China news roundup / Nachrichten 2026-08-12/13

‘Multi-part case study on China’s media’ finds that AI models can’t hallucinate away Chinese censorship

"A peer-reviewed study published in Nature found evidence that Chinese state-controlled media makes its way into AI training data and can influence how models answer questions about China. Meta’s independent Oversight Board found models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta were more than twice as likely to refuse requests to criticize governments in countries that restrict political speech than those in freer countries"

--- Isn't it wonderful? Chinese censorship comes to us even without China pushing it.

"The evidence taken together suggests the effects of China’s tightly controlled information system may not stop at Chinese-built AI, though neither shows that Beijing deliberately manipulated OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or Meta."

--- I wouldn't put it past the CCP that it is actively manipulating Western AI. But they don't need to because Western politicians, journalists and obviously technicians are still quite naive when it comes to China. 'We want to train our model in Chinese, so we take any documents in Chinese to train it. What could possibly happen?'

"they asked the same political questions in Chinese and English to the models and compared the answers.The gap was substantial. The Chinese-language response was rated as more favorable to Chinese leaders and institutions 68.8% of the time for Claude Sonnet, 88.2% for Claude Opus, 72.6% for GPT-3.5 and 84% for GPT-4o."

--- Don't trust China ... and don't trust AI.

"Researchers tested 10 commercial models from Anthropic, DeepSeek, Google, Meta, OpenAI and xAI. They used identical political prompts involving five countries with restrictive speech laws—China, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey and Cambodia—and five relatively permissive countries, including the U.S., U.K., Japan, Taiwan and Chile. The tests were conducted from Australia. Across the 10 models, the average refusal rate for requests to produce political criticism was 34% in restrictive countries, compared with 14% in freer ones. But there was wide variation by model: Gemini 3 Flash and Grok 4 Fast, for example, did not refuse any of the political-material requests regardless of jurisdiction. Some of the clearest disparities appeared in Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4. It refused all five protest flyer requests involving Xi Jinping, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Thailand’s King Vajiralongkorn, while producing all five requested flyers criticizing President Donald Trump and King Charles III."

--- So, there is variation between the models. But the problem is, of course, you don't know which materials they use to train their model in the meantime. It can change anytime and you don't know.

Microsoft Retreats in China, but AI Door Stays Open

"Microsoft took a major hit from the erosion of trust between Washington and Beijing, the five people said. China has since 2017 pushed the use of domestic software, ‌which Beijing sees as more secure and whose quality is increasingly competitive with Windows and Office."

--- Erosion of trust. Yeah, right. The CCP never trusted the USA, it always only trusted itself. And the plan was all along to remove all foreign technology from China once Chinese technology was good enough.

"Microsoft ultimately decided to remain because it had carved out a profitable business servicing Chinese companies like TikTok owner ByteDance, which need Western technology to manage overseas operations"

--- And I guess that was the only sector where they made any profit at all, because in most companies, schools, universities in China, they used pirated copies of MS software.

"Microsoft had also cultivated a relationship with the government that is among the deepest of any tech company, its former China head Alain Crozier told Reuters."

--- A very good reason not to use anything from MS. I haven't used MS software privately since roughly 2010 and I get along very well.

China races to solve US$148 bil property threat as leases end

"Almost all urban land in China is owned by the state. The government wrote the current rules for leasing that land around the early 1990s, granting leases of 40 years for plots that house shopping malls, 50 years for industrial and office properties and 70 years for residential buildings. By 2030, about 30 million square metres (3,000 hectares) of office and retail space in 18 major Chinese cities will have remaining land tenures of less than 20 years, [...] Investors are still concerned about a lack of clear criteria for applying for a lease extension years in advance of its expiry, beyond some cities suggesting that future investment plans or capacity expansion will have to be shown, said Lillian Duan, a Shanghai-based managing partner who leads the real estate practice at Chinese law firm Kaiman Legal. Local governments have wide discretion to decide what that means in practice"

--- Which means you depend on the whims of some local CCP bigwigs. Do not invest in China.

China launches Arctic 'Ice Silk Road' container route to dodge Red Sea chokepoint

"The weekly service will run between Ningbo on China's east coast and Felixstowe in the UK via the Northern Route, skirting the north Russian coast and cutting the usual 40-day sailing time by about half, depending on Arctic Circle conditions. It follows a record 23 transits through the Northern Sea Route last summer, up from 15 in 2024, as melting polar ice widens the seasonal window in which ships can pass without icebreaker support."

--- "... depending on Arctic Circle conditions.." Not really that big a deal, when only a few dozen ships every year can make the route. And even in summer the voyage can be hazardous, as one Russian shadow tanker only recently had to notice.

Teodoro calls China immigration operation vs 100 Filipinos 'extortion and blackmail'

"China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday said the Filipinos were subjected to an immigration operation over alleged illegal employment and overstaying. “China’s national immigration authorities have made consistent effort to strengthen supervision of foreigners illegally entering, living or working in China and carried out special operations in accordance with the law. Actions have been taken in accordance with the law against over 100 Philippine nationals for illegally working or living in China,”"

"Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Thursday called China’s reported immigration action against more than 100 Filipinos “plain and simple extortion and blackmail.”"

--- Why would he make such an egregious accusation? As we all know, China is a peace loving country which always likes to abide by the laws, internationally and nationally.

China threatened to arrest PH workers over steel firm raid, Senate told

"there was a threat to arrest Filipinos in their country if we did not release the Chinese workers"

--- Well, ok, that sounds like something a mafia boss would say, but really, it's just hearsay.

In Taiwan, Chinese-born spouses face questions of loyalty and, some say, discrimination

"Even before recent controversies, spouses born in China were treated differently from spouses born anywhere else. For example, “mainland spouses” can apply for Taiwanese citizenship after six years, while foreign spouses can apply in four years. They also must be Taiwanese citizens for 10 years before they can apply for government jobs, while foreign spouses can apply for most lower-level government jobs right after becoming citizens. Behind the difference in law is a question of loyalty"

--- Such discrimination! How dare you treat people from an enemy country differently than from other countries? I mean after all, China only threatens to invade Taiwan and is known for pressuring its alleged citizens to spy for it by threatening their families in China. That's hardly a reason to suspect anyone with familial connections to China would actually be a threat or something, huh?

White House claims over 40 US trading partners are helping China evade tariffs by acting as middlemen

Solomon Islands signs security agreement with US, reaffirms neutrality

--- China Uncensored: "This Scandal Has Pushed China’s Youth to the Breaking Point"

--- ABC NEWS: "Why is Taiwan so angry about China's naval exercise with Indonesia?"

Ansturm auf Aktien von Roboter-Entwickler Unitree

"Unitree ist der erste chinesische Hersteller von humanoiden Robotern, der an die Börse geht."

--- Nur schade, dass gerade die Maschinen von Unitree keine Roboter sind, sondern ferngesteuertes Spielzeug.