After tariffs on the United States rise to 40%, will Lincoln really be wiped out?

leadWord | It’s still increasing the price, so it’s destroyed?

To be honest, among all luxury brands, the service attitude of the center is the most commendable, and the training is even better than that of the center.

This "hindsight" American luxury brand has had a somewhat anticlimactic market performance since its high-profile entry into China in 2014. In 2017, it handed over the best answer in China: 54,000 wholesale vehicles.

But this should be ashamed in front of you, and it is even more incomparable. According to statistics, the cumulative wholesale of vehicles in China in the first half of 2018 was 25,000, and considering the tariff issue in the second half of the year, the whole 2018 may not be expected to exceed last year’s level.

Recently, Che Jujun visited a center to understand the end point sales of the brand and share it with readers.

First, it is not affected for the time being

In May, China’s tariffs were lowered to 15%, and all import brands cheered. But less than two months later, due to the impact of the trade war on July 6, 25% tariffs were imposed on products originating in the United States, raising the US tariff to 40%.

The X5, X6, GLE, GLS and other models are non-American brands, but due to their origin in the United States, they have also been affected by tariffs, and their prices have been raised by varying degrees.

As an all-import American brand, it naturally bore the brunt and was labeled "annihilated" by the media. Indeed, it is currently an all-import, but not an all-American import.

Of the models on sale, the MKZ is native to Mexico, and the MKX is native to Canada, which is not affected by the trade war for the time being. The MKC,,, and three models are all produced in the United States. Among them, the MKC and the MKC are produced at the Lucieville plant in Kentucky, while they are produced at the plant in Michigan.

Therefore, at least the two main models, MKZ and MKX, will not be affected by the tariff increase for the time being. And it is a niche model, and its price adjustment has little impact on overall sales.

According to the sales introduction, the stock of new cars declared by their stores before July 6 is sufficient, which will not affect the sales in July and August. But starting from September, the impact of tariffs will be highlighted. But the specific impact will be adjusted according to the manufacturer’s pricing strategy.

Che Jujun visited the store this time, and still saw consumers coming to inquire. Currently ordering all models, the price is the same as usual.

Will Lincoln’s price increase?

According to the sales statistics of different models in the first half of the year, the highest number of wholesale vehicles sold in a single month was the MKC, with a total of 7,503 units from January to June, making it the best-selling model in the brand.

The MKC, and MKC, made in the United States, accounted for about 57% of all sales in the first half of the year. If the price of these three cars rises, it will still be a big blow to sales.

This may not be the case. At present, all models, in addition, have purchase tax subsidies ranging from 2 to 40,000. In fact, it is a discount. When I entered China, I sold cars strictly according to the official guide price.

For example, the 2.0T version of the subsidy 33,000 or so. The lowest two-wheel drive exclusive version guide price 418,800 (the price after the tax reduction), after the subsidy is about 355,800; while the MKZ starting price 261,800, the subsidy 20,000 or so, so that the price fell to 230,000.

This year’s sales volume is precisely achieved by making profits. The question is, will prices increase in the future in response to the 40% tariff? When brands such as,,, and others raise prices, they still stay put.

Che Jujun believes that the next price increase is very unlikely.

First, because they are sold at the guide price, the so-called preferential treatment is interpreted as "subsidy"; after the tariff increases, the additional costs may be borne by the buyer to maintain the current transaction price; at most, the subsidy is only reduced;

Second, because of the dismal sales this year, the current price reduction sales are barely maintained, let alone the price increase.

III. It will not be annihilated.

There is still a chance to turn around. From the end of 2019 to 2022, there will be domestic, MKC, MKZ, and one model one after another. In the new car planning, pure electric and plug-in models are also undertaken.

With product expansion and localization, the "Chinese Dream" is close at hand. After all, in the Chinese market, the American department is relatively absent, and there is only one facade. Che Jujun also hopes to have a second choice when choosing the American department.

If the price is self-aware after domestic production, it is expected to become the second. After all, in terms of luxury, Che Jujun thinks it is still better.

But turning over still depends on the product. Now it can’t be sold, and it’s not all the fault of branding impression, mainly because the product is not good. Che Jujun tested the 500,000 MKX, but there is no automatic start and stop function. And sales are selling the combination lock configuration over and over again.

