Tech Highlights: China Crypto Ban, Huawei’s New Language, Kafka 3.0

China Declares All Crypto Trading Illegal

China’s central bank reiterated its stance, issuing a memo that bans cryptocurrency trading and declares overseas exchanges serving Chinese users illegal. It labeled virtual‑currency‑related business as illegal financial activity, naming Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether as having no legal status. Industry associations were ordered not to engage in crypto transactions. The announcement caused Bitcoin to drop 4% and Ethereum over 7%.

China’s Digital Economy Reaches 39.2 Trillion Yuan

The 2021 World Internet Development Report released at the Wuzhen Summit reported that in 2020 China’s digital economy hit 39.2 trillion yuan, accounting for 38.6% of GDP and growing at 9.7% annually, becoming a key driver of stable economic growth.

Fields Medalist Laurent Lafforgue Joins Huawei

French mathematician Laurent Lafforgue, a Fields Medal winner, will join Huawei to conduct mathematical research. He has previously collaborated with Huawei on topology and algebraic geometry lectures.

360 Founder Zhou Hongyi Calls for Tech‑Driven National Service

At the 2021 World Internet Conference, Zhou Hongyi urged internet companies to avoid monopolistic behavior and instead use technology to solve national “bottleneck” problems.

Alibaba’s Zhang Yong Plans to Train 200,000 Digital Talent in Underserved Regions

Zhang Yong announced a “technology‑inclusive talent training program” targeting vocational students in counties, aiming to cultivate over 200,000 digital professionals and deploy “rural‑revival tech officers” to support local development.

Huawei to Launch Its Own Programming Language “Cangjie” Next Year

Huawei disclosed that its upcoming language will bridge HarmonyOS and OpenEuler ecosystems, sharing kernel technology and expanding across security OS, device drivers, and a distributed software bus.

Apache Kafka 3.0 Released

Apache Kafka 3.0 was officially released, introducing major features such as the KRaft consensus mechanism replacing ZooKeeper, stronger default producer guarantees (acks=all, idempotence enabled), and enhancements to Kafka Connect, KStreams, and MirrorMaker 2.