China’s Tencent participated in 103 investment deals worth more than 60 billion yuan ($9.2 billion) in the first quarter of 2021, with a preference for gaming companies, as Beijing tightens its crackdown on monopolistic behaviors by tech and internet giants.

The 103 deals involved a wide range of industries ranging from entertainment and education to finance and healthcare, according to a report released on Monday by Chinese company information provider Qichacha.

About a third of the deals were related to gaming investments, reflecting Tencent’s increasing focus on an industry that has enjoyed robust growth since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the early months of the year, TikTok owner ByteDance also increased its investments in the gaming sector, with eye-catching acquisitions of Beijing-based mobile game developer C4games and Shanghai-based mobile game firm Moonton in April and March respectively. The moves were viewed as ByteDance’s renewed attempt to challenge Tencent’s leading position, which generated online game revenue of $24 billion in 2020 mainly from hits like Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile.

Xingsheng Youxuan, a Chinese community group buying platform, is the only company that received two rounds of investment from Tencent in the three-month period, according to the report.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Call of Duty Mobile Developer Outplays Games Publisher as Timi Studio Earns More Than Activision Blizzard

Chinese lifestyle service and food delivery giant Meituan has launched its new-generation self-designed driverless delivery vehicle in Beijing’s Shunyi district, which the company says will deliver stronger capabilities than its predecessors in terms of automatization, carrying capacity and cruising range. The move comes as the Chinese capital rolls out policies to promote business applications of self-driving technology.

The Meituan vehicle is able to react to obstacles in its surroundings to a radius of more than 150 meters, and can cover 80 kilometers on a single charge with a loading capacity of 150 kilograms, the company said in a statement on Monday.

On the same day, the Beijing municipal government issued a document to designate several areas in the city in which qualified companies are allowed to operate their unmanned delivery vehicles in preparation for the future commercialization of the technology.

Meituan started piloting its autonomous logistics service last February, when it deployed a fleet of driverless vehicles to send grocery orders to customers in some parts of Beijing in order to reduce human contact during the Covid-19 pandemic. So far, the company said that it has sent some 35,000 orders to customers from over 20 residential communities in Beijing using autonomous delivery vehicles.

Monday’s announcement comes just a week after Meituan and Tsinghua University set up a joint research center which will focus on the development of technologies including autonomous driving, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.

Domestic e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com also harbor ambitions for autonomous logistics services. In September 2020, Alibaba unveiled an autonomous logistics robot, named Xiaomanlv, which it said is able to plan delivery routes, identify obstacles and predict pedestrians’ intended movements. In 2018, JD.com launched its first-generation logistics drone, codenamed the JDY-800, which can carry up to 840 kilograms of cargo.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Beijing to Test Self-Driving Delivery Vehicles

Baidu has declared its autonomous driving ambitions at one of the auto industry’s biggest marketing events.

On the opening day of the Shanghai Auto Show on Monday, the search giant said it is aiming to have its Apollo autonomous driving system pre-installed in 1 million vehicles in the next three to five years, a target that came three months after it unveiled plans to set up a joint venture with domestic carmaker Geely to make intelligent electric vehicles powered by its self-driving technologies.

Baidu established its open-source Apollo platform in 2017 with the goal of providing third-party partners access to the necessary technologies needed for the R&D of driverless vehicles including high-definition mapping, obstacle perception and cloud simulation.

At the Shanghai Auto Show Baidu also highlighted two smart driving technologies developed out of the Apollo platform: The Apollo Navigation Pilot (ANP) system, which the company said is more cost-efficient and suitable for mass production when compared with laser-based sensing system. And the Apollo Valet Parking (AVP) system, which it said has been installed in some mass-produced vehicle models including the Weltmeister W6.

With the search engine giant’s revenue derived from online advertising showing signs of stagnation in recent years, Baidu has considered its self-driving business a major potential growth driver. The company has already started exploring commercializing its autonomous vehicle services with two permits allowing it to test the charging of fees for its robobus and robotaxi pilot programs launched in Chongqing and Cangzhou respectively.

