2026-09-07 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• Tencent’s Hy4 tops a blind expert test, edging GLM-5.3 and Kimi K3

• Audi opens a 300-person Shanghai centre, developing four new electric models

• CXMT reaches 10% of global DRAM revenue, up from 4% a year earlier

• Beijing–Hong Kong rail link nears completion, spanning 2,370 kilometres

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🚀 Headlines

Tencent’s open-source Hy4 tops rivals as AI token prices hit a record low (link, link)

Tencent has open-sourced Hy4 preview, a Mixture-of-Experts model with 770 billion total parameters and 49 billion active, supporting a 1-million-token context window. The model targets software engineering, finance, gaming, and scientific research. In a blind evaluation of 163 experts across 203 engineering tasks, Hy4 scored 2.99 out of 4.00, edging GLM-5.3 (2.92) and Kimi K3 (2.94). The model also played a role in its own development, automating training optimisation and raising end-to-end throughput by 31.8%. API pricing is set at USD 0.834 per million input tokens, USD 2.501 per million output tokens.

AI token prices have plunged to a record low of USD 0.97, down from a May peak of USD 2.05, according to Silicon Data's index. The slide reflects intensifying competition from Chinese open-weight models such as Moonshot's Kimi K3, which are undercutting US incumbents on price. OpenAI cut prices on its GPT-5.6 series in late July, while rivals have adopted dynamic pricing. With the performance gap between open and closed models narrowing to months, profitability is under pressure—especially for OpenAI and Anthropic, both preparing for IPOs. Fixed compute costs remain unchanged, squeezing margins and raising doubts about whether the AI sector's massive investments will deliver expected returns.

Open Router Leaderboard - September 6, 2026

Audi opens Shanghai innovation center to develop four AUDI-brand models (link)

Audi and SAIC have established the AUDI Innovation & Technology Center (AITC) in Shanghai, a joint venture with full vehicle development capabilities. The center will employ around 300 people to develop four new models on the ADP 2.0 platform, with the first scheduled to debut in 2028. SAIC holds a 49% stake in AITC, with Audi and Volkswagen Group China holding 41% and 10%, respectively. Matthias Pfister, formerly of SAIC Volkswagen, was appointed general manager. AITC will focus on smart EV technologies, AI-powered cockpits and next-generation driver-assistance systems. The center is part of Audi's dual-brand strategy, complementing FAW Audi's focus on the four-ring brand.

USD 3 billion Chinese startup tackles Elon Musk’s robotic-hands problem (link)

Linkerbot, a Beijing-based robotic hand maker valued at USD 3 billion after a Series B+ round in April, is racing to mass-produce affordable dexterous hands. Its six models range from 6,666 yuan (USD 980) to 99,999 yuan (USD 14,700), with the 49,999-yuan L20 the bestseller. Competitors' hands sell for USD 50,000–USD 125,000. The company makes nearly all components in-house, aiming to drive costs below USD 100 per pair within three years. China's robotic hand shipments are projected to reach 430,000 units annually by 2030, up from 70,000 this year. Linkerbot's proprietary skill database contains over 500 movements, including chopping vegetables and threading a needle. With a new production line, it targets 100,000 hands annually.

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ChangXin Memory reaches 10% of the global DRAM market in Q2 (link)

ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) captured a 10% share of the global DRAM market by revenue in the second quarter, up from 4% a year earlier. The Hefei, Anhui Province-based chipmaker's share grew 150% year-on-year and 25% quarter-on-quarter, making it the fastest-growing DRAM supplier globally. Samsung led with 38%, followed by SK Hynix at 25% and Micron at 24%. The top three's combined share fell to 87% from 94% a year earlier. CXMT's revenue hit RMB 150.3 billion (USD 22.4 billion) in the first half, up 874% year-on-year, and net profit rose to RMB 77.6 billion. The company's monthly DRAM wafer capacity is expected to reach 300,000–350,000 by year-end, up from below 1% market share in 2023.

Counterpoint Research

AI dramas come to mainstream TV in China (link)

AI-generated dramas have leapt from China's video apps to mainstream satellite television. The first fully AI-generated costume drama, "Tale of Peach Blossom Pond," aired on Anhui Satellite TV in July. It has since been followed by shows on Hunan Satellite TV and Hong Kong's TVB. Mango TV noted that production costs are "much lower" than for traditional dramas, while the first batch of merchandise sold out, expanding IP derivative value. TVB signed a deal with ByteDance's Volcano Engine in June to use Doubao's video generation model for content production. Hong Kong's first AI animated film project involves high school students as creators. While some worry about job displacement, one screenwriter noted AI now helps turn inspiration into work and analyze viewership in days.

China’s EV push displaced more oil than the UK used in six months (link)

China's oil consumption fell 9% year-on-year in Q2 2026, driven by a 16% collapse in transport demand as the Iran War pushed up fuel prices and accelerated EV adoption. Crude oil processing dropped 11%. Total emissions fell 1%, the first time oil, rather than coal, has driven a decline in China's carbon footprint. In the first half, the volume of oil displaced by EVs in China surpassed the UK's total six-month oil consumption. This shift is stronger than anyone anticipated and unlikely to be reversed.

China’s solar capacity overtakes coal for the first time (link)

China's installed solar capacity reached 1,286 GW by the end of July, accounting for 31.5% of total power capacity and overtaking coal for the first time. The milestone breaks a century-long pattern of coal dominance. Solar generation accounted for 13% of total electricity consumption, with 802.4 billion kWh generated in the first seven months, up 15.5% year-on-year. China produces about 80% of the world's solar modules. Investment in the "new-type power system" is expected to exceed 5 trillion yuan (USD 744 billion) during the 2026–2030 five-year plan. The shift is also driven by surging AI demand: in Changshu, data centre electricity consumption surpassed residential air conditioning demand this summer.

China’s seawater uranium material beats a US benchmark eightfold (link)

Chinese researchers have developed a phosphate-based material called PhosCage that recovered up to 50.4 milligrams of uranium per gram of adsorbent from natural seawater, more than eight times the 6 mg/g benchmark achieved by US adsorbents around 2016. Formed into millimetre-sized beads, the material recovered 22.55 mg/g and remained functional through seven reuse cycles. The oceans hold an estimated 4.5 billion tonnes of uranium, versus 7.9 million tonnes on land. China produced only 1,600 tonnes of uranium domestically in 2024 against reactor demand of roughly 13,000 tonnes. The material has only been demonstrated in 25-litre laboratory flow systems, with no cost estimate or ocean deployment data provided.

📸 China Snapshot

Chongqing’s dense urban landscape rises along the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, where steep terrain has produced a city of layered roads, hillside buildings and dramatic river views. The megacity is one of western China’s most important manufacturing and transport hubs.

Photo by Yuxuan Feng on Unsplash

🎁 Bonus Stories

Final piece of Beijing to Hong Kong high-speed rail link to open in September (link)

A new high-speed rail section connecting Beijing to Xiongan and central China is set to open this month, completing the 2,370 km (1,472-mile) Beijing-Hong Kong line. Currently, only two daily bullet trains run between Beijing and Hong Kong West Kowloon, with travel times of 8–10 hours each way. Full interconnection is expected by 2027. The route aims to boost tourism and investment in agrarian regions and hotspots in Hebei, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangxi, while deepening Hong Kong's integration into the national rail network. The new line parallels the Beijing-Guangzhou route, relieving congestion and meeting rising demand between central provinces and Guangdong, China's largest provincial economy.

Xiongan Railway Station, Hebei Province

Humanoid robot starts work at Dairy Queen's 24-hour Shanghai ice cream parlor (link)

On August 29, DQ and AI robotics firm Sharpa opened a 24-hour robot ice-cream shop on Shanghai’s Nanjing West Road. A wheeled humanoid robot with dexterous hands completes 55 steps to make an Oreo ice cream in about six minutes, roughly twice as long as a skilled human worker. The robot adapts to standard human equipment using AI models trained on real-machine teleoperation, simulation, and human video data. It can adjust its grip via tactile feedback and even self-correct when it fumbles a spoon. The shop operates a dual-track model: robot for pre-booked orders, human staff for walk-ins. The company acknowledges the return on investment will take time, but views the deployment as a critical test for scaling complex service robotics.

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2026-08-31 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• HarmonyOS passes 100,000 native apps, as Huawei pushes for a larger global role

• Robot shipments jump nearly 300%, with Chinese vendors taking all top five spots

• EV charging power use rises 50.3%, driving China’s record electricity demand

• Taobao selects 17 premium brands, with its first showcase generating RMB 100 million

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🚀 Headlines

Mystery AI model revealed as Zhipu’s GLM-5.3-Flash after topping OpenRouter (link)

Z.AI, the Beijing lab behind the GLM series, released Ox Alpha as an open-weight model named GLM-5.3-Flash on August 26, under an MIT licence. The model features 320 billion total parameters with 18 billion active per token, a 1,048,576-token context window, and accepts text, image, and video input. During its anonymous week, it processed 100 trillion tokens daily, running entirely on roughly 100,000 domestic Chinese AI chips, marking the first time Chinese silicon has carried frontier-scale global traffic. The stealth launch, capturing massive developer traffic before revealing its identity, represents a new competitive tactic that allows Chinese labs to test at scale without reputation risk.

