AI chip + Bicycle comeback

Dear reader,

The US restrictions on exports of high-power microchips to China have dealt a severe blow to the country’s technology sector. They have noticeably slowed down development. The need for success stories like this is correspondingly high: Tsinghua researchers developed a chip faster than even the best US model. China likes to hear that.

But on closer inspection, things are a little different. Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in a different technology class, one that is fundamentally much faster than conventional chips. It is based on light computing operations, as Joern Petring explains in his analysis. The drawback is that leading US competitors are also researching optical processors. And it is not yet entirely clear how this experimental technology will prove itself in practice.

If you traveled in China before the 2000s, you saw them everywhere, surrounded them and were probably part of them: Swarms of bicycles so dense that they looked like black clouds from a distance. It had a charming appeal. Then came prosperity, and as welcome as it is, road users suddenly found themselves stuck in dull tons of metal.

But now China is looking at Muenster and Copenhagen, writes Christian Domke Seidel. Like in Germany, cars are still a status symbol, but urban traffic has become unbearable. This is why the government encourages people to return to the bicycle. What takes a painfully long time to plan in Germany and sparks public protests happens very quickly in China: The construction of modern bike lanes.

Your
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk

Tsinghua scientists celebrate chip breakthrough

Photon chip with a halo: this is how the official press material from Tsinghua University presents the new development.

By

Jörn Petring

A research team at Tsinghua University in Beijing has achieved a breakthrough. In the scientific journal Nature, they published a report on a new AI chip that calculates using light particles. This technology will be superior to conventional semiconductor components in numerous applications.

China’s media have already pointed out that it will also outperform the current top models from Nvidia. The focus on Nvidia is mainly due to new AI hardware sanctions for the US manufacturer and China’s intention to free itself from dependence on the US.

Impressive speed – in the lab

Their chip, called ACCEL, is currently only working in the lab. However, it delivers impressive results there. For particular AI tasks such as image and video recognition, the ACCEL chip is claimed to be up to 3,000 times faster than the A100, Nvidia’s top model.

The scientists at Tsinghua University have taken a completely different approach to conventional processors. The ACCEL is a so-called “all-analog chip combining electronic and light computing” – an approach that uses the best of both technologies to process data.

Processing with light

In photonic data processing, also known as optical data processing, light waves (photons) are used instead of electrical currents (electrons) to process information. This technology makes data processing faster and more energy-efficient, as photons are faster than electrons and there is no residual heat.

China is not the only country pursuing this chip manufacturing approach; US scientists are also working on optical computing – a neck-and-neck race can be expected. However, unlike silicon technology, whose origins date back to a time when China was still underdeveloped, the US does not have such an extreme lead here.

On a par with the US

The test results published by the Tsinghua scientists showed that ACCEL is highly accurate at image and video recognition. It could perform similar tasks to a graphics processor (GPU) like the A100 – much faster and with lower power consumption.

Although the ACCEL chip demonstrates high performance in specific tasks, it does not have the wide range of applications of a chip found in smartphones and computers. It is tailored to perform specific functions. It is also unclear when Tsinghua University’s new chip technology will reach the mass production stage.

China’s AI companies under pressure

High-performance chips are essential for Chinese technology companies developing AI models. It would be a great advantage for companies such as Alibaba, Baidu or Tencent if they were to gain access to ACCEL chips in the future. In the short term, however, the success of Tsinghua University’s research is of little use to them. After all, they need chips now. And the export restrictions imposed by the US are becoming ever stricter.

Nvidia’s chips, in particular, are currently the gold standard in developing AI language models and other complex AI applications. This forces technology companies to outfit their data centers with many of these chips to remain competitive.

However, this is not easy for Chinese companies due to the restrictions imposed by the US government. Nvidia has been barred from selling the A100 and its successor H100, the top-of-the-line models, in China for some time now. In mid-October, the US government also announced an export ban on the H800 and A800. Nvidia now offers slimmed-down versions of its high-end models to avoid the sanctions.

USA tightens sanctions

These are somewhat simpler versions of Nvidia’s AI chips. Washington justifies the bans on the grounds that China could jeopardize US national security by gaining access to advanced AI chips.

Beijing, in turn, sees such restrictions as an attempt by the Americans to harm the Chinese economy and curb its rise. This is why developing an independent chip industry is a top priority for the Chinese leadership. While Nvidia is missing out on billions in business in China, Tsinghua University can be sure it will receive all necessary government funding.

After decades of car dominance: The bicycle is making a comeback

Bicycles are experiencing a renaissance in Chinese cities like Beijing. Rental bikes, in particular, have been regaining popularity since the pandemic.

