Beans trump chips in US-China truce - Asian Tech Roundup

Plus: Social media firms prepare to cancel a million underage accounts in Australia

Welcome to Computing's weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at what wasn’t in the trade talks between Trump and Xi, Meta, Snap and TikTok agreed to remove over a million underage accounts to comply with Australia’s new law, and another Korean telecoms data breach.

Trade negotiations are often most notable for what they don’t contain.

President Trump spent the days prior to his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea bigging up Nvidia’s advanced Blackwell AI chips, pumping expectations that a loosening of export restrictions was certainly on the cards. This in part, may have helped Nvidia achieve a record market valuation of $5 trillion this week. Watching Chinese imports of his chips trending towards zero, CEO Jensen Huang has certainly been vocal about the desirability of lifting restrictions, as well as being fulsome in his praise for Trump’s negotiating skills, of course.

But in the event Blackwell was sidelined in talks which focused on rare earth minerals, soybeans and chemicals. Also avoided were the tricky topics of Taiwan and Russia. If enacted, the measures agreed would reset trade relations to roughly the same place they were before Trump embarked on his tariff spree, with China importing fewer US soybeans than in 2024.

China previously said it was insulted by the US’s lifting of restrictions on the relatively underpowered Nvidia H20 chips; it has moved to ban its companies from using Nvidia and is heavily focused on developing its own semiconductor industry. However, Beijing might not be so averse to importing the not-quite-so-cutting-edge B30A, should restrictions be lifted, sources indicate.

Back in the US, senior members of Trump’s own Republican party have voiced their disquiet about any rapprochement with China over AI, with a few even questioning the wisdom of tariffs. Needing to be seen to be winning, particularly with soya farmers facing bankruptcy, Trump chose beans over chips.

Australia

• Australia's new law banning social media for users under 16 begins enforcement on 10^th December 10. Meta, Snap and TikTok agreed to remove over a million underage accounts, risking fines of up to $32.5 million. The platforms must allow users to download data before removal. They must also prevent workarounds like AI-generated IDs and VPNs to bypass restrictions. Source
• Australia’s competition watchdog the ACCC is suing Microsoft, alleging the company gave false and misleading information to subscribers of auto-renewing Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans. The ACCC alleges that Microsoft hid the option to remain copilot-free, nudging people into accepting the higher priced option by default. Source
• The Australian government has ruled out an exemption to copyright laws, mooted by tech companies and the Australian Productivity Commission, which would have allowed tech companies to mine creative content for LLM training. The ruling comes after fierce pushback from Australian creatives. Source
• The Australian Federal Police force is developing an AI to interpret online slang and emojis used by young criminals when discussing cybercrime and other unlawful activities. Source
• The Tasmanian government confirmed that its VETtrak vocational student management system was subject to a cyberattack earlier this month, but that there was "no evidence” (yet) that sensitive student data had been compromised. Source
• Australia’s scam prevention laws, introduced in February, are struggling to make headway due to bureaucratic wrangling. Source

China

• The Trump-Xi meeting in South Korea was notable for its absence of any discussion of Nvidia's Blackwell AI chips, despite expectations that export restrictions to China could be decreased. Source
• China's commerce ministry agreed on Thursday to suspend new export restrictions on rare earths for a year as part of a trade truce with the US. However, Beijing has maintained earlier requirements for export licences for seven rare earths and magnets, disrupting production in the US and Europe. Source
• Dutch chipmaker Nexperia, which was taken over from its Chinese owners by the government, has halted supplies of wafers to its manufacturing plant in China, Reuters reports. Chip shortages are already causing problems for VW and other carmakers. Source
• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the US and China had reached a deal to transfer TikTok’s US app to new owners, reported be a consortium led by Oracle’s Larry Ellison and the Murdoch empire. According to Bessant, the deal was due to be “consummated” in Korea by the end of this week, however no details have emerged as yet. Source
• Meanwhile, Xi Jinping has signalled in the latest five-year plan that he will apply “extraordinary measures” to effectively force breakthroughs in critical areas such as semiconductors and advanced materials. Source
• Hong Kong is looking to attract more tech company IPOs, while also monitoring how firms use digital assets (e.g. cryptocurrencies) in financial operations to ensure that investors are protected, HK’s market regulator has said. Source
• Alibaba has released new smart spectacles, pricing Quark AI at $660, cheaper than Meta’s $800 Ray-Ban Display glasses. Source

India

• The Indian government is seeking to require that social media companies visibly label content that has been synthetically generated by AI, such as deepfakes. Source
• Indian automotive behemoth Tata Motors has said it has fixed multiple security flaws which researchers claimed exposed data including personal information of customers, company reports and dealer data. Source
• Indians who sign up for a ChatGPT Go subscription during a limited window starting 4^th November will be able to use the AI chatbot for 12 months for free. Normally ChatGPT Go costs around $5 per month. Source
• The Indian government is seeking to make caller IDs available by default for all telecoms customers to curb spam and fraud. Source

Japan

• The Technology Prosperity Deals (TPD) signed by the US and Japan and South Korea this week aims to strengthen strategic ties and align regulations. The US-Japan part of the agreement aims to boost AI exports, enhance technology protections, and refocus collaboration on AI standards and innovation, according to the White House. Source
• Anthropic has opened its first Asian office in Tokyo. Source

South Korea

• Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung announced that they had resolved the deadlock in trade negotiations at a summit in South Korea on Wednesday. Seoul will now avoid the worst of US import tariffs and will split its promised $350 million into much smaller tranches. Source
• Bloomberg has also reported that the US and South Korea are set to sign an additional deal to cooperate on AI and quantum computing. The pact is designed to secure a technical edge over China, although China’s “extraordinary measures” message shows the extent to which it will fight for that edge. Source
• LG Uplus, one of the largest telecom operators in South Korea, has reported a suspected data breach to Korea’s national cybersecurity watchdog KISA. It is the third South Korean telecom company to report a cybersecurity incident within the last six months. Source
• South Korea’s Presidential Office announced on Wednesday that Amazon Web Services plans to invest at least $5 billion in South Korea by 2031 to build AI datacentres and develop South Korea as an Asian AI hub. Source
• Chipmaker SK Hynix reported record revenue and profit in the third quarter of 2025 due to soaring demand and subsequent rising prices for AI memory. The company said it had already secured orders for its entire 20206 production of DRAM and NAND. Source

Elsewhere in Asia

• Malaysia: The US and Malaysia have signed a trade deal for semiconductors at the ASEAN Summit 2025, exempting Malaysian semiconductors and other goods from tariffs, which remain at 19%. Source
• Singapore: The Singapore Economic Development Board and developer JTC Corporation have jointly announced a 300-hectare wide project in Singapore's manufacturing hub, Jurong Island, will be home to renewable power projects, low-carbon fuel production and a datacentre park. Source