Open Router Leaderboard (2026.08.29)

Akeso’s Chinese cancer drug beat AstraZeneca head-to-head (link)

Akeso's ivonescimab beat AstraZeneca's Imfinzi in a Phase III trial for advanced biliary tract cancer, a disease with a five-year survival rate below 5%. The 682-patient study marks the drug's fifth Phase III win after four in lung cancer. In September 2024, ivonescimab stunned oncology circles by beating Merck's Keytruda in a head-to-head lung cancer trial, cutting the risk of disease progression or death by nearly half. Imfinzi generated over USD 6 billion in revenue last year, up 28%. The drug is already licensed to Summit Therapeutics, which is seeking US approval. While biliary tract cancer is rare, the result opens the door to a broader range of solid tumours.

China bets on green hydrogen as the future of energy (link)

China has tripled its operational green hydrogen capacity since the end of 2024, reaching nearly 250,000 tons annually, over twice the rest of the world combined. Beijing's latest five-year plan targets an eightfold increase to 2 million tons annually by 2030. The strategy leverages two structural advantages: a vast industrial base resistant to decarbonisation and a growing surplus of renewable energy, so abundant that increasing amounts are being wasted. Diverting excess wind and solar to green hydrogen both solves the utilisation problem and, when converted to chemicals like ammonia, enables long-duration energy storage akin to a liquid battery. Following the playbook that built its EV dominance, Beijing is building supply first, betting demand will follow.

Huawei’s HarmonyOS surpasses 100,000 apps and aims for 2nd globally (link)

Huawei's HarmonyOS has been formally recognised as the world's third-largest mobile operating system. At the HarmonyOS Ecosystem Conference, the company revealed that native apps had surpassed 100,000, with over 400,000 total applications available. Devices running HarmonyOS 6 exceeded 80 million shipments by August 20, and the ecosystem is on track to cross 100 million users in the fourth quarter. Beyond mobile, OpenHarmony devices have surpassed 1.35 billion cumulative units across automobiles, home appliances and metallurgy. Huawei now aims to make HarmonyOS a global "second choice".

China’s AI chipmakers are turning self-reliance into sales (link)

China's top three GPU makers, Cambricon, Hygon and Moore Threads, turned US export curbs into commercial momentum in the first half of 2026, posting results that put each on a path to sustained profitability. Cambricon led the pack: revenue and net profit both more than doubled year-on-year, to 6 billion yuan (USD 892m) and 2.3 billion yuan, respectively, marking its first back-to-back quarterly net profits above 1 billion yuan. Nearly all of its revenue came from supplying cloud-based AI chips to major large-model developers like DeepSeek and Moonshot AI. Hygon booked the largest top line, 9.1 billion yuan in revenue, up 66.5%, with net profit of 1.8 billion yuan. Moore Threads led in growth, with revenue surging 147.4% to 1.7 billion yuan, narrowing its net loss to just 11.6 million yuan. IDC projects China's acceleration server market will expand from USD 37.7 billion in 2025 to USD 150.1 billion by 2030.

Alibaba’s Taobao unveils black label for original premium fashion brands (link)

Taobao has launched "IFASHION Black Label," a premium certification for original Chinese fashion brands. From over one million merchants, only 17 were selected, a selection rate of roughly one in 100,000. The rigorous process involved design and quality checks, consumer votes, and expert validation. The label is expected to remain exclusive, with a planned cap of 50 brands. The inaugural two-day livestream showcase generated over RMB 100 million (USD 14 million) in sales. Among the brands selected, CHICJOC has expanded offline to Paris and Los Angeles, opening stores next to Hermès and Chanel. The move signals Taobao's strategic pivot from managing stores to building brands.

China's monthly power consumption hits record in July driven by electric vehicle charging and internet data services (link)

China's electricity consumption hit a record 1.04 trillion kWh in July, up 1.7% year on year, according to the National Energy Administration. Secondary industry rose 3% to 611.6 billion kWh and residential demand fell 5.1%, while the tertiary sector surged 4.8%. Electric vehicle charging jumped 50.3% to 16.4 billion kWh, and internet data services rose 40.1% to 9.9 billion kWh. Together, they accounted for over 80% of tertiary sector growth. Cumulative January–July consumption reached 6.14 trillion kWh, up 4.7%.

Chinese vendors sweep top five as humanoid robot shipments jump nearly 300% (link)

Global humanoid robot shipments surpassed 22,000 units in the first half of 2026, up nearly 300% year-on-year. Chinese vendors swept the top five positions. AGIBOT led with roughly 9,700 units and a 43% market share, followed by Unitree with over 7,000 units and 31%. The top five vendors, including Galbot, UBTECH and Leju Robotics, accounted for 86% of global shipments. Entertainment, performance, research and education still commanded over 60% of demand, though their share is declining as industrial applications gain ground: intelligent manufacturing reached 13% and warehousing & logistics 5%. Counterpoint projects full-year 2026 shipments will exceed 50,000 units, representing 210% annual growth. As pilot projects move into mass deployment, vendors are shifting focus from pure model capability toward building closed-loop systems encompassing vertical scenarios, data infrastructure, and rapid iteration.

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📸 China Snapshot

Suzhou’s old canals run past white-walled homes, stone bridges and narrow lanes in Jiangsu province. The waterways remain one of the clearest visual links to the city’s history as a commercial and cultural centre in the Yangtze River Delta.

Photo by Adriaan Terblanche on Unsplash

📰 More This Week📰 More This Week

China conducts 400,000-kilometer two-way Earth-Moon laser communication test (link)

China has completed a two-way laser communication test across over 400,000 km between Earth and lunar orbit, state media reported. The optical link transmitted an 8K ultra-high-definition lunar panorama in 12 seconds, compared with four to five minutes for conventional radio-frequency systems. The milestone establishes a high-bandwidth foundation for China's upcoming lunar missions and the planned International Lunar Research Station. Optical communications offer data rates orders of magnitude higher than radio, but face challenges in beam pointing, tracking, and atmospheric interference.

Earth-Moon Communication Link

Billionaire generation shifts east with Chinese cities Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing in the top four (link)

China now boasts three cities among the world's top four billionaire hubs: Shenzhen (132), Shanghai (120) and Beijing (107), collectively closing in on New York's 146. Chinese cities account for 34% of billionaires across the top 32 cities, while Asia is home to 58% of the global total, underscoring the region's growing dominance in global wealth creation. London (102), Mumbai (95), Hong Kong (88) and San Francisco (86) round out the top eight. The data signals a decisive shift in the centre of gravity for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, with China leading Asia's ascent as the primary engine of billionaire wealth accumulation.

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If you enjoy our newsletter, please consider buying us a coffee to keep us energized in bringing you the latest insights! 🤓☕

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China Insights is brought to you by Tomas Kucera, General Manager - Strategy & Business Development at Sino Matters, and Yereth Jansen, CEO at PulseMail.ai. Also follow us on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

2026-08-24 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• Alibaba models pass 3 billion downloads, overtaking Meta and Google on Hugging Face

• LandSpace recovers a rocket stage on land, advancing China’s reusable-launch ambitions

• Digital yuan expands to 30 banks, with RMB 16.7 trillion already transacted

• Visa-free transit reaches 57 countries, adding Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam

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🚀 Headlines

Chinese humanoid robots smash human records in 100m sprint and high jump, Unitree IPO pops 542% (link, link)

More than 2,000 humanoid robots competed in Beijing's five-day World Humanoid Robot Games. A robot ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds, beating Usain Bolt's human record of 9.58 seconds. Another cleared 2.88 meters in the standing high jump, surpassing the human record of 2.45m. The event featured 51 disciplines and over 1,000 competitions. It coincided with Beijing's World Robot Conference, which showcased roughly 3,000 products.

Unitree Robotics' shares surged 542% on its Shanghai STAR Market debut on August 19, closing at 845 yuan after hitting an intraday peak of 1,100 yuan. The Hangzhou-based humanoid robot maker raised approximately 6.1 billion yuan (USD 905 million) in its IPO. DeepSeek invested about 140.8 million yuan in the offering. The company unveiled a new humanoid robot, "Superman," capable of jumping two metres from a standing position and running at 12.66 metres per second. Unitree is the latest Chinese tech name to hit the STAR Market, following memory chipmaker CXMT's 466% first-day surge last month. Morgan Stanley forecasts China's humanoid robot market will grow from USD 2 billion this year to USD 15 billion by 2030.

Unitree’s “Superman” humanoid robot

The US and China pharma pipeline growth accelerates with 32 deals in 2026 (link)

US and Chinese drugmakers have struck 32 licensing deals through July, putting 2026 on track to surpass last year's record of 45, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. For US firms, the appeal is clear: "twice as fast at half the cost in China." The stakes are asymmetric: Chinese-origin drugs comprise 40-50% of the global pipeline, while US licensing fees have become a lifeline for Chinese firms facing a 70% drop in venture funding from its 2021 peak. Chinese companies accounted for nearly half of global pharma licensing value in 2025.

Clariant launches two new R&D laboratories in China, strengthening local innovation capability (link)

Clariant inaugurated two additives R&D laboratories in Dayawan, Huizhou and Shanghai on August 18, completing a local closed-loop from R&D to pilot-scale production for flame retardants and high-performance additives. The Dayawan site, which commenced production in 2023 and expanded in November 2025, represents a total investment of CHF 100 million. The new labs are equipped with atmospheric and high-pressure synthesis reactors, TGA, DSC, XRF, GC and ion chromatography. Clariant has now built a complete local innovation chain in China spanning R&D, manufacturing and partnerships, which will shorten lead times and accelerate technical support.

