Zhupao: Changes since 2049/09/30

Zhupao, Ltd. (猪跑) is a Chinese technology conglomerate holding company providing data management solutions to governments and industries worldwide. With the development of G6 and a market capitalisation nearing ¥60 trillion, Zhupao has been called “one of the most influential political, economic, and cultural forces in the world.”

Founded in 2024 as a system integration company focused on Drupal, Zhupao expanded its portfolio to include cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and neural colloids. Largely through its technology incubation arm, Zhupao has supported and incorporated hundreds of startup companies, including Moodoo, Omnipedia, Omnius, and Sanial.

In 2040, Zhupao entered into a multilateral cooperation strategy with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to modernise China’s healthcare system and create an international biosurveillance network in response to the CMD pandemic. This resulted in the development of G6, which is owned by Zhupao and administered by the United Nations (UN).

On October 1st 2049, Zhupao founder and executive chair Xu Shaoyong was killed when his private helicopter was destroyed by a drone strike at Beijing Daxing International Airport. Zhupao’s senior leadership has been moved to a secure location as a protective measure against further attacks, with CEOChen Lei communicating as acting executive chair.

HistoryPermalink

FoundingPermalink

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Zhupao was founded in Shanghai, China on February 20th 2024 by Xu Shaoyong, an e-commerce manager at Pinduoduo who was also active in Shanghai’s Drupal community. Xu started Zhupao as a limited company focused on Drupal-oriented system integration solutions, deriving the company name from zhū pǎo (猪跑, the pig runs), which sounds similar to the pronunciation of Drupal.

During Zhupao’s early years, Xu relied on Chinese venture capital, including a ¥10 million angel investment from Duan Yongping, as well as strategic partnerships with the China International Electronic Commerce Centre (CIECC) and Chinese state-supported ventures. With these investments accounting for 52% of Zhupao’s shareholder structure under a mixed-ownership model, Xu offered a further 23% of shares to the State Development and Investment Corporation (SDIC), issued 15% as part of an employee stock ownership plan, and took a 10% stake in his own name.

ExpansionPermalink

After posting revenues surpassing ¥150 million in February 2026, Xu created a second Zhupao development centre and cloud computing division in Beijing, offering end-to-end hosting solutions with built-in continuous deployment systems. In March 2027, Zhupao partnered with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) for the launch of Zhupay (猪付), a digital wallet and payment service using a secure commerce module built in Drupal. Following a series of trials at the provincial level, Zhupay was integrated into the Social Credit System (SCS) in October 2027. ^[1]

In 2028, Zhupao merged with Pinduoduo in a deal between Xu and Pinduoduo CEO Chen Lei. Chen agreed to establish Pinduoduo as an e-commerce division of Zhupao, with Xu restructuring the company into five major operating arms: artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, e-commerce, fintech, and system integration. By 2030, Zhupao owned approximately 30% of all cloud infrastructure in mainland China, with more than 600,000 Chinese developers, government outlets, and listed companies using Zhupao’s IT solutions.

In 2031, Zhupao went public with a successful initial public offering (IPO) on the STAR Market. Upon completion, Zhupao’s IPO raised over ¥300 billion for a 5% stake in the company, becoming the largest IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and making Zhupao one of the most valuable technology companies in the world. ^[2]

InvestmentsPermalink

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In 2032, Xu launched Zhupao Campus as a private technology incubator and invested ¥15 billion of his net worth to support candidate ventures, many of which have gone on to join Zhupao as subsidiaries or research divisions. In the first round of investments, Xu graduated five startups to Zhupao Campus, including Debtera Pharma and Sanial.

In February 2034, Zhupao started an AI innovation centre in London City, bringing in Efua Amankwah-Crouse from Google to lead a team of researchers on the development of PACOTTI. ^[3] When Amankwah-Crouse’s team demonstrated in June 2035 that differentiable neural computers (DNCs) running PACOTTI would reduce corresponding CO2 emissions by 70% when compared to standard models, Xu announced an initiative to switch all of Zhupao’s AI and data services over to PACOTTI.

