The 5G self-driving minibus developed by BroadXT made its global debut on the first day of the sixth World Internet Conference held on October 20-22 in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province. The vehicle is used to help ferry participants to the venue during the conference. Powered by a variety of advanced techniques such as sensors, high-precision positioning, the fifth-generation wireless network and the vehicle-to-everything system (V2X), the autonomous bus adopts a Level-4 autopilot technology and is able to identify pedestrians, vehicles and other obstacles within 200 meters. BroadXT President Shang Wenzhu said the vehicle will be the first mass-produced 5G autonomous minibus in China that has passed tests on open urban roads, adding that China is taking the lead in autonomous driving technology. Shang added the cloud command system can offer an optimal driving route when encountering traffic jams, accidents and extreme weather to ensure safety and enhance traffic efficiency. “The autonomous bus could react within 100 milliseconds under complex road conditions owing to its 5G, sensors, AI and cutting-edge computing technologies,” Shang explained.

In September, Wuzhen and BroadXT inked an agreement to speed up the commercialization of 5G autonomous buses in Wuzhen. With a total investment of CNY650 million, 110-square kilometer Wuzhen will be covered by an intelligent transportation system in three years. Shang said they plan to promote the self-driving minibuses in Zhejiang province, and more cities in the Yangtze River Delta region. Officials have high hopes for the market. China expects vehicles with some autonomous functions to account for half of new vehicles sold in the nation by 2020, a guideline released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said. The World Internet Development Report 2019 and the China Internet Development Report 2019, which were published during the World Internet Conference,

The Internet Plus Expo in Foshan in Guangdong province focused on the industrial internet and intelligent manufacturing in a bid to foster local industrial upgrading. Covering an area of 55,000 square meters, the annual fair, one of the most important internet shows in China, brought together 800 leading companies from home and abroad to showcase the latest applications and emerging developments in seven major areas: cutting-edge Internet Plus technologies, digital business, digital life, innovation and entrepreneurship, intelligent manufacturing, robots and robot competitions. Hannover Milano Fairs Shanghai organized the expo.

The drone sector has achieved remarkable growth in China, thanks to improving artificial intelligent technologies. The Shenzhen UAV Industry Association has organized 10 companies and institutes in the sector, including Shenzhen Smart Drone UAV and HighGreat, to display their latest achievements at the expo. The commercial application of 5G technologies was another highlight of the expo, including digitalized administration, cloud computing, big data and intelligent broadband services. Foshan aims to become a pioneering city for the application of 5G technologies, with which the manufacturing sector will gain new momentum toward high quality, local officials said.

In other technology news, President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the 2019 Zhongguancun Forum, saying that China would like to actively cooperate in global innovation and share development achievements with the world. Xi said Beijing’s Zhongguancun area has been making efforts to become an advanced science and technology park as well as a world-leading center of innovation. This year’s theme is “Cutting-Edge Technologies and Future Industries”. Around 1,200 business, financial and academic figures from 50 countries and regions attended the Forum. A recent report has found that China is the biggest driver of deep technology investment growth globally, with funding increasing at an annual rate of more than 80% from 2015 to 2018.

In Shenyang, Liaoning province, the 2019 Industrial Internet Global Summit took place. President Xi Jinping said in a congratulatory letter that the new round of revolution in science, technology and industry is developing at an accelerating pace, and industrial internet technologies are continuously seeing new breakthroughs. Themed “Empowering high quality and creating new momentum”, the three-day summit attracted over 100 leading experts and business leaders as well as over 100 enterprises, colleges and research institutions in the area of industrial internet.

The 2019 World Conference on the VR Industry was held in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province. Themed “VR Adorns the World, VR plus 5G for a New Era of Perception,” this year’s conference aimed to explore the 5G-enabled development of the VR industry in the initial stage of 5G commercialization, which is expected to cultivate new opportunities for various VR applications. More than 7,000 experts, scholars and entrepreneurs in the field of VR, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) attended the conference, nearly 300 of whom shared their insights at the main forum and 23 parallel forums. The 2019 VR/AR Products and Applications Exhibition was held concurrently as part of the conference. With a tripled display area totaling 60,000 square meters compared with the 2018 edition, this year’s expo received 215 domestic and overseas corporate exhibitors and industry organizations.

