This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

Welcome back to Beijing Bytes, where the only thing moving faster than AI is the pace of US-China tech news. I’m Ting, and if you’re hoping for a quiet week, you missed the memo—because the tech war has gone into overdrive.

Let’s start with the hacking battlefield. Just yesterday, Google shocked the cybersecurity world by filing a federal lawsuit in New York against a China-based cybercrime network running the “Lighthouse” phishing-as-a-service empire. According to Google’s Halimah DeLaine Prado, Lighthouse set up a smishing bazaar—think fake “your package is stuck” texts—compromising at least a million users from over a hundred countries and potentially targeting as many as a hundred million credit cards in the US alone. Google’s using the RICO Act, the same one they use for mobsters, to try to tear down Lighthouse’s infrastructure. Doesn’t get much more Hollywood than that. And this isn’t a one-off: reports from Palo Alto Networks say these Chinese cyber syndicates pumped out hundreds of thousands of malicious domains, with constantly evolving tactics and even custom tools—like Ghost Tap—that can sneak stolen card details onto digital wallets before you even know what hit you.

But the cyber trenches run both ways. China went public, accusing the US of a digital mega-heist from 2020—allegedly pilfering 127,000 bitcoins, now worth $13 billion, straight out of the LuBian mining pool. The Chinese National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center called it a “state-level hacker operation.” The story has that “black eats black” flavor—one criminal’s loss, another government’s gain—or so Beijing claims. US officials, of course, are quiet on the connection.

While the hackers hustle, regulators are playing chess. Just days ago, China slammed the door shut on Nvidia’s AI chips—even those custom-tailored for their market. The Cyberspace Administration of China told big tech names like ByteDance and Alibaba to stop all testing and orders of Nvidia’s latest servers. Why? According to Vey-Sern Ling from Union Bancaire Privee, it’s partly flex, partly strategy to boost homegrown chipmaking. Some insiders call it Beijing’s “all hands on deck” moment: no more hope that US chips will slip back in if tempers cool. Now, Chinese players are racing to shore up domestic silicon supremacy.

In response, the US Commerce Department paused its new “Affiliates Rule”—those extra export controls targeting Chinese subsidiaries—until November 2026. This move came hot on the heels of economic talks in Kuala Lumpur and could be either a bargaining chip or just time to let everyone catch their breath. If you think that means peace is near, think again: as the Wall Street Journal reports, for every license the US hands out, Chinese companies stock up, and then it’s game on when restrictions snap back in. Both governments, especially post the recent Trump-Xi meeting, are playing a high-stakes waiting game—think tactical truce, not real peace.

Industry impacts? The squeeze on American chips is fueling a homemade AI gold rush. Government officials in China are now overseeing who gets what in the high-end hardware bucket, pushing the likes of Huawei’s Ascend series as the new normal for cloud training. Meanwhile, Baidu and Alibaba have already pivoted big AI workloads onto in-house chips, and local players like YMTC are racing to innovate on memory and fabrication.

Expert consensus? Most agree that every tit-for-tat policy accelerates decoupling, forcing each side to double down on its strengths. Jesen Huang from Nvidia warns these restrictions could backfire, damaging US innovation more than China’s—especially if China, with its giant market and ruthless focus, catches up sooner than Uncle Sam thinks. Meanwhile, rare earth exports and pivotal software restrictions are still in flux—the only certain thing is that the tech...

This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

Hey listeners, Ting here with your hypercharged Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates for November 10, 2025! Forget popcorn—grab your firewall, because the past two weeks have been a cyber-thriller.

Let’s zap right in: the cybersecurity world is still reeling from the massive Knownsec breach. On November 2, hackers essentially kicked in the front door of China’s leading cybersecurity firm—known for cozy ties with both Beijing and Tencent. What did they walk out with? A digital goldmine: 12,000 classified files revealing state-sponsored cyber weapons, custom hacking tools, and an eye-popping global target list. Think 95GB of immigration data from India, 3TB of South Korean telecom call records, and even Taiwan’s road planning data. Researchers describe it as “unprecedented access into China’s cyber war room”—a peek everyone’s been dying for, unless you’re Beijing.

China’s official response was, classic: “We see nothing, we know nothing,” courtesy of Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. Privately though, you can bet teams from the Ministry of State Security are working overtime. What’s wild is the toolkit they lost—a full arsenal for attacking Windows, Linux, iOS, and even sneaky Android malware pulling data from Telegram and WeChat. Even a Trojan power bank! No more trusting that free charger at the airport, folks.