During the auto show, other exhibitors also displayed breakthroughs made in autonomous driving. Chinese automaker GAC said that it plans to roll out its first vehicle model with autonomous driving functions developed with Huawei after 2024.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: First Car Equipped With Huawei Self-Driving System Goes on Sale

Didi Chuxing said on Monday that it has signed an agreement with Swedish carmaker Volvo to use the latter company’s XC90 SUVs for its autonomous vehicle tests, a move that the Chinese ride-hailing giant said could bring it a step closer to offering truly driver-free robotaxi services.

Volvo, which is owned by Chinese automaker Geely, will provide XC90 vehicles equipped with backup steering and braking systems, which will be incorporated into Didi Gemini, Didi’s new self-driving hardware platform, Didi said in a statement.

Based on data collected from its ride-hailing services and real-world road tests and boasting a computing power of 700 trillion operations per second, the Didi Gemini platform features a sensing system made up of lidars, radars, cameras and thermal imagers, as well as a fallback system capable of reacting to system failures, according to the company.

The deal will also see the two companies jointly develop more hardware and software needed to build fully autonomous vehicles, according to the statement.

Volvo plans to initially provide Didi with hundreds of vehicles with the aim of adding more as the autonomous driving test fleet expands, Reuters reported on Monday, citing Alexander Petrofski, head of strategy at Volvo.

The partnership between Didi and Volvo dates back to the summer of last year, when Didi launched its first robotaxi pilot program in Shanghai using Volvo XC60 vehicles, in its first major step toward its goal of operating more than 1 million autonomous vehicles by 2030. The Shanghai service requires human backup drivers to sit in the cars and take control in case of emergency.

On Friday, a similar agreement was inked, under which Japanese carmaker Honda will provide Chinese autonomous vehicle startup AutoX with its Accord and Inspire vehicles for use in road tests in China.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Didi Given Greenlight to Test Autonomous Vehicles in Beijing Pilot Zone

Smartphone sellers in China had something to cheer about in March as domestic demand that had previously been restrained due to Covid-19 pandemic has continued to grow.

Last month, China’s smartphone shipments totaled 35.3 million units, representing a year-on-year increase of 67.7%, according to a report released last week by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The shipment surge came as the number of new smartphone models released in the month rose 26.9% year-on-year to 33, the report said.

Overall, a total of 36.1 million mobile phones were shipped in China last month, about 76.2% of which were 5G-enabled handsets, the CAICT said, without breaking out phone sales by operating systems.

While smartphone shipments grew in March, the future of the market remains uncertain amid an ongoing global chip shortage that has affected a wide range of industries from automotives to consumer electronics.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Smartphone Pioneer LG to Close Handset Business

Honda is increasing its efforts in exploring self-driving technology capable of dealing with China’s road conditions through a partnership with Chinese autonomous vehicle startup AutoX. The Chinese company is seen as a market leader in this field and is currently operating a robotaxi pilot program that does not need backup drivers in Shenzhen.

The Japanese automaker will provide its Accord and Inspire vehicles that will be equipped with Alibaba-backed AutoX’s autonomous vehicle technology for use of road tests on China’s public roads, AutoX said in a statement emailed to Caixin on Friday.

Honda aims to use the road tests to deepen its understanding of China’s traffic environment, establish the public acceptance for autonomous vehicles as the company seeks new autonomous driving technology solutions, the statement said.

In 2015, Honda started installing Honda Sensing, its intelligent suite of safety and driver assistance technologies designed to alert drivers dangers they might miss while driving, in a wide range of its products sold in China. In March this year, the company launched a revamped Legend sedan powered by Level 3 autonomous driving technology in Japan, which the country’s transport ministry touted as the world’s first car to hit the market that allows drivers to engage in certain activities even when the car is in certain circumstances such as driving through congested traffic on expressways.

The tie-up between Honda and AutoX marks the latest example of a conventional carmaker and a tech company pairing up to delve into smart vehicles.