China’s VR market will amount to CNY54.45 billion by 2021.China shipped 2.26 million units of VR terminal products in the first three quarters of 2019, with a sales volume totaling CNY8.6 billion. A list of top 50 virtual reality firms in China was published for the first time at the conference. HTC Communication Co, electro-acoustic components manufacturer Goertek and the smart tech arm of Chinese video entertainment company iQiyi topped the list.

The Vivo IQOO Pro, the cheapest 5G-capable smartphone on the Chinese market

5G is poised to power the next generation of internet connectivity and e-commerce. Faster and more reliable than anything that has come before, 5G networks will enable people to communicate, consume entertainment and shop at unprecedented speeds. Markets like South Korea and Japan are leading the way in 5G adoption, along with China, which is set to become the world’s largest 5G market by 2025 with 460 million 5G users.

Huawei set up its mobile phone department in 2003, when China was still using 2G, or second-generation mobile technology. Back then, it took about 5 seconds to open a webpage. Sixteen years later, Huawei is the world’s second-largest smartphone maker. Its 5G-enabled handsets can download large data files, such as a 1 GB movie, in seconds. Huawei’s rise has been meteoric, coinciding with the development of China’s telecom industry, which has been transformed from a follower during the period of 2G and 3G to a pioneer in the 5G era.

Four of the world’s top six smartphone makers – Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo – are Chinese. In 2018, the country produced 1.8 billion smartphones, accounting for 90% of global production, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). At the end of May, Chinese companies accounted for more than 30% of all patents essential to the global standards for 5G. China issued commercial 5G licenses in June, and since then telecom carriers have been accelerating the building of the network infrastructure.

Yang Jie, Chairman of China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator, said the company plans to cover 50 cities across China with 5G signals by the end of this year. “That will involve deploying 50,000 5G base stations across the country,” Yang said. Similarly, China Unicom said it will cover at least 40 cities with 5G signals by the end of this year and work together with all industry partners, including foreign companies, to accelerate 5G infrastructure construction. The country’s telecom carriers are expected to spend CNY900 billion to CNY1.5 trillion on 5G network construction from 2020 to 2025. The first batch of 5G smartphones hit the market in August.

Chinese companies have released 11 5G mobile phone models so far. James Yan, Research Director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, said the prices of 5G smartphones are lower than market expectations. The cheapest one is the Vivo iQOO Pro at CNY3,798, about CNY2,000 to CNY3,000 lower than 5G alternatives by domestic rivals such as Huawei and foreign competitors such as Samsung. Vivo said pre-orders for its iQOO Pro model are worth more than CNY100 million as of September 1, 10 days after its launch.

China Eastern Airlines is introducing new intelligent boarding services based on 5G technology at Beijing’s new Daxing international airport. Along with Huawei and China Unicom, it has installed a facial recognition system that allows passengers to complete boarding procedures by having their faces scanned. The carrier has also launched the world’s first electronic luggage tag, which allows travelers to check-in and track their bags via their mobile phones. Such smart services will be field-tested when the new mega airport opens by the end of the month, and then promoted at other airports in Shanghai and Beijing as well as nationwide, China Eastern said. Passengers can also check flight information, gates, weather at their destination, and walking time to their gate by scanning their faces at devices around the airport.

Apple’s new iPhone 11 went on sale in China on September 20, but received a cooler reception compared to its predecessors. Many compared it with Huawei’s newly launched Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro, saying the Chinese firm’s device beats the new iPhone in terms of innovation and quality. The 5G version of the Huawei Mate 30 moreover offers connectivity to the new 5G networks already operating in China, a function which the iPhone lacks. Huawei unveiled its Mate 30 smartphone series in Munich, Germany, on September 19 and the phones will be available for pre-ordering in China this week. The Shenzhen-based company will promote its own Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) app gallery, in lieu of Google’s own system. Sales in Europe have been postponed due to the lack of the Google Play Store under the U.S. trade ban.

