Myanmar bars Facebook, Twitter in censorship regime

Hi everyone. Kenji in Hong Kong here. We often lead #techAsia with news related to greater China but our Big Story this week is from Myanmar. Nikkei Asia exposed the censorship regime of the junta, which toppled a democratically elected government in February. Twitter is one company that has been targeted, not only in Myanmar but also in India (Mercedes’ Top 10). In other items, please check out our Spotlight and find out what was behind the abrupt resignation of Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance, the TikTok owner that is under fire from both the US and China. The short-video app is already being banned in India. Hope you stay safe. 

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The Big Story — Exclusive

Myanmar’s junta is imposing a censorship regime. Facebook and Twitter, the social media platforms which pro-democracy protesters have been using to organise their actions, appear to have been banned after their names were absent from an official “whitelist” of 1,200 approved services and domains, according to this exclusive by Nikkei Asia.

Nevertheless, services such as WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Viber, Zoom and others have been approved, according to a copy of the list obtained by Nikkei. Neither Nikkei Asia nor the Financial Times were barred but the New York Times and CNN were.

Key developments: Since Myanmar’s coup on February 1, the junta has imposed nationwide internet blackouts twice in a bid to thwart the opposition. But such measures hampered business, bringing the country to the brink of economic collapse.

In a recent joint survey done by 10 foreign chambers of commerce, about a third of companies reported a reduction of more than 75 per cent in their business activities and nearly 13 per cent had ceased all activities.

Upshot: The whitelist is an attempt to shut down channels used by the opposition to organise while keeping a sufficient number of communication tools open to facilitate a business resurgence.

Mercedes’ top 10

1. Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, said it will increase production of automotive chips by 60 per cent. (Nikkei Asia)

2. A Toyota sports car in Japan has become the first hydrogen engine vehicle to complete a 24-hour endurance test. (Nikkei Asia)

3. Indian police visited the local office of Twitter after the US company’s moderators called a tweet by a spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Janata party potentially misleading. (FT)

4. A consortium led by South Korea’s LG Group is set to build a $1.2bn electric vehicle battery plant in Indonesia, close to where Hyundai Motor has a car factory. (Nikkei Asia)

5. “Killer robots” have no fear, no anger and no guilt. But these war-fighting machines need ethical rules, US and Chinese analysts agree. (Nikkei Asia)

6. Shares in Kuaishou, a Chinese short-video app, tumbled after growing signs that users are spending less on its live-streaming services. (FT)

7. South Korean drugmaker Samsung Biologics will begin producing the Moderna coronavirus vaccine. (Nikkei Asia)

8. China needs allies, not isolation, to solve its chip shortage, writes Yuan Yang, the FT’s deputy Beijing bureau chief, in this fine analysis. (FT)

9. How did Japan’s SoftBank teach the market to love lossmaking start-ups? Wataru Suzuki, Nikkei staff writer, makes a persuasive argument. (Nikkei Asia)

10. “Anime is the gateway drug to Japanese culture for many Americans,” says one executive, explaining an explosion in its popularity. (Nikkei Asia)

Our take

The Star Market, the tech-focused board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is China’s answer to Nasdaq, the US tech-focused index. It was launched in 2019, just when tensions with the US were mounting, and has attracted listings by 281 companies with a total market capitalisation of more than $500bn as of Tuesday.

Nevertheless, the Asian Corporate Governance Association, a Hong Kong-based corporate governance (CG) watchdog, has sounded a warning. Its twice yearly report published last week said a loose registration system for initial public offerings has allowed faster and easier listings but this “could create novel CG risks for investors”.

One of the new risks is related to dual-class shares, which were designed to lure big Chinese tech companies back from the US. But since these changes were “moving ahead faster than fundamental CG improvements, investor concerns about systemic risks are likely to grow”.

To rebalance, CG recommends that proper ESG statements be made mandatory but adds that this has been “delayed due to pushback by listed companies”. This is among the issues to have kept China at 10th position out of 12 countries on CG scores — ahead only of the Philippines and Indonesia.

— Kenji

Smart data

The price of copper has been surging, driven largely by expectations that the push among many countries for decarbonisation will lead to strong and sustained demand for the metal.

Demand for electric vehicles, solar and wind power — all of which require copper — are supporting an extraordinary outlook. Goldman Sachs estimates that copper demand will increase nearly 600 per cent to 5.4m tonnes by 2030.

When sages speak

• This groundbreaking report from the US Center for Security and Emerging Technology shows how China’s “science and technology diplomats” in foreign countries work to help Chinese companies acquire foreign technology. The Washington-based think-tank analysed 642 reports on specific “international technological co-operation opportunities” identified between 2015 and 2020. The authors are Ryan Fedasiuk, Emily Weinstein and Anna Puglisi.

• Zichen Wang has a translation of a recent speech by Zhou Xiaochuan, a former governor of China’s central bank, on the digital renminbi. And here is a transcript of the speech in Chinese.

• Space is more than a frontier for science. It is also a military arena. In this episode of the ChinaPower podcast, Todd Harrison and Kaitlyn Johnson of the CSIS, a Washington-based think-tank, explore how China is expanding its military space capabilities.

Spotlight

Zhang Yiming is not the only socially reticent tech billionaire. But the political challenges faced by the chief executive of ByteDance — who is stepping down — have been particularly nerve-shredding.

The Chinese group is stranded in a free-fire zone in the US-China tech war thanks to its popular livestreaming service TikTok. The entrepreneur — if he is genuinely taking a back seat — would be trading a nightmare for the daydreams he says he prefers.

Zhang is credited with helping design the core algorithm that reportedly powers both TikTok and Douyin, its Chinese equivalent. In just nine years, privately owned ByteDance has attained a valuation of $250bn and has 100,000 employees. But the social media group’s ownership of TikTok and Douyin — and their possible shared technology — has fuelled US spying fears.

Liang Rubo, Zhang’s college roommate and ByteDance’s human resources head, is stepping up to CEO and the daunting task of simultaneously appeasing Washington and Beijing. India, for its part, has already banned TikTok completely.

Art of the deal

A Japanese and UK consortium has won a telecoms contract in Ethiopia, going against the grain of Chinese telecoms dominance in Africa. In a deal that is projected to require more than $8bn in capital investment over 10 years, Sumitomo Corp and Vodafone are due to supply mobile services in the east African country.

The consortium, which also includes CDC Group, the development finance specialist owned by the UK government, will establish a joint venture. Sumitomo is expected to hold a stake of slightly less than 30 per cent. Services are expected to start in 2022.

Africa’s telecommunications infrastructure includes a high percentage of Chinese equipment, from the likes of Huawei Technologies and ZTE, which has been cited as potential security risks. Japan, the US and the UK were concerned that the trend would continue and approached Ethiopia about the consortium’s participation.