In January, AutoX, which received permission to test a highly autonomous vehicle without a driver behind the wheel in California last July, opened its robotaxi pilot program to the general public in Shenzhen, where it is headquartered. The move allows users to hail autonomous taxis that do not have safety drivers. The company is also trialing its robotaxi services in Shanghai and Wuhan. The trials require backup drivers to sit in the cars and take control in case of an emergency.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: WeRide Joins Caravan of Chinese Firms Allowed to Road Test Driverless Cars in California

Hong Kong’s richest tycoon Li Ka-shing has received his first dose of the BioNTech SE vaccine for Covid-19, as the city ramps up efforts to get more people vaccinated.

The 92-year-old billionaire got the shot on Friday at Hong Kong’s Sanatorium & Hospital, according to a representative for his charity, the Li Ka Shing Foundation. In a post on Facebook, Li asked others to do the same: “I have taken the vaccine shot today. What about you?”

Hong Kong’s Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip thanked Li for taking action to support vaccinations in a separate Facebook post. Nip urged Hong Kong people to get vaccinated as soon as possible to “restart economy and resume traveling.”

The government on Thursday expanded eligibility for Covid-19 vaccines to all residents aged 16 and older, in its latest attempt to boost the financial hub’s inoculation rate by making the shots more widely accessible.

Li founded CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd., one of Hong Kong’s largest conglomerates, with businesses spanning ports, retail, telecommunications and infrastructure. The group last month posted its first annual profit decline since 2015 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

China bought more semiconductor manufacturing equipment than any other single country or region in 2020, as Beijing pursues self-sufficiency in chip production amid mounting tech tensions with Washington.

With sales of $18.72 billion, the Chinese mainland claimed the title as the world’s largest market for semiconductor manufacturing equipment for the first time last year, growing by 39% year-on-year, according to a report by SEMI, a U.S.-based industry association representing companies involved in electronics design and manufacturing supply chain. Semiconductor manufacturing equipment is mainly used for wafer processing, assembly, packaging and testing.

The previously largest market Taiwan took the second spot with a market size of $17.15 billion in terms of sales, basically flat from 2019. South Korea and Japan came in third and fourth with respective sales of $16.08 billion and $7.58 billion, according to the report.

China’s rise to become the world’s top buyer of chip-making equipment comes as domestic chipmakers are revving up their manufacturing capacities in the face of crippling U.S. policies that limit supplies of chips made with U.S. technology to certain Chinese tech giants including Huawei.

As part of efforts to spur the growth of its own semiconductor industry, China’s Finance Ministry in March announced a new policy that allows domestic chipmakers to import machinery and raw materials tax-free through 2030.

Overall, global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment rose 19% year-on-year in 2020 to a record high of $71.2 billion, according to the SEMI report.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Sanction-Hobbled SMIC to Keep Doing Business With Major Western Supplier

Polestar, a Swedish electric carmaker controlled by Volvo and its Chinese owner Geely, has raised $550 million in its first external funding.

The financing was led by Chongqing Chengxing Equity Investment Fund Partnership, Zibo Financial Holding and Zibo Hightech Industrial Investment, with proceeds to be used to accelerate Polestar’s product development and strengthen its R&D capabilities as it prepares to launch new car models in the coming years, the Swedish company said in a statement on Thursday.

The company also said that it is in talks with other investors over possible additional funding.

Established in October 2017, Polestar has launched a plug-in hybrid and an all-electric car, named Polestar 1 and Polestar 2 respectively. Production of the Polestar 2 started at Geely’s plant in Luqiao, China in March last year. It also has a new model in development called the Polestar Precept, with interiors to be made from recycled plastic bottles, cork vinyl and reclaimed fishing nets.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Geely Targets Big Tech With Its New Electric-Car Unit

Xpeng is looking to lessen its dependence on foreign-made chips for its self-driving technology. The aim is to achieve better integration between its hardware and software.

The Chinese electric vehicle startup is “looking at all possible options” to keep its advantage in the fiercely competitive market by exploring in-house chipsets for autonomous driving, Wu Xinzhou, Xpeng’s vice president in charge of autonomous driving, told CNBC on Wednesday.