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In October 2036, Zhupao incorporated Sanial as a subsidiary, with Xu and Sanial CEO Spencer Hagen officially unveiling the first neural colloid as a new class of implantable multielectrode arrays (MEAs).“ ^[4] To demonstrate their effectiveness and ease-of-use, Xu personally injected a colloid while on stage and pinged a live connection to his cerebral cortex.

In May 2037, Sanial’s colloid design was reclassified by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) as a Class III implantable medical device (IMD), designating colloids “high-risk IMDs that pose potential risks to the human body and must be strictly controlled with respect to safety and effectiveness.” As a result, Xu was forced to cancel several contracts and partnerships for the manufacture of colloids, which led to a concurrent drop in Zhupao’s share price.

In 2038, colloids were approved by the Therapeutic Products Directorate (TPD) as a Class II IMD, enabling Zhupao to partner with select physicians and hospital across Canada to apply colloids to established medical neurostimulation treatments. On December 8th 2039, Zhupao announced a partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to manufacture and supply medical colloids for the WHO’s contact tracing efforts to contain the spread of Cariappa-Muren disease (CMD).

Development of G6Permalink

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In April 2040, Xu fired Gong Peiqiang, Zhupao’s CTO and standing member of the Beijing Xicheng District Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), naming Hagen as Gong’s successor. He also completed a corporate ownership restructuring plan to limit the decision-making power of Zhupao’s CCP-adjacent shareholder bloc. On April 3rd 2040, Xu hosted a press event at Zhupao’s Shanghai headquarters, during which he criticised the CCP for covering up its failings in addressing the CMD pandemic.

In response, then-CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping accused Xu of “inciting subversion of state power” and ordered CCP agencies to remove all appearances of Zōng from their online portals. It was later revealed that a wider mandate to strip out all Zhupao IT infrastructure was abandoned following widespread objections that doing so would cause significant disruption to SCS operations and public-facing government services.

On April 9th 2040, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) halted all trading of Zhupay on digital currency exchanges, citing suspicions of fraud. Following a concession between members of the Politburo as part of an internal power struggle, the CBIRC stop on Zhupay was lifted on April 12th 2040. ^[5]

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On May 3rd 2040, Zhupao entered into a multilateral cooperation strategy being drawn up between the CCP and the WHO to “strengthen the national healthcare system, ensure that quality health services are delivered to the people, and enrich China’s contribution to global health and biosurveillance.” ^[6] This strategy included a partnership between Zhupao and the National Health Commission (NHC) to redevelop China’s healthcare system up using Zhupao’s IT infrastructure and colloid designs.

On May 7th 2040, Zhupao announced the development of G6 as “a new WHO-endorsed network for biosurveillance, health informatics, and IMDs,” with Xu naming Amankwah-Crouse, Sunil Cariappa, and Hagen as the team leads of the project. After the successful completion of four provincial pilot programmes, the CCP announced its intention to introduce G6 to all its territories and special economic zones (SEZs) on October 31st 2040. With Zhupao retaining nominal ownership of G6, the CCP announcement resulted in the company and its subsidiaries processing “thousands of purchasing and licensing requests per minute.”

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In November 2040, Xu officially opened Zhupao’s new headquarters in Shanghai with a ceremony that included the activation of the building’s animated hologram of Zōng. Generated by the largest laser projection array in the world and occupying a space of 240m³ above the building, Zōng has become a hallmark of Shanghai’s skyline. In December 2040, Zhupao purchased the Shard to serve as the company’s European headquarters in London City.

International growthPermalink

Following the passing of Resolution ES-13/6 by the United Nations (UN) in February 2041, the WHO organised a set of working groups with Zhupao to outline the terms of a charter for the international use of G6, including its integration with the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and the WHO’s global alert system. In April 2041, Zhupao reorganised its licensing tiers for G6 into a dedicated platform model, with the network’s national and international deployment strictly defined by the WHO charter.

