete with ChatGPT and similar AI products for market share, Baidu launched ERNIE Bot in March 2023. How far ERNIE Bot and other AI industries will be able to develop in China depends on Chinese policies and legislation on AI. Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai have taken the lead to formulate their local regulations in accordance with China’s national policies and have been developing AI industries in their own special ways. Which city should foreign investors choose to enter China’s AI market?Read more

In Brief

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Category: SINOTALKS® In Brief

Image: dencg (Shutterstock.com)

China has set a goal to construct “digital China” by, inter alia, “accelerating the construction of a digital economy, a digital society, and a digital government”. The role of China’s “digital government” in these digital initiatives was not clear until a significant document on the topic was issued in June 2022. The document further provides a glimpse of the direction that the new Chinese leadership will likely continue when they are at the helm after the conclusion of the forthcoming Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress.Read more

In Brief

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Category: SINOTALKS® In Brief

Image: elwynn (Shutterstock.com)

Since late 2021, China has been pushing the development of the Metaverse and expressing its keen interest in joining the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, which was signed by Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore in June 2020. These efforts and their latest developments, together with President XI Jinping’s current visit to Central Asia, help show China’s strategic preparations for the future.Read more

In Brief

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Category: SINOTALKS® In Brief

Image: posteriori (Shutterstock.com)

The coming into effect of the Measures for the Security Assessment of Outbound Data Transfers (the “Measures”) on September 1 is expected to trigger a series of security assessments conducted by the Cyberspace Administration of China (the “CAC”). Any “data processor” planning to transfer to another country “important data” collected and generated inside China is required to pass the CAC’s security assessment. If the CAC decides against the data processor, can the CAC’s decision be challenged in court? Read more

In Brief

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Category: SINOTALKS® In Brief

Image: Bushko Oleksandr (Shutterstock.com)

Recent rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court on issues concerning abortion and firearm regulation have drawn worldwide attention. Interestingly, on the other side of the globe, a decision by China’s national legislature that a local regulation was inconsistent with the country’s constitution (thereby triggering an amendment to the local regulation) has gone almost unnoticed. What was the decision about? How was it made? How can such an exemplary instance illustrating the constitutional review of Chinese legislation be better known and used to produce more positive impact? Read more