3. A whole bunch of Baidu workers are working across the clock and borrowing laptop chips from different departments to prepare for the launch of Ernie Bot, Baidu’s reply to ChatGPT, this coming Thursday. (Wall Road Journal $)
4. Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s CEO, has sought closed-door conferences with at the very least half a dozen lawmakers in Washington, DC. He’s scheduled to seem earlier than a congressional listening to concerning privateness and nationwide safety considerations about TikTok later this month. (Forbes $)
5. China might management 32% of the world’s lithium mining capability by 2025, the funding financial institution UBS AG estimates. (Bloomberg $)
6. China reappointed Yi Gang as the pinnacle of the central financial institution, signaling continuity in its financial insurance policies. (AP)
7. The “996” overwork tradition in China, embraced by tech corporations a couple of years in the past, will not be going away simply. An government at a Chinese language auto firm not too long ago requested its authorized division to determine “learn how to keep away from authorized dangers” in asking workers to work on Saturdays. (Sixth Tone)
Misplaced in translation
In central China, a younger entrepreneur is reimagining retirement properties by instructing the senior residents learn how to play e-sports. As Chinese language gaming publication ChuApp studies, Fan Jinlin, a 25-year-old in Henan province, took over his household’s retirement home based business after faculty. He began creating video content material in regards to the lives of the residents and rapidly attracted hundreds of thousands of followers on Douyin, the Chinese language model of TikTok.
In February 2022, he started constructing an e-sports room in his fifth retirement residence and recruiting seniors who’re interested by video video games. Zhang Fengqin, a 68-year-old retired financial institution clerk, is one among them. She noticed the information on Douyin and utilized. Quickly, she grew from somebody who didn’t even know learn how to use a mouse to a proficient participant of Teamfight Ways, a preferred sport that doesn’t require fast reflexes as a lot as strategic considering. Finally, Fan desires to construct an expert group to play in tournaments, however to attain that, he would wish at the very least seven contributors like Zhang. Proper now he solely has three.
Yet another factor
The quantity 2,952 has disappeared from China’s social media platform Weibo. Why? As a result of President Xi Jinping prolonged his rule for an additional 5 years final week, having acquired 2,952 votes approving the extension—with zero opposed and 0 abstaining—in China’s ceremonial legislative physique, the Nationwide Folks’s Congress. Whereas everybody knew Xi would get a 3rd time period, the truth that there was not a single opposition vote nonetheless received individuals speaking about how pointless the process was. Only a few days later, Weibo blocked search outcomes on the quantity.