Zhupao’s rollout of G6 was delayed due to the impact of Typhoon 4109, which destroyed Sanial’s main production facility in Borneo and severely limited the company’s manufacturing capacity. In a deal between Zhupao and Sri Lanka, construction began on eight new Sanial production facilities outside Colombo, which was completed in the fall of 2041. ^[7]

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In June 2041, Xu moved or spun off several of Zhupao’s subsidiaries and acquisitions to create Omnius as a dedicated G6 system integration company. By the end of 2042, over 400 countries, corporations, and organisations along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) had licensed one or more G6 access tiers and worked with Omnius to integrate them locally.

In October 2045, Zhupao suffered a massive breach to its internal network, resulting in the leak of a data cache containing technical white papers, G6 licensing agreements, and private files and correspondence of Zhupao employees. The data cache was shared to various peer-to-peer networks on October 10th 2045, leading to a crowdsourced investigation that was picked up by international news outlets. The leaked data revealed that G6 had been extensively retrofitted with quantum neural networks (QNNs) between October 2040 and June 2041, which had not been disclosed to the public.

On October 13th 2045, Xu issued a statement to reassure clients and shareholders that G6 had not been affected by the “regrettable” data breach. The statement also characterised the QNN retrofits as “imperative, given the amount of data that G6 is meant to process and the security requirements of this task.” An internal investigation attributed the data breach to the actions of Adira, with Xu pointing to his suspicion of “Russian elements” being involved.

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In November 2047, Zhupao’s share price dropped by 15% when an increase in cases of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) in countries subscribed to G6 was linked to colloids, with every recorded patient having at least one colloid implant. On November 24th 2047, Xu attributed the surge in CSVD to third-party colloid manufacturers without a license to Sanial’s nanomaterials that prevent implantable MEAs from blocking capillaries in the brain, leading to CSVD. This led to some criticism of Zhupao’s patent enforcement on colloid technology.

On February 20th 2049, Xu celebrated Zhupao’s 25th anniversary with a Silver Jubilee discount on all G6 licensing tiers, which led to an influx of requests and the largest one-day point gain in the history of the SSE. In June 2049, Zhupao announced a new round of Zhupao Campus investments, including Omnipedia.

Death of Xu ShaoyongPermalink

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On October 1st 2049, Xu was killed when his private helicopter was destroyed by a drone strike at Beijing Daxing International Airport. ^[8]CEO Chen has assumed the duties of acting executive chair, stating that “Zhupao will continue to operate at the height of its ability.” To give investors time to absorb the news of Xu’s death, the CBIRC has put an extended stop on all SSE trading in Zhupao’s stock.

ControversiesCorporate structurePermalink

Data monopolyPermalink

Zhupao has been accused of leveraging G6favours a fully integrated value chain with a vertical approach, which gives the company extensive top-down control over global operations and its monopolyallows it to increase market capitalisation and maintain market leadership status. Zhupao’s corporate structure is a functional one that focuses on data as a means of influencing international politicsdifferent operating arms, echoing China’s “wolf warrior diplomacy” ofwith its subsidiaries and research divisions divided into each arm according to the 2020s. The company has been known to threaten client governments with the invalidationnature of their G6 verificationsbusiness. As executive chair, which are required to keep G6 nodes connectedXu was in charge of Zhupao’s directors and executive-level managers, who applied his directives to the larger network and prevent them from witheringoperating arms under their control. In March 2043, Anse Daems commented that “in stark contrast to the come-together message of G6, Zhupao prefers an insular world, especially when fascism elevates nationalism and hard borders above all else, because it fractures the data streams and increases Zhupao’s power as the only actor with access to all the data stored by G6.”

See alsoPermalink

• Xu Shaoyong
• G6
• Sanial
• Omnius

ReferencesPermalink