By

Christian Domke Seidel

People in China have been riding their bikes more since the Covid pandemic. Around 30 percent of all urban travel now happens by bicycle, after this figure had sunk to 16 percent by 2012. This is a renaissance of an eco-friendly mode of transport that once dominated Chinese traffic. In the mid-1980s, the share was still over 60 percent.

The key to this is the high availability of rental bicycles. In 2022, there were 950 million trips in Beijing alone using only these bikes, says Alexander von Monschaw. He works on a study commissioned by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), which analyzes transport development in the People’s Republic on behalf of the German and Chinese Ministries of Transport. “The bikes in the sharing system are primarily used for the commute to work or to link up with public transport services.”

The reputation of rental bikes has improved

After their initial boom in the 2010s, rental cycles gained a bad reputation. They clogged up the streets, were considered disposable products, and were often broken. As a result, several providers went bankrupt and the bikes ended up in bike graveyards.

However, market consolidation and a certain degree of regulation have since improved their reputation. Many cities now have clear rules on where users can park their rental bikes and how many there can be. During the pandemic years, the use of open-air transport has once again gained significant popularity.

From a cycling nation to a car nation – and back?

The bicycle was irreplaceable for the Chinese between the 1970s and well into the 1990s. The market was dominated by domestic manufacturers Flying Pigeon, Phoenix and Five Rams.

However, economic and mobility policy changed in the 1990s and the car took center stage. While only about 4.2 million vehicles were on China’s roads in 1995, it is now well over 400 million. Up until 2003, the city of Guangzhou always published the number of bicycles in the urban area in its statistical annual report (at the last count, around 140 per 100 families). From 2004 onwards, it published the number of cars.

The trend of the Chinese population traveling more by car and less by bike characterized the years between 1990 and 2010. “In recent years, however, we have seen a strong shift towards electric bikes,” says von Monschaw. The reasons are simple. There is not enough space. “Cities like Beijing are reaching their limits with cars due to emissions and a lack of space. Bicycles and electric two-wheelers are a good way to create mobility.”

How China’s urban development reacts

After decades of urban development focussed on cars, this involves a good deal of conversion and rebuilding. However, all ministries involved in this development (transport, finance, technology and industry, public safety) agree that the “bike-sharing system satisfies the transport needs of the public and is an effective solution to the ‘last mile’ problem in urban transport,” as the GIZ puts it.

It is based on the grand goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2060, with an interim target of reducing carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 65 percent through 2030. The city’s emission-free transport is then set to reach 80 percent. An essential component of this is the bicycle transport system, which is being proactively pursued by local governments, as three examples show.

Beijing released the “Beijing 2016-2035” master plan. It aims to make the city more friendly to pedestrians and cyclists. This includes a new traffic law, the implementation of a new road layout and the promotion, regulation and standardization of bike-sharing systems. One flagship project is the “Huilongguan-Shangdi” bicycle highway.
In Hangzhou, bicycle sharing is free of charge. At the same time, the government has accelerated the expansion of the cycling infrastructure. At 34.3 percent, Hangzhou has the highest bicycle share in China.
In Shenzhen, the government requires all new and rebuilt roads to include bicycle lanes while avoiding cyclists and pedestrians having to share a lane. A total of 1,000 kilometers of cycle paths were built between 2010 and 2020.

What Germany can learn

The purpose of the GIZ project is not just to analyze transport. Instead, Germany and China are supposed to learn from each other when it comes to developing sustainable transport concepts. “In Chinese cities, we see that expressways or elevated roads for bicycles are being built very quickly,” says von Monschaw. “These are projects that we closely observe in order to learn how they work, how they are received and what the risks, advantages and disadvantages are.” GIZ’s mandate is to strengthen the technical exchange between Germany and Asian countries and to investigate which approaches can be replicated.

He sees considerable potential for developing sharing systems in Germany. “Mobility in China is much cheaper. Providers in Germany quickly charge up to five euros for a short trip in Berlin on an electric scooter. For that price, you can get a rental bike flat rate for a whole month in China.” Even in terms of purchasing power, this is less than in Germany, despite the lower average income.

China also looks to Germany

Conversely, the Chinese delegation also looked at concepts that work here in Germany, he says: “China also looks at how we plan sustainable cities and approach transport concepts.” The GIZ promotes mutual exchange on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Transport. It helps facilitate exchange between German and Chinese municipalities, research institutions and economic players.

Beijing fumes over Taiwan relations

China has urged the UK to cease its efforts to “improve” relations with Taiwan. On Wednesday, Taiwan and the UK signed a new trade agreement at a high-level meeting in London.