It can be said that the overall lag in technology has seriously limited the play. Today, spend 500,000 buy one, with the case of yes, except that is.

And some technical inputs are full of selling points, and now they have begun to promote Super Cruise assisted driving; from the book data, it is also much higher, making it difficult for Chinese consumers who pay attention to comparison parameters.

A good example is that the same as the 300,000 class B car, there is no threat to it at all. The people who buy this car are generally young people, like luxury to buy BBA, like big rear drive, of course, choose, and ATS modification space is also large.

When consumers heard that MKZ was based on, they lost interest. But it doesn’t matter. After all, there are some craftsmanship and configuration, but these two cars are exactly the same. What do you want consumers to think?

At least MKZ and MKC are in the young market, how can the "way" be more competitive than the big + 8AT?

Car Gathering Summary

In the view of Che Jujun, the only successful model in China is the monthly sales of about 200 units. According to the sales introduction, this car is currently sold at a price increase of 15 to 200,000, usually selling 1 or 2 units a month, but it sold 8 units in July.

The reason is very simple, it is the most distinctive product and the only car of this kind in the luxury brand. 5355mm, bigger than GLS. People will only have the confidence to stand up to BBA when driving.

In fact, from the perspective of configuration, the current model is still cost-effective, but many functions are more "off-the-door", such as remote start, combination lock, induction rear trunk, etc.

BBA models in the same price range do not have such a rich configuration, because these brands have a premium price, and the product power is also concentrated on the powertrain, display screen and intelligent configuration.

The salesperson said: "When we get up, there will be a premium."

The winner of the Youth Science and Technology Outstanding Contribution Award, Da Shengwei: The opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games, Xiaoyi sports cameras can be seen everywhere

How do you know what’s going on at home when you go to work? Once the "Little Ant" smart camera was launched, it was a hit, selling 1 million units in less than a year. Another "Little Ant" sports camera, which is only a little larger than a matchbox, can shoot 170 degrees wide angle and can shoot 60-120 frames per second. It was listed on US Securities News and soon opened up overseas markets. "We are proud that many foreign athletes held our sports cameras in their hands at the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games," said Da Shengwei, founder of Little Ant Technology.

Although founded only five years ago, the internet company is already a global leader in imaging intelligent end point products, computer vision algorithms and other fields. It is the only Chinese company to win Amazon’s "all-round seller". At the Shanghai Science and Technology Awards Conference held last week, Da Shengwei won the Outstanding Contribution Award for Youth Science and Technology.

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Starting a business for the first time in Shanghai, I learned to define products according to the market


When he was a high school student in Henan, Da Shengwei participated in the National Mathematical Olympiad League and won the first place in the province. Hua Luogeng is the idol of Da Shengwei. Although he later majored in electronic engineering at Tsinghua University, he never lost his love for mathematics, and his solid mathematical foundation paved the way for him to make a career in the field of integrated circuits. When he was studying for a master’s and doctoral degree at the University of California, Davis, his mentor Steve Lewis was the originator of analog integrated circuits. This learning experience inspired his interest in integrated circuit design. After graduating from the doctoral qualification exam with full marks, in order to accumulate more experience, Da Shengwei worked for two excellent analog integrated circuit companies in Silicon Valley for another five years.

In 2006, Dasheng Wei, who had made up his mind to return to China to start a business in the future before going abroad, chose Shanghai and founded "Panda", which means laying a good foundation in the integrated circuit industry. The company sold its self-developed power management and audio processing chips to the consumer end point product industry, and survived the financial crisis in 2008. Later, it was acquired by a company. Dasheng Wei is grateful for his first venture in Shanghai – it honed his resistance to stress and leadership, strengthened his grasp of unknown and uncertain risks, and made him really learn to define products according to market needs.

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"Consumer products pay special attention to detail, small is big"


The second time I started my business, I was moved by a carton of Xiaomi’s mobile phone. This carton containing the mobile phone does not look as delicate as people are used to, and it is even a little simple and rough, but the most important components of the mobile phone are unreservedly "dried" with meticulous drawings on it, which is clear from the outer packaging. This is highly suitable for Xiaomi at that time to open up sales with high configuration and close to the cost. Da Shengwei was inspired to create a computer vision brand in the field of mobile Internet, and also pursued the ultimate configuration and affordable price.

