China cracks another quantum code barrier. For how much longer is our data safe?
While the battle for high ground in artificial intelligence (AI) dominates global headlines, a team of Chinese researchers has announced a major advance in the field of
quantum cryptology – a race in which the stakes could be even higher.
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Professor Wang Chao, of Shanghai University, has successfully factored a 90-bit RSA integer using a
D-Wave Advantage quantum computer – an achievement that not long ago was thought to be impossible.
Quantum cryptology studies the art of writing or solving codes by exploiting the principles of quantum mechanics in the subatomic world. In this realm, AI and quantum computing are combined to usher in a 'fourth industrial revolution', where such technology could one day be used to crack any code.
This pursuit has raised many concerns about risk. For instance, advances in the field, according to some experts, are taking the world closer to Q-Day – a hypothetical point in the future when quantum computers become powerful enough to decipher even the most secure encryption – which would pose a serious threat to personal privacy and
data security
To stay ahead of this looming threat, scientists around the world have been racing to develop quantum technologies – or countermeasures – that include post-quantum cryptography. A breakthrough by Chinese quantum researchers has just added new momentum to this global debate.
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RSA encryption, widely used in securing digital communications, relies on the mathematical difficulty of factoring large integers. Until now, no efficient method had been found to accomplish such a task within a reasonable time frame.
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Asia Times
2 days ago
- Asia Times
US Trojan horse alarms pushing China's robots to Europe
Chinese robot makers are expanding their presence in Europe amid the growing risk of having their products banned by Washington if the US-China technology war escalates. Distributors of Unitree Robotics and several others backed by Chinese technology giants such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (a tech trio known as BAT), said at a recent event in London that Chinese firms are actively seeking European customers and partners. Aska Liu, founder and chief executive at EnduX, a United Kingdom-based distributor for Chinese robot makers, told Asia Times that many Chinese robotic firms are still collaborating with their US counterparts despite rising Sino-China political tensions. Aska Liu, founder and chief executive at EnduX, says Europe and China should collaborate in robotic technologies. Photo: Asia Times/Jeff Pao For example, she said that Physical Intelligence (Pi), a California-based AI firm founded in 2024, used AgiBot's hardware to develop their robotic brains. She said Chinese and US firms, which are good at hardware and brains, respectively, should collaborate and utilize each other's strengths. However, she noted that some Chinese players are now seeking to diversify their markets. 'We have seen a shift in focus of some Chinese players to Europe,' she said. 'They are saying: The US has so much instability and uncertainty. We don't want to put all eggs in one basket.' She suggested Europe could benefit from the changing political situation between the US and China, as Chinese robot makers want to build stronger relationships with the bloc. Liu said Europe is the best place in the world for Chinese firms to deploy robotic technologies because: Europe has labor shortage challenges; Europe has intense industrial and agricultural scenes for the deployment of robots; Europe is a global leader in regulations and a good gatekeeper for ethics, safety and standards; China has a complete electronic supply chain for companies to finish proof-of-concept (POC) and mass-produce their robots. She said Chinese robot makers should target markets related to research and education, inspection and patrolling, hospitality and services, material handling and so-called 'teleoperation', which allows workers in low-wage countries to control robots remotely and work in shops and factories in high-cost countries. At the same time, Chinese robots are under assault in America. On May 9, the US Congress' Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) said its members signed a bipartisan letter warning of a growing national security threat posed by Unitree's 'dual-use' robots. The committee called for an investigation into Unitree's connection to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and whether the company's products contain built-in backdoors that transmit data back to China. It said China might use the robots' remote-access features to spy, gather intelligence or cause Trojan horse-like disruption inside the US. 'The fact that PLA-connected robots are operating in US prisons and even within Army operations should be a wake-up call,' said committee chairman John Moolenaar. 