25 Microseconds.
Two compliance schemes.
“Most mornings I learn more from New Items than I do from all of the traditional papers I read combined.” — Michael Blair, former presiding partner, Debevoise & Plimpton.
1. China has unveiled its latest photonic quantum computer, Jiuzhang 4.0, with researchers saying it can outperform the world’s fastest classical supercomputer by a vast margin, further strengthening Beijing’s push towards quantum supremacy. The results, published on May 13 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, mark the latest milestone in China’s rapidly advancing quantum program led by a team of scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China headed by Chinese quantum physicist Pan Jianwei. Jiuzhang 4.0 completed a Gaussian boson sampling task in just 25 microseconds – a calculation they estimated would take the world’s most powerful supercomputer, El Capitan in the United States, more than 10⁴² years to finish, according to the university in the eastern city of Hefei. A Gaussian boson sampling task is a quantum computing task that is computationally difficult for classical computers to handle. “No realistic classical computing resources, to our knowledge, can bring the MPS [matrix product state] algorithm anywhere near the accuracy achieved by our experiment,” the team said in a statement. (Sources: scmp.com, nature.com. Ed. Note: 10⁴² years is roughly 100 trillion trillion times longer than the age of the universe.)
2. Eurointelligence:
The Chinese State Council issued two new laws in April: Decree No 834 on Security of Industrial and Supply Chains and Decree No 835 on Countering Foreign Improper Extraterritorial Jurisdiction by Foreign States, both taking effect immediately. These two decrees operationalise a structured mechanism to identify, block, and respond to foreign measures. A key sector list can be adjusted, with particular focus on supply chains, and monitored whether they comply with Chinese or non-Chinese law. Based on investigation findings, the administration can implement countermeasures.
Putting the justice ministry in charge suggests that this is now elevated to a rule-of-law concern that goes beyond trade issues. The decrees allow China to establish a malicious entity list that could become subject to a broad range of measures that extend to entities controlled by the one listed or are operating in partnership with it. China is increasingly accompanying administrative countermeasures with private litigation as enforcement tool, and allowing Chinese entities and individuals to pursue civil claims.
These laws present a compliance dilemma for international companies engaged with Chinese counter-parties as well as multinationals operating through China-based subsidiaries. It may even become impossible to be fully compliant: either they comply with US sanctions or Chinese law but not both. Even information gathering in China for their due diligence surveys of supply chains, including on human rights and forced labour, now have to comply with Chinese law. In practice, even if not enforced fully, it could mean that Chinese counterparts may adopt a cautious stance and become more reluctant to cooperate with international companies.
A legal quid-pro-quo response to US sanctions? It certainly means that China can now punish companies, governments, and institutions that comply with US sanctions.
The war in Iran could be a first test case. China is also challenging the dollar’s role as a denomination currency for oil. Cradle writes that negotiations are ongoing about a yuan-traded oil for the safe passage through the strait of Hormuz. Deutsche Bank wrote that the Iran war could be the making of the petroyuan and that this could be the end of the US dominance over global finance. The petrodollar was the foundation over the extra-territorial role of the US-dollar for world trade. It is the reason why central banks held a high proportion of their currency reserves in US dollars. It is the biggest leverage the US has to sanction others into compliance.
If we now have two compliance schemes that are in contradiction with each other, it reduces the extraordinary privilege the US had. Together with a less dollarized global trade market, it could turn the world into a multipolar one in finance, trade and law. (Sources: eurointelligence.com, thecradle.com)
3. Chinese leader Xi Jinping hailed the results of his meetings with US President Donald Trump and touted an agreement on a new relationship for their countries, projecting optimism despite unresolved tensions and limited deals announced so far. “This visit is a historic and landmark visit. Thus far, we have established a new bilateral relationship — a constructive strategic stable relationship — which constitutes a milestone event,” Xi said while hosting Trump in Zhongnanhai, the secretive headquarters of the ruling Communist Party and residence of its top leaders. “We have achieved many cooperative outcomes.” The two countries reached an “important consensus” on maintaining stable economic and trade relations while expanding cooperation in various fields, according to a readout published Friday by the official Xinhua News Agency before Trump departed on Air Force One. Neither side have released details of their commercial deals, which may be announced in the coming days. (Source: bloomberg.com)
4. Bloomberg:
President Donald Trump said the US and China share common goals for ending the Iran war, while Beijing struck a measured tone in urging further diplomacy.
Trump said during a briefing with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday that the two leaders agreed the Islamic Republic shouldn’t possess a nuclear weapon and that the Strait of Hormuz should reopen.
The US administration has signaled it wants China’s help pressuring Tehran into negotiations to end the conflict, which began after the US and Israel started bombing Iran and has effectively closed Hormuz, disrupting global energy flows. But Beijing, Iran’s largest oil buyer and a key diplomatic partner, has remained cautious, with the foreign ministry saying disputes over Tehran’s nuclear program should be resolved through dialog.
Iran maintains a degree of control over the strategic waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the conflict began, on Feb. 28. Its semi-official Fars news agency said on Thursday that it would allow Chinese vessels to transit Hormuz following discussions with Beijing. (Source: bloomberg.com)
5. President Donald Trump said the US objective of recovering highly enriched uranium from Iran was “more for public relations than it is for anything else,” while reiterating his commitment to removing the nuclear material. Mr. Trump said in an interview with Fox News aired on Thursday evening in the US that the mission to recover the uranium, which is thought to be buried beneath the rubble of bombed nuclear sites, could be viewed as unnecessary because the US was maintaining round-the-clock surveillance. “We have nine cameras on that site, on those three sites, 24 hours a day,” Trump said. “We know exactly what’s happening. Nobody’s even gotten close to it.” Still, the president said, he ultimately would rather get the material out of the country. (Source: bloomberg.com)
6. The United States and China will discuss guardrails on artificial intelligence, including establishing a protocol for keeping powerful A.I. models out of the hands of non-state actors, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday. Mr. Bessent, who was speaking from Beijing in an interview with CNBC, did not give more details, including when these discussions would take place. But Xi Jinping, China’s leader, and President Trump had been expected to discuss A.I. during their summit in the Chinese capital. If these talks happen, it would be the first time the two countries formally take up the issue during Mr. Trump’s second term. The capabilities and usage of A.I. have grown rapidly, and so have concerns that this technology could be weaponized by hackers and terrorists, or spiral out of human control. (Source: nytimes.com)
7. The New York Times:
When companies like Anthropic, Google and OpenAI build their artificial intelligence systems, they spend months adding ways to prevent people from using their technology to spread disinformation, build weapons or hack into computer networks.
But recently, researchers in Italy discovered that they could break through these protections with poetry.
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