In 2014, "Little Ant" was officially established. From "Pan Da" to "Little Ant", Da Shengwei believes that consumer products pay special attention to details, and small is big.

The field of computer vision is not a technical field that Da Shengwei is good at, but he is very optimistic about the prospects of this field. As the saying goes, a hundred things are better than a hundred things, and computer vision can make people more "far-sighted". "Xiaoyi" has built the world’s first video-based Internet of Things open API, which is widely used in new formats such as smart travel, smart home, smart retail, and smart parks. From the "Xiaoyi" smart camera that can see the movement at home after going out to work, to the "Xiaoyi" sports camera that captures precious moments while diving, skydiving, skiing, and surfing, the average age of this 300-strong company is 29 years old. Half of the foreign employees and 60% of the highly educated R & D personnel. Technological innovation and global vision are natural genes.

Just a year later, "Xiaoyi" established an Israeli research and development center, independently developing edge computing algorithms, with the smallest algorithm and the lowest power consumption, to achieve the most suitable functions in the end point device. So far, more than 100 overseas patents have been produced. This year, "Xiaoyi" also expanded overseas markets. They took an Uber car in San Francisco, USA, and chatted with partners about products along the way. When they arrived at the destination, the driver took out an "Xiaoyi" sports camera and asked, is this what you are talking about? It turned out that he bought it online and waited two months to get the goods. "At that time, we were very excited and felt that it was the right time. The overseas market exists." Today, "Xiaoyi"’s visual products have covered 17,942 cities in 168 countries around the world, and half of the market is overseas.

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From the slightest disturbance to the police, until the stranger shows up


In July this year, Xiaoyi Technology will settle in the artificial intelligence island of Zhangjiang Science City. "We have an ambition to combine artificial intelligence edge technology with cloud data to build a Cloud as a Service platform. In layman’s terms, to make more companies’Xiaoyi ‘, we will become’Cloud Ant’." Da Shengwei said that from the physical world to the digital world, the point of contact is the device of the Internet of Things. They hope to make the Internet of Things devices smarter by strengthening artificial intelligence computing. "Take the smart camera as an example. In the past, the alarm would be called when there was a slight disturbance, but now only strangers will be alerted when they appear. This is the optimization of edge computing. Edge computing is done locally, processed in real time, faster, and cheaper than cloud storage. "

After experiencing two very different startups in Shanghai, Da Shengwei’s greatest emotion is that he must maintain the habit of learning, not only learning about emerging technologies, but also learning from young people with endless creativity. At "Little Ant", Da Shengwei has always advocated an open, transparent and open corporate culture to encourage young people to be more creative.

Chongqing accelerates the construction of a world-class intelligent networked new energy automobile industry cluster.

  Holding a mobile phone is like playing a game. With just one button, an unmanned vehicle loaded with an intelligent "brain" can automatically find a parking space and automatically park in a nearby parking space.

  In the smart factory, automobile production has tended to be unmanned, only to see the mechanical arm waving back and forth, running at high speed, and automatic robots shuttling back and forth to transport materials.

  In the park, cleaning vehicles automatically run on the road, vending machines come and go at any time, and shuttle buses no longer need to be driven by people … …

  This kind of scene makes the reporters of the Chongqing interview group dazzled by the online theme of "Going into the region to see the development and a new chapter of Sichuan and Chongqing".

  The application of new energy vehicles is no longer limited to transportation. It can not only become our smart partner and provide us with thoughtful and caring services, but also become an intelligent mobile space and create new value for us. At present, the automobile industry is undergoing profound changes, and intelligent networked new energy vehicles have become the general trend. As an important automobile production base in China, Chongqing is accelerating the construction of a world-class intelligent networked new energy automobile industry cluster.

  Master the core technology

  "The new car in the future is no longer a simple means of transportation, but will gradually evolve into a ‘ with similar human wisdom and emotion; Intelligent automobile robot ’ 。” Han Sanchu, chief software architect of Changan Automobile, said in an interview with Chongqing interview group.

  This idea has taken shape in the Deep Blue SL03 independently developed by Changan Automobile and the Aouita 11/011 jointly built by Changan Automobile, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited and Huawei based on CHN platform. Among them, AVATRUST extrasensory system, which comes standard in Aouita 11, includes three laser radars, six millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars and 13 high-definition cameras, which are jointly defined and developed by Aouita and Huawei, with a total of 34 intelligent driving sensors, which makes it the leader among new energy vehicles.