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LandSpace achieves China’s first land-based rocket recovery (link)

China successfully recovered the first stage of a Zhuque-3 Y2 rocket on land on August 18, its first such feat using landing legs. The orbital-class booster touched down in Minqin county, Gansu, after a pre-programmed descent involving attitude adjustments and re-entry burns. The mission, by developer LandSpace, follows a sea recovery in July. Recovering the first stage, which accounts for over 70% of a rocket's cost, is key to reusability.

Alibaba AI models hit 3 billion downloads, passing Google, Meta (link)

Alibaba's open-weight AI models surpassed 3 billion global downloads in the past six months, eclipsing Meta (227 million) and Google (418 million) on HuggingFace's leading open-source hub. Qwen has open-sourced over 460 models, spawning more than 300,000 derivatives. Chinese models now carry over 60% of OpenRouter's traffic, up from 30% a year ago, processing more than 20 trillion tokens weekly. US firms account for a record 58% of that Chinese-model token volume, driven by price-performance: DeepSeek V4-Flash costs USD 0.14 per million input tokens versus USD 5.00 for GPT-5.5. Alibaba released the compact Qwen3.8-27B for local devices and published weights for Qwen3.8-Max, consolidating its lead over Meta's open-source initiative.

China grows digital yuan network to 30 banks (link)

China's central bank added eight commercial lenders to its digital yuan clearing system on August 17, bringing the total number of accredited operators to 30. The expansion, the second this year after April's addition of 12 banks, includes Ping An, Hengfeng, Bohai, Bank of Shanghai, Hangzhou, Huishang, Changsha and Guangxi Beibu Gulf. The move aims to broaden access for small businesses and cross-border trade. By November 2025, digital yuan transactions had reached 34.8 billion, worth RMB 16.7 trillion, with 230 million personal wallets opened. The multilateral CBDC bridge had processed RMB 387 billion in cross-border payments, 95.3% in digital yuan.

China has more than 70 operational embodied-AI training grounds, report says (link)

By end-June, China had built over 70 operational embodied-AI training grounds, with 46 more under construction or planned across more than half of its provinces, according to a China Academy of Information and Communications Technology report. Industrial manufacturing appears in 86% of the facilities. The Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Pearl River Delta form the main clusters. The grounds provide physical environments for real-world data collection, model training, and robotic testing.

An intelligent traffic management robot is on duty at a crossroad in Hangzhou

China expands visa-free transit policy to Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam (link)

China added Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam to its 240-hour visa-free transit program and Hainan's 30-day visa-free entry policy on August 20, bringing the total eligible countries to 57 and 61 respectively. Citizens holding ordinary passports with confirmed onward tickets can now enter through 65 designated ports and stay in permitted areas for up to 240 hours. The Hekou Port in Yunnan, a preferred entry point for northern Vietnamese travellers, handled over 4 million passenger trips as of August 13—up 5% year-on-year—averaging nearly 17,800 trips daily. The expansion aims to boost tourism, business and investment between China and Central and Southeast Asia.

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📸 China Snapshot

Chongqing’s layered skyline rises between the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, where towers, bridges and rail lines follow the city’s steep terrain. Home to more than 30 million people, the municipality is a major manufacturing and logistics hub connecting inland China with domestic and international markets.

Photo by Zhang qc on Unsplash

🎁 Bonus Stories

Game Science reveals 15 minutes of gameplay for the next Black Myth game (link)

Game Science released a 15-minute gameplay trailer for Black Myth: Zhong Kui on August 20, the second anniversary of its hit predecessor. The video, recorded from a 21:9 ultra-wide development build, offers the first look at the new protagonist's combat and story. It features a linear level with exploration, a boss fight against “Dabang Zhenjun”, and a summoning mechanic allowing dual-character combat. The game, inspired by the legendary demon-queller Zhong Kui, remains in early development. The trailer amassed over 4 million views on Bilibili within hours.

China to form 26,000-kilometer 'Golden Outer Ring' road linking nation’s borders by 2030 (link)

China plans to connect three national highways, G219, G331 and G228, into a “Golden Outer Ring” spanning over 26,000 km by 2030. Some 7,400 km will be newly built or upgraded. Investment over five years could reach hundreds of billions of yuan. The route will link coastal ports with border crossings, boosting tourism, resource development and connectivity to Central and Southeast Asia. The West Tianshan tunnel, 15.7 km long, will cut the Yining-Aksu drive from 1,710 km to 445 km.

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If you enjoy our newsletter, please consider buying us a coffee to keep us energized in bringing you the latest insights! 🤓☕

👥 About us

China Insights is brought to you by Tomas Kucera, General Manager - Strategy & Business Development at Sino Matters, and Yereth Jansen, CEO at PulseMail.ai. Also follow us on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

2026-08-17 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• YMTC enters the global top three, taking 14% of NAND shipments

• 94% of overseas students return, as costs rise and domestic universities climb

• China activates a 100,000-accelerator cluster, cutting AI training cycles to six months

• The USD 10B Pinglu Canal nears launch, linking inland China more directly with ASEAN

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🚀 Headlines

Deutsche Bank becomes Europe’s first foreign renminbi clearing bank (link)

China’s central bank appointed Deutsche Bank as Europe’s first foreign renminbi clearing bank. From Frankfurt, it will directly clear and settle cross-border yuan transactions, improving offshore liquidity and reducing risk. Deutsche Bank joined China’s Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) in 2015. Giving a European institution this role deepens Europe’s integration into the RMB ecosystem and supports the currency’s international use.

The headquarters of Germany's Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, Germany

DeepSeek upgrades V4 Pro as its models extend lead on OpenRouter (link)

DeepSeek V4 Pro is within 5% of Claude Fable 5 on key benchmarks while costing up to 98% less, and rivals Claude Opus 4.8 on some agentic tasks. Its USD 0.435 input and USD 0.87 output prices per million tokens are roughly 23 and 57 times cheaper than Fable 5. DeepSeek leads text requests on OpenRouter with 28.0%, versus Google’s 21.1% and OpenAI’s 16.1%. V4 Flash leads with 11.2 trillion weekly tokens; both Flash variants generate 16 trillion.

Text Request Market Share by Model on OpenRouter

Uber partners with China’s Pony.ai for 2,000 robotaxis in Europe (link)

Pony.ai and Uber will deploy 2,000 robotaxis across five European cities after launching in Zagreb this year. The BAIC Arcfox αT5 fleet will expand to four more cities and later the Middle East. Pony.ai has reached city-level breakeven in China and holds driverless testing permits in California. Baidu Apollo Go and WeRide are also expanding in Europe, with WeRide planning a Madrid pilot with Uber. China’s robotaxi and autonomous-logistics companies are taking their cost advantages abroad as Waymo builds its European presence.

Beijing Automotive’s BAIC BluePark’s Arcfox αT5 model

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China launches an 18–20-day Arctic container route to Europe (link)

China’s first regular Arctic container service, the “Ice Silk Road”, launched from Ningbo on August 15. Sea Legend Line’s weekly seasonal route follows Russia’s northern coast to Felixstowe, with links to Germany and Poland. It cuts sailing time from about 40 days via Suez to 18-20 days and bypasses Red Sea chokepoints. The passage operates from late July to October; 23 container ships used it in 2025, up from 15 in 2024. Ice and infrastructure remain constraints.

YMTC overtakes Micron and Kioxia to become a top-three NAND chip shipper (link)

Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) entered the top three global NAND memory chip shippers by volume, taking 14% in Q2 2026. It passed Micron and Kioxia, behind Samsung and SK Hynix. DRAM and NAND sales reached nearly USD 100 billion and USD 46 billion in Q1. YMTC ranks fifth in revenue because it focuses on consumer products rather than pricier data-centre SSDs. It plans to expand enterprise SSDs and is preparing a mainland IPO; SK Hynix is restarting China investment after four years.

Counterpoint Research Memory Tracker – August 2026

Record 94% of Chinese university students studying abroad now return home after graduation (link)

Chinese students going abroad fell to 570,000 in 2025 from 700,000 in 2019 as geopolitical friction, visa restrictions and average annual costs of 605,000 yuan (USD 89,600), up nearly 20% since 2023, deter families. A record 94% now return. Their average starting salary is 12,800 yuan a month, versus 10,700 yuan for local graduates. Peking and Tsinghua now rank 13th and 14th in the QS World University Rankings.

China activates its first domestic 100,000-accelerator AI supercluster (link)

China’s first domestic 100,000-accelerator AI supercluster went live in August at the National Supercomputing Internet’s Zhengzhou node, alongside a Greater Bay Area deployment. It cuts frontier-model training from one year to about six months. By June, intelligent computing capacity reached 218.5 EFLOPS, up 177% year-on-year, with over 60% under unified monitoring. The NDRC plans CNY 4 trillion (USD 590 billion) in compute-network investment over five years. For Chinese AI developers, scheduling may become the constraint as hardware expands.

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China completes first full test of canal link to Southeast Asia ahead of September launch (link)

China’s 134.2 km (83.4-mile) Pinglu Canal passed its first full transit test from the Gulf of Tonkin to the Pingtang River near Nanning. The milestone precedes a planned September launch during the China-ASEAN Expo. More than 98% complete, the USD 10 billion-plus waterway will shorten transport times and lower logistics costs between inland southern China and ASEAN markets.

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📸 China Snapshot

Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, combines the heritage of West Lake and the Grand Canal with one of China’s strongest digital-economy clusters. Home to Alibaba and a dense technology ecosystem, the city is a major centre for e-commerce, cloud computing and artificial intelligence while remaining one of China’s best-known cultural destinations.