'These machines are not just tools—they are potential surveillance devices backed by the CCP.' In November 2022, the Federal Communications Commission banned the import of communications equipment made by China's Huawei Technologies and ZTE because they were 'deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to national security.' In early 2024, the Biden administration warned of potential national security risks associated with Chinese electric vehicle imports. Autodiscovery, a UK-based distributor for China's Unitree and AgileX, said on its website that it can disable all networking features if a customer wishes to use the robot in a secure environment. According to official footage, Unitree G1 and US robot maker Boston Dynamics' Atlas can move swiftly, but the latter can perform more complex tasks, such as precisely moving objects. Aron Kisdi, managing director at Autodiscovery, says Chinese robot makers aim to enhance their robots' ability to move objects. Photo: Asia Times/Jeff Pao 'In the recent demonstrations from Boston Dynamics, we have seen much more capability from the robot. It can pick up heavy objects and move them around in a facility. That is certainly a skill many of our clients are looking for,' said Aron Kisdi, managing director at Autodiscovery. 'The ability to do simple tasks like moving strange-shaped or heavy objects from one location to another in the factory is useful for our clients,' he said. 'Unitree platforms don't have the software capability out of the box, and we need to implement this specifically for the client whenever we find a new deployment. Boston Dynamics is ahead of this.' Kisdi said his company not only sells Chinese robots but also helps Chinese manufacturers understand the needs of European customers, enabling them to improve their research and development (R&D). 'We are increasingly talking to end users who don't have a robotics lab but want a functional robot in their facility doing useful things,' he said. 'By the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027, we will have Unitree-based platforms with improved software that can go straight to clients.' Atlas is not yet available for sale. Its production cost is estimated to be between US$500,000 and $1 million. Unitree's G1 robot, which made global headlines in the world's first robotic kickboxing match in Hangzhou last month, is priced at only $16,000. 'I wouldn't categorize Chinese and US robots as low-end or high-end, but they are in different parts of the value chain,' Liu said. 'China is leading the hardware, manufacturing and design. We see all sorts of robots manufactured and designed in China, which are second to none. You won't be able to find this level of variety, quality, value for money or cost anywhere.' 'In a humanoid robot, 40 to 60% of its parts can be sourced from the supply chain of electric vehicles. China is very well developed in electric vehicles, and it's having an advantage,' she added. Founded by Liu in March 2023, EnduX sells robots for LimX Dynamics (backed by Alibaba Group and NIO Capital), AgiBot (backed by Tencent, BYD and Baidu), Deep Robotics and Kepler Exploration Robotics. LimX's TRON1 Photo: Asia Times/Jeff Pao Although Chinese robot makers enjoy a cost advantage in global markets, they face rising domestic competition. At the Humanoids Summit, held in London on May 29-30, Unitree displayed an H1 robot without turning it on, while Kingston University used a Unitree G1 robot to demonstrate some simple movements. EnduX demonstrated LimX's TRON1, a biped robot that can maintain balance on rough terrains. Booster Robotics, a Beijing-based company established in 2023, stole the show with its T1 robot playing football and performing with a human dancer. The T1 humanoid robot stands 1.2 meters and weighs 30 kilograms, compared with Unitree G1's 1.3 meters and 35 kilograms. A Booster T1 robot performs with a human dancer. Photo: Asia Times/Jeff Pao 'Unitree is a great company and has made great products and market noise,' Chaoyi Li, head of globalization at Booster Robotics, told Asia Times during a question-and-answer session. 'As a startup, we have to differentiate our products. We want to make something robust to ensure our products don't break that much.' Li said Booster also invested in software development, with many of its team members having worked in companies like Microsoft. He said his company would build better hands for its robots to do sophisticated tasks. Read: China stages first-ever humanoid robot kickboxing match
RTHK
3 days ago
- RTHK
HK stocks end with strong gains on tech hopes
HK stocks end with strong gains on tech hopes The Hang Seng Index ended 252.94 points, or 1.07 percent, up at 23,906.97. File photo: RTHK Hong Kong and mainland Chinese stocks ended the day with gains on Thursday, led by tech and artificial intelligence shares, as analysts said Hong Kong-listed tech firms remain under-represented in global AI investment portfolios. In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index put on 252.94 points, or 1.07 percent, to end trading for the day at 23,906.97. Huatai analysts pegged Hong Kong's equity market as a strategic asset for global investors seeking to diversify their portfolio and a potential hedge against US dollar volatility. Technology is a central investment theme, they said, adding Hong Kong remains under-allocated. "As future gains in global productivity are expected to hinge on advances in artificial intelligence, the companies best positioned to lead this race are largely concentrated in the US and Hong Kong." Tech stocks traded in Hong Kong gained 1.9 percent, tracking the overnight rise in Chinese ADRs listed in New York, while the onshore shares climbed 2.3 percent. Chinese stocks closed higher, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.23 percent to 3,384.10. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.58 percent higher at 10,203.50. Combined turnover at these two indices stood at 1.29 trillion yuan, higher than 1.15 trillion yuan on the previous trading day. Shares related to media, entertainment and electronic information led the gains, while those in the food and bio-medicine sectors were among the biggest losers. The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 1.17 percent to close at 2,048.60. China's CSI Internet Finance Index jumped 2.3 percent as investors shifted focus to fintech opportunities after Hong Kong passed a stablecoin bill last month. China's services activity expanded at a slightly faster pace in May, with new orders growing more quickly than in April, though new export orders declined due to uncertainty stemming from US tariffs, a private-sector survey showed. The CSI Rare Earth Index rose 0.8 percent, after a group representing auto suppliers in the United States called for immediate action to address China's restricted exports of rare earths, minerals and magnets, warning the issue could quickly disrupt auto parts production. (Reuters/Xinhua)
Asia Times
4 days ago
- Asia Times
Trump's tech sanctions to empower China, betray America
President Donald Trump is stepping up US efforts to cut off China's access to advanced technology, marking a continuation of restrictions first launched in his first term and continued under the Biden administration. The primary victims of these technology bans are American companies that were once China's preferred suppliers. The main beneficiaries are Chinese companies, some of which have been handed massive market opportunities stripped of their most formidable foreign competitors. This has most recently been illustrated by new restrictions on exports to China of US semiconductor design technology, Nvidia's H20 AI processor and jet engines for passenger aircraft. Last week, the Bureau of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce ordered electronic design automation (EDA) software providers serving the semiconductor industry to halt shipments to Chinese customers. On the news, the share prices of the world's top two EDA companies, Synopsys and Cadence Design, dropped by more than 13% and then recovered to finish down 6% and 8%, respectively, in the week to Friday, May 30. The third major EDA supplier, the US company formerly known as Mentor Graphics now owned by Germany's Siemens, is no longer publicly traded. According to market research organization TrendForce, Synopsys, Cadence Design, and Siemens have 31%, 30%, and 11% of the global EDA market, respectively. China accounted for 16% and 12% of Synopsys' and Cadence's EDA sales in 2024. Siemens does not provide a geographical breakdown of its EDA sales. As EETimes reports, EDA is seen as 'the true choke point' in China's semiconductor industry, particularly with regard to artificial intelligence (AI) processors and other advanced integrated circuits (ICs). In addition, according to Cadence, the BIS wrote that the sale of EDA software to Chinese companies constitutes 'an unacceptable risk of use in or diversion to a 'military end use' in China or for a Chinese 'military end user.'' In theory, exports of EDA tools to Chinese customers would be allowed under BIS license; in practice, licenses are extremely unlikely to be forthcoming. For this reason, Synopsys has reportedly shut down its EDA sales and service operations and told its local staff to stop taking new orders in China. EDA export restrictions were first considered during the previous Trump administration, but until now have reportedly been rejected because they were considered too aggressive. Now they are part of Trump's strategy to ramp up pressure on China in pursuit of a broad trade deal. Last year, Synopsis, Cadence Design and Siemens held approximately 80% of the Chinese EDA market, but that figure is already in decline. Synopsys' sales in China dropped 28% year-on-year in the first half of its fiscal 2025 (the six months to April), with the share of its total sales made there falling from a peak of 17% in Q3 of fiscal 2024 to 10% in Q2 of 2025. Cadence Design reported a 9% year-on-year increase in China sales in Q1 of its fiscal 2025 (ended March) but a 24% decline from Q4 of 2024, with the share of its total sales made in China dropping from 13% to 11%. And now, if Trump doesn't back down, it – and Synopsys's 10% – could fall to zero. Meanwhile, the sales of Chinese EDA companies are growing. There are more than ten EDA software and system developers in China, including Empyrean Technology, Primarius Technologies and Xpeedic. A combination of estimates from market research and industry associations, independent analysts and the companies themselves puts their market shares at 10%-12%, 5%-6% and 3%-4%, respectively. In March 2025, Empyrean announced plans to take control of Xpeedic. In Q1 of 2025, Empyrean and Primarius' sales were up 10% and 12% year-on-year, respectively. While the share prices of US EDA companies fell, those of their Chinese competitors rose. The share prices of Empyrean Technology and Primarius Technologies jumped 16% and 21%, respectively, last Wednesday and Thursday. Primarius, which has a significantly smaller market capitalization, continued to rise, finishing up 35% in the week through Tuesday, June 3. Chinese EDA companies receive support from central and local governments, academia and private sector customers, including tech giants Huawei and SMIC. China's National Center of Technology Innovation for EDA was established in