The European Commission is preparing a coordinated EU-wide evaluation of the potential risks associated with 5G networks by October 3. The Commission will propose measures for addressing the risks identified during the assessment process by year’s end. Huawei has been appealing EU member states to oppose the U.S. effort to block it from supplying EU countries with 5G mobile network hardware and software. The U.S., in turn, has threatened to cut off intelligence-sharing with countries that use Huawei’s products. Huawei has been temporarily suspended from the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), an organization that shares threat intelligence in security incidents among more than 400 member companies in Europe, the Americas, Asia and elsewhere.

Shanghai’s Hongkou District is striving to become the world’s first district to be covered with gigabit 5G connectivity and broadband network. The Superfast North Bund Comprehensive Demonstration Zone was set up in the district and by the end of June there was 5G coverage across the district. The internet speed at key office buildings was increased as part of efforts to optimize its business environment. China’s three major telecom carriers have preferential policies to help companies based in Hongkou upgrade their internet speed. By the end of August, over 120 companies had finished internet upgrading to enjoy gigabit internet connectivity.

By the end of September 6, the district had built 610 5G base stations, which means every square kilometer of land has 14 5G base stations. Key areas such as the North Bund and Sichuan Road N. commercial street have the fastest download speed of 1.6 Gbps, while the average in the district is above 800 Mbps.

Meanwhile, the district has initially released 10 5G applications, covering medical services, education, finance, retail, public security, fire prevention, urban management, construction and sports. Many of the services are being offered at hospitals, schools, construction sites and sports venues in Hongkou. The district has established a number of major innovation parks and maker spaces to create an innovative 5G ecological system, including the newly unveiled 5G International Innovation Harbor, Huawei-Shanghai 5G+VR/AR/MR Innovation Center and Lingang 5G scientific park.

The 10 major 5G applications in Hongkou district as reported by the Shanghai Daily:
1. Smart medical treatment: Shanghai General Hospital in Hongkou has become the city’s first hospital to be fully covered by the 5G network. It is exploring the application of 5G for pre-hospital first-aid, remote consultations, remote surgery guidance, remote ultrasound connections and augmented reality.
2. Wisdom education: The Shanghai East Foreign Language School Affiliated to SISU has been sharing its quality classes with the North Daqiu Middle School in Yunnan province. The program aims to improve linguistic education in remote mountainous regions.
3. Smart finance: China Construction Bank’s North Bund branch is the first 5G bank in the city. It uses 5G and AI to improve customers’ self-service experience.
4. Smart retail: An unmanned supermarket has been opened in Hongkou featuring 5G and AI technologies. The Aiqunar store has high-definition cameras to track customers’ actions and offer remote payment.
5. Smart public security: The Hongkou Public Security Bureau is exploring a three-dimensional patrol system for the police, providing intelligent law enforcement.
6. Smart firefighting: The Hongkou fire brigade uses drones to spot fires quickly and send photos through the 5G network, helping firefighters to choose the most efficient way to extinguish fires.
7. Smart city management: The Hongkou District Urban Management Law Enforcement Bureau has installed high-definition panoramic cameras on law enforcement patrol cars, while officers wear recorders to send back real-time information to the command headquarters.
8. Smart construction site: The No. 78 plot in Hongkou has launched a smart site management platform to monitor personnel and construction materials entering the site.
9. Smart Party construction: Hongkou District Science and Technology Financial Party Construction Service Center applies 5G+VR technology to improve the quality of Party classes and to revive the history of the Communist Party of China.
10. Smart sports: A popular public basketball game has been using 5G, 4K and VR technologies for live broadcasts.