The new agreement is supposed to pave the way for future talks on green energy, digital trade and investment as well as other trade-related topics. The UK is Taiwan’s third largest trading partner in Europe. The UK and Taiwan both maintain de facto embassies in each other’s capitals, although London does not officially recognize the democratically elected government in Taipei.

The Chinese embassy in London stated that Beijing has always firmly rejected any form of official contact between countries that maintain diplomatic relations with China and “China’s Taiwan region.” “We urge the UK to abide by the one-China principle and stop using trade cooperation as an excuse to engage in official exchanges or enhance substantive relations with Taiwan,” it added.

Anger at Estonia

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also called on Estonia not to permit Taiwan to open “official organizations” in the country. The Chinese ambassador has reportedly threatened to leave Estonia if Taiwan opens a representative office in the Baltic country. Taiwan and Estonia are currently discussing opening a representative office in Estonia, although a consensus on the matter has not yet been reached, according to Taiwan’s foreign ministry.

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu is visiting the three Baltic States of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia this week. Taiwan already has representative offices in Latvia and Lithuania. In response to the opening of Taiwan’s representative office in Lithuania, China reacted with harsh coercive measures. rtr/jul

Smartphone factory inaugurated in Kenya

Kenya’s President William Ruto inaugurated his country’s first smartphone factory last week. Located in Athi River near Nairobi, the factory called East Africa Device Assembly Kenya (Eadak) is a joint venture between the Kenyan telecommunications companies Safaricom and Jamii and the Chinese mobile device retailer Shenzhen Teleone Technology.

The plant will assemble up to 1.4 million smartphones a year from parts imported by the company from China. It will create up to 500 jobs. The phones produced will be offered for around 50 US dollars in the stores of Safaricom, Faiba and on the e-shopping platform Masoko. Eadak hopes to be able to produce tablets and other devices soon.

At the inauguration, Ruto said the project was the fulfillment of his promise to improve digital access for Kenyans. The government will support local manufacturing of cell phones as a major buyer. For instance, the Ministry of Health has purchased 100,000 locally-made cell phones for community health workers. ajs

A critical look at Xi Jinping

We mainland Chinese have very different views on Xi Jinping’s policies. I speak from the perspective of an enlightened older generation now in retirement. We experienced the repressions of Mao Zedong’s rule and the Cultural Revolution and are thus very skeptical and subliminally resistant.

But I also know quite the opposite views among my middle-class relatives and friends of the same age and younger. They are either indifferent to politics: “Let them do what they want up there, the main thing is that I’m well off.” Or they are dazzled by Xi’s pompous mammoth projects and announcements. Others are too preoccupied with everyday life and work and are deliberately cautious or even opportunistic, changing their opinions as and when necessary. And many simply believe the party propaganda because they don’t know any better. However, I would estimate that more than half of the population is very unhappy with the effects of Xi Jinping’s policies.

My insight into things

I have access to information channels that allow me to gain insight into our country’s real political and social events. This is the reason for my negative attitude towards Xi and his people. I see him as an utterly incompetent politician who is not acting for the good of the people, but only for the sake of power and to show off his “greatness.”

At the start of the reform and opening-up policy under Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang, we started reading a progressive magazine that Xi replaced with his own people seven years ago in the fall of 2016. We haven’t read this magazine since then. However, I can learn about national and international politics in Chinese via various authentic portals. I can also listen to a podcast on my smartphone from a Chinese expatriate about the terrible current events around Israel.

I also have friends who still maintain connections with descendants of senior cadres and provide me with critical insider news. Although the censors quickly delete many of the messages on my smartphone, I can still read them if I’m fast enough. If I send messages to one person, I stay out of trouble; the censors intervene only if several people are involved. However, two years ago, my Internet access started to be rigidly monitored, initially for just one month, then for two, three months and soon half a year, eventually resulting in a permanent block.

In the meantime, I’ve got myself a new number with a new smartphone; others who are more closely monitored have to change their number dozens of times, such as a critical blogger we call Mr 48. Many people, even those older than me, who are not good with the internet, are deprived of any objective information. However, emails, which are hardly used in China anymore, are not monitored at all.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

My circles condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and don’t fall for Putin’s lies. We also do not believe Xi’s claim that China cannot stand up to the US without a partnership with Putin. He is only pursuing his ambitions to become a superpower. Recently, a brand new railroad and highway bridge was built across the Amur River near the city of Heihe, over which Russia is being supplied with goods by wagons and trucks without any control. Putin, in turn, has left an as-yet undeveloped border area to the Chinese for mining rare earths, among other things. However, they must stick to the old contracts’ high prices when importing oil and gas. I, on the other hand, am aware that it was the opening of the Chinese market to Western technology and investment that helped China to prosper, and my circles believe that we will continue to depend on global economic exchange.

