2026年7月8日 星期三

中國人工智能模型縮小與 Anthropic 和 OpenAI 的差距(1/2)

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

Chinese A.I. Models Close the Gap with Anthropic and OpenAI (1/2)

Silicon Valley engineers recently flocked to new technology from a Chinese company, Z.ai, that is almost as good as its American competitors but much cheaper.

The NYT - By Cade MetzKaren Weise and Meaghan Tobin - Cade Metz reported from San Francisco, Karen Weise from Seattle and Meaghan Tobin from Taipei, Taiwan.

June 25, 2026

Two weeks ago, the artificial intelligence company Anthropic shut down its two most powerful A.I. systems after an unexpected demand from the U.S. government to cut access to it.

Days later, a Chinese start-up, Z.ai, released an A.I. model that is nearly as powerful as Anthropic’s models, Fable and Mythos. But Z.ai’s new technology costs much less to use, and no one in the United States was putting restrictions on it. It quickly landed on a closely watched leaderboard of the world’s 10 most popular models.

Z.ai is on the cutting edge of a wave of powerful but inexpensive A.I. from China that is challenging the lock that OpenAI, Anthropic and Google have had on the industry. Six of the models now on the A.I. leaderboard were developed in China.

Z.ai’s new model, GLM-5.2, arrived just as U.S. businesses realized that they had to find ways to cut down on how much they were spending on A.I. It also landed when executives in Silicon Valley were becoming worried that the Trump administration was leaning toward regulating the technology.

“With Fable restricted, the gap between the U.S. and China is very slim,” said Rehaan Ahmad, a co-founder of the Silicon Valley start-up alphaXiv, who has been using Z.ai’s new model for more than a week.

The Chinese models still face two big hurdles to widespread use in the United States: concerns about their ties to the Chinese government and complaints that Chinese companies have unfairly used American technology to build these cheaper models. But their low cost is winning converts.

About 18 months ago, the Chinese start-up DeepSeek shocked Silicon Valley when it demonstrated that it could build effective A.I. far more affordably than many of its American counterparts. Z.ai is doing something similar. When performing certain tasks, GLM-5.2 costs about an eighth as much as Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8, which came out shortly before Fable and Mythos, according to OpenRouter, a start-up that runs the A.I. leaderboard.

Like most top-performing Chinese models, GLM-5.2 is open source software, which means anyone can use and modify it for free. That makes it much cheaper to use, even if it is not quite as powerful as what American companies have created.

“Do you need to drive a Ferrari everywhere?” asked Vivek Ramaswami, a start-up investor at Madrona Venture Group. “Probably not.”

GLM-5.2 is particularly good at generating computer code and powering A.I. agents, digital assistants that can use other software to perform tasks. Z.ai’s technology is now the third most widely used in the world for A.I. tasks, said Anastasios Angelopoulos, chief executive of ArenaAI, which tracks millions of A.I. users.

The largest cloud computing providers, including Microsoft and Amazon, already offer access to some systems from Z.ai, DeepSeek, MiniMax and other Chinese start-ups. Microsoft has also considered adding the latest DeepSeek model as an option to power one of its own products, which now runs on technology from Anthropic and OpenAI, two people familiar with the deliberations said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them publicly.

The talks were reported earlier by Axios.

Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI declined to comment.

Some software developers are reluctant to use the A.I. system that Z.ai offers from computers in China, because they worry about sharing data with the company or with the Chinese government. They are also wary of China’s efforts to censor its A.I. systems or running afoul of U.S. export restrictions.

Z.ai was added to the Commerce Department’s trade blacklist in 2025. Corporate filings show that several of the company’s shareholders are controlled by a Chinese government agency that supervises the country’s defense industry.

(to be continued)

Translation

中國人工智能模型縮小與 Anthropic OpenAI 的差距(1/2

矽谷工程師最近紛紛湧向一家中國公司 Z.ai 的新技術,它幾乎與美國競爭對手不相伯仲,但價格卻便宜得多

兩週前,人工智能公司 Anthropic 在美國政府出人意料地要求限制其存取權限後,關閉了公司其兩個最強的人工智能系統。

幾天后,一家中國新創公司 Z.ai 發佈了一款人工智能模型,其功能幾乎與 Anthropic Fable Mythos 兩款模型相當。但 Z.ai 的新技術使用成本要低得多,而且美國方面也沒有對其施加任何限制。它迅速躋身備受關注的全球十大最受歡迎模型排行榜。

Z.ai 代表中國強大且低成本的人工智能浪潮,這股浪潮正在挑戰 OpenAIAnthropic Google 對產業的壟斷地位。目前人工智能排行榜上的六個模型均是由中國開發。

Z.ai 的新模型 GLM-5.2 的發佈正值美國企業意識到必須找到削減人工智能支出的方法之際。同時,矽谷的高層也開始擔憂特朗普政府可能傾向對這項技術進行監管。

矽谷新創公司 alphaXiv 的聯合創始人 Rehaan Ahmad 表示,他已經使用 Z.ai 的新模型超過一週了:「隨著 Fable 受到限制,美國和中國之間的差距已經非常小了」。

