#Taiwan #DPP #ChenChiMai

DPP's Representative Chen Chi-mai Elected as Taiwan's Kaohsiung Mayor

Chen Chi-mai, spokesperson of Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, won the mayoral by-election in Kaosiung, Taiwan on August 15 by a wide margin.

The former mayor Han Kuo-yu of the Kuomintang (KMT), the opposition camp in Taiwan, was ousted after receiving heavy criticism of his Beijing-friendly stance and following a recall vote in June, 2020.

According to the Kaohsiung City Election Commission, Chen received over 70 percent of the votes, while the KMT candidate Jane Lee marked the lowest number of votes the opposition party has obtained in Kaohsiung since 2014. Chen promised to focus on industrial transformation, job creation, the reduction of air pollution and building transport infrastructure in the city.

Source: RTHK; Taipei Times Aug15
Photo: Chen Chi-mai's Facebook #Aug15
#HanKuoYu #KMT

Trump Signed Executive Order Forcing TikTok to be sold in 90 days

US President Donald Trump signed a new executive order requesting TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell or to withdraw its U.S. business within 90 days.

Trump signed the executive order on the 14th and said that there was credible evidence showing ByteDance may take actions to imperil the national security of the U.S. The order required ByteDance to destroy all TikTok data attached to U.S. users after selling its U.S. business in 90 days, then to inform the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (#CFIUS) when it had destroyed all that data.

ByteDance did not respond to this order directly but stated that 100 million Americans loved TikTok because they can get opportunities for entertainment, self-expression, as well as social connections, and would continue to bring joy to the users.

#DonaldTrump #Trump #TikTok #ByteDance #US

Source: Stand News #Aug15

#FakeIdentity #WaterArmy #5Cents #ChineseNetizens
Chinese netizens go after Trump with AI-generated fake accounts

In recent months, a network of fake Chinese accounts with artificially generated followers has been criticizing US President Donald Trump on various social media channels, US media reported.

According to a research report by Graphika, a company cited by the Washington Post and other US media, these AI generated fake accounts have been bashing the Trump administration on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube since June. At first glance, it doesn't look like there's anything strange about those account profile pictures, but after careful observations, Graphika discovered that they seem to be produced by an AI program that creates fake faces. Pro-China groups then use these synthetic images to create accounts to share and post comments to attract more views.

Graphika says the common features of the account avatars are the blurred background and the position of the eyeballs in the photo. These strange photos are most likely the work of the Generative Adversarial Network (#GAN), a machine learning technology that specializes in creating seemingly real but fake faces. By studying real people and learning how to recreate facial features, GAN generates synthetic faces. The results aren't always perfect, and AI programs often have trouble showing accessories and other objects around facial features. The backgrounds are often left blurred as well.

Source: Stand News #Aug15
#Trump #China #AI #USElection #SocialMedia #FakeAccounts #GenerativeAdversarialNetwork

Not Binding to a Bank Account, China will Push Digital Currency in the Greater Bay Area, Aim to Replace Notes and Coins.

In July, Lithuania, an Eastern European country, was the first in the world having a digital currency issued by Central Bank. Now China's Ministry of Commerce is preparing to launch a test on digital Renminbi. It announced the proposal of "Overall Plan for Comprehensively Deepening the Innovative Development of Trade in Services" yesterday, which stated several eligible regions across the country to become digital RMB test sites.

These test sites include the Jing-Jin-Ji region, Yangtze River Delta region, Midwest China, and the Greater Bay Area (Pearl River Delta). The People's Bank of China (PBoC) will formulate policies to support the development of the digital currency, then will promote in Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou and the Xiongan New Area, as well as in the winter Olympic venues, before expanding to other regions, based on the results in these pilot areas. The PBoC has collaborated with multiple internet companies, such as DiDi and Meituan Dianping, to study the application of digital currency.

Fan Yifei, Vice Governor of the PBoC, said that China's digital Renminbi was the effort to replace banknotes and coins, and to maintain the attributes and key features of banknotes while satisfying the need for portability and anonymity. Unlike WeChat and Alipay, which are popular in China, digital RMB does not require any bank account or bank card to be tied for payment.

At the video conference held by the PBoC on August 3, it mentioned that the testing of the digital currency had started smoothly, and would actively promote its research and development (R&D) in the second half of this year. Although the digital RMB was being tested on a pilot basis, the Governor of the PBoC, Yi Gang, stressed that this was just part of the R&D process. It does not mean that China officially launch the digital RMB, nor there is a timetable for its launch. He believed that the research, development and application of legal tender could meet the public's demand for legal tender in the digital economy and enhance the convenience, security and anti-counterfeit standard of retail payments.

#Renminbi #DigitalCurrency #PBoC

Source: Unwire #Aug15

https://unwire.hk/2020/08/15/digital-rmb-trial-confirmed/life-tech/