“So far we are doing very well in software,” Wu said, without providing further details.

The remarks came after domestic media reports revealed that Xpeng had set up a small team to develop semiconductors against the backdrop of an ongoing global chip shortage. The shortage has disrupted production for some automakers including Xpeng’s domestic rival Nio.

Also on Wednesday, Xpeng unveiled the P5, its third car model, which uses chips from Nvidia and Qualcomm for autonomous driving and smart cockpit respectively.

Xpeng is betting big on its own car technologies to stand out among electric carmakers, and this push carries more significance as Baidu and Xiaomi, which harbor ambitions for self-developed artificial intelligence chips, have entered the car manufacturing business.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Xpeng Debuts New Car As China’s NEV Market Heats Up

What’s trending?

#山寨叶圣陶杯比赛为何能连办31届#

#How-fake-Ye-Shengtao-Cup-was-held-31-times

Parents and teenagers in Beijing have become victims of a phony literary prize that preys on a need to boost kids’ college applications with extra-curricular activities. Parents recently discovered that the Beijing division of the “Ye Shengtao Cup” was not affiliated with the prestigious national competition, but was organized by a local company.

This came as a particular disappointment as parents had been forking out cash to ensure their kids would win a prize, with the ersatz competition charging 15,000 yuan ($2,300) for first prize and 12,000 yuan for second prize

What’s the story?

Students who were introduced to the fake Ye Shengtao Cup by several training schools were made to believe they were participating in a national middle school composition competition authorized by the Ministry of Education.

An investigation by state broadcaster CCTV found that the parents of participants had been given the chance to pay for prizes or better scores by the training schools in which their children were enrolled or registered.

However, the after-school centers were working not with the national competition, but with Beijing Shengtao Wenrun Education and Culture Co. Ltd. The award-giver appears to have been in cahoots with the training schools since 2016. The investigation found that other training schools were also in the business of guaranteeing awards for cash (保奖), suggesting that demand for resume-enhancing prizes was strong.

The organizers of the official prize, currently in its 18th annual edition, have published a statement on their website saying that “the Ye Shengtao Cup has no participation fee, nor does it conduct paid training classes or marketing activities.”

Chinese intellectual Ye Shengtao, after whom the prize was named, founded the Association for Literary Studies in 1921, later serving as a vice minister of culture.

What are people saying online?

Corroborating the notion that demand remains high for manufactured awards, one popular comment read, “It’s not just literature. English and other subjects also have these competitions, and they are all over the country too.”

Although the con of the “money prize” was called out, there was also general ridicule of the investigation on Weibo. Many people joked that they had received the prize, dragging their parents and themselves into socially mediated disrepute. “I suddenly realized that in middle school I took part in the official cup and was given national first prize.” Another wrote, “I took part, and I think my whole class got an award.”

Seeking sympathy, a former student used their prize-winning writing skills to reveal that, “The only prize I received in middle school was third prize in the Ye Shengtao Cup, and now they say it’s fake.”

Related: China Tightens Supervision of After-School Tutoring Sector 

ByteDance’s gaming subsidiary Nuverse has acquired Beijing-based mobile game developer C4games for an undisclosed amount, the latest move in its push into the competitive video game sector, a ByteDance representative confirmed on Wednesday.

The acquisition comes three weeks after Nuverse bought Moonton, a Shanghai-based mobile game firm which has made a hit in Southeast Asia with its multiplayer online battel arena (MOBA) title Mobile Legends. At the time, ByteDance said that the Moonton deal would help it expand its gaming strategy in global markets.

10-year-old C4games takes pride in its role-playing game Fangzhi Shaonü and simulation game Red Alert Online. Fangzhi Shaonü, which was released in 2017 in Japan, generated the 11th largest overseas revenue of any Chinese mobile game in 2020, according to research firm SensorTower. Red Alert Online, which was released in 2018, had some 20 million registered players by the end of March last year, and once set a record monthly revenue of 200 million yuan ($31 million), according to C4games’ website.

