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It’s hard to be anonymous online in China. Websites and apps must verify users with their phone numbers, which are tied to personal identification numbers that all adults are assigned. Now it could get more difficult under a proposal by China’s internet regulators: The government wants to take over the job of verification from the companies and give people a single ID to use across the internet. The Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China say the proposal is meant to protect privacy and prevent online fraud. A national internet ID would reduce “the excessive collection and retention of citizens’ personal information by internet platforms on the grounds of implementing real-name registration,” the regulators said.

Organizations: of Public Security, Cyberspace Administration, China Locations: China

Unionized workers at Samsung Electronics said Wednesday they would go on an indefinite strike, an escalation of a rare labor dispute that could disrupt the technology giant’s world-leading chip business. An estimated 6,500 workers walked off the job on Monday for a planned three-day strike over pay and working conditions. The Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union decided to extend the strike after “hearing no word” from the company, according to Lee Hyun Kuk, the vice president of the union, which represents 28,000 workers, or a fifth of the Samsung’s global work force. The union said it has been negotiating with Samsung since January over vacation days and wages. “As the strike goes on, the management’s blood will dry out and they will eventually come to the negotiating table on their knees,” the union said in a statement.

Persons: Lee Hyun Kuk Organizations: Samsung Electronics, Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union, Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company

Heavy rains battered southern China over the weekend and into Tuesday, setting off landslides and causing roads and homes to collapse as rivers overran their banks. The landslides and flash floods killed at least nine people in Fujian Province and neighboring Guangdong, China’s most populous province. Days of severe rainfall forced thousands of people to evacuate and left more than 100,000 households without power as the region was inundated. As of Monday, at least 17 rivers had risen above warning levels in Guangdong, according to local media. The province has a population of about 127 million people.

Locations: China, Fujian Province, Guangdong, China’s

In Guangdong Province, on China’s southern coast, a woman posted a photo of a boxed-up Japanese-brand air-conditioner that she planned to return in protest. In southwest China, the owner of a Japanese pub posted a video of himself ripping down anime posters and smashing bottles, saying he planned to reopen the business as a Chinese bistro. In many social media posts like these, the phrase “nuclear-contaminated wastewater” has appeared — the same wording used by the Chinese government and state media to refer to Japan’s release into the ocean of treated radioactive water from the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Even before Japan started pumping out the first tranche of more than a million tons of wastewater last week, China had mounted a coordinated campaign to spread misinformation about the safety of the release, stirring up anger and fear among millions of Chinese.

Locations: Guangdong Province, China, Japan

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company said on Tuesday it would team up with three German technology firms to build a facility in eastern Germany capable of producing up to 40,000 microchips each month as part of efforts to further diversify its production locations. TSMC, the world’s largest maker of semiconductors, said it would invest 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion) and own 70 percent of the joint venture, to be located in Dresden. The German companies Robert Bosch, Infineon Technologies and NXP Semiconductors will each control 10 percent. The combined private and public investment, “including strong support from the European Union and German government,” is expected to total €10 billion, the company said. The plant would be TSMC’s first location in Europe, and represents a win for Germany, which has been seeking out manufacturers of microchips, the tiny devices essential for the country’s large automotive industry and countless other devices.

Persons: Robert Bosch, ” Organizations: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Infineon Technologies, European Union, Germany Locations: Germany, Dresden, Europe

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which is manufacturing the world’s most advanced microchips, conducts business on the island of Taiwan, dead center in one of the most geopolitically volatile places on the planet. That makes people in Washington very nervous. TSMC dominates the semiconductor industry; it’s a company that the United States can’t do without, 80 miles off the coast of China. The U.S. government has appropriated tens of billions of dollars to strengthen America’s own semiconductor sector and help fund TSMC’s nascent operations in the United States, far from China, which has never renounced the use of force to absorb Taiwan. But TSMC has invested billions of its own over nearly four decades growing deep roots in Taiwan.

Persons: TSMC Organizations: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Locations: Taiwan, Washington, United States, China, The U.S

That has thrust Mr. Chang, and the company he created, into the spotlight. “It doesn’t make me feel particularly good,” said Mr. Chang, who retired in 2018 but still appears at TSMC events. Even as the rivalry for tech leadership intensifies, he does not give China much of a chance for semiconductor supremacy. “We control all the choke points,” Mr. Chang said, referring collectively to the United States and its chip-making allies such as the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. When TSMC stumbled after the 2008 financial crisis, he returned as chief executive at age 77 to take over again.

Persons: Chang, ”, “, ” Mr, TSMC Organizations: Samsung, Intel Locations: United States, China, Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, TSMC

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