China tech

The U.S. head office of TikTok is shown in Culver City, California.
US-China tensions

ByteDance agrees to $92m privacy settlement with US TikTok users

Chinese company says it wants to avoid lengthy litigation

26 February 2021
Huawei Technologies' French headquarters: The Chinese telecom equipment maker says its 5G network business is growing.
Huawei crackdown

Huawei's 5G business contracts top 1,000, spanning 20 industries

Deputy Chairman Ken Hu touts segment's growth at Shanghai mobile expo

24 February 2021
Huawei announced its latest foldable phone, the Mate X2, on Monday. (Source photos by screenshot from Huawei Website and Getty Images) 
China tech

Huawei unveils new foldable phone despite US crackdown

Chinese tech giant shows off innovation, but stockpile of key components is limited

22 February 2021
China's Huawei Technologies will work with Malaysia on cybersecurity governance, talent development, standards and certification.
Huawei crackdown

Malaysia and Huawei to deepen ties with cybersecurity lab

Kuala Lumpur continues to embrace Chinese giant shunned by West

22 February 2021
It now appears that U.S. restrictions preventing Huawei from obtaining key smartphone components will not be eased by President Joe Biden.
Huawei crackdown

Huawei to more than halve smartphone output in 2021

China's largest handset maker suffers from US sanctions Biden appears to back

18 February 2021
Central banks across Asia are pushing their own digital currency projects.
Asia Insight

China's New Year digital yuan tests hasten Asia e-currency race

Central banks push projects amid COVID but first mover Cambodia sees slow uptake

16 February 2021
A desire by Beijing to development domestic chip companies has led to a series of reckless investments in poorly planned projects, many of which went bankrupt.
36Kr/KrASIA

Semiconductor fraud in China highlights lack of accountability

Push for homegrown chipmakers leads to multimillion-dollar investment swindle

12 February 2021
Analysts have linked the companies' quick compromise to China’s high-level crackdown on monopolistic behavior in the internet sector.
Caixin

Huawei and Tencent aren't playing around over mobile game revenue

But New Year's drama ends in maintenance of 50-50 split as negotiations continue

11 February 2021
Tsinghua Unigroup could reduce its financial burdens by selling a stake in Unisoc.
Semiconductors

China's Tsinghua Unigroup looks to cut stake in chip design unit

Intel-backed developer Unisoc eyes greater independence from indebted parent

11 February 2021
China has many Clubhouse-like apps, but users say none can be a "true alternative" to the U.S. platform. (Photo by Ken Kobayashi)
China tech

China had 'Clubhouse' tech years ago -- so why didn't it take off?

Users say local apps can't match freedom and global reach of US version

9 February 2021
Jack Ma talks to young entrepreneurs at the University of Nairobi in July 2017: he viewed that Africa was the China of 20 years ago.
Opinion

Clipping Jack Ma's wings will undermine China's Africa push

Regulatory reckoning likely to stoke fears of unwarranted state-intervention

9 February 2021
The Clubhouse app had two million users globally as of Jan. 24. While the company did not break out users by region, it said the app has been growing quickly in Asia. (Photo by Yuki Kohara) 
Technology

Chinese flock to freewheeling US chat app Clubhouse

Audio-based social-media platform becomes free-speech haven for mainland users

5 February 2021
Kuaishou Technology's headquarters in Beijing. The company, a rival of ByteDance-owned Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, raised $5.4 billion in its initial public offering.
IPO

Kuaishou shares rise 160% on trading debut in Hong Kong

Chinese short-video app's market cap tops ICBC and PetroChina

5 February 2021
China's top chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co. says U.S. export restrictions have deprived it of lucrative growth opportunities and will continue to affect its performance and expansion plans this year.
Semiconductors

China's top chipmaker SMIC says US restrictions hampering growth

Company unable to reap full benefits of pandemic-fueled demand, says co-CEO

5 February 2021
Alibaba's offering comes a little over a month after China launched an antimonopoly investigation against it.
Markets

Jack Ma's Alibaba raises $5bn in biggest Asia bond sale since May

Demand suggests investors are unfazed by regulatory curbs on e-commerce group

5 February 2021
Kuaishou Technology has raised $5.4 billion in its initial public offering, Hong Kong's largest since 2019.
IPO

Bids for shares of TikTok rival Kuaishou reach triple of IPO price

Hong Kong gray-market trades put Chinese video app on course for record opening

4 February 2021
One problem for investors in China, an analyst says, is that officials in Beijing are not clear on what they will protect and what they won't. (Source photos by AP and AFP/Jiji) 
China debt crunch

China's Yongcheng and Unigroup survive despite series of defaults

Troubles of two government-affiliated companies underscore investors' risks

4 February 2021
TikTok boasted roughly 167 million users in India before the government banned the app over privacy concerns.
China tech

TikTok gives up on India, months after government ban

App owner ByteDance beats a de facto retreat with mass layoffs

4 February 2021
Tencent has passed cases involving more than 40 people on to police and blacklisted 37 companies since the fourth quarter of 2019.
Caixin

Tencent fires 100 on graft allegations following internal probes

Most embezzlement and bribery linked to video-sharing, game and cloud services

3 February 2021
Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing, seen here in 2019, proved skeptics wrong with his forecast that industry PC shipments would reach 300 million. 
Electronics

Lenovo brushes off chip shortage worries amid surge in PC demand

CEO Yang forecasts further growth from accelerated replacement purchases

3 February 2021
Alibaba Group's Beijing office: China's changing regulatory landscape "presents near-term challenges" to the group.
China tech

Alibaba calls China crackdown a 'challenge,' but no news on Ant IPO

E-commerce giant vows to shoulder more social responsibility amid probe

3 February 2021
Webull Financial CEO Anthony Denier seen ringing the closing bell at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Time Square, New York, on Jan. 14.
Technology

GameStop turns little-known China firm Webull into No. 2 app in US

WallStreetBets flock to online brokerage as retail investors seek Robinhood alternative

2 February 2021
Alibaba Group will post quarterly earnings on Tuesday, the first results since Chinese authorities launched a series of antimonopoly actions against the group. 
Your Week in Asia

Alibaba results, Kuaishou stock debut, India budget

Your weekly lineup of Asia's biggest business and political events

31 January 2021
Faced with the threat of being banned in the U.S., ByteDance, the parent of video app TikTok, significantly increased lobby spending. 
Business trends

The China lobby: TikTok parent boosts K-street spending tenfold

Alibaba and Tencent accelerated expenditures while Huawei cut 80%

31 January 2021
ASML's semiconductor lithography tool with its panels removed: Chinese tech sector is heavily reliant on foreign technology.
Opinion

Foreign dependence the Achilles' heel in China's giant tech sector

When it comes to advanced technology, China still relies on imports

31 January 2021