The acquisition of C4games comes at a time when the Chinese government is tightening its crackdown on monopolistic practices by the country’s tech, internet and fintech giants. On Wednesday, ByteDance joined with a group of Chinese tech giants to pledge compliance with the antitrust law, a day after regulators told them to learn a lesson from the case of Alibaba, which last week was fined a record $2.8 billion for behaving like a monopoly.

Nuverse was established in 2019, when ByteDance started testing the waters in the gaming space with the release of a mini game on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. In February, Nuverse launched its official website with the introduction of the first batch of its gaming titles including Strike Royale, Arena of Evolution: Red Tides, Blades of the Guardians and Terminal Battleground.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: ByteDance Snaps Up Mobile Legends Publisher as Gaming Tussle With Tencent Intensifies

Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has become one of the first companies to receive permission to test autonomous vehicles in a pilot zone, which Beijing is planning to build for the development of intelligent connected cars. The new deal is the latest in a growing number of agreements Didi has signed with local governments in an aggressive self-driving push.

The permit will allow Didi to conduct road tests day and night even under bad weather conditions, the company said in a WeChat post on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the Beijing municipal government approved a blueprint aimed at building a pilot zone in southern Beijing which will contain six test roads totaling 143 kilometers in length, according to Xinhua News Agency. The pilot zone will also serve as a testing ground for qualified companies to test out commercialization of their autonomous vehicle services for uses of passenger transportation and logistics. As of now, the Chinese capital has built some 200 self-driving test roads totaling about 700 kilometers in length.

Besides Beijing, Didi said that it has gained the green light to test autonomous vehicles in Shanghai and California, and employs more than 500 workers to delve into the technology.

In March, Didi signed a deal with Guangzhou’s Huadu district government to conduct testing of fully autonomous vehicles in the district, ten months after it launched a robotaxi pilot program in Shanghai.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: WeRide Joins Caravan of Chinese Firms Allowed to Road Test Driverless Cars in California

Chinese electric vehicle startup Xpeng on Wednesday unveiled the P5, its third car model, which it says is powered by new intelligent driving technologies. The expansion of its product portfolio is viewed as an attempt to capitalize on the country’s red-hot new energy vehicle market.

Xpeng touts the P5, whose specifications and prices will be announced at the Shanghai Auto Show next week, as one of the world’s first mass-produced electric cars equipped with lidar technology, according to a company statement. The lidar technology enables the P5 distinguish pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, static obstacles and road works even at night and under low-light conditions

Automotive lidar uses spinning lasers to scan obstacles around a vehicle as it moves. It bounces laser pulses off surrounding objects and measures the returning time of reflected light to calculate distances and shapes.

In addition, the P5 is powered by a new version of XPILOT, Xpeng’s so-called advanced driver assistance system similar to Tesla’s Autopilot and Nio’s Nio Pilot. The XPILOT 3.5 features a sensing system made up of two lidar sensors, 12 ultrasonic sensors, five millimeter-wave radars and 13 high-resolution cameras, and a function named Navigation Guided Pilot (NGP) assisting drivers to perform tasks on city roads like lane changing and car overtaking, the statement said.

The P5’s launch comes as big tech firms like Baidu and Xiaomi have set foot in the highly competitive new energy vehicle industry with massive investment plans in anticipation of the bright future of the market.

In the first quarter of 2021, new energy vehicle sales in China totaled 515,000 units, about 2.8 times higher than the same period of last year, as a growing number of individual consumers were interested in green cars, a departure from the past when such sales went primarily to ride-hailing and car rental companies in the country, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

In the three-month period, Xpeng said that it achieved record-breaking quarterly deliveries of 13,340 vehicles, beating its earlier forecast of 12,500 cars.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Cover Story: Tech Giants Bet on the Smart-Car Revolution

China’s Lenovo maintained its position as the world’s largest personal computer (PC) vendor in the first quarter of 2021 with a market share of 25.1%, as the company tightened its grip on its supply chains amid a global chip shortage, according to research firm Gartner.

