Asia In Brief Chinese web and AI giant Baidu last week teamed with government communications organ Xuexi to create a tool that generates politically correct documents for bureaucrats.
Xuexi is an app that offers info about Chinese president Xi Jinping's life and thoughts – plus tools that allow users to chat about them together.
Reports from Hong Kong and China claim Baidu teamed with Xuexi to create a tool that Chinese bureaucrats can use to check documents they create to ensure they properly reflect Xi Jinping's thoughts – and that references to his ideas come from fact-checked sources.
The tool can also be used to produce documents that quote government statistics and policies.
The Register is not the first to suggest this pun, but it feels impossible not to call this app Chat Xi-PT. - Simon Sharwood
Apple finds $1 billion to invest in Indonesia
Apple has reportedly dug deep into its pockets and found $1 billion to invest in Indonesia, a week after the nation's industry ministry rejected a $100 million investment proposal from the iPhone maker.
Indonesia requires 40 percent of components and/or labor that goes into a smartphone to be made or performed locally – requirements Apple has not met with the iPhone 16. The premium handset has therefore not been approved for sale in the country.
But the problem may now be solved. Investment minister Rosan Roeslani last week told reporters the iGiant would fund a manufacturing plant for smartphone components and other similar products.
South Korea's opposition party thought martial law order was a deepfake
The leader of South Korea's opposition party, Lee Jae-myung, told CNN he thought he was watching a deepfake video when he was shown president Yoon Suk Yeol declaring martial law last Tuesday.
Lee's wife showed him the video while he was in bed, and he assumed it could not be real.
President Yoon’s order was met with shock and surprise, and quickly reversed – but not before a drop in the value of the nation's currency and stock price wobbles for local tech giants.
An order for martial law would ban political activity and censor the media in what many have described as an attempted coup by Yoon. Yoon justified the order as necessary for managing anti-state activities in the National Assembly, which he asserted was collaborating with North Korean communists.
Yoon has apologized, and narrowly evaded impeachment.
Chinese e-commerce sites suspended in Vietnam
Controversial Chinese e-tailer Temu was temporarily suspended in Vietnam for failure to register properly with the government, according to a government website.
The government announcement explained that Temu stopped offering a Vietnamese-language app while it worked to resolve regulatory issues, and instead offered only Chinese, English and French.
Media reports suggest the same fate befell Shein, another Chinese e-tailer.
Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade set a deadline of the end of December for the e-retailers to register with the government or face bans.
The ministry is concerned about e-tailers that offer deep discounts, possibly sell counterfeit goods, and which rely on business models that use tax emptions on cheaply imported goods to undercut local players. Authorities believe Temu has implemented measures to remove non-compliant promotional programs, discounts that exceed fifty percent, and user-based commission schemes.
Nanjing-founded and Singapore-headquartered Shein's Vietnamese website is currently unavailable, and the retailer told local media outlets it is working with the trade ministry to register services.
Vietnam is the latest country to crackdown on offshore ecommerce. South Korea announced measures aimed at getting Chinese e-tailers to act fairly last March. The US has also made moves to close loopholes exploited by the industry.
The regulation is bound to ruffle Beijing's feathers, as the Chinese government has expressed interest in offshore growth for its e-commerce giants.
Beijing urges vigilance against open source intelligence
China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) warned of national security risks created by "open source information" on its WeChat account last week.
Open source data – legally accessible from social media, online forums, and satellite images – was described as a significant source for cyber espionage.
"Overseas espionage agencies can aggregate fragmented and vague data, and through big data analysis, can conduct precise, continuous and stable tracking of targets, extracting valuable intelligence," alleged the ministry, according to South China Morning Post (SCMP).
MSS asserted that improper management could lead to leaks of procurement details or sensitive technical data.
APAC Dealbook
Recent alliances and deals spotted by The Register across the region last week include:
China Mobile made a bid [PDF] to acquire Hong Kong broadband provider HKBN for HK6.86 billion ($882 million). The bid follows another offer [PDF] made by US-based I Squared Capital for an undisclosed price.
Boost Mobile's founder, Peter Adderton, confirmed the mobile virtual network operator was bought out by large Australian carrier Telstra. Adderton did not reveal the acquisition price, but it has been reported at $140 million.
®