Photo by Sergio Li / Unsplash

🎁 Bonus Stories

Chinese cartoon goes from box-office flop to surprise summer hit (link)

Niu Lai, a Chinese animated film dismissed as “rough” and “crude”, became an unlikely summer hit. It earned only 7,700 yuan (USD 1,070) in its first ten days before internet curiosity drove a 5.6 million yuan Sunday; Maoyan projects 18.4 million yuan within 30 days. Made by two people whose company was an interior-design firm until 2021, its rise may reflect demand for analogue craft as animation embraces AI.

More than 2,000 robots from 16 countries enter Beijing’s Robot Olympics (link)

The second World Humanoid Robot Games opens in Beijing on August 22 with over 2,000 robots from 16 countries across 51 categories, more than four times last year’s 500-plus. Events have nearly doubled, adding high jump, tug-of-war and table tennis, while application scenarios rose from six to 21 across homes, hotels and logistics. A 100-metre Integrated Pentathlon tests whole-body coordination; eight dexterity events range from power-tool assembly to picking beans with tweezers.

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2026-08-10 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• Swiss outdoor specialist Mammut changes hands, as Chinese investment group CPE expands abroad

• CATL captures 39.9% globally, as seven Chinese battery makers hold 72.4%

• Miniso tops U.S. retail growth, after sales jump 53% to USD 466 million

• Idle offices become rentals, including 744 Shenzhen flats at 95% occupancy

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🚀 Headlines

Tencent's Hy3 AI model expands globally as developer usage surges 68-fold (link)

Tencent has expanded international access to Hy3, its flagship open-source large language model (LLM), using aggressive pricing to attract developers. Hy3 has 295 billion total parameters, with 21 billion active at a time, and a 256,000-token context window. It is available through WorkBuddy, Tencent Design Miora and TokenHub, with free WorkBuddy access until August 31. Pricing on OpenRouter starts at USD 0.1288 per million input tokens and USD 0.5336 per million output tokens, below DeepSeek's entry pricing. Developer use through its API, the software connection apps use to call the model, has risen 68-fold since the international rollout. Led by former OpenAI researcher Yao Shunyu, Hy3 ranked second in OpenRouter's weekly usage on August 9, behind the newest DeepSeek V4 Flash model. Tencent is using subsidised access to build its developer ecosystem and challenge DeepSeek and OpenAI.

Open Router Leaderboard

Chinese investment group CPE agrees to acquire Swiss outdoor brand Mammut (link)

Chinese investment group CPE has agreed to acquire Swiss outdoor brand Mammut from Jacobs Capital, pending regulatory approval. Founded in 1862, Mammut is known for mountaineering equipment, climbing gear and technical outdoor apparel. The purchase price was not disclosed. Jacobs Capital bought Mammut from Switzerland's Bystronic for CHF218 million (USD 270 million) in 2021. CPE, which took control of Burger King's China operations earlier this year, manages more than CNY150 billion (USD 22.2 billion) in private-equity assets. Its portfolio includes Mixue, Pop Mart and Laopu Gold, though Mammut will be its first outdoor-sports brand. CPE plans to work with Mammut's management on product innovation, brand-building and supply-chain optimisation in China and Asia-Pacific. The deal tests whether a Chinese investment group can accelerate growth at a century-old Swiss technical brand that has changed hands twice in five years.

CATL is increasing its dominance of global EV battery market, NEVs capture record 64.4% in July (link, link)

Global EV battery usage reached 608.5 GWh in the first half of 2026, up 20.0% year-on-year. CATL remained the dominant force with installations of 242.7 GWh, a 25.3% increase, lifting its market share to 39.9% from 38.2% a year earlier. BYD, in contrast, delivered a muted performance: installations grew just 1.6% to 87.7 GWh, causing its share to slide to 14.4% from 17.0%. The two Chinese giants together accounted for 54.3% of the market. Seven Chinese companies ranked among the top ten, holding a combined 72.4% share. South Korea's LG Energy Solution ranked third with 52.6 GWh (8.6% share), while China's CALB and Gotion High-tech posted the strongest growth, up 39.5% and 43.3% respectively.

China's passenger NEV retail sales reached 970,000 units in July, capturing a record 64.4% penetration rate, up from 62.8% in June. Retail sales eased 2% year-on-year, but the decline narrowed from June's 9.4% drop. Wholesale volumes rose 24% to 1.463 million units, while cumulative wholesale increased 8% to 8.251 million in the first seven months. Gasoline-powered light vehicle production plunged 54% year-on-year to 422,000 units as electrification accelerated. Cumulative NEV sales reached 5.675 million units in the first seven months.

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Chinese chain Miniso becomes the fastest-growing retailer in the USA (link)

Miniso, a Chinese lifestyle retailer, has topped the National Retail Federation's annual ranking of the fastest-growing U.S. retailers, posting 53% sales growth to USD 466 million in domestic revenue. The firm outpaced Dick's Sporting Goods (49% growth, USD 13.6 billion) and Costco (8% growth, USD 198.7 billion in U.S. sales), which ranked 18th. The NRF attributed Miniso's success to affordable lifestyle products, "discovery-driven shopping experiences," and U.S. expansion. The retailer, founded in 2013 and listed on the NYSE in 2020, has risen in popularity through viral blind boxes and partnerships with Minecraft and My Little Pony. Founder Ye Guofu has an estimated net worth of USD 1.6 billion.

World's first artificial heart from China secures EU certification (link)

China's Corheart 6, developed by Shenzhen Core Medical, has become the world's first artificial heart to secure CE certification under the European Union's stringent Medical Device Regulation (MDR). The MDR framework, which replaced the older Medical Devices Directive in 2021, has an approval rate below 60%. Corheart 6 is approved for bridging to transplantation, myocardial recovery, and destination therapy, covering the full spectrum of clinical needs. Weighing just 90 grams with a 34 mm diameter, it is the world's smallest and lightest commercialised fully magnetically levitated implantable artificial heart, 30% smaller and 50% lighter than comparable international products. As of the first half of 2026, cumulative implantations exceeded 1,500 cases across more than 150 hospitals, with a two-year survival rate of 86% and no pump thrombosis or device malfunctions.

China’s short drama boom reshaped by AI content surge (link)

China's mini-drama market is being reshaped by mass AI production. Of the 128,000 new titles released in the first quarter, more than 95% were AI-generated. Yet only 1,055 of 221,900 AI dramas surpassed 100 million views, highlighting low hit rates. Per-minute AI production costs have risen from CNY1,000 to CNY5,000 as quality expectations increase, while live-action productions cost CNY200,000 to CNY1 million per title. AI productions still retain a substantial cost advantage at CNY100,000 to CNY500,000. Revenue per 10,000 views has fallen from CNY800-CNY1,000 to CNY100. Platforms are refining their algorithms, while low hit rates, rising costs and higher quality expectations are accelerating industry consolidation.

China starts converting idle office space into affordable housing (link)

China has begun converting idle offices into affordable rentals, acting on a government directive to revitalise inefficient assets. In Shenzhen’s Nanshan district, a high-rise office was turned into 744 flats; over 80% are small units of 43–60 sq m, and occupancy reached 95%. Nationwide, the share of renovated homes in new rental projects rose by seven percentage points year-on-year in the first half. The government funded the purchase in Shenzhen, with state-owned enterprises handling renovation and operations. Similar projects have emerged in Shanghai and Beijing. With a migrant population of 376 million underpinning rental demand and high prices suppressing homebuying in top-tier cities, the policy offers a pragmatic fix: more housing, less vacant concrete.

Driverless Momenta Robovan runs 24/7 using real-time road perception (link)

Momenta has deployed its driverless Robovan on express routes in Suzhou’s Xiangcheng District, operating round-the-clock. “Map-free” does not mean the van has no route. It means the vehicle does not depend on a prebuilt, lane-level high-definition map. Momenta's R7 World Model instead interprets live onboard sensor data to identify roads, traffic and obstacles and plan the van's movements; ordinary navigation can still provide destination-level guidance. Avoiding detailed HD maps can make new routes faster and cheaper to launch. The system draws on more than 12 billion kilometres of real-world driving data from production passenger vehicles, distilled into over 100 million high-quality segments. Momenta aims to use one world-model platform across passenger cars, Robovans, Robotaxis and Robotrucks, with a ten-year goal of doubling logistics and mobility efficiency.

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📸 China Snapshot

Chongqing’s vertical cityscape rises between the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, where steep terrain has produced rail lines, roads and bridges stacked across multiple elevations. The municipality is also a major base for automobiles, electronics and inland logistics, linking western China more deeply with domestic and international trade.

Photo by Yuxuan Feng / Unsplash

🎁 Bonus Stories

Award-winning chemist Zhang Wei leaves US to join China's new Great Bay University (link)

Zhang Wei, former chair of the chemistry department at the University of Colorado Boulder, has returned to China after more than 20 years in the US. A Sloan Research Fellowship recipient (2013), he left his tenured position at the University of Colorado Boulder to join Great Bay University as deputy dean and chair professor. Zhang said he was motivated to return by family and research opportunities. Great Bay University (GBU) is one of 10 newly approved Chinese universities authorised by the Ministry of Education in June. The university has two campuses in Dongguan and is expected to accommodate 10,000 students eventually. GBU aims to cultivate high-level talent across six key areas: materials science, advanced engineering, life sciences, information science and technology, natural sciences and financial management.