中國人工智能模型在美國的廣泛應用仍面臨兩大障礙:一是人們對其與中國政府關係的擔憂,二是有人指責中國公司不公平地利用美國技術來製造這些價格更低廉的模型。但其低成本優勢正令越來越多人把擔憂及指責放下。

大約18個月前,中國新創公司DeepSeek震驚了矽谷,該公司展示了能夠以遠低於許多美國同行的成本建立高效的人工智能。 Z.ai也在做類似的事情。根據營運人工智能排行榜的新創公司OpenRouter稱,在執行某些任務時,GLM-5.2的成本約為Anthropic公司Claude Opus 4.8的八分之一,後者發佈時間略早於FableMythos

與大多數性能卓越的中國模型一樣,GLM-5.2是開源軟件,這意味著任何人都可以免費使用和修改它。這使得它的使用成本更低,即使它的功能不如美國公司開發的產品般強大。

Madrona Venture Group的創業投資人Vivek Ramaswami問道: “你真的需要開著法拉利到處跑嗎?” “大概不需要吧。”

GLM-5.2尤其擅長產生電腦程式碼,並為人工智能代理(即能夠使用其他軟件執行任務的電子助理)提供支援。  ArenaAI在追蹤著數以百萬計的人工智能用戶,其執行長Anastasios Angelopoulos表示,Z.ai的技術目前是全球第三大最廣泛用於人工智能任務的技術。。

包括微軟和亞馬遜在內的大型雲端運算供應商已經提供對Z.aiDeepSeekMiniMax和其他中國新創公司部分系統的存取。兩位知情人士透露,微軟也考慮將最新的DeepSeek模型作為其自身產品的運行選項,該產品目前運行在AnthropicOpenAI的技術之上。這兩位人士因未獲授權公開討論此事而要求匿名。

Axios先前報道了此次洽談。

微軟、Anthropic OpenAI 均拒絕置評。

一些軟件開發人員不願使用 Z.ai 提供的、運行在中國境內的 AI 系統,因為他們擔心與該公司或中國政府共享數據。他們也擔心中國會審查其 AI 系統的企圖,或觸犯美國的出口限制。

Z.ai 已被列入美國商務部的貿易黑名單,生效日期為 2025 年。公司文件顯示,該公司的幾位股東受控於一家負責監管中國國防工業的中國政府機構。

(待續)

2026年7月7日 星期二

中國自2017年以來首次從美國手中奪得超級電腦王寶座 (2/2)

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

China Takes Supercomputer Crown from U.S. for First Time Since 2017 (2/2)

A supercomputer in Shenzhen was declared the world’s fastest. It uses only standard microprocessors and not the special-purpose chips called graphics processing units.

The NYT - By Don Clark - Reporting from San Francisco

June 23, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET

(continue)

U.S. national labs, which are the main buyers of some of the largest supercomputers, are eager to use A.I. to accelerate aspects of their scientific work. So they are adopting more of these less precise calculations, along with the 64-bit variety.

Though U.S. companies have historically dominated the ranks of the very largest supercomputers, foreign systems have sometimes vaulted to the top. A system in Japan, for example, ranked No. 1 on the list from 2020 to 2022.

“There’s a lot of talk that America is the only country capable of these systems,” said Addison Snell, an analyst at Intersect360 Research, a firm tracking the sector. “Then you find that other companies have capabilities, too.”

Powerful systems from China and Japan have regularly spurred the Department of Energy and other U.S. agencies to push for more funding for supercomputers. In November, the Trump administration started the Genesis Mission, which aims to exploit supercomputers at U.S. national labs, along with private companies, to supercharge A.I. and scientific research.

GPUs, primarily developed by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, have been a critical weapon in the recent supercomputer race. These chips excel in doing many chores simultaneously, including so-called vector calculations used in science and matrix multiplication at the heart of many A.I. tasks.

When U.S. officials limited China’s access to GPUs and other powerful chips, as well as restricting exports of some machines for manufacturing the most advanced semiconductors, that caused it “to invest in developing architectures and technology to effectively have supercomputers that are at the same level as the U.S.’s highest-performing systems,” Dr. Dongarra said.

China’s LineShine system does not separate the traditional jobs of microprocessors and GPUs, as most high-end systems do. Instead, it builds in GPU-style tasks with specialized circuitry that accelerates matrix and vector calculations. That ability is embedded in chips that have a total of nearly 14 million computing cores, or tiny electronic brains, installed in 90 hardware cabinets.

These chips are an original design based on a set of instructions licensed by Arm Holdings, a British company that is controlled by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. Arm’s technology is best known for powering smartphones but has lately been adapted by Nvidia, Amazon, Qualcomm and others for use in data centers.

Arm has long operated in China. “Arm operates globally, including in China, in compliance with applicable export control laws and regulations,” a company spokeswoman said.