Now, over to policy shifts. Just days after the Xi-Trump meetup in Seoul, Beijing dropped the hammer: state-funded data centers must ban foreign AI chips. This move, coming right after a temporary ceasefire in the chip export war, signals deepening digital self-reliance. Chinese leaders—hello Premier Li Qiang—are broadcasting confidence in homegrown chip design. The plan? Achieve “algorithmic sovereignty” by 2027. That $47 billion semiconductor fund is boosting domestic giants like SMIC and Biren; meanwhile, stocks in Nvidia took a beating as Chinese buyers dry up.

Meanwhile, on the American side, the Bureau of Industry and Security put the brakes on new export controls post-ceasefire, not wanting to escalate further. But don’t mistake this for détente. The expiration of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act in late September is quietly hamstringing US cyber defenses. Since the law lapsed, industry threat sharing is down by over 70%. Hospitals, banks, even the power grid—everyone’s slower to detect and react. Think of it as running a 100-meter dash with lead shoes, while Beijing’s hackers just found rocket boots in their Christmas presents.

Let’s connect the dots: experts at the Center for Security Policy call AI the “new cold war.” If China reaches its 2030 AI supremacy target, they’ll set global tech standards, not the US. That means Western firms may have to play by Beijing’s rules, from autonomous weapons to affordable humanoid robots rolling out of factories like dumplings at dinnertime. Secretary of State Marco Rubio hasn’t budged on Taiwan support, so don’t expect any tech-for-peace swaps soon.

So what’s next? Analysts say both powers are locking in for long-haul rivalry—techno-sovereignty, tighter controls, and cyber-espionage tit-for-tat will be the new normal. China is betting its domestic industry is ready to decouple, while the US frets about self-imposed blind spots in cyber defense. My forecast: the real winners may just be the cybercriminals and code jockeys who now have a trove of Chinese malware playbooks to study.

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This is your Beijing Bytes: US-China Tech War Updates podcast.

If you’ve been tracking US-China tech drama, buckle up—Ting’s got your instant replay and expert analysis. This fortnight, the biggest headline? Beijing and Washington just called a cautious timeout. At the post-Busan summit, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump agreed on a one-year truce, which kicked off with China suspending its gnarly bans on gallium, germanium, and antimony exports to the US. These aren’t just your everyday metals—think the special sauce for chips, fiber optics, and solar panels. With China holding over 90% of global supply for gallium, exporters from Europe down to Southeast Asia have been in panic mode since Beijing imposed the ban last December in retaliation for Washington’s crackdown on advanced chipmaking kit. Suddenly, with the new deal, firms on both sides are breathing a little easier.

Don’t forget, this thaw goes both ways—Trump agreed to slash those punitive tariffs on key Chinese imports and ease up on the fentanyl-related measures. Farmers in the Midwest might just pop some baijiu in thanks. But no one’s kissing and making up. Analysts at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies warn this is just a tactical pause, not a strategic breakthrough. The rivalry—especially over semiconductors and AI—continues to simmer, and Wall Street’s already betting on new flashpoints by next year.

Meanwhile, the cyber battlefront is an absolute warzone. You might’ve caught that the Congressional Budget Office—the US government’s number crunchers—reported a serious breach likely traced to Chinese state-backed hackers. They may have scooped up sensitive communications between lawmakers during the longest US government shutdown on record, while most cyber defenders were furloughed. As if that weren’t enough, Salt Typhoon—a Chinese team active since 2019—was officially labeled a national security crisis by the FBI and CISA. According to recent advisories, Salt Typhoon’s latest exploits may have hit 200 companies across 80 countries, hammering telecom giants like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, even sneaking around critical infrastructure for old-school espionage and disruption.

There’s fresh proof that Chinese groups have been exploiting newly discovered “zero-day” vulnerabilities, like the Lanscope flaw, to plant themselves in US policy think tanks and non-profits—part of a wider playbook to shape or at least pilfer sensitive debate around US-China tech policy. Security Affairs highlighted how new backdoors like “SesameOp” now stealthily control compromised systems using generative AI tools, making detection much trickier.

Cyber experts are calling 2025 the year compliance finally gave way to real resilience. Gartner analysts say US and Chinese companies are shifting from just checking security boxes to full-on defense transformations. Everyone’s suddenly obsessed with finding the right mix of “process-aware monitoring” and behavioral analytics to spot threats that hide in plain sight. Because, to quote one OT security engineer, technology’s not “secure” unless you can tell whether that system glitch is just Monday blues or a Red Dragon hack.

Looking ahead? The truce has paused the most visible hostilities, but entrenched interests on both sides remain. Export controls, cyberattacks, and tech regulations are still the go-to weapons if talks sour. The AI arms race and semiconductor self-reliance efforts are set for another round. And with both sides showcasing their cyber muscle, the risk of miscalculation keeps rising.

That’s it for Beijing Bytes—thanks for tuning in! Smash that subscribe button, and as always, stay curious. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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