Posturing towards Taiwan

As far as the military posturing towards Taiwan is concerned, I believe this only serves as a deterrent and is, above all, Xi Jinping’s way of showing off so that he can later erect a monument to himself. China cannot muster the fighting strength for an invasion because the military is corrupt through and through and has only produced “paper tigers.” A large part of the military budget ends up in private pockets. For example, five generals involved in missile weapons technology, who Xi originally promoted, were recently arrested for corruption because their embezzlement and bribery became too obvious.

Unnecessary ghost town Xiong’an

Xi Jinping’s magnificent new capital, Xiong’an, where the Beijing municipal government and all municipal universities are to move so that Xi can better assert his power over the central government, has so far been left empty due to passive resistance from even the highest senior party cadres – they simply refuse to move. Moreover, this valley in the lowlands originally served as a natural water reservoir. The flooding disaster in the suburbs of the port city of Tianjin this August, which claimed many lives, happened because Xi ordered that the valley could no longer be used as a reservoir. Xiong’an would otherwise have been flooded.

By building this unnecessary ghost town, and before that, the enormous egotistical monument that Xi had erected for his father, Xi Jinping has lost all respect and esteem in our eyes. The Silk Road route, used mainly by empty trains and barely trafficked otherwise, is primarily a prestige project that has only driven outlying countries into debt to China. The massive investments in such exaggerated constructions could have helped thousands of rural populations out of poverty.

Prison-like isolation during the pandemic

I managed to avoid the compulsory vaccination campaign during the Covid pandemic, even though I was subjected to a lot of pressure. A squad from the street committee came to my house several times to force me to be vaccinated with the problematic Chinese vaccine, which was still in the experimental stage. I managed to ward them off by claiming that my blood clotting was weak. My relatives, who suffered severe side effects from the vaccinations, envied me in hindsight for my successful refusal. But after I once missed having the regular swab test within the mandatory period of three days, I was locked out of our guarded courtyard.

After waiting for three hours in 38-degree heat, I finally managed to get into my apartment when the guard was distracted. Incidentally, the sudden stop to the prison-like isolation of the city’s residents started in Shanghai. Small groups of mainly younger people had organized themselves and gradually confronted the party organs at all levels. In the end, they could no longer resist the pressure of their arguments and started to loosen their restrictions right up to the top of the city government. Soon, other cities followed suit. What’s more, the organizers and enforcers of the control and vaccination campaign began to fight among themselves. The pressure from below on the people around Xi Jinping, who until then had not dared criticize him despite knowing better, became so massive that Xi finally had no choice but to drop the strict measures. It was a real relief – an even happier moment than the New Year.

Suppression of the Uyghurs

Unfortunately, I have hardly any detailed knowledge of the situation in the Uyghur autonomous province of Xinjiang, whose population was already highly oppressed and deprived of all human rights before Xi Jinping. I have great sympathy for the people there. Some time ago, a news story circulated on the internet that sounded like a joke. It said that a permit was needed to buy knives in Xinjiang and that the larger knives and cleavers used in the kitchen were chained to the table in every household. I find that ridiculous. But maybe it’s just a rumor that serves to mock Xi Jinping’s policies.

I communicate with my like-minded friends almost every day. But my close relatives don’t want to hear about my information and views. I have long since given up trying to explain my opinions. It would only cause discord, and I would isolate myself completely within the family. But I will tell them in detail what I have experienced in Germany and the critical opinions I have heard that confirm my views.

Digital shellfish: These crabs went straight from one net to the next. As soon as they are caught, they don’t end up in a pot, but well-lit in front of the camera belonging to a farmer from the village of Xinhai, in the province of Jiangsu. She offers her catch for sale in a live webcast.

CHINA.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

Amelie
Richter

Marcel
Grzanna

Fabian
Peltsch

Julia
Fiedler

Angela
Köckritz

Jörn
Petring

Dear reader,

The US restrictions on exports of high-power microchips to China have dealt a severe blow to the country’s technology sector. They have noticeably slowed down development. The need for success stories like this is correspondingly high: Tsinghua researchers developed a chip faster than even the best US model. China likes to hear that.

But on closer inspection, things are a little different. Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in a different technology class, one that is fundamentally much faster than conventional chips. It is based on light computing operations, as Joern Petring explains in his analysis. The drawback is that leading US competitors are also researching optical processors. And it is not yet entirely clear how this experimental technology will prove itself in practice.