Nanjing in June 2023, with contributions from Jiangsu Province, the Ministry of Education, Peking and Xidian universities, and an investment company from Shenzhen. Member companies include Empyrean, Primarius and Shenzhen Giga Design Automation. It could take some time, but China appears to be relatively well-positioned to take advantage of and overcome the latest US government sanctions. The Chinese EDA industry is already undergoing consolidation, and the forced withdrawal of US competitors provides a new incentive to push their technological limits and build economies of scale. Notably, Empyrean already works with Japan's Renesas while Empyrean, Primarius and Xpeedic are EDA partners of Samsung Foundry. In April, Nvidia revealed in an SEC filing that sales of its H20 AI processors to China would effectively be banned, and that it was therefore planning to write down $5.5 billion worth of inventory, purchase commitments and related reserves in Q1 of its fiscal 2026. (Shipments of equivalent processors from AMD were also restricted.) In the event, Nvidia's write-down was $4.5 billion but the ban also reduced sales by $2.5 billion and $8 billion more is expected to be lost in Q2. China accounted for about 10% of Nvidia's sales in Q1, down from 13% the previous fiscal year. Now, the figure seems likely to drop to low single digits. Nvidia's share of the Chinese market for AI processors, which has already dropped from 95% to 50% (40% by some estimates), is also expected to keep falling, likely to insignificance if US policy doesn't change. At the Computex 2025 event held in Taipei, Taiwan, from May 20 to 23, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called export controls a 'failure.' Elaborating on the assessment, he said that, 'The US has based its policy on the assumption that China cannot make AI chips. That assumption was always questionable, and now it's clearly wrong.' A Nvidia spokesperson added, 'With the ban on H20, our competitors in China are now largely shielded from US competition and free to leverage that entire $50 billion market to build a robust AI ecosystem.' In an interview with the Stratechery tech newsletter published on May 19, Huang said, 'China's doing fantastic. 50% of the world's AI researchers are Chinese and you're not going to hold them back, you're not going to stop them from advancing AI. Let's face it, DeepSeek is deeply excellent work. To give them anything short of that is a lack of confidence, so deep that I just can't even tolerate it.' Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent and other Chinese buyers of AI processors are already using domestic alternatives to chips from Nvidia and AMD, starting with, but not limited to, Huawei's Ascend series. On May 28, The New York Times reported that the US government has restricted sales of jet engine technology to China, which will likely be a major headache for the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC). COMAC's C919 passenger jets are currently equipped with LEAP turbofan engines manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aviation of the US and Safran Aircraft Engines of France. However, the Aero Engine Corporation of China appears to be making progress toward developing a domestic alternative, known as the CJ-1000. In March, as reported by the South China Morning Post, Shi Jianzhong, honorary president of the Shanghai Society of Aeronautics and former deputy general manager of COMAC, told a Chinese aviation forum that 'The CJ-1000 engine is in trial runs and it fared better than my most optimistic expectations.' Verification flights of the C919 aircraft equipped with the CJ-1000 jet engine are expected to begin 'soon.' There is also the possibility of renewed collaboration with Russia, which has a history of building jet engines for commercial aircraft dating back to the Soviet Union era. But that appears to be on hold as Russia concentrates on developing key components for its own short- and medium-range passenger jets. Two years ago, Yury Slyusar, CEO of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), warned COMAC that 'There may come a point when Western nations halt the supply of crucial components, assemblies, and products, potentially leading to a halt in aircraft production. Therefore, we urge them to reconsider the 'insides' of the aircraft as part of joint projects and reduce dependency on Western companies.' Ever since Trump first slapped sanctions on Huawei in 2018, the US government has incentivized Chinese innovation while undermining once-dominant American market shares, creating what it aims to prevent – the emergence of Chinese technology industries that are both self-sufficient and globally competitive. The attempt to suppress Huawei – which today is not only a world leader in telecom equipment but also has a growing presence in AI, IC design, autonomous driving and even enterprise software – has, by any measure, failed. And that will likely be the case for many Chinese companies targeted by the latest round of US sanctions. At the Reagan National Economic Forum held in California at the end of May, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said, 'I would engage with China. I just got back from China last week. They're not scared, folks. This notion they're going to come bow to America, I wouldn't count on that. When they have a problem, they put 100,000 engineers on it. They've been preparing for this for years.' Follow this writer on X: @ScottFo83517667
