Fight against cryptocurrencies China closes data centers

As of: 06/22/2021 8:26 am

Virtual means of payment like Bitcoin are a thorn in the side of the Chinese government. That is why it is vehemently against it: Now data centers have been switched off in several parts of the country.

From Steffen Wurzel, ARD studio Shanghai

The Chinese government continues to vehemently oppose everything that has to do with Bitcoin. Banks and financial service providers were again asked not to offer any more services that have to do with crypto payment methods. One wants to preserve the stability and the security of the financial market and protect the assets and property of the population, said the state central bank of China.

China had banned trading in crypto-currency such as Bitcoin as early as 2017, as the first large country in the world. The so-called mining, however, i.e. the electronic generation of Bitcoins and Co with huge computer networks, was still tolerated by the Chinese authorities. The government has only been systematically taking action against decentralized and digital means of payment for around six weeks. Huge data centers were shut down in several parts of the country. Most recently, around two thirds of all new Bitcoins worldwide were generated with computers in China. This share will now decrease rapidly and significantly, say analysts.

Concept of bitcoin contradicts politics

Monetary and currency policy are centrally controlled in China. The central bank is directly under the communist leadership. The Chinese currency, renminbi or yuan, is not freely convertible. The decentralized and open concept of Bitcoin contradicts this policy and is therefore rejected by the Chinese government. At the same time, the government is working on its own digital currency, which, however, has almost nothing to do with Bitcoin.

The stricter action taken by the Chinese authorities against crypto-currency has helped Bitcoin to lose around half of its value in the past two months. The Bitcoin price is still a good three times as high as a year ago

Icon of Tik Tok video sharing app on smartphone screen in Paris, France. Photo: AFP/VNA According to the European Commission, consumer protection authorities in several EU member states have expressed concern about the way TikTok runs hidden ads aimed at children and the contractual provisions of its policy. of this entertainment application. The agency said TikTok has a one-month deadline to respond. The TikTok application, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is facing many similar complaints around the world. Last month, the UK accused the company of illegally collecting the data of millions of children in Europe. Earlier, in February, the European Union for the Protection of Consumers (BEUC) complained TikTok to authorities in 15 EU countries, accusing TikTok of failing to protect children against inappropriate advertisements. cases, thereby violating the rights of consumers in the EU. In the US, some lawmakers accused TikTok of sharing user data with the Chinese government, although the company that owns the app, Bytedance, still denies this. TikTok insists that users’ data in the US is stored in the country itself and that China has no authority over content not stored in the country. TikTok continuously faces many complaints in the context that this application is gradually becoming more popular among young people due to limited activities from living to studying of this group during the COVID epidemic. -19.

Tesla cars are restricted in China because of spying concerns Some Chinese government agencies restrict access to Tesla vehicles. They are concerned that car cameras affect security. According to the Reuters , many government buildings in China have just announced to restrict the entry of Tesla cars, citing the risk of spying. This move shows that the Chinese government is increasingly afraid of electric vehicle products from the US. In March, Chinese government and military employees were asked to stop using Tesla vehicles. The reason comes from the CCTV system on Tesla cars that can continuously record, track the location and travel time of the vehicle. The Chinese side is concerned that sensitive information and images may be collected and transmitted to the US. In addition, contacts or synchronized communication between the car and the phone are also said to be likely to leak. Before the newly announced restriction order for government buildings, Tesla vehicles were restricted from entering the premises of aerospace companies or the residences of high-ranking officials. In response to the move from China, in March, billionaire Elon Musk denied allegations about the ability of Tesla cars to spy. Speaking during an online meeting of the China Development Forum, the American CEO said that if Tesla used a car to spy on China or any other country, the company would shut down. China is Tesla’s most important market, contributing about 30% of sales to the US electric car company. However, from the beginning of 2021 until now, Tesla has continuously faced many difficulties and disadvantages in this billion-people market. In addition to the negative accusations about the risk of government spying, Tesla also faced a wave of criticism from users regarding its quality and unfriendly behavior with the public. These things forced Tesla to make concessions and defuse tensions by taking steps to comply with the regulations of the local government, while limiting the management’s dissenting statements in China.