LineShine’s designers, who are supercomputer veterans in China, have not disclosed details about which company manufactured the chips or the level of chip production technology used, Dr. Dongarra said.

He and other experts have long thought that China had systems capable of a No. 1 ranking, but laboratories there had not recently submitted test results.

“It doesn’t surprise me that there is a Chinese machine capable of being No. 1,” Mr. Snell said. “The surprise is that they wanted the acknowledgment.”

Dr. Dongarra, who wrote a detailed report on the new system, was told while visiting China that the system had been made without government funding, so the designers felt it was permissible to submit tests for the Top500 ranking, he said.

The Shenzhen scientists have also sought recognition for the new machine through 14 submissions for the Gordon Bell Prize, which promotes solving sophisticated problems in science, Dr. Dongarra said. Three systems are finalists for that award, and three for a related prize in climate science.

LineShine has been used for projects like a sophisticated simulation of Earth, including atmosphere, ocean, land and ice components, as well as a complex simulation of the human brain, according to Dr. Dongarra’s report.

Translation

中國自2017年以來首次從美國手中奪得超級電腦王寶座 (2/2)

深圳一台超級電腦被宣佈為世界上速度最快的超級電腦。它只使用標準微處理器,而不是被稱為圖形處理器(GPU)的專用晶片

(繼續)

美國國家實驗室是部分最大型超級電腦的主要買家,它們渴望利用人工智能來加速其研究工作。因此,它們正在採用更多精度較低的計算方法,亦有用64位元計算方法。

儘管美國公司歷來在最大型超級電腦領域佔據主導地位,但外國系統有時也能躍居榜首。例如,日本的一套系統在2020年至2022年期間一直位居榜首。

追踪該領域的公司Intersect360 Research的分析師Addison Snell表示: 很多人都說美國是唯一能夠擁有這類系統的國家”; “但後來你會發現,其他公司也具備這種能力。”

來自中國和日本的強大系統,不斷驅使美國能源部和其他機構爭取更多資金用於建立超級電腦。去年11月,特朗普政府啟動了「創世紀計劃」(Genesis Mission),旨在利用美國國家實驗室以及私人公司的超級電腦,大幅強化人工智能和科學研究。

GPU(圖形處理器),主要由英偉達(Nvidia)和AMD(超微半導體)公司開發,一直是近期超級電腦競賽的關鍵武器。這些晶片擅長同時處理多項任務,包括科學中使用的向量運算以及許多人工智能任務的核心 - 矩陣乘法。

Dongarra博士表示,當美國官員限制中國取得GPU和其他高性能晶片,並限制部分用於製造最先進半導體的設備出口時,中國「被迫投資開發架構和技術,以打造與美國最高性能係統性能相當的超級電腦」。

中國的LineShine系統不像大多數高階系統那樣,將微處理器和GPU的傳統功能分開。相反,它內建了GPU式任務,並配備了專門的電路來加速矩陣和向量計算。這種能力被嵌入到總共擁有近1400萬個運算核心(或稱為微型電子大腦)的晶片中,這些晶片安裝在90個硬體機櫃中。

這些晶片是基於Arm Holdings授權的一套指令而設計的。 Arm Holdings是一家英國公司,由日本軟銀集團控股。 Arm的技術最廣為人知的應用領域是智能型手機,但最近也被英偉達、亞馬遜、高通等公司應用於數據庫。

Arm公司長期以來一直在中國開展業務。 該公司一位發言人表示:Arm在全球範圍內運營,包括在中國,並遵守所有適用的出口管制法律法規」。

Dongarra博士表示,LineShine的設計者是中國超級電腦領域的資深人士,他們沒有透露晶片的製造商或所使用的晶片生產技術水平等細節。

他和一些專家一直認為中國擁有能夠躋身世界第一的系統,但中國實驗室近期沒有提交測試結果。

Snell先生說: “中國有能夠排名第一的機器並不令我驚訝” “令人驚訝的是,他們竟然想要獲得認可。”

曾撰寫過一份關於這套新系統的詳細報告的Dongarra博士說,他在中國訪問期間得知,該系統並非由政府資助研發,因此設計者認為可以提交測試結果以參與Top500排名。

Dongarra博士表示深圳科學家也透過14項申請角逐Gordon Bell獎,力求讓這台新型機器獲得認可。該獎項旨在表彰解決複雜科學難題的傑出成果。目前已有三套系統入圍該獎項的最終候選名單,另有三套系統入圍氣候科學領域的相關獎項。

Dongarra博士的報告指出,LineShine已被用於多個項目,例如對地球進行複雜的模擬包括大氣、海洋、陸地和冰蓋,以及對人腦進行複雜的模擬。

So, China takes back the computing crown from the United States. It is the LineShine, a massive computing system declared to be the fastest in the world. Besides raw speed, the system stands out because it uses only standard microprocessors and not the special-purpose chips called GPU. Apparently, China can use ordinary computer chips to make high speed computers at a low cost.