Zhang Wei

BYD and Sinopec convert Shanghai gas station into fast-charging site (link)

BYD and Sinopec have converted a Shanghai petrol station into a flash-charging hub, the first fruit of a partnership struck in June 2024. The facility, adjacent to the Hongqiao transport hub, offers 12 stalls with six dual-cable stands. Petrol tanks were removed to accommodate buffer batteries with a total capacity of 169 or 185 kWh. The station includes a rest area and a 24-hour unmanned convenience store. BYD claims its flash chargers require only 100 kW from the grid, drawing on buffer batteries during peak demand. The technology can charge a vehicle from 10% to 70% in five minutes. Sinopec expects similar conversions at other sites.

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2026-08-03 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• Foreign automakers’ share falls below 25%

• CXMT’s 500% IPO surge transforms Hefei’s holdings

• Chinese games earn USD 12.4 billion overseas

• EVs displace 1.4 million barrels of oil daily

🚀 Headlines

China starts production of home-grown immersion DUV chipmaking tools (link)

A Shanghai-based manufacturer linked to Huawei and SiCarrier has begun mass-producing China’s first homegrown immersion deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines. Under evaluation at SMIC since September 2025, the systems target 28nm manufacturing with single exposure and could support 7nm or 5nm through multiple patterning, though yields still trail industry leaders. Most components are sourced domestically. Output is expected at roughly five machines in 2026 and twenty in 2027, with SMIC, Hua Hong and CXMT among the initial customers. The tools remain behind ASML’s latest systems in throughput and precision, but commercial production narrows a critical gap in China’s semiconductor supply chain.

China’s domestic immersion DUV equipment is moving from prototypes into initial commercial production.

Chinese open-source models take 9 of OpenRouter’s top 10, ByteDance doubles Seedance 2.5 generation time (link, link)

OpenRouter’s top-ten LLM leaderboard is now entirely open-weight, with nine of the top ten models from Chinese developers. DeepSeek V4 Flash leads at 7.43 trillion weekly tokens, while GLM 5.2 and DeepSeek V4 Pro are also posting double-digit growth. Google retains 26.5% of text requests, DeepSeek exceeds 21%, and Chinese providers collectively hold 32.3%. V4 Flash is a 284-billion-parameter open-weight model that scored 82.7 on Terminal-Bench 2.1 at USD 0.14 per million tokens, matching premium performance at far lower cost.

ByteDance's Seedance 2.5 has been released, doubling single-shot video generation to 30 seconds, with multi-round extension for narratives lasting several minutes. It accepts up to 30 images, 10 videos and 10 audio clips as references while maintaining subject identity and audio-visual sync. Timestamp editing adds professional control. Seedance 2.5 is rolling out on Jimeng AI and Doubao Pro, with API access through Volcano Engine Ark, competing with Kuaishou Kling and Alibaba Wan.

LLM Leaderboard on Open Router

Foreign and joint-venture automakers’ China share falls below 25%, sparking localization push (link)

Foreign and joint-venture automakers saw their combined China market share fall below 25% for the first time in June, reaching 24.5%, down from over 60% in 2020. Volkswagen deliveries fell 26% to 971,000 units in the first half of 2026, while Toyota, Nissan and Honda declined 17%, 15% and 35%. BMW fell 20%, Mercedes-Benz 28% and Audi 19%. Domestic NEV brands have overturned the old joint-venture model through faster development cycles, pushing foreign automakers to localize R&D and decisions. Dongfeng Nissan’s China-led “GLOCAL” strategy helped its NEV sales surge 192% year-on-year; NEVs reached 30% of June sales, up from 7% at the start of the year. Beijing-Hyundai has built a 1,500-person local R&D team.

Chinese Brands (Blue) and Joint Venture, Foreign Brands (Orange) Market Share 2020-2026

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Hefei’s CXMT stake nears RMB 1 trillion after chipmaker’s 500% IPO surge (link)

China’s leading memory chipmaker CXMT became the mainland’s most valuable company after soaring more than 500% on Shanghai’s STAR Market. Its IPO valued the company above RMB 4 trillion (USD 590 billion), giving Hefei’s government funds paper gains of about 5,000%. Two municipal-backed vehicles, Qinghui Power and Changxin Integrated, together own 30% of CXMT, now worth close to RMB 1 trillion, after investing RMB 13 billion and RMB 6.7 billion in 2023. Hefei’s industrial-capital model, previously used to back BOE and Nio, is drawing attention as a way to fund strategic technology. China’s “Big Fund” holds 7.9%. Sponsored by CICC and China Securities, the IPO carried a commission of just 0.39%, highlighting a broader shift from bank lending to equity financing for capital-intensive industries.

Chinese-developed games’ overseas revenue jumps 30.2% to USD 12.4 billion (link)

In the first half of 2026, overseas revenue from Chinese-developed games surged 30.2% year on year to USD 12.4 billion, the fastest growth in at least five years. The US accounted for 32.3% of revenue, followed by Japan at 14% and South Korea at 7.5%, together representing nearly 54% of the total. Strategy games and new titles drove the expansion, with European markets also gaining ground. The overseas growth rate was nearly 2.5 times that of the domestic market, highlighting the rising global competitiveness of Chinese game developers.

Overseas revenue from Chinese-developed games reached USD 12.4 billion in the first half of 2026.

Shanghai's inbound tourist numbers jump 28% in first half of 2026 (link)

Shanghai recorded 5.31 million inbound tourist arrivals in the first half of 2026, a 28% year-on-year increase. Overnight stays rose 31% to 5.02 million. South Korea was the largest source market (515,000 arrivals), while Russian arrivals surged 132% to 356,000. Long-haul European and US markets grew over 30%. Public transport usage by foreign visitors jumped 32% to 1.28 million passengers. Cruise passenger arrivals soared 38% to over 51,000, with 81% using visa-free policies. Total tourist visits to Shanghai reached 313 million (+18%), driving cultural tourism spending up 8.8% to CNY 543.3 billion (USD 80.5 billion). The city also hosted 18,513 commercial performances generating CNY 923 million in box office revenue. The data reinforces Shanghai’s position as China’s primary gateway for inbound tourism.

China holds 63% of global humanoid-robot patent strength (link)

A LexisNexis patent analysis of over 26,000 families ranks Chinese startups in six of the top ten humanoid-robot portfolios, sweeping the first five places. Over the past decade, filings in control-and-planning architectures, the bottleneck for commercial deployment, grew fivefold. By the end of 2025, China held 73% of morphology-related patents by volume and 63% of global portfolio strength. Yet US inventors, with only 5% of morphology families, contribute 11% of portfolio strength, more than twice their share by volume, and maintain the highest average patent quality. Hours after the report, the US FCC barred new Chinese humanoid and quadruped robots from the US market, citing national security.

Robotics Patents Invented by Country 

China adds 400 GW of power capacity as EVs displace oil demand (link)

China will add 400 million kW of generation capacity in 2026, including 240 million kW in the second half, 50% more than in the first six months. Total installed capacity, which passed 4 billion kW in the first half, is set to reach 4.3 billion kW by year-end. Non-fossil fuels will account for 63% of capacity, wind and solar for half, while coal falls to 31%. Electricity demand rose 5.3% in the first half, driven by a 44% surge in internet data services and a 57% jump in EV charging; together they contributed 17% of consumption growth. Electric vehicles displaced an estimated 33.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent in the first half, up 42%, equal to about 1.4 million barrels per day or 6% of China’s oil imports. The expansion supports China’s target to double green capacity by 2035.

📸 China Snapshot

This week’s snapshot comes from Changsha, Hunan, one of central China’s leading industrial and media centres. The city combines Sany and Zoomlion’s heavy machinery with Mango TV’s national cultural reach, showing how inland growth increasingly blends advanced manufacturing with consumer influence.

Photo by Vincent Tint / Unsplash

🎁 Bonus Stories

China turns to fast-growing bamboo to beat desertification (link)

China is testing bamboo barriers against desertification in Qinghai and Inner Mongolia under the Great Green Wall project. The woven bamboo lasts three to ten years, replacing straw grids that degrade within two to three years and are already more than 70% non-functional. Chinese Academy of Forestry researchers say the renewable barriers cut costs by over 20% while avoiding plastic waste and allergies caused by pollen-heavy shrubs. Desertification affects 27.4% of China’s land and 400 million people, making durable, lower-cost barriers strategically important.

New Shenzhen museum lets visitors explore 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history (link)

Shenzhen opened its 105,300-square-metre Natural History Museum on July 28, making it the largest such institution in southern China. Designed by 3XN, B+H and Zhubo, its sloping granite roofs resemble a river delta and merge with the adjacent park. Eight halls trace 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history, from the universe’s formation to Shenzhen’s ecology. Its 7,461 authentic specimens include a 26-metre Mamenchisaurus skeleton, meteorites and ancient human fossils. The roof is walkable, and public spaces remain accessible beyond museum hours.

👥 About us

China Insights is brought to you by Tomas Kucera, General Manager - Strategy & Business Development at Sino Matters, and Yereth Jansen, founder of PulseMail.ai. Also follow us on LinkedIn.

2026-07-27 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• German helmet production shifts to China, as Europe’s last major domestic maker relocates

• Green BRI deals reach a record, with first-half activity totaling USD 126.3 billion

• Wind and solar target over 50% of capacity, backed by new reliability requirements

• China licenses its first AIGC story film, moving AI-generated video into long-form streaming

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🚀 Headlines

Geely buys 34% stake in Ford's Spanish plant, Chinese carmakers capture 34% of European plug-in hybrid deliveries

Geely Auto will take a 34% stake in Ford’s Valencia plant, forming a joint venture (66% Ford, 34% Geely) for €221m (USD 252 million). The first model, Geely’s EX5 electric SUV, will roll off the line in 2028, followed by a jointly developed crossover with multiple powertrains. A total of five models will be produced in the factory. With a 500,000 annual capacity, it was running at just 26% in 2025. Ford’s European sales have fallen from 1m cars a decade ago to 426,000 last year. The deal sidesteps EU tariffs, offers an “asset‑light” entry into Europe and taps an existing skilled workforce. It gives Geely its first European plant and offers Ford a way to utilise idle capacity.

