China warns citizens to stop posting spy satellite information on social media • The Register

Asia in brief China’s Ministry of State Security has asked citizens to stop posting information online about the country’s spy satellites and national security facilities.

State-controlled media yesterday covered the ministry’s call for Internet users to stop marking the locations of military installations on maps and discussing military topics on online forums.

“All of this has opened a window for foreign forces to peek into China’s core secrets, posing unprecedented challenges to national security,” the reports said, adding that space is now a domain critical strategy and that loose lips – or messages – can sink spaceships.

Chinese Internet users had a lot to think about this weekend. Major social networks WeChat, Douyin and Weibo have all announced crackdowns on hate speech after an incident in which a bus carrying children to a Japanese school in the city of Suzhou was attacked by a man armed with a a knife. A Chinese bus worker, Hu Youping, defended a Japanese family, but was fatally injured.

She was hailed as a national hero and flags were flown at half-mast in her honor.

–Simon Sharwood

Singapore central bank launches global blockchain plan for financial services

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has detailed (PDF) its exploration of a multi-purpose shared ledger infrastructure that it plans to be jointly developed by regulated financial institutions and used to oversee their affairs.

“The existing infrastructure that underpins global financial markets was built decades ago, resulting in siloed databases, disparate communications protocols, and significant costs associated with maintaining proprietary systems and custom integrations,” MAS said. “While global financial markets have remained robust and resilient, the industry’s needs have grown in sophistication and scale.”

Due to this fragmentation, the central bank believes that everything would be better served by an entirely new interoperable system and aims to foster the development of a shared layer infrastructure for hosting tokenized financial assets and applications.

The planned system has the noble mission of standardizing the way digital assets, smart contracts and digital identities are managed, while unlocking funds currently stuck in separate systems and also reducing costs. Financial institutions are expected to use this shared platform to issue, exchange, settle and manage digital assets, while streamlining cross-border transactions.

“By leveraging the capabilities of the broader financial ecosystem, financial institutions can provide a richer and broader range of services to end users and access the market more quickly,” the central bank explained.

India’s 5G spectrum auction fails

Last week, India held a spectrum auction that did not go as planned.

All spectrum in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz bands was auctioned. However, buyers are only bidding on the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2500 MHz bands, according to India’s Ministry of Communications.

“A total of 141.4 MHz (26.5%) was sold out of the remaining 533.6 MHz of spectrum,” the ministry said. “This is despite the fact that a very large amount of spectrum – 51.2 GHz of spectrum – was sold in August 2022.”

Unsold spectrum will be auctioned again on an undisclosed date.

India’s last spectrum auction, in 2022, raised just under $18 billion.

The total revenue from the auction was Rs 113.4 billion ($1.35 billion). Bharti Airtel took the biggest share – a total of 7 MHz of spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz and 2,100 MHz bands, for Rs 68.57 billion ($820 million). Much of this was earmarked for the renewal of spectrum rights expiring this year.

Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio also made purchases.

Debris from Chinese rocket lands near residents

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation last week declared the launch of the joint Sino-French SVOM aircraft a success, despite reports that toxic debris from the flight fell on a populated area.

Space is tough – as North Korea demonstrated again, as it also spewed its own launch debris into the air on Wednesday. The Hermit Kingdom was testing a hypersonic missile when it exploded, wreaking havoc on Earth once again.

Sharp chairman resigns

Japanese electronics company Sharp’s chairman Robert Wu has announced (PDF) that he will step down. His replacement is Masahiro Okitsu, another Sharp executive.

The move comes after a period of losses for Sharp — losses that shareholders did not let Wu forget, reportedly insulting him at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

The losses were largely attributed to underperformance in the LCD panel operations.

China Appoints New SciTech Boss

Chinese First Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang has been appointed head of the Central Science and Technology Commission of the Communist Party of China.

The commission was established last year. Ding’s appointment appears to be a sign that Xi Jinping is ready to participate in the government’s leadership delegation.

According to state media, Ding delivered a speech at the second plenary session of the National Science and Technology Conference in Beijing last Tuesday.

APAC Offer Book

Recent alliances and agreements spotted by The register in the region last week:

• Australian company Space Machines has signed (PDF) an agreement to send its satellite repair satellite into orbit on an Indian rocket in 2026.
• State-backed Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engineering) has started construction of a new data centre within the city-state’s borders.

  The facility is expected to be completed in 2026 and is one of the first new data centres to be built in Singapore since construction was suspended in 2019 due to environmental concerns.

• Data center provider Equinix announced last Tuesday that it would open a “strategic interconnection hub” in Chennai, India.

  Named CN1, the facility is designed to meet the needs of enterprises and hyperscalers, particularly in terms of AI deployment in the region. It is scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2024.

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