2026年7月6日 星期一

中國自2017年以來首次從美國手中奪得超級電腦王寶座(1/2)

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

China Takes Supercomputer Crown From U.S. for First Time Since 2017 (1/2)

A supercomputer in Shenzhen was declared the world’s fastest. It uses only standard microprocessors and not the special-purpose chips called graphics processing units.

The NYT - By Don Clark - Reporting from San Francisco

June 23, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET

China took back a coveted computing crown from the United States on Tuesday, ratcheting up a fierce technological competition that has implications for science, national security and geopolitics.

LineShine, a massive computing system in Shenzhen, China, was declared the world’s fastest by a group of researchers using a set of standard tests for supercomputers. Besides raw speed, the system stood out because it uses only standard microprocessors and not the special-purpose chips called graphics processing units, which most high-end supercomputers rely on for heavy number crunching.

That underlying design could point to a better way to blend artificial intelligence with traditional scientific tasks, said Jack Dongarra, an organizer of the so-called Top500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

Dr. Dongarra, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee, recently inspected the new machine, at the Shenzhen Cloud Computing Center. LineShine’s test results were more than 20 percent faster than those of El Capitan, a system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California that has topped a twice-yearly ranking of supercomputer performance since November 2024. China had not placed a machine at the top of the list since 2017.

“It’s an impressive system,” Dr. Dongarra said of LineShine. “They upped us by developing a system that is not reliant on GPUs.”

The new supercomputer adds to the race between China and the United States for technological supremacy. U.S. tech giants like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google have developed leading A.I. models, while another American company, Nvidia, has become the world’s dominant supplier of A.I. chips. China has tried to innovate in different ways, with the Chinese start-up DeepSeek releasing a cutting-edge A.I. model last year using just a tiny fraction of specialized A.I. chips.

To prevent China from catching up, President Trump has imposed tariffs and at times placed limits on A.I. chip exports. But China’s use of standard microprocessors, which are known as CPUs, rather than GPUs to create an ultrafast supercomputer suggests a potential way to get around those roadblocks.

“The U.S. government should have stronger controls on the export and manufacturing of CPUs for the China market,” said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior fellow at the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. “It is a loophole in the current regulations.”

Supercomputers, a term for the largest machines dedicated to science, have been used since the 1960s for tasks like creating climate models, cracking codes and designing nuclear weapons. They typically use high-precision mathematics, expressing numbers with 64 bits of data.

Commercial A.I. systems from companies like Google and OpenAI, by contrast, can be even faster. They can use approximations for tasks such as identifying images or selecting the next word in a sentence, relying on what are known as four-bit and eight-bit numbers that allow the systems to make many simpler calculations at once.

“It is notable and impressive what China has done here, but they can’t hold a candle to these massive A.I. supercomputers that have been built by American A.I. labs” and others, Mr. Goodrich said.

(to be continued)

Translation

中國自2017年以來首次從美國手中奪得超級電腦王寶座(1/2

深圳一台超級電腦被宣佈為世界上最快的超級電腦。它只使用標準微處理器,而不是被稱為圖形處理器(GPU)的專用晶片

週二,中國從美國手中奪回了夢寐以求的超級電腦之王的寶座,加劇了激烈的技術競爭,這場競爭對科學、國家安全和地緣政治都具有重要意義。

位於中國深圳的巨型計算系統「天翔」(LineShine)被一組研究人員使用一系列超級電腦標準測試方法宣佈為世界上最快的超級電腦。除了極快的速度外,該系統脫穎而出的另一個原因是它僅使用標準微處理器,而非大多數高階超級電腦用於繁重運算的專用晶片 - 圖形處理器(GPU)。

全球最強超級電腦Top500名單的組織者之一Jack Dongarra表示,這種底層設計或許能為人工智能與傳統科學任務的融合提供更好的途徑。

Dongarra博士是田納西大學電腦科學與電子工程系的教授,他最近在深圳雲端運算中心考察了這台新機器。 LineShine的測試結果比加州Lawrence Livermore國家實驗室的El Capitan系統快20%以上。 El Capitan202411月以來一直穩居全球超級電腦效能榜首,該名單每半年更新一次。自2017年以來,中國就再也沒有超級電腦位居榜首。

Dongarra博士評價LineShine時說道: “這是一套令人印象深刻的系統” “他們開發了一套不依賴GPU的系統,超越了我們。”

這台新的超級電腦加劇了中美兩國在科技領域的競爭。美國科技巨擘如OpenAIAnthropicGoogle已開發出領先的人工智能模型,而另一家美國公司英偉達則成為全球人工智能晶片的主要供應商。中國則嘗試以不同的方式進行創新,例如,中國新創公司DeepSeek去年發佈了一款尖端人工智能模型,該模型僅使用了極少量的專用人工智能晶片。

為了阻止中國迎頭趕上,特朗普總統曾對人工智能晶片加徵關稅,並一度限制其出口。但中國使用標準微處理器(即CPU)而非GPU來製造超高速超級電腦,這表明中國可能找到了繞過這些障礙的方法。