  In January this year, the sales of Changan Deep Blue SL03 and Aouita 11 ushered in a "good start". The monthly sales of Changan Deep Blue reached 6,137 vehicles, ranking second in the domestic new energy vehicle delivery list only with a difference of 200 vehicles. Aouita Science and Technology announced on February 5th that its delivery has exceeded 2,000 units. At this time, it was only 38 days since its delivery.

Changan automobile staff demonstrated automatic parking technology. People's Daily Online Hu Hongshe

Changan automobile staff demonstrated automatic parking technology. People’s Daily Online Hu Hongshe

  The popularity of "Made in Chongqing" new energy vehicles is largely due to mastering the core technology.

  For example, Changan Automobile Global R&D Center located in Liangjiang New Area has seven functions such as design, test and management, 12 fields such as simulation analysis, noise and vibration, passive safety, 180 laboratories such as hybrid power, air conditioning system and nonmetallic materials, and a world-leading data center built by cloud technology, and is setting up a software development team of 2,000 people and a new energy R&D team of 2,500 people. This indicates that Changan Automobile has entered the R&D 4.0 era of "independent innovation and global collaboration".

  Starting the third venture since 2017 — — Since the innovation and entrepreneurship plan, Changan Automobile has achieved breakthroughs in two major areas: new energy and intelligence. Up to now, Changan Automobile has mastered more than 600 intelligent low-carbon core technologies; "Zero-fire" batteries and "seven-in-one" smart cores have all reached the leading level in the industry; The number of patent applications reached 4,745 in 2022 alone; The "National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Vehicle Safety Technology" jointly established with China Automobile Research Institute and Zhongke Xin was approved by the state, which is one of the only two national key laboratories in the automotive field.

The delegation visited Changan Automobile Global R&D Center. People's Daily Online Hu Hongshe

The delegation visited Changan Automobile Global R&D Center. People’s Daily Online Hu Hongshe

  In the past five years, Changan Automobile has invested a total of 57 billion yuan, and has built a global R&D layout of "six countries and ten places", and its R&D strength has been ranked in the forefront of China automobile industry for six consecutive years. At the same time, in recent years, Changan Automobile has seized a great opportunity to build a twin-city economic circle in Chengdu-Chongqing area, and intensified its supply chain layout in Sichuan and Chongqing. The supporting rate of enterprises in Sichuan and Chongqing is increasing year by year.

  "This year, Changan Automobile will successively launch heavy products such as Deep Blue S7, C236, Browser EV and Aouita E12. More than 10 new products have been planned. Strive to exceed 2.8 million units in production and sales to ensure that the scale growth is more than 10 percentage points higher than the industry. " Wang Xiaofei, vice president of Changan Automobile, said.

  Building a smart factory

  Sailisi Liangjiang Smart Factory is the production base of M5 and M7 in AITO. As a leading private automobile enterprise in Chongqing, Cyrus has taken the initiative to change since 2016, started to develop new energy vehicles, and upgraded its products by relying on technological innovation.

  Walking into the Sailisi Smart Factory in Liangjiang New District of Chongqing, the mechanical arm is telescopic and rotating, more than 1,000 robots cooperate in an orderly manner, and laser welding runs at high speed. Here, it takes only 5 seconds to punch a set of automobile parts.

  Among them, stamping is the first process of making a car. The stamping workshop here has advanced technologies and equipment such as dust prevention and noise reduction, automatic packing, AGV automatic transmission, one-button die change, etc. It takes only 5 seconds to punch a part in a fully enclosed high-speed synchronous mechanical stamping line. At the same time, the stamping workshop is equipped with the most advanced blue light detection system in the world at present, the detection efficiency is 3 -5 times that of the traditional three-coordinate detection in the automobile factory, and the detection accuracy is 0.05 mm, which is thinner than a hair, which is an accuracy that cannot be achieved by manual operation.