Huawei Founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei has offered to license the company’s 5G technology to foreign companies, including patents, licenses, code, technical blueprints and production know-how for a one-time fee, according to a two-hour interview with The Economist. The acquirer would be allowed to modify the source code, meaning that neither Huawei nor the Chinese government would even have hypothetical control of any telecom infrastructure built using equipment produced by the new company. Huawei would likewise be free to develop its technology in whatever direction it pleases.

Ren’s stated aim is to create a rival that could compete in 5G with Huawei to help level the playing field at a time when many in the West are worried that Huawei equipment could be used for spying by the Chinese government. “A balanced distribution of interests is conducive to Huawei’s survival,” Ren said. The U.S. has put Huawei on its Entity List, prohibiting U.S. companies from selling goods and services to Huawei, but has also granted a 90-day reprieve twice. Google has been lobbying the Trump administration to allow it to resume supplying Huawei, and the U.S. Commerce Department has received more than 130 applications from companies for licenses to sell U.S. goods to Huawei. The Trump administration, however, has not yet granted any such license since the latest Huawei reprieve was announced. Despite these challenges, the Shenzhen-based company saw its global share of the telecom equipment market expand to 28.1% in the first half of this year, and it also remains ahead in the 5G equipment market with 50 announced commercial 5G mobile network deals.

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has said China needs to modify its cyber-behavior and adopt a code of “fair play” if Beijing wants the British government to allow Huawei technology to be used in future 5G mobile networks. He added that a long-awaited decision on allowing Huawei to supply equipment to Great Britain’s 5G network is coming soon, without giving a firm date. The U.S. is demanding that Huawei equipment is not used by its allies, while China has warned that not using Huawei as a supplier would delay the rollout of 5G in the UK. Liu Xiaoming, Chinese Ambassador to the UK, said Britain would “lag a year and a half behind”, and that dropping Huawei would “send a bad message to Chinese business”, the South China Morning Post reports.

In Shanghai, the world’s first 5G application exhibition and innovation center was launched at the North Bund waterfront. The 5G International Innovation Harbor has an exhibition hall displaying the most updated applications based on 5G, along with innovation platforms for global enterprises to join the development. Leading Chinese technology companies, including Huawei, ZiFiSense and Lora, display their technologies, facilities, products and scenarios based on 5G. A futuristic outlook at 6G technology, or 5G plus low earth orbit mobile-satellite communications, is also showcased. Shanghai has become one of the leading Chinese cities on 5G development after major carriers China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom debuted their 5G networks in the city in June. The city had over 8,800 large 5G outdoor base stations and nearly 6,000 small indoor stations to cover 598 buildings citywide by the end of August.

China Unicom and China Telecom, the second and the third largest Chinese telecom operators, announced that they plan to cooperate in building and sharing 5G network infrastructure in 15 cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Nanjing. If they now build one instead of two networks, this could have a negative impact on telecom suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE. But China Unicom and China Telecom will also build 5G networks independently in other provinces. China International Capital Corp said that the partnership between the two telecom companies will significantly relieve the financial pressure on both companies. Currently, China Mobile, the country’s largest telecom operator, has as many 4G base stations as China Unicom and China Telecom combined. Last year, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology forecast that the country’s telecom carriers are expected to spend CNY900 billion to CNY1.5 trillion on 5G network construction from 2020 to 2025.

Smartphone shipments in China fell 6% to 97.9 million units in the second quarter, down from 104.2 million units a year earlier, according to research firm IDC. The appearance of 5G handsets on the market may give a new impulse. Huawei will started selling its Mate 20 X 5G smartphone in the country on August 16, priced at CNY6,199. Pre-orders of the handset exceeded 1 million. The Axon 10 Pro 5G smartphone from ZTE Corp and Samsung’s Galaxy S10 have also been released in China. Vivo is expected to launch its own 5G handset in Shanghai this week, while Beijing-based Xiaomi will follow soon.

