{"text":[[{"start":11.32,"text":"China has warned the US against using former Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang’s relationship with an alleged Chinese spy as a pretext for tightening restrictions on exports of critical technologies."}],[{"start":24.31,"text":"“The US should stop fabricating so-called espionage narratives to find excuses for imposing a technological blockade,” Mao Ning, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, told reporters in Beijing on Thursday."}],[{"start":36.66,"text":"China’s technological progress relied on “independent innovation and open co-operation” and Beijing remained willing to build constructive strategic stability with the US, she said."}],[{"start":46.98,"text":"The comments came hours before Huang resigned on Thursday following revelations that he had affairs with a suspected Chinese spy and an executive at the company."}],[{"start":56.58,"text":"The crisis at Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chip design group, is forcing a reassessment of China’s access to chips that are crucial to the development of AI."}],[{"start":66.46,"text":"Nvidia has been banned from selling its most advanced chips crucial to China. But the trade is further complicated by Beijing’s own restrictions on Nvidia chip imports as it pushes to achieve self-sufficiency in semiconductor production."}],[{"start":79.98,"text":"The scandal also threatens to disrupt a tenuous trade truce between the world’s two biggest economies."}],[{"start":86.077,"text":"US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to meet in Shenzhen next week, where China is hosting a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The US this week warned China it must fulfil the terms of the trade war truce, which the leaders agreed in South Korea last year but is set to expire on January 10."}],[{"start":105.7,"text":"Zhu Feng, an international relations expert at Nanjing University, said the controversy could be misused by Trump’s enemies to “demonise” the US president’s China policy. “That’s very worrying,” he said."}],[{"start":117.78,"text":"Another scholar with a Chinese think-tank who regularly advises Beijing policymakers, who asked not to be named, said there was concern the allegations would influence Washington’s approach to China, providing ammunition to hawks who want to expand export controls."}],[{"start":131.78,"text":"The furore around Nvidia and Huang had a “clear impact on Washington DC dialogue on export controls”, said Homin Lee, senior macro strategist at Lombard Odier."}],[{"start":141.7,"text":"Lee said this would add “a little more pressure” to the industry ecosystem in China, which still relies heavily on Nvidia chips, with the company’s Cuda software platform vital for companies building AI models."}],[{"start":154.66,"text":"Shares in Chinese tech giants that have relied on Nvidia chips for developing their AI models fell on Thursday, with Alibaba down 6.8 per cent."}],[{"start":164.34,"text":"Two Chinese large language model providers listed in Hong Kong, Z.ai and MiniMax, sank more than 9 per cent and nearly 8 per cent respectively."}],[{"start":174.82,"text":"“The industry players are very clear that the Chinese ecosystem still depends quite a bit on the US framework,” Lee said, adding that for Nvidia, a complete split of the Chinese ecosystem from the US would be “a huge threat” over the longer term."}],[{"start":189.86,"text":"Mao was also asked about allegations that a Chinese university had bought Nvidia’s H200 chips in violation of existing export controls. The foreign ministry spokesperson said she was “unfamiliar” with the circumstances."}],[{"start":202.42,"text":"“We firmly oppose the US side’s broadening of the concept of national security, drawing up discriminatory lists under various pretexts, and unjustifiably suppressing Chinese institutions,” she added."}],[{"start":220.42,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1794547153_1022.mp3"}