The machinery in Sailisi Liangjiang Smart Factory works in an orderly manner. People's Daily Online Hu Hongshe

The machinery in Sailisi Liangjiang Smart Factory works in an orderly manner. People’s Daily Online Hu Hongshe

  In the welding workshop, it is more like a kingdom of robots, with more than 300 robots waving their "arms" constantly. The seemingly rugged and powerful "arm" can actually "embroider". Thanks to the advanced laser remote flying welding technology, flying welding can realize rapid welding by increasing laser energy and adjusting assembly gap without touching parts. "The thinnest part can reach 0.08mm, and its automation rate can reach 100%." The staff of Sailis Smart Factory introduced.

  The production line of the workshop adopts the adaptive welding controller from Bosch, which can automatically monitor the change of solder joint material and environment, and automatically adjust the whole welding parameters to ensure that each solder joint can meet the quality requirements. It is worth mentioning that this technology is only used in high-end automobile manufacturing at present, but it can be found in the factory of Sailis.

  A large number of seven-axis spraying robot arms are used in the painting workshop, which is the first automobile production line in China using seven-axis robot arms. Compared with the six-axis manipulator, the seven-axis manipulator is more flexible, which is convenient for the end effector to reach a specific position. Even in the dead corner of the car body, the seven-axis manipulator can paint with ease.

  It was put into production in 2019, and the factory was built according to the standard of Industry 4.0. It has five process workshops: stamping, welding, painting, final assembly and battery PACK. At the same time, more than 1,000 robots work together to achieve a high degree of automation, and 100% automation is achieved in key processes, and online inspection is carried out 24 hours a day, which not only effectively reduces labor costs, but also makes manufacturing more accurate.

  In September 2022, Liangjiang New Area signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sailisi Group. According to the agreement, Celestial Wenjie New Energy Vehicle Upgrade Project will be located in Longxing Intelligent Networked New Energy Vehicle Industrial Park in Liangjiang New District, helping Chongqing to build a world-class intelligent networked new energy vehicle industrial cluster.

  The Sailisi new energy vehicle upgrade project is another intelligent production base driven by digitalization and intelligence, combined with new technologies such as big data and Internet of Things, and built by using digital twin technology. According to the plan, the project will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2023. After completion, the overall intelligent level will reach the international advanced and domestic leading level, and it will become another benchmark project for intelligent manufacturing of new energy vehicle enterprises in China.

  Investment continues to increase.

  As the "main battlefield" of Chongqing’s automobile industry, the automobile industry in Liangjiang New Area accounts for 70% of Chongqing. According to statistics, up to now, there are 64 high-end R&D platforms in Liangjiang New Area, including China Automobile Research Institute, German Mainland and France, with a total investment of 6.5 billion yuan in recent years, which has spawned a large number of new technologies and applications.

  In terms of intelligent networked vehicles, the district has gathered 6 enterprises producing intelligent networked vehicles and 18 enterprises related to other links in the industrial chain, which are mainly distributed in the fields of chips, millimeter-wave radars, operating systems, intelligent driving systems, unmanned solutions for specific scenes, positioning communication, central controller, intelligent cockpit, computing resources, vehicle-road coordination and intelligent transportation.

Changan Global R&D Center located in Liangjiang New District of Chongqing. Photo courtesy of Liangjiang New Area

Changan Global R&D Center located in Liangjiang New District of Chongqing. Photo courtesy of Liangjiang New Area

  In addition, Liangjiang New District is building a national-level pilot area for vehicle networking, and has built a 128-kilometer two-way demonstration road of Shiyu Expressway, a nearly 100-kilometer urban demonstration road (including intelligent networking test road), and built pilot demonstration areas such as Jialijia Smart Park and Liangjiang Collaborative Innovation Zone. Up to now, more than 500 sets of RSUs have been installed and more than 250 OBU vehicles have been installed.

  A single flower does not make a spring. While creating the leading effect of automobiles in Liangjiang New District, all districts and counties are also aiming at Chongqing to accelerate the goal of building a world-class intelligent networked new energy automobile industry cluster with a trillion-dollar level.

  On February 8th, jiangjin district Municipal People’s Government and Dongfeng Xiaokang Automobile Co., Ltd. formally signed a contract on the intelligent networked new energy vehicle project, with a total investment of 3.2 billion yuan, which was settled in Jiangjin District of Science City (Shuang Fu Industrial Park).

