Meet up with China
1. A batch of paperwork mistakenly unsealed by a Pennsylvania court docket reveals the origin story of TikTok’s mother or father firm, ByteDance. Who knew it began out as an actual property enterprise? (New York Instances $)
2. Vladimir Potanin, Russia’s richest man, stated he would transfer a few of his copper smelting factories to China to scale back the affect of Western sanctions, which block Russian corporations from utilizing worldwide fee programs. (Monetary Instances $)
3. Chinese language universities have discovered a method to circumvent the US export ban on high-end Nvidia chips: by shopping for resold server merchandise made by Dell, Tremendous Micro Laptop, and Taiwan’s Gigabyte Know-how. (Reuters $)
4. TikTok is testing “TikTok Notes,” a rival product to Instagram, in Australia and Canada. (The Verge)
5. Since there’s no route for private chapter in China, those that are unable to pay their money owed are being penalized in novel methods: they will’t take high-speed trains, fly on planes, keep in good resorts, or purchase costly insurance coverage insurance policies. (Wall Avenue Journal $)
6. The hunt for the origins of covid-19 has stalled in China, as Chinese language politicians fear about being blamed for the findings. (Related Press)
7. Due to stress from the US authorities, Mexico is not going to hand out tax cuts and different incentives to Chinese language EV corporations. (Reuters $)
Misplaced in translation
Till final 12 months, it was regular for Chinese language resorts to require facial recognition to examine company in, however the metropolis of Shanghai is now turning in opposition to the observe, in keeping with the Chinese language publication twenty first Century Enterprise Herald. The police bureau of Shanghai lately printed a discover that claims “scanning faces” is required provided that company don’t have any id paperwork. In any other case, they’ve the best to refuse it. Most lodge chains in Shanghai, and a few in different cities, have up to date their insurance policies in response.
China has a nationwide facial recognition database tied to the federal government ID system, and companies equivalent to resorts can entry it to confirm prospects’ identities. Nonetheless, Chinese language persons are more and more pushing again on the need of facial recognition in eventualities like this, and questioning whether or not resorts are dealing with such delicate biometric information correctly.
Another factor
The most recent queer icon in Asia is Nymphia Wind, the drag persona of a 28-year-old Taiwanese-American named Leo Tsao, who simply gained the newest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Totally embracing the colour yellow as a part of her id, Nymphia Wind can be referred to as the “Banana Buddha” by her followers. She’s internet hosting reveals in Taoist temples in Taiwan, attracting audiences young and old.