加州大學全球衝突與合作研究所 高級研究員吉Jimmy Goodrich表示:“美國政府應該加強對中國市場CPU出口和製造的管控” ;“這是現有法規中的一個漏洞。”

超級電腦,即專門用於科學研究的最大型機器,自 20 世紀 60 年代以來就被用於創建氣候模型、破解密碼和設計核武器等任務。它們通常使用高精度數學運算,以 64 位元資料表示數字。

相比之下,Google OpenAI 等公司的商業人工智能系統速度更快。它們可以使用近似值來完成諸如識別圖像或選擇句子中的下一個單字等任務,依賴所謂的 4 位和 8 位數字,這使得系統能夠即時進行許多較簡單的計算。

Goodrich先生說: 「中國在這方面取得的成就令人矚目,但與美國人工智能實驗室和其他國家建造的這些巨型人工智能超級電腦相比,它們根本無法相提並論」。

 (待續)

2026年7月5日 星期日

Drug Targeting Common Causative Genes in Different Cancers: Drug for Practical Application

Recently NHK News on-line reported the following:

異なるがんで共通する原因遺伝子標的に 治療薬実用化

202662217:35

医療・健康

異なる種類のがんで共通する特定の遺伝子変異を標的とすることでさまざまな希少がんや小児がんなどにも効果が期待できる薬を開発し、国の承認を得たと国立がん研究センターなどのグループが発表しました。患者数が少ないがんの患者の新たな治療につながるとしています。

がんの治療薬の開発はがんの種類ごとに行われることが多く、患者数が少ない希少がんや小児がんは薬の開発のための治験に参加する患者を集めるのが難しいことなどが課題となっています。

国立がん研究センターなどのグループは、希少がんや小児がんの中には、一般的ながんと共通する遺伝子変異が原因とみられる患者がいることに着目し、このうち肺がんなどの治療に使われる「ALK(アルク)」という遺伝子の変異を標的とする薬が、ほかのがんにも効果があるか治験を行いました。

その結果、骨や筋肉にできる希少がんや小児がんなど、さまざまながんに効果があることが確認され、5月、小児がんを含めた固形がんに対する治療薬として国の承認を得たということです。

国立がん研究センターの間野博行 理事長は「臓器ごとではなく、がんの原因となる共通の遺伝子に着目して新薬を開発する手法は今後さらに増えていくはずだ。患者数が少ないがんでもより早く薬を開発できるような体制を確立したい」と話していました。

Translation

Drug Targeting Common Causative Genes in Different Cancers: Drug for Practical Application

A group including the National Cancer Center announced that they we’re developing drugs that were expected to be effective against various rare cancers and pediatric cancers by targeting specific gene mutations common to different types of cancer. They had received national approval for it. This could lead to new treatments for patients with rare cancers.

The development of cancer drugs was often conducted separately for each type of cancer, and for rare cancers and childhood cancers which affected a small number of patients, recruiting patients for clinical trials had been a challenge.

The group including the National Cancer Center focused on the fact that some patients with rare cancers and childhood cancers appeared to be caused by gene mutations common to common cancers. They conducted clinical trials to determine if a drug targeting the "ALK" gene mutation which was used to treat lung cancer could also be effective against other cancers.

As a result, it was confirmed that the drug was effective against various cancers, including rare cancers of bone and muscle, and childhood cancers. In May, it had received national approval as a therapeutic drug for solid tumors, including pediatric cancer.

Dr. Hiroyuki Mano (間野博行), president of the National Cancer Center, said, "We expect to see an increase in the development of new drugs that focus on common genes that cause cancer, instead of on each individual organ. We want to establish a system that will allow us to develop drugs more quickly, even for cancers with a small number of patients."

So, Japan has announced that they are developing drugs that are expected to be effective against various rare cancers and pediatric cancers by targeting specific gene mutations common to different types of cancer. Apparently, this new approach will develop drugs more quickly, even for cancers with a small number of patients.

2026年7月3日 星期五

In Texas a Tesla Car Crashes into a House Killing the Woman Inside

Recently CNN.com.jp reported the following:

テスラ車が住宅に突っ込む、家の中にいた女性が死亡 米テキサス州

2026.06.22 Mon posted at 16:29 JST

 CNN 米テキサス州で19日、電気自動車(EV)メーカー、テスラの車が住宅に突っ込み、家の中にいた女性(76)が死亡した。警察が明らかにした。

近所の住宅の監視カメラによると、テスラ車が猛スピードで駆け抜けたあと、周囲に大きな音が鳴り響いた。

家の中にいた女性は病院に搬送されたが、この事故で負ったけがにより死亡した。

ハリス郡の保安官事務所によると、運転していた男性は衝突した当時、自動運転支援システムで車を操作していたと話している。男性も病院に搬送された。

アルコールや薬物が関連している兆候はみられないという。

テスラは基本的なオートパイロット機能とフルセルフドライビング機能の二つを提供しているが、衝突時にどちらが使われていたのかは明らかにされていない。

米運輸省道路交通安全局は昨年末、安全上の懸念からテスラの自動運転技術の調査を開始している。

同社は自動運転支援技術を利用したほうが人間の運転よりも安全だと主張していたが、テスラ車に関連する衝突や出火は10件以上発生しており、負傷した事例も20件ほど報告されている。また、同社は1件の死亡事案について一部責任があると認定されている。

