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

This is Ting, your favorite cyber sleuth and Beijing Bytes host, coming at you with the warp-speed rundown on the latest in the US-China tech war. Buckle your seatbelts, because the last two weeks have been a turbocharged tangle of cyber exploits, chip crackdowns, and political curveballs.

First, on the cyber front, US government inboxes are ringing off the hook. According to CNN and Politico, the Congressional Budget Office just suffered a slick breach—think sensitive legislative forecasts possibly sliding into enemy hands. US officials are pointing the finger at Chinese state-backed hackers, part of Beijing’s increasingly bold bid to snag insights into American trade and budget policies. It’s just the latest in a barrage: Symantec and ESET both spotted Chinese state-aligned groups sinking digital claws into everything from US nonprofits dabbling in policy to energy grids in Central Asia and government targets across Latin America and Europe. PlushDaemon, SinisterEye, Speccom—the gang’s all here, leveraging everything from aging Apache exploits to adversary-in-the-middle attacks. Even obscure Android spyware is turning up. If you’re counting, it’s clear: China’s cyber ops are getting not just wider, but weirder and more persistent.

Now, hardware hawks, the big ticket is Nvidia. The Biden administration didn’t just press pause—they slammed the button down, blocking Nvidia from selling its pared-back B30A AI chips to China, as reported by The Information and echoed everywhere from Economic Times to Tom's Hardware. Even after last month’s summit detente between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Busan, the US is doubling down on restrictions. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang, never one to shy from this dance, claims that denying China US chips might backfire by pushing more top AI talent eastwards. Meanwhile, Beijing flipped the table, banning domestic tech giants from buying those GPUs altogether. That’s a double blow: Nvidia’s China market share, once 95%, is a whisper now.

But wait—trade winds are shifting, if temporarily. Just days after tightening rare earths and battery exports, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced a surprise: export controls are lifted for a year, letting critical resources and key semiconductors flow back to the US and, for that matter, Europe. Yup, even the Nexperia chip crisis cooled off, restoring Dutch chip shipments after high drama. Soybeans and logs got free passage too, after Xi and Trump’s high-stakes handshake in South Korea. It’s all meant to buy negotiation time before the next blow-up, but experts like Zhao Zhijiang over at Anbound say don’t expect miracles—the tariff cease-fire is real, but tech sovereignty fights are simmering right below the facade.

Strategically, the lines are redrawing in real time. The AP just dropped an investigation revealing that past US administrations quietly greenlit exports of sensitive tech for Chinese surveillance. Meanwhile, both nations are pouring billions into homegrown fab capacity and AI, desperate to own the infrastructure of the future. Beijing’s latest two-dimensional chips—yep, functional in gamma radiation—remind everyone that the military stakes are rising, too.

In the expert forecast? Think calm before another storm. Analysts expect pressure to build back up around AI, chips, and rare earths. Cyber salvos and legal maneuvering are the new normal. The only thing both Washington and Beijing agree on? Neither side will back down on tech sovereignty or security.

That’s a byte-sized plunge into the world’s most consequential tech feud. Thanks for tuning in to Beijing Bytes—don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next round of digital drama! This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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