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☆ Los archivos de ByteDance se hicieron públicos por error. Esto es lo que dicen
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Mara Hvistendahl | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ A Trove of ByteDance Records Mistakenly Went Public. Here’s What They Say.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Mara Hvistendahl | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Somehow, thousands of pages of sealed court documents relating to the birth of TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, were mistakenly released by a Pennsylvania court. The documents — emails, chat transcripts and memos — are a fascinating window into ByteDance’s origins. They also tell a new version of the ByteDance origin story, one with fits and starts on the way to becoming one of the world’s most highly valued start-ups. The ByteDance origin story, as we know it, has the ring of Silicon Valley lore. As the story goes, the company’s founder, Zhang Yiming, sketched out the idea on a napkin for an employee of a Susquehanna subsidiary in 2012.

Persons: Jeff Yass, ByteDance, Zhang Yiming Organizations: Susquehanna International Group, Republican, Susquehanna Locations: Pennsylvania

☆ How an Obscure Chinese Real Estate Start-Up Paved the Way to TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Mara Hvistendahl | Lauren Hirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 2009, long before Jeff Yass became a Republican megadonor, his firm, Susquehanna International Group, invested in a Chinese real estate start-up that boasted a sophisticated search algorithm. Behind the scenes, employees of a Chinese subsidiary of Mr. Yass’s firm were so deeply involved, records show, that they conceived the idea for the company and handpicked its chief executive. They said in one email that he was not the company’s “real founder.”As a real estate venture, 99Fang ultimately fizzled. They say that 99Fang’s chief executive — and the search technology — resurfaced at another Susquehanna venture: ByteDance. ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, is now one of the world’s most highly valued start-ups, worth $225 billion, according to CB Insights, a firm that tracks venture capital.

Persons: Jeff Yass, Republican megadonor, 99Fang, Yass’s, —, Zhang Yiming Organizations: Republican, Susquehanna International Group, Mr, Susquehanna Locations: ByteDance

When Elon Musk unveiled the first Chinese-made Teslas in Shanghai in 2020, he went off script and started dancing. Mr. Musk had reason to celebrate. Mr. Musk would build one in Shanghai that would become a flagship, accounting for over half of Tesla’s global deliveries and the bulk of its profits. Mr. Musk initially seemed to have the upper hand in the relationship, securing concessions from China that were rarely offered to foreign businesspeople. Tesla’s China pivot has also tethered Mr. Musk to Beijing in a way that is drawing scrutiny from U.S. policymakers.

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, Tesla Locations: Shanghai, China, Beijing

☆ Why Elon Musk Needs China
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Mara Hvistendahl | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When Elon Musk first set up Tesla’s factory in China, he appeared to have the upper hand. He also got workers accustomed to long hours and fewer protections, after clashing with U.S. regulators over labor conditions at his California plant. The Shanghai factory helped make Tesla the most valuable car company in the world and Mr. Musk ultrarich. Mr. Musk helped create his competition, Chinese E.V. makers that are taking market share and becoming a security concern for the United States and Europe.

Persons: Elon Musk, Tesla, Musk Locations: China, California, Shanghai, United States, Europe

That decision gives U.S. officials new sway over companies in the Netherlands and Japan, where some of the most advanced chip machinery is made. In particular, U.S. rules will now stop shipments of some machines that use deep ultraviolet, or DUV, technology made mainly by the Dutch firm ASML, which dominates the lithography market. Peter Wennink, the chief executive officer, said that it was “just a handful” of Chinese chip factories where the company would not be able to ship certain tools. But “it is still sales that we had in 2023 that we’ll not have in 2024,” he added. ASML’s technology has enabled leaps in global computing power.

Persons: Vera Kranenburg, ASML, “, ”, Peter Wennink, we’ll, Liesje Schreinemacher Organizations: Clingendael Institute, U.S . Department of Commerce Locations: Netherlands, Japan, U.S, China, Dutch, United States

The protest in London’s bustling Chinatown brought together a variety of activist groups to oppose a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. So it was peculiar when a street brawl broke out among mostly ethnic Chinese demonstrators. Witnesses said the fight, in November 2021, started when men aligned with the event’s organizers, including a group called No Cold War, attacked activists supporting the democracy movement in Hong Kong. In fact, a New York Times investigation found, it is part of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. At the center is a charismatic American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, who is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes.

Persons: Witnesses, Neville Roy Singham Organizations: New York Times Locations: London’s, Chinatown, Hong Kong, China, American

The data was deleted from a provincial government website just days after it was published on Thursday. The number of cremations in the eastern province of Zhejiang rose to 171,000 in the first quarter of this year, the website said. That was 72,000 more cremations, a roughly 70 percent increase, than had been reported in the same period last year. In February, China said the official death toll in the mainland since the start of the pandemic was 83,150 — a remarkably low number that independent researchers have said is not credible. Since then, the government has released only weekly or monthly death tolls that, when added up, raise the overall total to about 83,700.

Persons: epidemiologists Locations: China, Beijing, Zhejiang

☆ Chinese Censorship Is Quietly Rewriting the Covid-19 Story
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Mara Hvistendahl | Benjamin Mueller | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The study was cited in health warnings around the world and appeared to be a model of international collaboration in a moment of crisis. Within days, though, the researchers quietly withdrew the paper, which was replaced online by a message telling scientists not to cite it. A few observers took note of the peculiar move, but the whole episode quickly faded amid the frenzy of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, it was withdrawn at the direction of Chinese health officials amid a crackdown on science. That effort kicked up a cloud of dust around the dates of early Covid cases, like those reported in the study.

China’s official count 0 2.5 million 83,150 deaths Model based on Shanghai outbreak 1.6 million deaths LOW ESTIMATE HIGH ESTIMATE Estimate using travel patterns 970,000 deaths Estimate using recent testing data 1.5 million deaths Estimate based on U.S. death rates 1.1 million deaths China’s official count 0 2.5 million 83,150 deaths Model based on Shanghai outbreak 1.6 million deaths LOW EST. But China’s official Covid death toll for the entire pandemic remains strikingly low: 83,150 people as of Feb. 9. Four separate academic teams have converged on broadly similar estimates: China’s Covid wave may have killed between a million and 1.5 million people. Why official data underrepresents China’s outbreak83,150 deaths China’s official count on Feb. 9 0 2.5M 83,150 deaths China’s official count on Feb. 9 0 2.5 millionChina has a narrow definition of what counts as a Covid-19 death. But the work was unwavering in its ultimate conclusion: Ending the “zero Covid” policy was likely to overwhelm the health care system, producing an estimated 1.6 million deaths.

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