If you traveled in China before the 2000s, you saw them everywhere, surrounded them and were probably part of them: Swarms of bicycles so dense that they looked like black clouds from a distance. It had a charming appeal. Then came prosperity, and as welcome as it is, road users suddenly found themselves stuck in dull tons of metal.

But now China is looking at Muenster and Copenhagen, writes Christian Domke Seidel. Like in Germany, cars are still a status symbol, but urban traffic has become unbearable. This is why the government encourages people to return to the bicycle. What takes a painfully long time to plan in Germany and sparks public protests happens very quickly in China: The construction of modern bike lanes.

Your
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk

Tsinghua scientists celebrate chip breakthrough

By

Jörn Petring

A research team at Tsinghua University in Beijing has achieved a breakthrough. In the scientific journal Nature, they published a report on a new AI chip that calculates using light particles. This technology will be superior to conventional semiconductor components in numerous applications.

China’s media have already pointed out that it will also outperform the current top models from Nvidia. The focus on Nvidia is mainly due to new AI hardware sanctions for the US manufacturer and China’s intention to free itself from dependence on the US.

Impressive speed – in the lab

Their chip, called ACCEL, is currently only working in the lab. However, it delivers impressive results there. For particular AI tasks such as image and video recognition, the ACCEL chip is claimed to be up to 3,000 times faster than the A100, Nvidia’s top model.

The scientists at Tsinghua University have taken a completely different approach to conventional processors. The ACCEL is a so-called “all-analog chip combining electronic and light computing” – an approach that uses the best of both technologies to process data.

Processing with light

In photonic data processing, also known as optical data processing, light waves (photons) are used instead of electrical currents (electrons) to process information. This technology makes data processing faster and more energy-efficient, as photons are faster than electrons and there is no residual heat.

China is not the only country pursuing this chip manufacturing approach; US scientists are also working on optical computing – a neck-and-neck race can be expected. However, unlike silicon technology, whose origins date back to a time when China was still underdeveloped, the US does not have such an extreme lead here.

On a par with the US

The test results published by the Tsinghua scientists showed that ACCEL is highly accurate at image and video recognition. It could perform similar tasks to a graphics processor (GPU) like the A100 – much faster and with lower power consumption.

Although the ACCEL chip demonstrates high performance in specific tasks, it does not have the wide range of applications of a chip found in smartphones and computers. It is tailored to perform specific functions. It is also unclear when Tsinghua University’s new chip technology will reach the mass production stage.

China’s AI companies under pressure

High-performance chips are essential for Chinese technology companies developing AI models. It would be a great advantage for companies such as Alibaba, Baidu or Tencent if they were to gain access to ACCEL chips in the future. In the short term, however, the success of Tsinghua University’s research is of little use to them. After all, they need chips now. And the export restrictions imposed by the US are becoming ever stricter.

Nvidia’s chips, in particular, are currently the gold standard in developing AI language models and other complex AI applications. This forces technology companies to outfit their data centers with many of these chips to remain competitive.

However, this is not easy for Chinese companies due to the restrictions imposed by the US government. Nvidia has been barred from selling the A100 and its successor H100, the top-of-the-line models, in China for some time now. In mid-October, the US government also announced an export ban on the H800 and A800. Nvidia now offers slimmed-down versions of its high-end models to avoid the sanctions.

USA tightens sanctions

These are somewhat simpler versions of Nvidia’s AI chips. Washington justifies the bans on the grounds that China could jeopardize US national security by gaining access to advanced AI chips.

Beijing, in turn, sees such restrictions as an attempt by the Americans to harm the Chinese economy and curb its rise. This is why developing an independent chip industry is a top priority for the Chinese leadership. While Nvidia is missing out on billions in business in China, Tsinghua University can be sure it will receive all necessary government funding.

After decades of car dominance: The bicycle is making a comeback

By

Christian Domke Seidel

People in China have been riding their bikes more since the Covid pandemic. Around 30 percent of all urban travel now happens by bicycle, after this figure had sunk to 16 percent by 2012. This is a renaissance of an eco-friendly mode of transport that once dominated Chinese traffic. In the mid-1980s, the share was still over 60 percent.

The key to this is the high availability of rental bicycles. In 2022, there were 950 million trips in Beijing alone using only these bikes, says Alexander von Monschaw. He works on a study commissioned by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), which analyzes transport development in the People’s Republic on behalf of the German and Chinese Ministries of Transport. “The bikes in the sharing system are primarily used for the commute to work or to link up with public transport services.”

The reputation of rental bikes has improved

After their initial boom in the 2010s, rental cycles gained a bad reputation. They clogged up the streets, were considered disposable products, and were often broken. As a result, several providers went bankrupt and the bikes ended up in bike graveyards.

