Speaker 1: It's your cyber savvy friend ting here. And if you
Speaker 1: thought last week's Beijing bites with spicy, grab your VPN.
Speaker 1: This tech war has turned the heat to eleven. Over
Speaker 1: the last two weeks, the US China technology rivalry has
Speaker 1: gone from high stakes chess to all out cyber speed chess,
Speaker 1: and everyone's feeling the burn. Governments, corporations, and yes, even
Speaker 1: Auntie Jiang trying to buy her favorite smartphone. Let's hit
Speaker 1: the big headlines first. On the US side. President Trump,
Speaker 1: yes he's back in the headlines. Just doubled down on
Speaker 1: steel and aluminum tariffs to fifty cent. They're calculating it
Speaker 1: on the steel content now for extra policy flare. Somewhat ironically,
Speaker 1: he also granted a big tariff exemption for electronics like
Speaker 1: smartphones and semiconductors, so at least for now, your next
Speaker 1: laptop upgrade might avoid the customs blues. But don't relax yet.
Speaker 1: Chinese semiconductors, for instance, still got hit with a thumping
Speaker 1: fifty percent tariff, and the so called one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty five percent recipro tariff is hovering over a raft
Speaker 1: of Chinese goods minus electronics. Basically, trade policy is now
Speaker 1: like a Rubik's cube if it was missing some stickers
Speaker 1: and the corner pieces kept moving by themselves. Meanwhile, those
Speaker 1: infamous choke points in global supply chains have gotten even tighter.
Speaker 1: The US has locked China out of EUV machines, the
Speaker 1: crown jewels of chip making courtesy of Dutch tech giant ASML.
Speaker 1: That means China, which controls the lion's share of rare
Speaker 1: earths think eighty five percent of global capacity, is flexing
Speaker 1: its minerals while scrambling to catch up in chips. Beijing's
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty three billion dollars semiconductor self sufficiency
Speaker 1: blitz is running at full tilt, but thanks to US
Speaker 1: export bands and knowledge restrictions, their AI and advanced systems
Speaker 1: ambitions are feeling the pinch. Q Huawei and semik having
Speaker 1: to reinvent their entire playbooks talk about being forced to
Speaker 1: pivot industry wise. The fallout is everywhere. Smartphone exports from
Speaker 1: China down a record shattering seventy two cent. That's not
Speaker 1: just a dip, that's a nosedive. Global supply chains, especially
Speaker 1: for semiconductors, are being remapped in real time, and smaller
Speaker 1: countries are caught in the cross fire, forced to pick
Speaker 1: tech teams like its digital dodgeball cybersecurity. Let's just say
Speaker 1: both sides are watching each other's networks like hawks, with
Speaker 1: state sponsored hacks and retaliatory measures quietly fueling the tension.
Speaker 1: Experts are calling this phase a new Cold War, but
Speaker 1: less about missiles, more about microchips and code. Looking ahead,
Speaker 1: fragmentation is the new normal. Both the US and China
Speaker 1: are prioritizing technological sovereignty over easy profits, and that's shaping
Speaker 1: everything from national security policy to the next AI breakthrough.
Speaker 1: Brace yourself. The rest of twenty twenty five will see
Speaker 1: more targeted tech bands, tit for tat cyber ops, and
Speaker 1: an endless sprint for silicon self sufficiency. As for the
Speaker 1: global economy, well, in this new era, everyone needs to
Speaker 1: update their risk assessments and maybe their firewalls too. That's
Speaker 1: all for this edition of Beijing Bites. Don't forget when
Speaker 1: the world argues about chips, it's never just about chips.
Speaker 1: This is ting signing off from the cyberfront. Thanks for listening.
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