Chinese automakers captured a record 34% of Europe’s plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) deliveries in June. Brands including BYD and Chery also accounted for 11% of all new-car sales and 15% of battery-electric vehicle deliveries across the continent. The gains come as Chinese manufacturers leverage competitive pricing and advanced battery technology to appeal to cost-conscious consumers. Chinese carmakers surpassed Japanese rivals for the second consecutive month. They sold 171,630 vehicles, compared with 158,540 for Japanese brands. The trend is likely to intensify as Chinese firms establish local production.

Geely Auto and Ford plan five locally built models at the Valencia plant.

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China’s chip exports nearly double as AI demand becomes trade stimulus

China exported 179.44 billion integrated circuits worth USD 177.28 billion in the first half of 2026, up more than 96% year-on-year by value. Exports of computers, servers, memory and other data-processing equipment rose 41.3% to USD 138.08 billion. The global AI build-out is pulling directly on Chinese factories, not only for processors but for the surrounding layer of servers, memory, networking equipment and components. AI infrastructure has become a broad industrial growth market, and China participates across nearly every layer of that supply chain.

Last German bike helmet maker moves production to China

Germany’s last domestic bicycle helmet maker, KED, is moving all production to China, citing a 40% minimum-wage rise to €13.90 an hour, surging raw-material costs and fierce competition from discounters selling Chinese-made helmets. The move follows similar decisions by Uvex and Alpina, leaving no major German producer in the segment. KED’s CEO acknowledged that the “Made in Germany” premium is eroding as retailers and consumers see that high-quality helmets can be made in China, where factories already supply many global brands.

Popular with families, KED bicycle helmets will soon be made in China

Green energy drives China's BRI to record USD 126 billion investment in just half the year

China’s Belt and Road Initiative green-energy financing hit a record USD 20.1 billion in the first half of 2026, already surpassing the full-year 2025 total. Total BRI deals rose to USD 126.3 billion, the highest for any half-year. The surge is being driven by rising energy prices and demand for power and data-centre infrastructure to support AI. Construction projects made up USD 11.8 billion and investments USD 8.3 billion. Private-sector engagement rose to 48%, up from 13% in 2022, while African investment nearly tripled year-on-year to USD 33.5 billion. BRI activity is becoming more commercial and investment-led, with Chinese clean-tech firms meeting global demand for affordable, scalable green energy.

China’s lending market gets new pricing anchor as first DR-linked loans issued in Hainan

China has introduced a new lending-rate anchor. ICBC, China Merchants Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank issued the first corporate loans tied to the Depository Institutions Repurchase Rate in Hainan. Overnight, seven-day and 14-day DR rates reflect interbank funding costs, offering a more market-driven alternative to the Loan Prime Rate. Enabled by Hainan’s free-trade policies, the pilot advances interest-rate liberalisation and could align Chinese pricing more closely with global benchmarks such as SOFR, improving cross-border financing.

Hainan is piloting China’s first corporate loans priced against the DR interbank benchmark.

DJI launches first high altitude electric VTOL fixed-wing cargo drone EV50

DJI has launched the EV50, its first electric VTOL fixed-wing cargo drone for long-range regional transport. During a Mount Everest expedition it operated at 8,861 metres, 12 metres above the summit, setting a high-altitude record for VTOL drones. Over 12 days it completed 32 flights, including 12 atmospheric-monitoring missions, and climbed as much as 3,730 metres from base camp in a single flight. The aircraft carries 50 kg, flies up to 150 km at 160 km/h and has a 270-litre cargo compartment. It also includes dual thermal management, anti-icing, four independent batteries and an emergency parachute. The EV50 extends China’s push into longer-range cargo transport for remote logistics, emergency response and scientific research.

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China to boost wind and solar generation by more than 50% in five years

China has made a 53% increase in wind and solar generation binding by 2030, with renewable-energy consumption rising from 1.18 billion to 1.8 billion tonnes of coal equivalent. Wind and solar, backed by storage, must supply 8% of installed capacity during peak demand and cover 20% of electricity during demand spikes. The plan also targets more than 300 GW of renewable peaking capacity, 570 GW of hydropower, including 160 GW of pumped storage, and 2 million tonnes of green hydrogen. The binding target shifts the focus from installation volume to reliable grid integration.

iQIYI launches China’s first licensed AIGC online story film

Chinese streaming platform iQIYI has released “Qitan: Paper Blade Across the Wasteland,” the country’s first AIGC online story film to receive a Network Drama/Film Distribution License. The 60-minute feature, co-produced with DaMeng Innovation, used AI across concept development, visual-asset generation, 4K output and post-production. A team of more than 20 creators generated over 200 characters and visual assets. It is the first instalment in a planned trilogy rooted in Chinese supernatural folklore and a test of whether AIGC can move beyond short videos into full-length narrative production. Its release is also a regulatory milestone for AI-generated content in China’s streaming industry.

Qitan: Paper Blade Across the Wasteland -《奇谭：纸刃渡荒墟》

📸 China Snapshot

Shanghai, reflected. Photographer Declan Sun frames Pudong’s skyline indirectly, mirrored across the Huangpu through a window. It suits a week in which China’s industrial reach appears in Spanish factories, record chip exports and a cargo drone flying above Everest.

The scene captures a city that remains both showcase and gateway: Chinese capital is entering European plants, European brands are shifting production to China, and clean-energy projects are expanding across Belt and Road markets. Shanghai is not only building at home; it is connecting China more deeply to global production.

Pudong, Shanghai. Photo by Declan Sun / Unsplash.

🎁 Bonus Stories

Wang Hong, Deng Yu are first Chinese nationals to win Fields Medal in mathematics

China has produced its first two Chinese-national Fields Medal winners. Peking University alumni Wang Hong and Deng Yu were recognised for work on the 3D Kakeya conjecture and Hilbert’s sixth problem. Wang is a professor at NYU’s Courant Institute and IHES, while Deng teaches at the University of Chicago. China becomes the fifth country, and the first in Asia, to produce two laureates at one ceremony. Only two ethnic Chinese mathematicians had won previously, and neither held Chinese citizenship at the time. The result highlights China’s growing research base: 12 Peking University alumni are invited speakers at this year’s International Congress of Mathematicians, while leading overseas mathematicians are increasingly joining Chinese universities.

China prepares to hit asteroid using projectile with 26 times the speed of sound

China is planning an asteroid-deflection mission that will strike the 98-foot near-Earth asteroid 2015 XF261 at more than 5.6 miles per second, roughly Mach 26 and nearly 50% faster than NASA’s DART mission. The impactor and an observation spacecraft would launch together, with the latter using a Venus gravity assist to monitor the collision and resulting trajectory change. The mission aims to hit the target accurately, alter its orbit, measure the result and confirm Earth’s safety. The encounter could occur during a close approach in 2029 or 2030, when the asteroid passes within roughly 4.3 million miles of Earth. Unlike DART’s 525-foot rubble-pile target, the smaller and potentially more solid body offers a different planetary-defence test.

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If you enjoy our newsletter, please consider buying us a coffee to keep us energized in bringing you the latest insights! 🤓☕

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2026-07-20 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are this week’s most important developments across China’s technology, trade, consumption and industry.

Here are some of the key highlights in this week’s edition:

• SABIC expands in advanced materials, with a stake in Rongsheng's USD 10 billion project

• Retail sales target RMB 60 trillion, setting a nationwide consumption goal for 2030

• China's first commercial brain implant, moving neurotechnology into hospital use

• C919 prepares its first international route, connecting Beijing and Ulaanbaatar

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🚀 Headlines

Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 beats Claude Opus on a leading benchmark (link)

Moonshot AI has released Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter open-source model that ranks third globally behind Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol. Its Kimi Delta Attention speeds decoding by up to 6.3x, while training efficiency improves 25% at less than 2% extra cost. K3 scored 1,687 on GDPval-AA v2, above Claude Opus 4.8 Max at 1,600, and performed strongly on agent and long-context tests. Its 100-million-token context window and sparse MoE design activate 16 of 896 experts per inference. Developer feedback puts its coding and planning above Opus 4.8 at about 60% of the price, reinforcing the cost pressure already created by China's open-source AI models. Alibaba also debuted the 2.4-trillion-parameter Qwen3.8-Max-Preview on Token Plan, Qoder and QoderWork, with an open-weight release promised soon; its frontier ranking remains a vendor claim pending public benchmarks.

Kimi K3 moved up 17 places from Kimi K2.6.

China’s exports accelerate 27% at fastest pace since 2021, monthly vehicle exports exceed 1 million for the first time (link, link)

China’s June exports rose 27% year-on-year to a record USD 412.39 billion, the fastest pace since October 2021, driven by AI hardware demand and a tariff rush. Imports jumped 36%, the largest gain since June 2021. Semiconductors, rare earths, autos and ships led export growth, while toys, footwear and furniture lagged. Semiconductor exports soared 122% and computer and parts exports rose 53%; together, chips and computers drove over a third of export growth. Shipments to the US rose about 14%, while exports to the EU and ASEAN grew 18.5% and 35%. The trade surplus reached USD 125.6 billion.

