Speaker 1: Welcome back to Beijing. Bites your friendly neighborhood, tech and cyberbeat.
Speaker 1: I'm ting and I'm here to break down the wildest
Speaker 1: fortnight in the US China tech war, served up with
Speaker 1: a side of wit, no MSG or spyware, I promise.
Speaker 1: So where to start? Last week? Imagine the world's two
Speaker 1: biggest frenemies, Uncle Sam and the People's Republic duking it
Speaker 1: out in Geneva. Trade delegates sweating over their lattes, finally
Speaker 1: hammering out a ninety day tariff truce. No, this isn't
Speaker 1: a nineties rom com, but it has almost as much drama.
Speaker 1: The US and China agreed to slash tariffs on each
Speaker 1: other's goods, with tariffs dropping from apocalyptic levels two hundred
Speaker 1: and forty five percent on some Chinese imports one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty five percent the other way to a more
Speaker 1: civil ten percent. But don't breathe easy. Trump's special twenty
Speaker 1: percent tax meant to punish Beijing for the fentanyl crisis
Speaker 1: still stands, so total US tariffs hover around thirty percent.
Speaker 1: That's like ordering extra chili oil and realizing your stomach
Speaker 1: still isn't safe now. The non tariff Shenanigans. Beijing added
Speaker 1: eleven US companies to their Infamous Unreliable Entities list, basically
Speaker 1: giving them the digital cold shoulder, barring them from import, export,
Speaker 1: and investment in China. Another sixteen US firms, mostly defense
Speaker 1: and aerospace, got slapped onto the export control blacklist, meaning
Speaker 1: no more dual use tech for you. Plus, the Ministry
Speaker 1: of Commerce launched an anti dumping probe into US medical
Speaker 1: CT tubes and dropped an anti monopoly bomb on a
Speaker 1: major US chemical company's China arm And if you're in
Speaker 1: the rare earth's game, you'll want to sit down. China
Speaker 1: clamped export controls on seven types of rare earths, the
Speaker 1: lifeblood of everything from evs to missiles. Considering China controls
Speaker 1: ninety percent of global rare earth supply, that's a power move. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: in the IT world, Deep Seek, Yes, that hyped up
Speaker 1: AI startup has been powering up PCs, robots and evs
Speaker 1: from Lenovo to Jili, deploying AI in ways that would
Speaker 1: make even Elon Musk raise an eyebrow. Deutsche Bank called
Speaker 1: it a Sputnik moment for Chinese tech. Of course, the
Speaker 1: US is watching with one eye on the sanctions list.
Speaker 1: On the policy front, both sides are eyeing a fragile
Speaker 1: daytont but industry experts warn it projects and supply chains
Speaker 1: are still in limbo. The markets are up, and Trump's
Speaker 1: tweeting win that, but let's be real, the clock's ticking.
Speaker 1: If this ninety day tariff pause doesn't turn into something more,
Speaker 1: those twenty four percent tariffs from April ssecond could come
Speaker 1: roaring back on August ten. Think of it as a
Speaker 1: software trial that expires unless you cough up for the
Speaker 1: pro version. Cybersecurity still a battlefield too. No major new
Speaker 1: hacks in the past two weeks, but every analyst I
Speaker 1: know says the quiet part out loud. The US and
Speaker 1: China are both ramping up cyber deterrents with Beijing's new
Speaker 1: export controls and Washington's expanded blacklist for Chinese chip makers.
Speaker 1: What's next. Expect more chess less checkers, China's doubling down
Speaker 1: on AI and green tech, betting big on self reliance,
Speaker 1: the US still trying to thread the needle between innovation
Speaker 1: and protectionism. Some analysts say this is the calm before
Speaker 1: the next tech storm, as both sides figure out just
Speaker 1: how much detante each can stomach, So keep your fire
Speaker 1: walls up and your VPNs ready. Beijing bytes signing off
Speaker 1: until next time, May your code compile and your cyber
Speaker 1: skills never rust. Thanks for listening, Make sure you hit
Speaker 1: the subscribe button and never miss an update. This has
Speaker 1: been a quiet please production. For more check out quiet
Speaker 1: please dot ai