In the first three months of the year, Lenovo shipped 17.5 million PCs, including desktops, laptops and ultramobile premiums, representing a year-on-year increase of 42.3%, the highest among the world’s top six sellers, according to Gartner.

The research firm also said that Lenovo grew faster than average in all key regions, with particularly strong year-on-year growth of 63.7% in the Asia Pacific region, as the company appeared to keep their supply chains under control with a higher percentage of its PCs being made in-house compared with other vendors.

HP, Dell, Apple, Acer and ASUS came in second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth with respective global market shares of 21.4%, 16.5%, 8%, 5.7% and 5.4%.

Overall, global PC shipments rose 32% year-on-year in the quarter to 69.9 million units, the highest growth rate Gartner has tracked since 2000.

“This growth should be viewed in the context of two unique factors: comparisons against a pandemic-constrained market and the current global semiconductor shortage,” said the firm’s research director Mikako Kitagawa.

“Without the shipment chaos in early 2020, this quarter’s growth may have been lower. However, semiconductor shortages are now adversely affecting the supply chain once again, with shipment lead times for some PCs extending to as long as four months.”

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Taiwan’s Acer says component shortage squeezes PC makers

Tesla Inc. has pledged to store any data it collects in China in the country, a month after its cars were banned from military complexes and housing compounds because of concerns about sensitive information being collected by cameras built into the vehicles.

“Tesla China is a company that’s based here and must abide by all Chinese laws and regulations,” Grace Tao, the electric carmaker’s China head of communications and government affairs, said on the sidelines of a meeting that the country’s top planning body held with U.S. companies in Beijing on Tuesday. “In fact, our data will be very well protected. Chinese data will be stored in China.”

China is an increasingly important market for Palo Alto, California-based Tesla and its estimate-smashing deliveries of EVs in the first quarter suggest boss Elon Musk’s bet on growth in Asia’s biggest economy is starting to pay off.

But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. After its EVs were banned from military complexes in March, Musk strenuously denied the company would ever use a vehicle’s technology for spying; earlier this month, Tesla’s Beijing unit said cameras that are built into its EVs aren’t activated outside of North America.

Tesla will always “cooperate with regulatory authorities at all levels so that consumers can enjoy convenience and safety at the same time,” Tao said.

The National Development and Reform Commission held a roundtable meeting on Tuesday and invited senior executives of companies including Qualcomm Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. to attend. The NDRC’s meeting was to explain the policies in the nation’s 14th five-year plan.

StoneWise, a Chinese medtech startup which uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to develop medicines, has completed its series B and series B+ funding rounds raising $100 million combined. The funding rounds come as the Covid-19 pandemic serves to highlight the role of AI and other cutting-edge technologies in diagnosing and treating diseases.

The series B round was led by Legend Capital, while the series B+ round was co-led by Greater Bay Area Homeland Development Fund and Lightspeed China. Other investors that joined the two rounds include Eastern Bell Capital, GL Ventures and Long Hill Capital, StoneWise said in a WeChat post on Monday.

Beijing-based StoneWise said it will use the proceeds from the two rounds to bankroll its global talent recruitment and widen the use of its AI technology in drug development.

Founded in 2018, StoneWise provides small molecule drug researchers with a smart drug development platform which is powered by technologies including AI algorithms, computational chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry and computational biology, and enables the medicine development process to be more time-efficient and cost-effective, according to its website.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: China’s Covid Vaccine Drive Derails Routine Inoculations, Experts Say

Self-driving truck technology developer Plus, which focuses on markets in China, U.S. and Europe, will provide Italian transport vehicle maker IVECO with its automated driving system, expanding the use of its technology in the logistics sector.

The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding , under which Plus will incorporate its PlusDrive autonomous driving system into IVECO’s latest-generation S-WAY heavy-duty trucks, which will be deployed across China, Europe and other regions, Plus said in a statement on Monday.

The duo will also explore using IVECO’s liquefied natural gas engine system to power the jointly developed autonomous trucks in order to reduce carbon emissions, according to the statement.

