Nexperia, the EU-based automotive chipmaker at the centre of a geopolitical dispute, has suspended supplies to its Chinese factory, stepping up a trade war that threatens to halt production at carmakers around the world. The company wrote to customers this week informing them all supplies to a Chinese plant had been suspended. In September, the Netherlands used national security laws to take control of the chipmaker, citing concerns that its Chinese owner, Wingtech Technologies, was planning to shift intellectual property to another company it owned. The Dutch government said that…
Tag: Technology
EU carmakers ‘days away’ from factories halting work in chip war with China
Industry body says reserves of Nexperia semiconductors are dwindling after Beijing bans exports of key components Carmakers in the EU are “days away” from closing production lines, the industry has warned as a crisis over computer chip supplies from China escalates. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) issued an urgent warning on Wednesday saying its members, which include Volkswagen, Fiat, Peugeot and BMW, were now working on “reserve stocks but supplies are dwindling”. Continue reading… The Guardian
‘DeepSeek is humane. Doctors are more like machines’: my mother’s worrying reliance on AI for health advice
Every few months, my mother, a 57-year-old kidney transplant patient who lives in a small city in eastern China, embarks on a two-day journey to see her doctor. She fills her backpack with a change of clothes, a stack of medical reports and a few boiled eggs to snack on. Then, she takes a 90-minute ride on a high-speed train and checks into a hotel in the eastern metropolis of Hangzhou. At 7am the next day, she lines up with hundreds of others to get her blood taken in a…
US and China reach ‘final deal’ on TikTok sale, treasury secretary says
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Sunday that the US and China have finalized the details of a deal transferring TikTok’s US version to new owners. “We reached a final deal on TikTok,” Bessent said on Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. Alluding to Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, Bessent continued: “We reached [a deal] in Madrid, and I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction” during…
What are rare earths and critical minerals – explained in 30 seconds
Critical minerals are vital for the global economy and include nickel, manganese and cobalt. Rare earths are a specific, highly useful category of critical minerals that are used to make magnets essential for the auto, electronic and defence industries, as well as in renewable energy. Securing reserves and production of rare earths has become a flashpoint in global diplomacy and trade. Rare earths are a group of 17 heavy metals that are abundant throughout the Earth’s crust. The United States Geological Survey estimated in 2024 there were 110m tonnes of…
‘Americans are democracy’s equivalent of second-generation wealth’: a Chinese journalist on the US under Trump
On a Friday night in late May, Wang Jian was getting ready to broadcast. It was pouring outside, and he was sitting in the garage apartment behind his house, just outside Boston, eating dinner. “I am very sensitive to what Trump does,” Wang was telling me, in Mandarin, waving a fork. “When Trump holds a cabinet meeting, he sits there and the people next to him start to flatter him. And I think, isn’t this the same as Mao Zedong? Trump sells the same thing: a little bit of populism,…
The IMF boss is right to say ‘buckle up’ – the global economy is facing multiple menaces
Little more than 48 hours passed last week between a warning from the IMF chief, Kristalina Georgieva, that “uncertainty is the new normal” and Donald Trump’s latest tariff onslaught – this time aimed at China. Markets plunged on Friday after Trump threatened to levy punitive additional tariffs of 100% on Chinese goods in retaliation for Beijing’s blocks on exports of rare earth minerals. The world’s finance ministers and central bankers will meet in Washington this week for the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank. In her curtain-raiser speech…
China steps up control of rare-earth exports citing ‘national security’ concerns
China has increased restrictions on exports of rare earths and related technologies as Beijing tightened its grip on the products that are critical for use in smartphones and fighter jets. China’s commerce ministry announced the restrictions on Thursday, arguing damage had been caused to its “national security” from exports of the technologies – both directly or indirectly – to foreign military. The restrictions require government permission for the export of technology used to mine, process or recycle rare-earth minerals or make magnets from it, which could have dual use. The…
Met police disrupt suspected international smuggling ring in UK’s ‘largest’ phone theft crackdown
Police have disrupted an international network suspected of smuggling tens of thousands of stolen phones from the UK in its largest operation to tackle phone theft in London, the Metropolitan police said. The criminal organisation is believed to have smuggled up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China over the past 12 months – up to 40% of all phones stolen in the capital, the Met said on Monday. The force launched Operation Echosteep in December 2024 after a box containing about 1,000 iPhones being shipped to Hong…
Is TikTok about to go full Maga? – podcast
Last week, Donald Trump signed an executive order approving a proposed deal to keep TikTok operating in the US. The $14bn deal, if finalised, would see the transfer of TikTok’s US operation from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to a consortium which includes the American billionaires Larry Ellison, Oracle’s co-founder, and Rupert Murdoch, as well as two investment firms with known ties to the Trump administration. “It’s owned by Americans, and very sophisticated Americans,” Trump said while signing the order. “This is going to be American-operated all the way.” His…