However, market consolidation and a certain degree of regulation have since improved their reputation. Many cities now have clear rules on where users can park their rental bikes and how many there can be. During the pandemic years, the use of open-air transport has once again gained significant popularity.

From a cycling nation to a car nation – and back?

The bicycle was irreplaceable for the Chinese between the 1970s and well into the 1990s. The market was dominated by domestic manufacturers Flying Pigeon, Phoenix and Five Rams.

However, economic and mobility policy changed in the 1990s and the car took center stage. While only about 4.2 million vehicles were on China’s roads in 1995, it is now well over 400 million. Up until 2003, the city of Guangzhou always published the number of bicycles in the urban area in its statistical annual report (at the last count, around 140 per 100 families). From 2004 onwards, it published the number of cars.

The trend of the Chinese population traveling more by car and less by bike characterized the years between 1990 and 2010. “In recent years, however, we have seen a strong shift towards electric bikes,” says von Monschaw. The reasons are simple. There is not enough space. “Cities like Beijing are reaching their limits with cars due to emissions and a lack of space. Bicycles and electric two-wheelers are a good way to create mobility.”

How China’s urban development reacts

After decades of urban development focussed on cars, this involves a good deal of conversion and rebuilding. However, all ministries involved in this development (transport, finance, technology and industry, public safety) agree that the “bike-sharing system satisfies the transport needs of the public and is an effective solution to the ‘last mile’ problem in urban transport,” as the GIZ puts it.

It is based on the grand goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2060, with an interim target of reducing carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 65 percent through 2030. The city’s emission-free transport is then set to reach 80 percent. An essential component of this is the bicycle transport system, which is being proactively pursued by local governments, as three examples show.

Beijing released the “Beijing 2016-2035” master plan. It aims to make the city more friendly to pedestrians and cyclists. This includes a new traffic law, the implementation of a new road layout and the promotion, regulation and standardization of bike-sharing systems. One flagship project is the “Huilongguan-Shangdi” bicycle highway.
In Hangzhou, bicycle sharing is free of charge. At the same time, the government has accelerated the expansion of the cycling infrastructure. At 34.3 percent, Hangzhou has the highest bicycle share in China.
In Shenzhen, the government requires all new and rebuilt roads to include bicycle lanes while avoiding cyclists and pedestrians having to share a lane. A total of 1,000 kilometers of cycle paths were built between 2010 and 2020.

What Germany can learn

The purpose of the GIZ project is not just to analyze transport. Instead, Germany and China are supposed to learn from each other when it comes to developing sustainable transport concepts. “In Chinese cities, we see that expressways or elevated roads for bicycles are being built very quickly,” says von Monschaw. “These are projects that we closely observe in order to learn how they work, how they are received and what the risks, advantages and disadvantages are.” GIZ’s mandate is to strengthen the technical exchange between Germany and Asian countries and to investigate which approaches can be replicated.

He sees considerable potential for developing sharing systems in Germany. “Mobility in China is much cheaper. Providers in Germany quickly charge up to five euros for a short trip in Berlin on an electric scooter. For that price, you can get a rental bike flat rate for a whole month in China.” Even in terms of purchasing power, this is less than in Germany, despite the lower average income.

China also looks to Germany

Conversely, the Chinese delegation also looked at concepts that work here in Germany, he says: “China also looks at how we plan sustainable cities and approach transport concepts.” The GIZ promotes mutual exchange on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Transport. It helps facilitate exchange between German and Chinese municipalities, research institutions and economic players.

Beijing fumes over Taiwan relations

China has urged the UK to cease its efforts to “improve” relations with Taiwan. On Wednesday, Taiwan and the UK signed a new trade agreement at a high-level meeting in London.

The new agreement is supposed to pave the way for future talks on green energy, digital trade and investment as well as other trade-related topics. The UK is Taiwan’s third largest trading partner in Europe. The UK and Taiwan both maintain de facto embassies in each other’s capitals, although London does not officially recognize the democratically elected government in Taipei.

The Chinese embassy in London stated that Beijing has always firmly rejected any form of official contact between countries that maintain diplomatic relations with China and “China’s Taiwan region.” “We urge the UK to abide by the one-China principle and stop using trade cooperation as an excuse to engage in official exchanges or enhance substantive relations with Taiwan,” it added.

Anger at Estonia

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also called on Estonia not to permit Taiwan to open “official organizations” in the country. The Chinese ambassador has reportedly threatened to leave Estonia if Taiwan opens a representative office in the Baltic country. Taiwan and Estonia are currently discussing opening a representative office in Estonia, although a consensus on the matter has not yet been reached, according to Taiwan’s foreign ministry.