今回の事案については警察が捜査を進めている。

Translation

In Texas a Tesla Car Crashes into a House Killing the Woman Inside 

June 22, 2026 (Mon) Posted at 4:29 PM JST

(CNN) On June 19th in Texas, a Tesla electric vehicle (EV) crashed into a house, killing a 76-year-old woman inside. Police confirmed the incident.

Surveillance cameras at a nearby house showed the Tesla speeding past, followed by a loud noise echoed all around.

The woman inside was taken to the hospital but died from injuries sustained in the accident.

According to the Harris County Sheriff's Office, the male driver stated he was using the car's autonomous driving system at the time of the crash. The man was also taken to the hospital.

There were no signs of alcohol or drug related.

Tesla offered two modes of operation: basic autopilot and full self-driving. It had not been revealed which mode was in use at the time of the crash.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into Tesla's autonomous driving technology late last year due to safety concerns.

While the company claimed that its autonomous driving assistance technology was safer than human driving, there were more than 10 collisions and fires involving Tesla vehicles, and around 20 reported injuries. Furthermore, the company was found partially responsible for one death case.

Currently, the police were investigating the present incident.

So, in the US, a Tesla electric vehicle (EV) has crashed into a house, killing a 76-year-old woman inside. While the EV company claims that its autonomous driving assistance technology is safer than human driving, there have been more than 10 collisions and fires involving Tesla vehicles, and around 20 reported injuries so far. Apparently, the safety of EV is a concern.

2026年7月2日 星期四

北京向國民發出新訊號:你的錢應該留在國內(2/2)

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

Beijing’s New Message to Its Citizens: Your Money Belongs at Home (2/2)

Eager to keep capital within its borders, China is restricting the ways individuals can engage with global markets.

THE NEW NEW WORLD By Li Yuan - Li Yuan writes The New New World column, which focuses on China’s growing influence on the world by examining its businesses, politics and society.

June 16, 2026

(continue)

The Institute of International Finance, a trade association based in Washington, estimated that resident capital outflows from China reached $809 billion in 2025, the highest level on record.

In 2025, Hong Kong overtook Switzerland as the world’s largest cross-border wealth management hub, partly driven by money coming from mainland China, according to Boston Consulting Group.

But Beijing increasingly sees this outflow of Chinese wealth as unpatriotic. Hu Xijin, a former editor in chief of the nationalist tabloid Global Times and one of China’s most prominent pro-government commentators, argued on the Weibo social media platform that the government’s latest moves served “the overall interests of Chinese society.”

“If stock investors buy more A-shares and fewer U.S. stocks, or if some people refrain from hastily selling their homes in China to buy property in the West, the overall effect would be positive,” he wrote.

Keeping savings at home and interest rates low is vital to Beijing. The country’s hugely indebted local governments have been restructuring their debts, relying on cheap domestic capital to ease interest burdens that consume roughly a fifth of their revenue. The savings are also backing China’s enormous investment in infrastructure, robotics, semiconductors and other industries deemed key to self-reliance and national security.

But that is not where sophisticated investors want to be. A technology worker who asked to be identified only by his last name, Xu, for fear of government retribution, has put as much money as China’s law allows into an American brokerage account since 2023.

Now all of the difficulties created by Beijing’s financial control leave Mr. Xu wondering, “Is my money still mine?”

Currently, Chinese citizens can legally convert their renminbi savings to $50,000 in foreign currency. Officially, that money can be used only for things like tourism or education, but using the quota for overseas investment in stocks or property has long been a tolerated gray zone.

For now, the quota remains the only legitimate opening for individuals to move money abroad. But there have been reports that banks are asking more questions about the use of the money, and people are worried that converting renminbi could become more difficult.

“So many people in the world can trade the U.S. stocks. Why can’t the Chinese?” Mr. Xu asked.

He is frustrated that SpaceX has excluded investors in China from participating in its I.P.O., the biggest in history. OpenAI and other potentially lucrative artificial intelligence companies may follow suit.

Others are now trying to slip under the wire and move their money abroad before the government blocks the passage completely.

In the past two weeks, investors feverishly traded workaround tips on social media and in group chats. Some flocked to Hong Kong to open bank and brokerage accounts at smaller firms with looser requirements. Others explored options to visit the United States and open accounts in person.

“No amount of financial controls can prevent people from moving their assets to places that offer better opportunities,” said Stephen, an I.T. worker in Guangdong Province who also asked to be identified by only one name.