China’s vehicle exports surpassed 1 million units for the first time in June, reaching 1.037 million, up 75.1% year-on-year. First-half exports reached 5.096 million. NEVs accounted for more than half of June shipments, while first-half NEV exports rose 120% to 2.355 million. The results reflect China’s strengths in batteries, 800V charging and integrated die-casting, alongside its expanding EV manufacturing presence in Europe. ASEAN, the Middle East and Russia drove much of the growth.

China Exports by Value in USD Billions (2016-2026)

SABIC to buy up to 50% of Rongsheng’s USD 10 billion materials project (link)

Saudi Aramco’s chemicals arm, SABIC, will acquire up to 50% of Rongsheng Petrochemical’s Jintang New Materials Project in Zhoushan, a CNY 67.5 billion (USD 10 billion) complex targeting high-end resins, biodegradable plastics and speciality chemicals. The final investment ratio and price have not yet been set. Rongsheng also plans a CNY 19.6 billion expansion of existing refineries to use more by-products, with expected annual net profit of CNY 1.4 billion and an 8.9-year payback. Saudi Aramco already owns 10% of Rongsheng after investing CNY 24.6 billion in 2023.

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China approves Apple's AI services for mainland iPhones (link)

China’s internet regulator approved Apple’s AI services for mainland iPhones on July 8, allowing Apple Intelligence to launch in its largest smartphone market. The system, powered by Alibaba’s Qwen large language model, will handle text and image comprehension, content generation and cross-app tasks. Apple’s website now labels all iPhone models “Ready for Apple Intelligence”, although the launch date remains subject to regulatory clearance. The approval gives Apple a route back into the AI race in China while placing Alibaba’s flagship model across a major consumer platform.

China completes the first commercial brain-computer implant (link)

Surgeons at Shanghai’s Huashan Hospital have implanted a commercially approved brain-computer interface in a patient with impaired hand mobility following a spinal-cord injury ten years ago. Neuracle Medical Technology’s coin-sized NEO device sits on the brain’s outer surface, reads neural signals and translates them into assisted hand movement. NEO received Chinese approval on March 13 and reached its first commercial surgery within four months. China’s neurotechnology sector is moving from laboratory milestones into repeatable hospital workflows, manufacturing and rehabilitation services.

Neuracle’s NEO device is designed to help restore hand movement.

China sets a measurable path toward RMB 60 trillion in retail sales (link)

China’s first five-year plan dedicated specifically to consumption targets approximately RMB 60 trillion in annual retail sales by 2030, compared with RMB 50.1 trillion in 2025. That implies an increase of nearly RMB 10 trillion, or about 20%, across five years. The 28 policy tasks cover household income, services, digital consumption, skills, and new consumer formats. The headline target gives companies a practical benchmark for the scale of China’s consumer-growth opportunity.

Retail sales reached RMB 50.1 trillion in 2025; the 2030 target is approximately RMB 60 trillion.

China’s C919 passenger jets to enter service on first international route (link)

China's C919 narrowbody jet will begin its first scheduled international service on August 12, with Air China operating daily Beijing-Ulaanbaatar flights. The C919 has already been making regular commercial flights to and from Hong Kong, its first non-mainland destination. The aircraft has carried over 4 million passengers since its commercial debut in May 2023. Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) has secured over 1,200 C919 orders. The airplanes are powered by Franco-American CFM International LEAP engines. 15 of the planned 75 jets were delivered last year due to US engine export suspensions. COMAC plans to deliver 28 more planes this year. The aircraft is in the certification process with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. The full European certification is a lengthy process and not expected to be completed until between 2028 and 2031.

China’s 10-million-population Hainan province to become first to ban ICE vehicle sales by 2030 (link)

Hainan, a province of 10m people, will ban sales of new internal‑combustion vehicles by 2030, the first such ban in China. By that date, new energy vehicles must account for over 45% of the fleet, and all new private and public vehicles must be clean‑energy powered, barring specialist uses. A vehicle‑to‑charger ratio below 2.5:1 is targeted. To ease grid strain, the island aims to raise energy self‑sufficiency from 24% to 54% by 2030 via nuclear and renewables. Hainan already leads the country in EV penetration. The ban signals China’s accelerating push to phase out fossil‑fuel vehicles, using the island as a testbed for a national transition.

📸 China Snapshot

Shanghai Greenhouse Garden rises from the former site of the Shanggang Third Steel Factory in Pudong's Expo Culture Park. Opened in 2024, the 22,000-square-meter complex is described as Asia's largest greenhouse garden, turning an industrial landmark into a year-round public landscape beside the park's Central Lake and Twin Hills.

Its three immersive pavilions recreate desert, tropical rainforest and tropical flower environments beneath a cloud-like glass structure. Visitors encounter China's tallest baobab, an 800-year-old olive tree, extensive cactus and succulent collections, and a 12-meter tropical aquarium. The project is a striking example of how Shanghai is combining industrial heritage, ecological restoration and ambitious public-space design in the city's urban renewal.

Shanghai Greenhouse Garden, Pudong. Photo by Declan Sun / Unsplash.

🎁 Bonus Stories

World's first humanoid robot UFC-style fighting competition opened in Shenzhen with 32 teams (link)

On July 16, Shenzhen hosted the URKL, the first free-combat tournament for full-sized humanoid robots. The opening bout saw “White Eagle” decapitate “Matador” with a kick; the headless robot briefly continued before collapsing. More than 200 teams from 10 countries entered the online rounds, with 32 finalists selected. Each finalist received Engine AI’s T800 humanoid as a standardized platform before adding its own software and hardware. The teams will compete in group stages across Beijing, Zhengzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen later this year.

StepFun launches an AI phone built around agents, not apps (link)

Tencent-backed StepFun has launched the StepX Neo, which it calls the world’s first AI-native smartphone. Its Step AOS operating system is organised around agents, while the Amoo assistant can interpret a request, coordinate services and complete the job without forcing users through individual apps. Integrations with Alipay, Trip.com, Didi and Meituan cover payments, travel, ride-hailing and delivery. Alibaba and Honor are moving in the same direction with Agentic OS. China’s super-app economy may give these devices a practical advantage: the models do not need to be the smartest in every benchmark if they can already pay, book, order and move people inside connected platforms.

StepX Neo connects an AI-native OS to payments, travel, mobility, and delivery

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2026-07-13 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• AstraZeneca deepens its China pipeline, with a USD 1.7 billion kidney-drug pact

• Chinese automakers take 12% of Europe, overtaking Japanese rivals in May

• CXMT challenges the DRAM incumbents, with 11% of global wafer capacity

• Cross-border travel sets a record, as visa-free arrivals accelerate

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🚀 Headlines

Chinese AI models reach 46% of US usage on OpenRouter (link)

U.S. companies are increasingly adopting Chinese AI models as cost pressures rise. Since February, their share of tokens used by U.S. firms through OpenRouter has stayed above 30% each week and peaked at 46%, versus an 11% average during the previous 12 months. Chinese models cost 60–90% less than leading U.S. systems while nearing frontier performance. As of May, a reported 80% of U.S. startups relying on open-source AI had shifted to platforms such as DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi and GLM. In June, AI startup Lindy moved all traffic from Anthropic to DeepSeek, saving millions. The cost-performance gap is turning Chinese open-source models into a practical default for more U.S. companies.

AstraZeneca pens USD 1.7 billion kidney drug discovery pact with Chinese long-time partner CSPC (link)

AstraZeneca has paid CSPC Pharmaceutical USD 30 million upfront to co-discover two kidney-disease siRNA candidates using CSPC’s extrahepatic delivery platform. The deal includes up to USD 540 million in development milestones and USD 1.2 billion tied to sales. AstraZeneca may take global rights, while CSPC retains China rights for one asset. The collaboration combines AI molecular design with automated screening and extends China’s biotech licensing boom. It follows AstraZeneca’s USD 1.2 billion upfront obesity pact with CSPC this year, worth up to USD 18.5 billion, as well as two earlier chronic-disease collaborations. Farxiga generated USD 2.2 billion in Q1 2026, underscoring the kidney market’s importance.

China successfully lands “SpaceX-style” reusable rocket for first time (link)

On July 10, China launched and recovered the first stage of an orbital-class rocket for the first time. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation landed the Long March 10B booster on a shipborne net during its maiden flight from Wenchang in Hainan. The 63-metre, two-stage vehicle delivered a satellite to orbit, while its kerosene-and-oxygen first stage returned vertically six minutes after separation. In reusable mode, it can lift 16 tonnes to low Earth orbit, and the booster is due to fly again by year-end. The milestone advances China’s broader commercial-space push as several domestic launch companies work to rival Falcon 9’s cadence.

China's Long March 10B booster descends toward its recovery vessel

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Chinese automakers surpass Japanese market share in Europe, BYD leads Chinese NEV exporters with 34.2% share (link, link)

In May, Chinese automakers surpassed Japanese rivals in European new car registrations for the first time, taking a 12% market share. The top five Chinese groups, BYD, SAIC, Geely, Chery and Leapmotor, sold 138,410 vehicles, up 65% year-on-year, versus 130,424 for Japan’s top six, down 3.1%, as Chinese gains came almost entirely from battery and plug-in hybrid EVs. Total European registrations rose 3.6% to 1.15m units. BEVs held 20% market share and plug-in hybrids 9.7%. Chinese firms are expanding local production, BYD in Hungary, Leapmotor with Stellantis in Spain, to mitigate EU tariffs.

