Established 1961 15 Technology Thursday, July 5, 2018 ZTE given temporary reprieve from US; removes more execs On track to have supplier ban lifted NEW YORK/HONG KONG: China’s embattled ZTE longer holds any position in the company. An insider Corp has received a temporary reprieve from the US source told Reuters a memo was sent out on Tuesday government to conduct business needed to maintain announcing the removal of seven other executives, with- existing networks and equipment as it works toward the out providing a reason. They included vice presidents lifting of a US supplier ban. ZTE, which makes smart- Wang Keyou, Xie Jiepeng and Ma Jie, who were in charge phones and networking gear, was forced to cease major of the legal, finance and supply chain departments, operations in April after the United States slapped it respectively. with a supplier ban, saying it broke an agreement to dis- Reuters could not immediately contact them for com- cipline executives who conspired to evade US sanctions ment. The source declined to be identified due to the on Iran and North Korea. sensitivity of the matter. As part of the deal to lift the The authorization seen by Reuters from the US supplier ban, ZTE had agreed to remove all members of Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Services its leadership at or above the senior vice president level, runs from July 2 until Aug 1. It allows China’s No 2 along with any executives associated with the wrong- telecommunications equipment maker to continue operat- doing within 30 days. ing existing networks and equipment and provide handset It is not immediately clear whether the eight depar- customer support for contracts signed before April 15. It tures on Tuesday were related to ZTE’s compliance viola- also permits limited transfer of funds to or from ZTE. tion. ZTE announced a new board last week in a radical On Tuesday, ZTE also announced the departure of 1 management shakeup. Li Zixue was appointed the new senior executive in a stock exchange filing, while a chairman while the previous board led by Chairman Yin source who saw an internal memo told Reuters seven Yimin resigned with immediate effect. others were removed. As part of its settlement agree- Despite the agreement reached almost a month ago, ment reached in June with US authorities, ZTE had the ban is yet to be lifted amid strong opposition among promised to radically overhaul its management. The some US politicians. ZTE has made the $1 billion pay- company also agreed to pay a $1 billion penalty and ment but has yet to deposit the $400 million in escrow, put $400 million in an escrow account as part of the according to sources. deal to resume business with US suppliers - which pro- The uncertainty over the ban amid intensifying US- vide almost a third of the components used in ZTE’s China trade tensions has hammered ZTE shares, which equipment. have cratered around 60 percent since trading resumed last month following a two-month hiatus, wip- BEIJING: In this file photo taken on May 2, 2018 the ZTE logo is seen on a building. — AFP Sensitive matter ing out more than $11 billion of the company’s market ZTE said in exchange filings late on Tuesday that Xu valuation. Weiyan, a shareholders’ representative supervisor in the ZTE’s Hong Kong shares were down 0.5 percent yes- rating from “underperform”. Its analyst, Edison Lee, said of the export ban”. A representative for ZTE declined to company’s supervisory committee, has resigned due to terday, while its Shenzhen shares were up more than 4 in a note on Tuesday that the temporary reprieve was “a comment. The US Department of Commerce did not personal commitments with immediate effect and no percent. Jefferies on Monday upgraded ZTE to a “buy” very positive indication that ZTE is on track to a full lifting respond to requests for comment. — Reuters

people block another person on Facebook,” Egan said. Facebook bug “Their relationship may have changed or they may want . to take a break from someone posting content they find annoying.” People are blocked for harsher reasons, such as unblocks unwanted harassment or bullying, Egan added. The software bug did Ugandan netizens not restore any severed friend connections at the social connections network, but someone who was blocked could have been unite against able to reach out to a blocker on Messenger, according to Facebook. “While someone who was unblocked could not SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook said it is notifying more see content shared with friends, they could have seen social media tax than 800,000 users that a software bug temporarily things posted to a wider audience,” Egan said of the glitch. unblocked people at the social network and its Messenger The vast majority of the more than 800,000 people KAMPALA: Politicians, clerics, feminists and others service. The glitch active between May 29 and June 5 has affected by the