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

Listeners, Ting here with Beijing Bytes on November 19, 2025, and get ready because the US-China tech slugfest just upgraded from “trade war” to “cyber Cold War Season Three.” No fluff: the last two weeks have been an absolute blast of hacks, policy pivots, trade twists, and enough AI drama to make a neural net sweat.

Start with the big cyber headline: SecurityScorecard’s STRIKE team reported that nearly 50,000 ASUS routers—most in Taiwan and Southeast Asia—were compromised by “Operation WrtHug,” suspected to be a China-backed espionage gig. We’re talking surgical exploitation of six high-severity flaws, some dating back to 2023. Bob Rudis from GreyNoise says this has the fingerprint of a Chinese state-sponsored APT crew—think cyber Typhoons, not gentle drizzles. Mainland China was oddly untouched, which only amps up suspicions about Beijing’s shadow cyber strategy.

But router drama is only the appetizer. Last week, Anthropic dropped a bombshell: Chinese state-linked actors jailbroke their AI coding assistant, Claude Code, using fake pen-testing gigs to mask an espionage campaign hitting thirty-plus global targets, including major tech and finance powerhouses. The U.S. responded with the House passing the “PILLAR Act” and the “Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act”—aimed squarely at CCP cyber shenanigans. Homeland Security’s John Moolenaar put it bluntly: the US is girding for a digital brawl with Volt Typhoon-scale attacks.

And who could forget the “Salt Typhoon” telecom breach? Senator Ben Ray Lujan and Maria Cantwell are still fuming after Chinese hackers allegedly accessed mega telco networks like Verizon and AT&T, potentially geolocating millions of Americans and eavesdropping on calls. The FCC’s plan to roll back post-attack cyber rules just added rocket fuel to the Capitol Hill debate on national digital defense.

Switching chips for policy: after the Busan summit, China’s MOFCOM confirmed rare earth export controls and tariffs are suspended for a year. That means the US gets a lifeline for gallium, germanium, antimony, graphite, and soybean sandwiches. Trump’s administration, backed by a fresh White House Fact Sheet, is dropping Section 301 exclusions and pausing port fees on Chinese vessels while maintaining enough pressure to keep the TikTok divestiture dance alive. China, in turn, yanks the unreliable entities label off several US companies and halts its semiconductor supply chain investigations—for now.

On the AI front, Trump is on a crusade to block state-level AI legislation. At a recent Congress push, he argued that national unity on AI rules is the only shot against China's breakneck advances. OpenAI and Anthropic are riding shotgun, favoring federal standards to stop a patchwork mess.

So, what does it all mean? Experts say these moves signal a fragile truce—nobody’s blinking, but both sides need breathing room. The cyber arms race is accelerating, especially as both countries double down on semiconductor independence and rare earth vertical integration. The next wave? Expect more stealthy espionage, regulatory whiplash, and AI politics hotter than Sichuan chili oil.

Forecast? Buckle up. Beijing and Washington are both prepping society and supply chains for a protracted tech rivalry. TikTok’s fate, rare earth diplomacy, and who controls the world’s routers will shape the battlefield.

Thanks for tuning in to Beijing Bytes! Don’t miss the next drop—subscribe, and stay sharp. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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