“IVECO’s global footprint in over 160 countries will enable us to accelerate our commercial deployment and magnify the impact of our autonomous driving technology,” said Shawn Kerrigan, COO and co-founder of Plus, which is headquartered in Silicon Valley.

Last month, five-year-old Plus said that its PlusDrive system has been selected to power a fleet of trucks which are being deployed in an autonomous freight program piloted by Chinese package delivery service provider SF Express in China.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Self-Driving Truck Firm Plus Announces Participation in Autonomous Freight Program in China

What’s trending?

#农民砍伐700棵自种杨树获刑2年#

On April 6, a farmer in Shandong’s Zaozhuang township was given a two year suspended jail sentence for chopping down 700 trees he had planted. By April 12, the related hashtag had been viewed 73 million times, and commented on by two thousand readers.

What’s the story?

In May 2020, the farmer surnamed Li chopped down 700 poplars trees he had planted on land he farmed despite not having a logging license. The authorities determined that without prior authorization, the tree felling operation was illegal, prosecuting him for illegal deforestation. Li has been sentenced to 2 years in jail, suspended for two years, and fined 10,000 yuan. Four fellow defendants were given suspended terms of between 6 months and a year.

China has a tree felling quota system which was initiated in the 1960s and progressively tightened since the 1980s, in which commercial and non-commercial forests are treated separately according to the law. Overlogging has become a massive problem and has led to desertification in certain parts of the country along with more sandstorms of greater intensity frequently reaching urban areas.

As China targets net-zero carbon emissions by 2060, tree planting has gained added significance as one way of achieving this.

What are people saying online?

Many people on social media felt the punishment was too extreme, with one person posting, “A fine of ten thousand? If you had that much, you wouldn’t plant trees. Families without money are just getting poorer like this.” And wondered what the fine was for exactly, “When he planted the trees no one cared. Was he fined for felling the trees or because he felled too many?”

Others thought the story was part of a far larger issue in China with regards to the price of agricultural land versus non-agricultural land saying the punishment was justified because all the farmer needed to have done was follow the rules. “There’s no reason trees can’t be planted. Once the contracted period is over, farmers can apply for a license and cut down whatever is approved. But if you can fell what you want, then the price of a mountain [non-agricultural land] would not be so cheap, and cost as much as a house or farmland.”

One commenter felt ignorance had a part to play in the affair. “Alas, many older people don’t know the law, thinking they can plant trees if they live here and the worst thing that might happen is their timber is confiscated.” Touching on the same issue, another reader said, “If he knew, I’m sure he wouldn’t have gone to all the effort.”

One reader put the responsibility firmly with the authorities. “The prerequisite for requiring citizens to know the law and abide by the law is for the state to do a good job of popularizing the law.”

Related: Opinion: How Can China Cut its Emissions from 10 Billion Tons to Zero?

Baidu has taken a step closer to becoming China’s first company to earn money from its self-driving technology.

The Chinese search engine giant said on Monday that it has obtained a license to launch a commercial autonomous bus pilot program in the western Chinese city of Chongqing in a renewed effort to explore monetization mechanisms for such services.

The company’s autonomous buses will be deployed on a 10-kilometer route that includes several pick-up and drop-off sites in Chongqing’s Yongchuan district, with passengers being able to book their rides through the Apollo Go app and the Baidu Map app.

Baidu is not the only Chinese company to trial autonomous bus services in China. In January, Nissan-backed WeRide deployed a fleet of robobuses in a government-backed biotech industrial complex in Guangzhou, which the company said is powered by Level 4 autonomous driving technology.

The Chongqing push is Baidu’s second major attempt to accelerate the commercialization of its autonomous vehicle services. In March, the Beijing-based company received a license that allowed it to charge fees via discounts and coupons for its robotaxi service in the northern Chinese city of Cangzhou.

On Monday, Baidu also said that it had signed a deal with the Yongchuan district government to jointly launch a smart transportation pilot project which will be supported by its self-driving, big data and artificial intelligence technologies. The company did not provide further details on the project.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

Related: Huawei to Invest $1 Billion on Car Tech It Says Surpasses Tesla