3. Hundreds of Baidu staff 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 Street Journal $)
4. Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s CEO, has sought closed-door conferences with at the least half a dozen lawmakers in Washington, DC. He is scheduled to look earlier than a congressional listening to relating to privateness and nationwide safety issues about TikTok later this month. (Forbes $)
5. China could 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 number of years in the past, is just not going away simply. An govt at a Chinese auto firm not too long ago requested its authorized division to determine “how to avoid legal risks” in asking staff to work on Saturdays. (Sixth Tone)
Lost in translation
In central China, a younger entrepreneur is reimagining retirement properties by educating the senior residents the best way to play e-sports. As Chinese gaming publication ChuApp studies, Fan Jinlin, a 25-year-old in Henan province, took over his household’s retirement home based business after school. He began creating video content material in regards to the lives of the residents and shortly attracted thousands and thousands of followers on Douyin, the Chinese model of TikTok.
In February 2022, he started constructing an e-sports room in his fifth retirement residence and recruiting seniors who’re curious about video video games. Zhang Fengqin, a 68-year-old retired financial institution clerk, is one in all them. She noticed the information on Douyin and utilized. Soon, she grew from somebody who didn’t even know the best way to use a mouse to a proficient participant of Teamfight Tactics, a well-liked recreation that doesn’t require fast reflexes as a lot as strategic pondering. Ultimately, Fan desires to construct knowledgeable staff to play in tournaments, however to realize that, he would wish at the least seven individuals like Zhang. Right now he solely has three.
One thing more
The quantity 2,952 has disappeared from China’s social media platform Weibo. Why? Because 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 National People’s Congress. While everybody knew Xi would get a 3rd time period, the truth that there was not a single opposition vote nonetheless bought individuals speaking about how pointless the process was. Just a number of days later, Weibo blocked search outcomes on the quantity.