  In the field of intelligent networked new energy vehicles, Shapingba District has made great efforts to build a new track, with Cyrus as the leader, continuously attracting "left and right generals", speeding up the construction of high-end supporting projects such as Topp and Wencan, strengthening the chain, deepening the development model of "faucet+supporting+platform+key technology+scene", and promoting the deep integration of the industrial chain, value chain and "three chains" of intelligent networked new energy vehicles.

  The continuous overweight of car companies and the continuous efforts of various districts and counties have given Chongqing more confidence in building a world-class intelligent networked new energy automobile industry cluster.

  "The development of intelligent networked new energy automobile industry is not only the main direction to promote the high-quality development of the automobile industry in the future, but also the key task to improve the mobile travel of the automobile industry and the construction of its social ecosystem." Zhou Qing, deputy secretary-general of Chongqing Municipal Government, said that Chongqing has the ability and responsibility to build a world-class intelligent networked new energy automobile industry cluster.

  On August 19th, 2022, the Chongqing Municipal Government issued the Development Plan for Building a World-class Intelligent Networked New Energy Automobile Industry Cluster in Chongqing (2022-2030).

  According to the plan, by 2025, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in Chongqing Intelligent Networking will account for more than 10% of the national total. By 2030, Chongqing will build a world-class intelligent networked new energy automobile industry cluster, and the industrial scale will reach the world-class level; Build one or two world-class intelligent networked new energy automobile enterprises and brands, form a world-class intelligent networked new energy automobile industrial chain ecology, and build a world-class intelligent networked new energy automobile experience capital. The intelligent networked new energy automobile industrial chain, supply chain and innovation chain have strong international radiation capabilities.

  At present, Chongqing has formulated an action plan for intelligent networked new energy auto parts system, an action plan for innovative application of autonomous driving and car networking, an action plan for application of automotive software and artificial intelligence, and an action plan for infrastructure and services to ensure the implementation and completion of the "planning".

Global Right Watch | AI Fake News, Fixed-point Cyber Storm, Zombie Water Army: The Combination of Hindu Right Wing and High Technology

On January 22nd, The Wire, an Indian media, published a heavy and long investigation report, revealing that the ruling party of Indian Prime Minister Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Internet companies jointly developed and put into use an APP called "Tek Fog" to manipulate public opinion and crack down on political opponents by digital means.

Indian TV reported Tek Fog.

According to the report, in mid-2020, The Wire editorial department found a clue that a former employee of the IT department of the Bharatiya Janata Party broke the news that the Bharatiya Janata Party used this APP called Tek Fog to create momentum for right-wing politics and promote cyber violence. According to the report, through clues, the investigative reporter verified that this program called "Tek Fog" did exist. This mobile APP has many functions. Including the ability to automatically generate virtual phone numbers and email addresses, and then use the same terminal to register, log in and operate many social platform accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and generate a lot of similar information in a short time to achieve the effect of "washing the version" on social platforms.

The report mentioned that this APP has unified deployment and KPI indicators. Grass-roots operators will receive uniform labels at regular intervals-often the hottest political topic. Then they have to generate a copy related to the tag through the APP-support the Bharatiya Janata Party, or attack the opponents of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and then publish the copy, forward and share it on platforms such as Twitter, thus "hijacking" the hot search keywords of these platforms. For example, in the report, on May 4, 2020, the Bharatiya Janata Party launched a publicity campaign against the labor group, claiming that the largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress Party, was "anti-labor" and set a key word-"# Congress Party is anti-labor". This keyword was quickly forwarded by about 1,700 accounts and got more than 50,000 main tweets and retweets.

The survey report also found that the APP "Tek Fog" has a huge database of online users. Among them, the public figures on the Internet in India are divided into many categories-such as journalists, social media experts, religious leaders, movie stars, students … Different people are also labeled with different labels, such as gender, political orientation, religion, language and so on. According to the deployment, the operator can select groups with different labels to send public opinion messages on a large scale-for example, insulting words are put on anti-Modi female journalists in a certain period of time, and inflammatory words are put on certain groups of people in a certain period of time.

After this high-tech "public opinion war" weapon was exposed, the Modi government and its political parties have not commented so far. Many media have expressed great concern. For example, the French newspaper Le Monde called it creating a "toxic media environment"; Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper commented that this "encourages the ideology of hatred"; Bloomberg believes that this is the embodiment of India’s "political war escalation."