Apple’s newly released iPhone 11 series does still not support 5G and could therefore lose out in the competition. Globally, iPhone sales fell 12% to USD25.99 billion in the quarter to June 30, after dropping 17% in the previous quarter. In July, Apple reported total sales of USD9.61 billion in the same period from Greater China – covering mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan – 4% down from a year earlier.

Jack Ma, the Founder of online retailer Alibaba Group, is stepping down as the company’s Executive Chairman. Ma retired on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the country’s top e-commerce conglomerate as well as his 55th birthday, and handed over his position to Alibaba’s 47-year old CEO Zhang Yong. In a speech Ma made in August, he said that stepping down from the position did not mean full retirement or that he will stop entrepreneurship. Born in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, the business tycoon started up Alibaba in September 1999 and gradually molded it into China’s largest and most valuable internet company specializing in a variety of areas including e-commerce, online finance, retail and entertainment.

Jack Ma’s position as Alibaba’s “spiritual leader” would not change, Liu Xingliang, Director of the Beijing-based Data Center of China Internet, told the Global Times. “His influence will remain, and he will still steer Alibaba’s general strategy and business direction.” Alibaba’s success is attributed to Ma’s business acumen and to China’s opening-up policy. “Companies like Alibaba can pop up only under the condition of opening-up,” said Ye Hang, Economics Professor at the College of Economics of Zhejiang University, adding: “How can such private businesses start and grow, even beyond the border, in a planned economy?”.

Zhang Yi, CEO of Shenzhen-based iiMedia Research, said that the year 1999 saw the start of a strong, irreversible internet trend in China, with many talented Chinese people returning from the West to start internet entrepreneurship on the Chinese mainland. This societal change gave birth to e-commerce giants like Alibaba and Tencent. “The trend of the internet around 1999 is just like the trend of 5G today,” Zhang told the Global Times.

Along with the changing of the guard at the USD460 billion internet company, some doubt whether Alibaba can withstand competition from social e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and pinduoduo.com, because Alibaba lacks social networking tools. But according to iiMedia’s Zhang Yi, competitors might distract some users from Alibaba’s e-commerce sector, “but won’t threaten its predominance”. The U.S.-China trade war will benefit Alibaba by accelerating China’s technological development and opening-up, according to Zhang.

“The green mountain won’t change, the flowing water is endless. See you around!,” Jack Ma told the gala marking the company’s 20th anniversary and his own birthday, held at the Hangzhou Olympics Sports Expo Center with 60,000 people attending. Alibaba said its core mission was “to make it easy to do business anywhere”. The company aims to serve 2 billion consumers, create 100 million jobs and help 10 million small- and medium-enterprises become profitable by 2036. “Today marks not my retirement, but the beginning of a new corporate governance scheme for Alibaba and the next stage of the company’s development,” he said. He called on businesses to truly embrace sustainable development, inclusiveness and altruism, the three biggest factors for a successful business. Ma also said that the greatest chance for China to develop its economy was to boost domestic consumption and further embrace the market economy, as reported by the Global Times and the Shanghai Daily.

Alibaba also adjusted its six core values, including focusing on “customers first, employees second, shareholders third”; knowing that “trust makes everything simple”; remembering that “change is the only constant”; and that “today’s best performance is tomorrow’s baseline”.

Recently, Alibaba acquired NetEase Kaola, the cross-border e-commerce arm of NetEase, for USD2 billion. It will create an online marketplace for consumers seeking high-quality foreign products, and holding a more than 50% cross-border e-commerce market share in the country. Kaola will continue to operate independently under its current brand, while Alvin Liu, Tmall’s Import and Export General Manager, will serve as Kaola’s new CEO. Alibaba’s Tmall Global and NetEase’s Kaola are China’s largest and second-largest cross-border e-commerce platforms, holding 31.7% and 24.5% of the market respectively in 2018, according to the Beijing-based consultancy Analysys. Alibaba, together with Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm backed by Jack Ma, will also invest approximately USD700 million in streaming music service NetEase Cloud Music.