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu is visiting the three Baltic States of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia this week. Taiwan already has representative offices in Latvia and Lithuania. In response to the opening of Taiwan’s representative office in Lithuania, China reacted with harsh coercive measures. rtr/jul

Smartphone factory inaugurated in Kenya

Kenya’s President William Ruto inaugurated his country’s first smartphone factory last week. Located in Athi River near Nairobi, the factory called East Africa Device Assembly Kenya (Eadak) is a joint venture between the Kenyan telecommunications companies Safaricom and Jamii and the Chinese mobile device retailer Shenzhen Teleone Technology.

The plant will assemble up to 1.4 million smartphones a year from parts imported by the company from China. It will create up to 500 jobs. The phones produced will be offered for around 50 US dollars in the stores of Safaricom, Faiba and on the e-shopping platform Masoko. Eadak hopes to be able to produce tablets and other devices soon.

At the inauguration, Ruto said the project was the fulfillment of his promise to improve digital access for Kenyans. The government will support local manufacturing of cell phones as a major buyer. For instance, the Ministry of Health has purchased 100,000 locally-made cell phones for community health workers. ajs

A critical look at Xi Jinping

We mainland Chinese have very different views on Xi Jinping’s policies. I speak from the perspective of an enlightened older generation now in retirement. We experienced the repressions of Mao Zedong’s rule and the Cultural Revolution and are thus very skeptical and subliminally resistant.

But I also know quite the opposite views among my middle-class relatives and friends of the same age and younger. They are either indifferent to politics: “Let them do what they want up there, the main thing is that I’m well off.” Or they are dazzled by Xi’s pompous mammoth projects and announcements. Others are too preoccupied with everyday life and work and are deliberately cautious or even opportunistic, changing their opinions as and when necessary. And many simply believe the party propaganda because they don’t know any better. However, I would estimate that more than half of the population is very unhappy with the effects of Xi Jinping’s policies.

My insight into things

I have access to information channels that allow me to gain insight into our country’s real political and social events. This is the reason for my negative attitude towards Xi and his people. I see him as an utterly incompetent politician who is not acting for the good of the people, but only for the sake of power and to show off his “greatness.”

At the start of the reform and opening-up policy under Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang, we started reading a progressive magazine that Xi replaced with his own people seven years ago in the fall of 2016. We haven’t read this magazine since then. However, I can learn about national and international politics in Chinese via various authentic portals. I can also listen to a podcast on my smartphone from a Chinese expatriate about the terrible current events around Israel.

I also have friends who still maintain connections with descendants of senior cadres and provide me with critical insider news. Although the censors quickly delete many of the messages on my smartphone, I can still read them if I’m fast enough. If I send messages to one person, I stay out of trouble; the censors intervene only if several people are involved. However, two years ago, my Internet access started to be rigidly monitored, initially for just one month, then for two, three months and soon half a year, eventually resulting in a permanent block.

In the meantime, I’ve got myself a new number with a new smartphone; others who are more closely monitored have to change their number dozens of times, such as a critical blogger we call Mr 48. Many people, even those older than me, who are not good with the internet, are deprived of any objective information. However, emails, which are hardly used in China anymore, are not monitored at all.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

My circles condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and don’t fall for Putin’s lies. We also do not believe Xi’s claim that China cannot stand up to the US without a partnership with Putin. He is only pursuing his ambitions to become a superpower. Recently, a brand new railroad and highway bridge was built across the Amur River near the city of Heihe, over which Russia is being supplied with goods by wagons and trucks without any control. Putin, in turn, has left an as-yet undeveloped border area to the Chinese for mining rare earths, among other things. However, they must stick to the old contracts’ high prices when importing oil and gas. I, on the other hand, am aware that it was the opening of the Chinese market to Western technology and investment that helped China to prosper, and my circles believe that we will continue to depend on global economic exchange.

Posturing towards Taiwan

As far as the military posturing towards Taiwan is concerned, I believe this only serves as a deterrent and is, above all, Xi Jinping’s way of showing off so that he can later erect a monument to himself. China cannot muster the fighting strength for an invasion because the military is corrupt through and through and has only produced “paper tigers.” A large part of the military budget ends up in private pockets. For example, five generals involved in missile weapons technology, who Xi originally promoted, were recently arrested for corruption because their embezzlement and bribery became too obvious.

Unnecessary ghost town Xiong’an

Xi Jinping’s magnificent new capital, Xiong’an, where the Beijing municipal government and all municipal universities are to move so that Xi can better assert his power over the central government, has so far been left empty due to passive resistance from even the highest senior party cadres – they simply refuse to move. Moreover, this valley in the lowlands originally served as a natural water reservoir. The flooding disaster in the suburbs of the port city of Tianjin this August, which claimed many lives, happened because Xi ordered that the valley could no longer be used as a reservoir. Xiong’an would otherwise have been flooded.