Translation

北京向國民發出新訊號:你的錢應該留在國內(2/2

中國急於將資金留在境內,正在限制個人參與全球市場的方式

(繼續)

總部位於華盛頓的國際金融協會估計,2025年中國居民資本外流將達8,090億美元,創歷史新高。

波士頓顧問集團的數據顯示,2025年,香港將超越瑞士,成為全球最大的跨國財富管理中心,部分原因是來自中國大陸的資金流入。

但北京越來越將這種中國財富外流視為不愛國的行為。曾任民族主義小報《環球時報》總編輯、中國最知名的親政府評論員之一胡錫進在微博社交媒體平台上辯稱,政府的最新舉措符合「中國社會的整體利益」。

他寫道:“如果股票投資者多買A股,少買美股,或者如果一些人不要急於賣掉在中國的房產去西方置業,那麼整體效果將是積極的。”

維持國內儲蓄和低利率對北京至關重要。中國負債累累的地方政府一直在進行債務重組,依靠廉價的國內資本來減輕利息負擔,這些利息支出約佔其財政收入的五分之一。這些儲蓄也用於支持中國在基礎設施、機械人、半導體和其他被視為自力更生和國家安全關鍵產業的巨額投資。

但這並非資深的投資人想要投資的領域。一位因擔心政府報復而要求只透露姓氏為Xu的科技工作者,自2023年以來,已將中國法律允許的最大金額存入美國證券帳戶。

如今,北京的金融管控帶來的種種困難讓Xu先生不禁質疑:“我的錢還屬於我嗎?”

目前,中國公民可以合法地將人民幣存款兌換成最高5萬美元的外幣。官方規定,這筆錢只能用於旅遊或教育等用途,但長期以來,利用這筆額度進行海外股票或房地產投資一直是一個被默許的灰色地帶。

目前,這筆額度仍然是個人將資金轉移到國外的唯一合法途徑。但有報導稱,銀行正在對資金用途提出更多疑問,人們擔心人民幣兌換可能會變得更加困難。

Xu先生問: 「世界上那麼多人都能交易美國股票,為什麼中國人不行?」。

他對SpaceX將中國投資者排除在史上規模最大的IPO之外感到沮喪。 OpenAI和其他一些潛在利潤豐厚的人工智能公司可能也會效仿。

現在,其他人正試圖在政府徹底封鎖之前,偷偷將資金轉移到國外。

過去兩週,投資人在社交媒體和群組聊天中熱切地交流著各種變通方法。有些人湧向香港,在要求較為寬鬆的小型銀行和券商開設帳戶。另一些人則考慮親自前往美國開設帳戶。

一位要求只透露自己的单個名字叫史蒂芬的廣東省IT從業人員說道:「再多的金融管制也無法阻止人們將資產轉移到那些能提供更好機會的地方」。

            So, over the past few years, Chinese citizens have increasingly invested in overseas securities, and especially in the U.S. stock market. But in recent weeks, Beijing tries to close these channels. Beijing wants to keep savings at home and to keep interest rates low. The country’s hugely indebted local governments have been relying on cheap domestic capital to ease interest burdens that consume roughly a fifth of their revenue. Domestic savings are also used to back China’s enormous investment in infrastructure, robotics, semiconductors and other industries. Apparently, Chinese needs new money to support its economy.

2026年7月1日 星期三

北京向國民發出新訊息:你的錢應該留在國內(1/2)

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

Beijing’s New Message to Its Citizens: Your Money Belongs at Home (1/2)

Eager to keep capital within its borders, China is restricting the ways individuals can engage with global markets.

The New York Times - By Li Yuan who writes The New New World column, which focuses on China’s growing influence on the world by examining its businesses, politics and society.

June 16, 2026

Beijing has long built walls between Chinese citizens and the outside world: The Great Firewall blocks out information, and passport controls and exit bans restrict movement. But money had been different.

In an unspoken bargain between the government and its people, political limits could be tolerated as long as families were largely free to accumulate, protect and quietly diversify their wealth.

That bargain is fraying.

Over the last couple of years, Chinese citizens have increasingly invested in overseas securities, and especially in the U.S. stock market. But in recent weeks, Beijing has moved to close informal channels between Chinese households and global capital markets. It gave several Hong Kong and Singaporean-based brokerages with significant mainland clientele two years to wind down those accounts. It expanded rules on overseas investment to explicitly cover individuals for the first time, threatening to confiscate vaguely defined “illegal gains.”

In Hong Kong, long a gateway to overseas investing for mainland residents, banks and brokerages have tightened requirements for opening an account. Some brokerages told their mainland clients that the clients could sell U.S. stocks but not buy them. The Chinese social media app known as RedNote announced that it had cracked down on posts teaching people how to open U.S. stock trading accounts.

Beijing is pulling every available lever to mobilize the nation’s private wealth as a resource for its state-led drive toward technological self-reliance and national rejuvenation. In a major speech published in January, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, argued that financial latitude must be subordinated to national security, warning that China must guard against not only the risks of opening up but also risks that are “deliberately engineered” by geopolitical adversaries.

