China’s Much-Hyped Digital Yuan Fails to Impress Early Users | Bloomberg

“As China moves closer to rolling out the world’s first major sovereign digital currency, speculation over the global implications has reached a fever pitch.

Historian Niall Ferguson is calling the digital yuan a “potentially fatal challenge” to decades of American financial hegemony. Franklin Templeton’s Michael Hasenstab says it could undermine the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency. Joe Biden’s White House is studying the potential threat to U.S. interests.

Yet talk to people who’ve actually used the digital yuan in China, and you’re more likely to get a different response: shrugs of indifference.

In Shenzhen, the high-tech metropolis that just extended China’s largest digital yuan trial, participants interviewed by Bloomberg showed little interest in switching from mobile payment systems run by Ant Group Co. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. that have already replaced cash in much of the country. Some balked at the possibility a digital yuan might give authorities easier access to real-time data on their financial lives.”

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These Chinese blockchain platforms are launching soon, here is why | Forbes

“Just a few months since China’s president Xi Jinping announced blockchain as one of the country’s technological priorities and advocated to “seize the opportunity”, there has been a lot of progress on the main blockchain initiatives and most of them will be in production very soon.

The ultimate goal is to enable and establish the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and large Chinese enterprises like Tencent, Huawei, Baidu and Ant Financial as the world leaders in new-breed payments infrastructure with unique features, to undermine the significance of the U.S. dollar as a global trade currency with the launch of Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) and to establish Chinese blockchain technical standards which will help adopt and scale the technology faster.”

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Tencent bets big on AI development with investment in two startups | KrASIA

“Chinese internet giant Tencent (HKG: 0700) has placed a strategic bet on the AI industry by investing in two companies, local media Caijingtuya reported on Monday.

Through the Tencent Industry Win-Win Fund, the corporate venture arm of Tencent, the internet giant took a 2.44% stake in Ningbo-based AI vision company Qting Vision on Sunday, just one day after it obtained a 1.23% stock in Beijing-based Sinoits Tech, according to enterprise data provider Tianyancha. Financial details of both deals were not disclosed.”

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This battlefield has no limits | Die Zeit

“China is the origin of the corona pandemic. Now the government is staging itself as a helper to other countries in need. It follows the strategy of unrestricted war.”

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Tencent unveils investments for virus-hit Wuhan | Phnom Penh Post

“Tencent Holdings Ltd has announced a string of investment plans in Wuhan, the city where the novel coronavirus first emerged and which has just lifted months-long lockdown.

The internet giant pledged to invest in digital government, online education, smart transportation and artificial intelligence in the city, with a goal of quadrupling the number of employees in five years.

Tencent will push ahead with the Tencent (Wuhan) Digital Industry Headquarters in the city, where it aims to embark on digital governance and smart city initiatives.”

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What could we learn from China’s national AI team (国家队) strategy | SMU Artificial Intelligence Club

“The notion of a national team is usually associated with sports teams representing the nation on the global stage for a shot at glory. These days, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) developments all the rage, nations are creating national teams for the race towards AI superiority. Amidst all the hype that one is exposed to in the media over the possible doomsday scenario about how AI could ruin our lives, governments and businesses across the globe are rapidly positioning themselves to ride the next wave of change.

In 2017, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) handpicked 4 of its technology giants, forming a ‘national team’ to lead the way in building open innovation platforms that are accessible through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This initiative was created to foster participation and hence innovation in sectors that will increasingly be powered by AI technologies in an effort to support the entrepreneurship of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This national team is expected to contribute in areas such as research and development, sharing data, open source software and ecosystem participation. Moreover, MOST is very supportive in encouraging the deployment of these technologies at the provincial level. This includes providing resources and access to city infrastructure to allow for proof of concepts to scale. (DigiChina, 2019)”

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