All these serve the political goals of the Bharatiya Janata Party: Since winning the election in 2014, Indian Prime Minister Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have been committed to pursuing the political agenda of "Hindu nationalism", that is, the "transformation" plan of India, which is a mixture of identity politics and sectarian politics, with the aim of transforming India from a secular country with multiple religions and ethnic groups into a religious country ruled by a "Hindu nation" and pursuing the "dharma rule" of Hinduism.

For this long-sought political goal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has carried out a series of controversial domestic policies, which has continuously promoted Hindu nationalism at the symbolic and practical levels. For example, in October 2019, Modi’s government abolished the autonomous status given to Indian-controlled Kashmir in the Indian Constitution; In November of the same year, Hindu nationalist groups won the lawsuit surrounding the former site of Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, and obtained court permission to build the Hindu Rama Temple on the site of the mosque demolished by Hindu militants in 1992. The following year, Modi personally came to lay the foundation stone for the new temple. From the second half of 2019 to the first half of 2020, Modi took advantage of the epidemic to launch the National Identity Act (CAA), which regarded many groups other than Hindus as "non-nationals", which triggered a series of protests, especially in Delhi, which caused ethnic conflicts between Hindus and Muslims who killed many people. In addition, during the Modi government’s administration, all parts of India also ushered in the climax of "social policy" to restrict the slaughter of cattle and the consumption of beef. A large number of Mughal city names have also been changed to "Hindu" names in these years.

In this series of operations, the Indian media ecology under the Bharatiya Janata Party is increasingly beneficial to Modi. In 2015, NDTV, which is famous for its anti-Modi, was rectified for national security and tax reasons; In 2019, the Indian government temporarily stopped buying advertisements in the biggest media-The Times of India, The Hindu and Telegraph, which was interpreted as a way to pressure these media that rely heavily on government advertising to change their reporting tendency.

At the same time, the online propaganda power of Bharatiya Janata Party has been expanding: on the one hand, the right-wing parent organization of Bharatiya Janata Party, the National Volunteer Service Corps (RSS), used its peripheral social organizations such as the All India Student Union (ABVP) and the World Hindu Lent (VHP) to launch propaganda, and besieged social forces opposed to Hindu right-wing politics on the grounds of "anti-state" since Modi came to power. In 2016, in line with the accusation of the Ministry of the Interior on the "incitement crime" of the left-wing students of Nehru University, they launched a network encirclement and suppression of Nida; Over the years, they have been besieging famous non-Hindu Bollywood actors, including Aamir Hussain Khan. The last time was in October 2021, Aamir Hussain Khan was regarded as an "anti-Indian" and was cursed to "go back to Pakistan" for posting a tweet calling for environmental protection and public morality during Hindu Diwali and not to set off fireworks on the road. Although many people in the society ridiculed these cyber violence as the work of Modi’s "Bhakt" (devout believers), there is obviously a special organization and coordination work behind it. The Bharatiya Janata Party even appointed Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga as the spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi. This gentleman is famous for violently humiliating anti-Indian people in various languages on the Internet. To some extent, the Indian Party gave him a post as a reward for his "public opinion firepower".

On April 3, 2021, in Buer, Saunal, India, Indian Prime Minister Modi held a rally during the parliamentary election campaign in West Bengal, and supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wore Modi’s mask.

The latest investigation report on the "TekFog" app confirms the real existence of these public opinion techniques. It can even be seen that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s public opinion offensive has "evolved" into a more high-tech approach, and it has skillfully cooperated with large enterprises, no longer relying entirely on the rumors of "sea tactics" and "network water army".

In The Wire’s investigation, the reporter found that the operation of this APP was suspected to involve two companies.

One is Persistent Systems, a joint venture between India and the United States. The company advertised that its founder Anand Bundhit had returned to India from Silicon Valley out of patriotism. The company itself has received many overseas investments including Twitter. Its main business is in the United States, with revenue exceeding $500 million per year. Since 2015, this company has won several information engineering bids. For example, in 2018, the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare chose them to develop a personal health data system covering ten states. The Wire’s investigation found through informants that the company’s intranet has "Tek Fog" operating project documents. Although its spokesman said that "Tek Fog" has nothing to do with the company.