Huang Zheng, founder of Pinduoduo (left) and Wang Xing, founder of Meituan – Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Images. Huang Zheng, founder and CEO of e-commerce firm Pinduoduo, and Wang Xing, founder and CEO of food delivery platform Meituan, have seen their fortunes plummet after being criticized by an activist group for consumers. According to Forbes, the share price of this Pinduoduo 11/5 fell more than 9%, “blowing” $ 4.3 billion from Huang Zheng’s assets. The founder of Pinduoduo is currently worth $42.9 billion according to Forbes’ real-time statistics, making him the 4th richest person in China. Meanwhile, Wang Xing’s fortune fell by $2.5 billion as investors continued to sell off Meituan shares in the May 11 session. The share price fell another 5.3% after falling 7.1% in the previous session. Wang is currently worth $19.5 billion. A day earlier, the Shanghai Consumer Council said it had convened both Pinduoduo and Meituan. The organization criticized Pinduoduo for its poor quality goods, rampant counterfeiting on the company’s e-commerce platform, and poor after-sales service. The organization also condemned Meituan for issues with refunds, failed food deliveries and misleading content on the company’s platform. The statement of the Shanghai Consumer Council comes as the Chinese government is tightening control of the country’s largest technology firms. Last week, Wang was also criticized after posting a poem of a Tang poem allegedly intended to criticize the Chinese government on the social network Fanfou. The poem titled The Book of the Dead (Book Burning Pit) by poet Zhang Jie, written at the end of the Tang Dynasty, condemns Qin Shi Huang’s act of burning books to control people’s thoughts and suppress the mind. awake. The poem is meant to mock Qin Shi Huang for seeing academia as the greatest threat, but his reign was eventually overthrown by non-intellectuals. A few days later, Wang deleted the post, explaining that the poem was just a reminder that “the most dangerous enemies are often the ones we least expect”. The 42-year-old CEO also added that Meituan’s biggest rival appears to be Ele.me but is in fact “unnoticed companies and business models that are disrupting the food delivery industry”. Late last month, Beijing’s anti-trust authority officially launched an investigation into Meituan’s alleged request for sellers to be allowed only the Meituan platform or another competitor. Since then, the company’s stock price has fallen by nearly 18 percent. On Weibo, many Chinese netizens compared Wang’s posting of the poem to Jack Ma’s speech criticizing the financial management system in October 2020. The co-founder of Alibaba at the time even said bluntly that Chinese banks operate like “pawn shops”. Jack Ma’s speech is said to spark a series of strong moves by Chinese authorities against Alibaba as well as its subsidiary Ant Group. Ant’s “big” IPO was suspended a few days later. And Alibaba was fined a record $2.8 billion for monopolies last month.

The above report was made by Capgemini for KPN, one of the largest telecommunications networks in the Netherlands, in 2010. This report was later published by De Volkskrant . Although KPN acknowledged the existence of the report, the company stated on April 19 that it “had never seen Huawei steal customer information”. This telecommunication network also affirmed that none of their partners “have the ability to access illegally or have unlimited control over the system of KPN”. Huawei also denied that: “We have never been accused of illegal acts by the government”. Huawei is one of the telecommunications equipment suppliers that have suffered the most information theft charges in Europe. Photo: Shutterstock. KPN started using Huawei’s technology in 2009. After AIVD, the Dutch domestic intelligence agency, warned of the possibility of being eavesdropped, the KPN commissioned the report. The report concludes that users of KPN “can lose confidence” in this telecommunications network “if they know that the Chinese government can monitor calls of KPN mobile numbers”. Even after receiving reports from Capgemini, KPN continued to buy technical equipment to establish Huawei’s 3G and 4G networks, according to Guardian . However, by 2020, KPN becomes one of the first telecommunications companies in Europe to exclude Huawei from its 5G network development program. Instead, KPN chose Ericsson from Sweden to coordinate the construction of its 5G network. Meanwhile, the Dutch government is also tightening regulations on telecommunications equipment suppliers, including background checks on employees with access to the network.

6G technology will appear around 2030 Mr. Eric Xu also noted that Huawei is currently working to determine the key specifications of 6G technology, and the company may soon release a white paper on 6G. “We are working with other players in the mobile industry to determine what 6G really is,” added Mr. Eric Xu. Maybe in the near future, we will release our 6G white paper “. Mr. Eric Xu stated that the future development of 6G will depend on potential use cases that need the support of this technology. “If Huawei or the global industry has limited imagination and if we can’t come up with a compelling use case for 6G, then maybe 6G won’t be necessary. If all the use cases for 6G that the industry will come up with could be supported by 5G or 5.5G then we wouldn’t need 6G. Then we may need to wait for our next generation, who might be smarter than us and have different needs. They may come up with some use cases that only 6G can handle. That will be where 6G can find its value… ”, analyzed Eric Xu. In preparation for the next generation of mobile technology, the Chinese government has begun researching 6G technology. According to Chinese state media reports, government agencies and research institutes had initial meetings with the aim of establishing research and development groups. 6G technology National level. China’s Ministry of Science and Technology said it would set up two working groups to carry out 6G research activities. Meanwhile, earlier this week, the German government said it plans to finance up to 700 million euros ($ 833 million) for research on 6G technologies by 2025. In a statement, the Ministry of Education Education and Research The German Federation (BMBF) said it started Germany’s first research initiative on 6G technology this week. Besides China and Germany, many other countries in the world have also planned and invested in the research and development of 6G technology such as the US, Korea, Japan, France and Finland. Phan Van Hoa (from Rcrwireless)