Geopolitical considerations are shrinking opportunity for Chinese investors in other ways. Amid the intense rivalry between the United States and China, SpaceX excluded Chinese investors from its history-breaking initial public offering last week. At the same time, Beijing is erecting its financial walls precisely when ordinary Chinese have the most reason to look outward for more lucrative places to put their savings.

In the United States, stocks and bonds are the default investments for long-term savings. But retail investors in China tend to shy away from the country’s stock exchanges, known as the A-shares market, viewing it less as a vehicle for building household wealth than as a speculative arena swayed by policy, rumor and sudden state intervention. The market has many nicknames, including “the meat grinder.”

Instead, for two decades, middle-class families invested in real estate. The housing market was booming, and people bought apartments not just to live in but as retirement plans, college funds and assets for their children. Nearly one-third of urban households owned two apartments, and more than 10 percent owned three or more apartments, according to a 2020 survey by China’s central bank.

After the housing market collapsed in 2021, however, many people lost faith in the asset that had underpinned their sense of security. Already big savers because of the country’s spare social safety net, Chinese people retreated into defensive savings. By the end of 2025, China’s household bank deposits had reached the equivalent of $24.4 trillion, nearly tripling over a decade.

But that money is earning diminishing returns. Three-quarters of household savings are in fixed-term deposits. But those rates have fallen to around 1 percent, while high-yield savings accounts in the United States offer up to around 4 percent.

At the same time, the U.S. stock market kept going up. For financially sophisticated members of the Chinese middle class, overseas markets became a hedge against China’s economic slowdown, political uncertainty and weakening domestic returns.

(to be continued)

Translation

北京向國民發出新訊息:你的錢應該留在國內(1/2

中國急於將資金留在境內,正在限制個人參與全球市場的方式

長期以來,北京在中國公民與外部世界之間築起了高牆:防火牆阻隔資訊傳播,護照管制和出境禁令限制了人員流動。但金錢卻並非如此。

在政府與人民之間一項不成文的協議中,只要家庭能夠大體上自由地累積、保護和低調地分散財富,政治限制就可以被容忍。

然而,這項協議正在瓦解。

過去幾年,中國公民越來越多投資海外證券,尤其是美國股市。但近幾週來,北京採取行動,關閉中國家庭與全球資本市場之間的非正式管道。它要求幾家在香港和新加坡擁有大量內地客戶的券商在兩年內關閉這些帳戶。北京首次將境外投資規則明確涵蓋每一個人,並威脅要沒收定義模糊的「非法所得」。

香港,長期以來一直是內地居民進行海外投資的門戶,它的銀行和券商現收緊了開戶要求。一些券商告知其內地客戶,他們可以出售美國股票,但不能購買。中國社交媒體應用程式 小紅書 宣佈,已打擊教人如何開設美國股票交易帳號的貼文。

北京正竭盡所能,調動國民財富,用作為國家主導的科技自立和民族復興運動的資金。今年1月,中國領導人習近平發表重要講話,強調金融自由必須服從國家安全,並警告中國不僅要防範對外開放的風險,還要防範地緣政治對手「蓄意製造」的風險。

地緣政治因素也在其他方面擠壓著中國投資者的機會。在中美競爭白熱化的背景下,SpaceX上週將其歷史性的首次公開發行(IPO)把中國投資者排除在外。同時,正值一般中國群眾最有理由尋求更有利可圖的投資管道之際,北京卻在築起金融壁壘。

在美國,股票和債券是長期儲蓄的首選投資。但中國的散戶投資者往往對叫做A股的中國股市場敬而遠之,他們認為A股市場與其說是累積財富的工具,不如說是一個容易受到政策、謠言和政府突然幹預影響的投機場所。股票市場有很多別稱,其中之一就是「絞肉機」。

然而,在過去的二十年裡,中產階級家庭紛紛投資房地產。房地產市場一片繁榮,人們購買公寓不僅是為了自住,更是為了退休養老、為子女教育費、為子女累積財富。根據中國人民銀行2020年的一項調查,近三分之一的城鎮家庭擁有兩套公寓,超過10%的家庭擁有三套或更多公寓。

然而,在2021年房地產市場崩盤後,許多人對這種曾經支撐他們安全感的資產失去了信心。由於中國社會保障體系的薄弱,中國人原本已儲蓄較多,如今更退向防禦性儲蓄。到2025年底,中國居民銀行存款總額已達24.4兆美元,十年內增加了近三倍。

但是那筆錢的收益卻越來越少。。四分之三的居民儲蓄都以定期存款的形式存在。但這些利率已降至1%左右,而美國的高收益儲蓄帳戶利率高達4%左右。

與此同時,美國股市持續上漲。對於中國中產階級裡那些具備一定金融知識的人來說,海外市場已成為對沖中國經濟放緩、政治不確定性和國內收益下降風險的工具。

 (待續)