Another company is the popular local social platform "ShareChat" in India. This is the largest non-English social media in India at present. It claims to have nearly 200 million potential users in more than 14 languages in second and third tier cities. The Wire survey found that "Tek Fog" system can manipulate a large number of fake accounts on ShareChat and publish a large number of so-called "community content" in Hindi, Marathi and other languages, among which there are a lot of hate speech. Many similar remarks were first published on ShareChat, and then moved to other social platforms. Although ShareChat’s operation team denies its relationship with TekFog, in recent years, its team has repeatedly expressed its willingness to attract political parties to its own platform-bringing traffic and spreading political information.

In addition, the investigation team also found that Tek Fog can "hijack" some deactivated accounts of other social media. For example, its operators will secretly "hijack" accounts by posting videos with Trojans to some WhatsApp (Facebook’s communication software) accounts. After users of these accounts log out or change their mobile phones, they will use this account to post fake news and various public opinion propaganda information to their friends.

What is even more surprising is that in India, a populous country with a large labor reserve, the technology of "Tek Fog" is very intelligent. The investigation team found that the news generation function of artificial intelligence (even with American artificial intelligence news technology such as OpenAI or more advanced CTRL) may be added to the operation of this APP: automatically generate news pages with modified titles and contents that look unusually "real". For example, a news report that "communication software encourages right-wing extremism" can be changed to the title and content of "communication software encourages left-wing terrorism" and then pushed in large quantities. The information receiver who doesn’t pay close attention can’t see that this is fake news at all.

Further investigation by The Wire found that the "Tek Fog" APP and its operation team participated in many language violence incidents on the Internet in recent years. And many of its functions are specially designed for this kind of "cyber bullying". It can push insulting language generated around certain keywords for specific groups-for example, when its operators need to insult female journalists according to the deployment, they will select the tag combination of women and journalists in the list, and then the system will automatically appear words such as "Pakistani guy", "tits" and "randi", which can quickly generate large-scale push of insulting content. For example, according to The Wire reporter’s statistics, in May 2021, of the 4.6 million social media messages targeted at 280 most famous female journalists in India, more than 800,000 (more than 18%) were pushed by Tek Fog. Moreover, this software played an important role in the stigma of "bringing virus into India" against Muslims in 2020 and the ethnic violence in Delhi.

The media’s revelation of Tek Fog may be just the tip of the iceberg, but it makes people see the efficient combination of the right-wing religious nationalism politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party, high-tech enterprises and even the Internet platform. Many functions of Tek Fog are built on the GoogleSheet service provided by Google. The technology platform suspected of supporting its operation accepted the investment from Twitter. In recent years, many reports have pointed out that the Bharatiya Janata Party and the National Volunteer Service Corps are developing their own organizations and teams in India’s electronic technology industry. In IT companies in Bangalore and other places, there are volunteer service groups similar to "fellowship" that regularly carry out activities to combine the daily life of the emerging middle class. With the continuous consolidation of Modi’s government position, Internet companies supported by financial capital have also formed alliances with Modi’s government’s political interests-"Persistant Systems" and "ShareChat" are both such examples-Modi’s government has helped Indian local Internet companies to crack down on foreign competitors and let the former occupy more markets. Local Internet companies help Modi government attract foreign investment into India, and at the same time help Modi’s political party to crack down on opponents and consolidate its ruling position with their own technology.

However, even if media reports point out that such an APP exists, Modi and his political forces can completely ignore it-as long as these public opinions do not hurt their votes, they will not pose a real blow to them. In the Pegasus monitoring software scandal in 2021, Modi’s government was exposed to use the monitoring system of Israeli companies to monitor opposition politicians and social people who were dissatisfied with its governance. At that time, Indian society was in an uproar, but the Modi government did not say much, and this incident did not make Modi’s administration encounter a crisis.

The Wire’s two-year investigation report on Tek Fog also reminds us that in recent years, people regard the extreme right wing or alternative right wing in Europe and America as a serious phenomenon and the most "cutting-edge" political issue. But what people may not realize is that in the former "third world" countries like India, the combination of technology and right-wing politics is actually more radical. In such an environment, once the combination of capital and technology and right-wing politics is not checked and stopped, its social and practical impact may be even more amazing.