By building this unnecessary ghost town, and before that, the enormous egotistical monument that Xi had erected for his father, Xi Jinping has lost all respect and esteem in our eyes. The Silk Road route, used mainly by empty trains and barely trafficked otherwise, is primarily a prestige project that has only driven outlying countries into debt to China. The massive investments in such exaggerated constructions could have helped thousands of rural populations out of poverty.

Prison-like isolation during the pandemic

I managed to avoid the compulsory vaccination campaign during the Covid pandemic, even though I was subjected to a lot of pressure. A squad from the street committee came to my house several times to force me to be vaccinated with the problematic Chinese vaccine, which was still in the experimental stage. I managed to ward them off by claiming that my blood clotting was weak. My relatives, who suffered severe side effects from the vaccinations, envied me in hindsight for my successful refusal. But after I once missed having the regular swab test within the mandatory period of three days, I was locked out of our guarded courtyard.

After waiting for three hours in 38-degree heat, I finally managed to get into my apartment when the guard was distracted. Incidentally, the sudden stop to the prison-like isolation of the city’s residents started in Shanghai. Small groups of mainly younger people had organized themselves and gradually confronted the party organs at all levels. In the end, they could no longer resist the pressure of their arguments and started to loosen their restrictions right up to the top of the city government. Soon, other cities followed suit. What’s more, the organizers and enforcers of the control and vaccination campaign began to fight among themselves. The pressure from below on the people around Xi Jinping, who until then had not dared criticize him despite knowing better, became so massive that Xi finally had no choice but to drop the strict measures. It was a real relief – an even happier moment than the New Year.

Suppression of the Uyghurs

Unfortunately, I have hardly any detailed knowledge of the situation in the Uyghur autonomous province of Xinjiang, whose population was already highly oppressed and deprived of all human rights before Xi Jinping. I have great sympathy for the people there. Some time ago, a news story circulated on the internet that sounded like a joke. It said that a permit was needed to buy knives in Xinjiang and that the larger knives and cleavers used in the kitchen were chained to the table in every household. I find that ridiculous. But maybe it’s just a rumor that serves to mock Xi Jinping’s policies.

I communicate with my like-minded friends almost every day. But my close relatives don’t want to hear about my information and views. I have long since given up trying to explain my opinions. It would only cause discord, and I would isolate myself completely within the family. But I will tell them in detail what I have experienced in Germany and the critical opinions I have heard that confirm my views.

Digital shellfish: These crabs went straight from one net to the next. As soon as they are caught, they don’t end up in a pot, but well-lit in front of the camera belonging to a farmer from the village of Xinhai, in the province of Jiangsu. She offers her catch for sale in a live webcast.

CHINA.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

Amelie
Richter

Marcel
Grzanna

Fabian
Peltsch

Julia
Fiedler

Angela
Köckritz

Jörn
Petring

Feature

Tsinghua scientists celebrate chip breakthrough

Impressive speed – in the lab

Processing with light

On a par with the US

China’s AI companies under pressure

USA tightens sanctions

After decades of car dominance: The bicycle is making a comeback

The reputation of rental bikes has improved

From a cycling nation to a car nation – and back?

How China’s urban development reacts

What Germany can learn

China also looks to Germany

Events

News

Beijing fumes over Taiwan relations

Anger at Estonia

Smartphone factory inaugurated in Kenya

China Perspective

A critical look at Xi Jinping

My insight into things

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Posturing towards Taiwan

Unnecessary ghost town Xiong’an

Prison-like isolation during the pandemic

Suppression of the Uyghurs

Executive Moves

Dessert

China.Table editorial team

CHINA.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

Feature

Tsinghua scientists celebrate chip breakthrough

Impressive speed – in the lab

Processing with light

On a par with the US

China’s AI companies under pressure

USA tightens sanctions

After decades of car dominance: The bicycle is making a comeback

The reputation of rental bikes has improved

From a cycling nation to a car nation – and back?

How China’s urban development reacts

What Germany can learn

China also looks to Germany

Events

News

Beijing fumes over Taiwan relations

Anger at Estonia

Smartphone factory inaugurated in Kenya

China Perspective

A critical look at Xi Jinping

My insight into things

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Posturing towards Taiwan

Unnecessary ghost town Xiong’an

Prison-like isolation during the pandemic

Suppression of the Uyghurs

Executive Moves

Dessert

China.Table editorial team

CHINA.TABLE EDITORIAL OFFICE

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