bug had only one person they had blocked have formed a broad coalition of Ugandans calling been fixed, according to Facebook, which has been striving be temporarily unblocked, according to Facebook. People Tuesday for an end to a social media tax the govern- ment hopes will raise revenue and silence “gossip”. On to regain trust in the aftermath of a Cambridge Analytica affected by the bug will get notifications encouraging them Sunday Uganda’s communications regulator blocked data privacy scandal. to check their blocked lists. Facebook chief Mark access to social media including WhatsApp, Facebook “We know that the ability to block someone is impor- Zuckerberg earlier this year was grilled by the European tant,” Facebook chief privacy officer Erin Egan said in a blog and Twitter, as well as dating sites Tinder and Grindr, Parliament and the US Congress about a massive breach of unless users pay a 200-shilling ($0.05, 0.04 euro) daily post. “We’d like to apologize and explain what happened.” users’ personal data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Blocking someone on Facebook prevents them from seeing tax. The outcry was immediate. Facebook admitted that up to 87 million users may have MANCHESTER: In this file photo taken on March 22, 2018, a “I was in a village on Sunday when the tax started posts in a blocker’s profile; connecting as a friend, or starting had their data hijacked by British consultancy Cambridge Messenger conversations. Blocking someone also automati- computer screen displays logos associated with the social and people were outraged,” said Siraje Nsambu, a Analytica, which worked for US President Donald Trump spokesman for the Tabliq Muslim sect. “Even a poor boy cally “unfriends” the person. “There are many reasons why networking site Facebook. — AFP during his 2016 campaign. — AFP will [now have to] strive hard to buy a Chinese mobile phone and get online.” he said. Feminist writer and activist Edna Ninsiima slammed the “insane” tax. “It’s trampling freedom of expression and infringing our including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, rights,” she told AFP. China’s Baidu and the country’s new megacity Mobile internet users now have to input a telephone Xiong’an. code to pay the tax before they are able to access most Early next year, they are set to enter social media sites, although implementation has proved shows its Japan’s self-driving market as shuttle patchy with some blocked services still available. Some buses at nuclear power stations or in have turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) to dis- self-driving Tokyo to ferry around elderly people in guise their location and avoid the levy, a trick learned local communities. The vehicles have during elections two years ago when the government buses the “fourth level” of automation as tried to shut down social media. defined by the Society of Automotive Finance minister David Bahati said Tuesday the tax Engineers, meaning they can operation will help pay for “the development of the country” and ordered the communications regulator to stop BEIJING: China’s internet giant Baidu within an enclosed location without human intervention. Ugandans using VPNs, though it is unclear how this announced yesterday it had begun directive can be carried out. President Yoweri This is one short of the highest level, mass producing the country’s first Museveni-an avid Twitter user with 855,000 followers- where vehicles can operate anywhere on autonomous mini-bus, as the firm pre- urged the imposition of the tax earlier this year, to put the road. “I took a self-driving car to pares to roll them out in tourist spots an end to “gossip”. Opponents have given these justifi- and airports. CEO Robin Li watched come to the developer conference last cations short shrift. “The whole idea of the tax is to cur- the 100th vehicle roll off a production year, and ended up getting a ticket at tail social media,” said singer and parliamentarian Bobi line of a factory in the southeastern (Beijing’s) fifth ring road,” Li quipped. Wine-real name Robert Kyagulanyi-whose election last city of Xiamen. Baidu, often referred to as China’s year was fuelled by social media and who wants the tax “2018 marks the first year of com- Google, operates the country’s leading abolished. — AFP mercialization for autonomous driving. search engine and also invests heavily in From the mass production of Apolong, services ranging from online payments we can truly see that autonomous driv- to connected devices and artificial intel- ing is making great strides-taking the ligence. “In the past, China exported industry from zero to one,” said the cheap commodities to the world. In the China court ‘bans CEO. The 14-seater Apolong, about one- future, China will export AI technology third of the size of a normal bus, has no to the world,” Li said at the firm’s annual sales’ of chips from steering wheel, driver’s seat, accelerator AI developer conference. He also BEIJING: A boy sits in a Tesla car during a visit at Tesla showroom. — AFP or brake. Co-produced by Baidu and announced a new AI chip called Kunlun Chinese bus manufacturer King Long, at the conference, which can support a US firm Micron Field will not be returning to the com- wide range of AI applications including they will soon be pressed into commer- SHANGHAI: A Chinese technology firm embroiled in a Tesla Model 3 pany, according to Tesla.”After almost five cial use in enclosed areas such as tourist voice recognition, natural language pro- years at Tesla, Doug Field is moving on,” a cessing and autonomous driving. — AFP patent dispute with US chip giant Micron said yesterday areas and airports in several cities that a court had ruled in its favor and ordered an immedi- company spokesman told AFP. “We’d like production ate halt of several Micron products in China. According to to thank Doug for his hard work over the the state-owned Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co, a years and for everything he has done for leader leaves court in the southeastern city of Fuzhou has ruled that Tesla.” Tesla announced in June that it was Micron must stop sales of more than a dozen solid-state cutting nine percent of its workforce to company drives, memory sticks and chips. The court ruling was not enhance profitability, but said the move immediately available. would not affect an ambitious production A Taiwanese partner of Jinhua, United Microelectronics SAN FRANCISCO: Tesla on Monday con- ramp-up of its Model 3 sedan. Corporation (UMC), issued a similar statement, saying the firmed that the head of Model 3 produc- The job cuts are part of a company- court had issued a preliminary injunction against 26 Micron tion, who went on leave after chief execu- wide restructuring to address excess staff products. The case comes amid increasing trade friction tive Elon Musk took over his duties, will in some areas due to the company’s speedy between the world’s top two economies, with billions of dol- not be returning. The departure of engi- growth, Musk said in an email to employ- lars in fresh trade tariffs due to come into force on Friday. neering senior vice president Doug Field ees. The cuts concern salaried staff but not Earlier this week, US authorities blocked a seven-year came as California-based Tesla appeared production workers and will not affect application from China Mobile to enter the domestic mar- to have finally hit a self-imposed goal of Model 3 output targets, said Musk, who ket, citing national security concerns. Micron is the world’s cranking out 5,000 Model 3 electric cars characterized the downsizing as an fourth-biggest semiconductor supplier by sales revenue fol- in a week. Tesla co-founder Musk fired off acknowledgement of the need to focus lowing South Korean firms Samsung and SK Hynix and US a Twitter post over the weekend saying more on costs. chip giant Intel. More than half of its net sales come from “7,000 cars, 7 days.” “Given that Tesla has never made an China, the Idaho-based firm said in its 2017 earnings report. In a note to investors on Monday, annual profit in the almost 15 years since It said in June the case could “have a material adverse Analyst Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities we have existed, profit is obviously not effect” on its business, requiring changes to its China said that in the preceding week, Tesla pro- what motivates us,” Musk said in the mes- operation. China established Jinhua in February 2016 in a duced 5,000 of its Model 3 cars, along sage. “What drives us is our mission to bid to make its own home-produced chips, with the firm with a combined total of 2,000 Model S accelerate the world’s transition to sustain- investing 37 billion yuan that year to build a production and Model X vehicles. Tesla has been able, clean energy, but we will never line with technology support from UMC. Jinhua said under pressure to increase production to achieve that mission unless we eventually Micron’s “unbridled behavior” had caused “irreparable show it can operate profitably and at the demonstrate that we can be sustainably damage” to the firm and it will keep monitoring any other kind of scale needed to be considered a profitable.” Shares of Tesla closed the for- products that used Micron’s chips. SHANGHAI: This file picture taken on June 13, 2018 shows an Apolong self-driving major auto company. Musk has been man- mal trading day down 2.3 percent to Semiconductors are among China’s biggest imports, mini bus by King Long exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Asia.— AFP aging the Tesla production line, which has $335.07 but regained some of that ground rivaling oil, and have become a stark reminder of its been rejiggered to pump out cars faster. in after-market trades. — AFP dependence on US technology. — AFP