In June, BYD led China’s NEV exports with 170,897 units, up 98.8% year-on-year, for a 34.2% share. Tesla China followed with 36,171 units. Over January–June, Chery ranked second with 290,301 NEVs, Geely third with 275,417 (+601.4%), and Tesla China fourth with 228,994. Including combustion vehicles, Chery led June passenger-car exports with 187,768 units, ahead of BYD and Geely. For the first half, Chery exported 931,557 passenger vehicles, up 70.9%, securing a 21.9% share.

CXMT’s rise breaks 3-firm global DRAM memory monopoly (link)

Hefei-based ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s state-backed memory-chip champion, is now the world’s fourth-largest DRAM producer. It holds 11% of global wafer capacity and is projected to reach 15% by 2028. After a decade of RMB 37 billion in losses, the company reported RMB 33 billion (USD 4.8 billion) in Q1 2026 net profit, while Apple is testing its chips for China-market devices. CXMT plans to raise RMB 29.5 billion in an IPO that could value it at RMB 3 trillion. Although barred from EUV tools and still behind in high-bandwidth memory, its profits and IPO proceeds could fund a multiyear HBM push. The rise also validates Hefei’s state-led venture-capital model, which supplied critical early funding.

Chinese team wins European inventor award for innovative smart battery recycling (link)

On July 2, a Chinese team from Guangdong Brunp Recycling (a CATL subsidiary) won the European Patent Office’s 2026 Inventor Award in the Non-EPO Countries category, plus the Popular Prize, for a smart battery-recycling technology. The process recovers 99.6% of nickel-cobalt-manganese and 96.5% of lithium from spent batteries, cuts acid-alkali use by 73%, shortens processing steps by over 18%, and lowers cathode-material carbon footprint by 61% versus conventional manufacturing. Globally, over 2,000 GWh of lithium-ion capacity were added from 2018–2023, powering some 40m EVs. The team aims to promote its directional recycling technology in international low-carbon standards and expand the global supply of recycled materials.

China's cross-border trips hit record high 369 million in first half of 2026 (link)

In the first half of 2026, China recorded 369 million cross-border trips, up 10.8% year-on-year to an all-time high. Foreign nationals made 45.9 million trips (+20.6%), while visa-free entries surged 30.6% to more than 17.8 million, accounting for 77.7% of foreign arrivals. Mainland residents made 176 million crossings, and travelers from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan made 147 million. China now grants unilateral visa-free access to citizens of more than 50 countries and offers 240-hour transit to nationals of 55 countries through 65 ports.

China’s Skyworth and Youdoo launch AI motion-sensing game console (link)

Skyworth Group and Youdoo, a console maker backed by the Chinese consumer-electronics company, have launched the Youdoo Box for CNY 1,999–3,399 (USD 295–500). Skyworth invested CNY 9 million in April for an 18% stake. The device uses AI vision to track body movement, enabling games and fitness assessments without controllers or wearables. China’s AI motion-sensing device sales are projected to reach 500,000 units by 2027 and 3.5 million by 2030, with its global market share rising from 6% to 20% over five years. Youdoo’s CEO, a former Tencent Games executive, aims to build China’s first globally competitive video-game console.

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📸 China Snapshot

Beijing’s Chinese Academy of History (中国历史研究院) combines traditional Chinese architectural forms with monumental contemporary design. Home to the Chinese Archaeological Museum (中国考古博物馆), the complex presents thousands of artefacts tracing China’s history, while its dramatic silhouette has become a distinctive feature of the capital’s skyline.

Photo by Timo Volz

🎁 Bonus Stories

Nobel-winning materials scientist Omar Yaghi joins China’s Tsinghua University from the US (link)

2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Omar M. Yaghi has left the University of California, Berkeley to join Tsinghua University in Beijing. He will lead a new research center combining artificial intelligence with chemistry and materials science to accelerate the design of materials addressing water shortages and carbon neutrality. Yaghi shared the 2025 Nobel for his work on metal–organic frameworks and has also received the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science.

Professor Yaghi received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2025

Shanghai Grand Opera House to open in October (link)

Shanghai Grand Opera House will open on October 17 with a four-month season through February 2027, featuring 47 productions, 82 performances and more than 100 educational activities. The venue includes the 2,000-seat Harmony Hall, 1,200-seat Soar Theatre, 1,000-seat Open Stage and a Grand Atelier. Its 10,000-square-metre fan-shaped exterior is designed to become a new Huangpu River cultural landmark and a platform for original Chinese works.

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2026-07-06 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• Solid-tumor CAR-T first, as China pushes advanced cell therapy into a new market

• Portable ACs surge in Europe, with Chinese brands riding heatwave demand

• Engineering majors dominate admissions, aligning students with industrial policy

• Clean-energy targets tighten, from provincial quotas to heavy-industry surcharges

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🚀 Headlines

DeepSeek breakthrough speeds up LLM generation by 85%, Meituan open-sources new top-performing LLM (link, link)

DeepSeek has open-sourced DSpark, a speculative decoding framework that speeds LLM inference by up to 85%. Under an MIT license, it lifts aggregate throughput by 51% for DeepSeek-V4-Flash and 52% for V4-Pro, with per-user gains of 60-85% and 57-78% versus MTP-1. DSpark works with other open models, including Qwen, via released checkpoints. It combines semi-autoregressive drafting with confidence-scheduled verification, reducing wasted computation and making self-hosted inference faster and cheaper for teams constrained by U.S. model access limits.

Meituan open-sourced LongCat-2.0, a 1.6-trillion-parameter Mixture-of-Experts model with a 1-million-token context window, under an MIT license. It scored 59.5 on SWE-bench Pro and placed in OpenRouter’s top three at 10.1 trillion monthly tokens. Trained on over 50,000 domestic ASICs, it is one of the strongest signals that frontier AI performance can scale without Nvidia dependence. Standard pricing is USD 0.75/USD 2.95 per million tokens; promotional rates run at USD 0.30/USD 1.20. The launch supports demand for lower-cost, open-source alternatives amid U.S. restrictions on GPT-5.6 and Claude Fable 5.

Speed vs. Capacity: DeepSeek's DSpark Boosts AI Performance

UBTECH brings consumer humanoids to market with 11,000 preorders (link)

UBTECH has unveiled its first consumer humanoid, the U1, under the UWorld brand. The lineup includes Lite, Pro and Ultra models, with pre-orders above 11,000 since opening on June 2. The 1.60m–1.85m robots combine 88 high-degree-of-freedom joints and an emotional AI layer for long-term interaction; core data stays stored locally and encrypted. Founder Zhou Jian said delivery starts in September. The move marks UBTECH’s push into consumer robotics and signals an important transition from industrial-only applications to households.

China's EV makers are taking over the European factories; CATL and Ford start production at US battery plant (link, link)

Chinese EV makers are moving into Europe's idle factories while avoiding EU import duties. Chery will build EVs at a former Nissan plant in Barcelona and is in talks over Nissan’s Sunderland site. Geely is reportedly taking over part of a former Ford plant near Valencia, while BYD is reportedly eyeing half of Volkswagen’s Dresden plant. Chinese brands sold 285,000 cars in Europe in Q1 2026, up 88% year-on-year, lifting share from 4.5% to above 8%. The shift is giving Chinese players local production access, distribution links, and brand legitimacy, while European makers face deeper supplier dependency on Chinese platforms and batteries.

CATL has commenced production at its Michigan battery plant through a technology-licensing agreement with Ford, marking a shift from exports to an integrated investment-trade model. Originally scaled at USD 3.5 billion for 35 GWh capacity, the project was reduced to USD 2 billion and 20 GWh following political scrutiny and policy uncertainty. The plant will supply LFP cells for Ford's electric pickups, with first deliveries expected in 2026. This comes as Ford recorded USD 19.5 billion in EV-related impairment losses after the US ended tax credits. CATL's global network of battery swap stations has reached 2,000 across 180 Chinese cities, targeting 3,000 by the end of 2026.

Nissan’s Sunderland plant

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China approved the world’s first solid tumor CAR-T therapy (link)

China has approved the first solid-tumor CAR-T therapy. On June 22, the NMPA approved CARsgen Therapeutics to market satri-cel for advanced HER2-negative, Claudin18.2-positive gastric cancer. The treatment was developed by CARsgen and marks a major breakthrough in a field historically dominated by blood cancers. A U.S. clinical trial was put on hold in 2023 due to manufacturing issues at its North Carolina site, and US approval pace remains slower overall, while China pushes cell therapy commercialization faster.

Chinese portable split air conditioners see sales boom as Europe swelters (link)

A severe heatwave in Europe is driving a surge in Chinese portable split ACs. Midea reported over 70% year-on-year sales growth in France, Spain, Germany, and the UK; Gree saw more than 40% growth in France, Italy and Spain in H1. Drill-free portable units, with no permanent installation, are selling much faster than conventional systems whose install slots are full into August. Exports of these units are up 70% in the first five months, while overall household AC exports to Western Europe rose nearly 10%. Chinese producers are leaning on the China-Europe Railway Express to protect lead times.

Midea Portable Split Air Conditioner

China’s most sought-after college degrees are in science and engineering (link)

Seven of the ten most popular majors in China's 2026 college entrance exams are in science and engineering. The top choices are electrical engineering and automation, AI, electronic information engineering, computer science and technology, communication engineering, law, economics, psychology, biopharmaceuticals, and digital media technology. Electrical engineering has been a green major for four consecutive years, with an 87% employment satisfaction rate. AI added 406 new undergraduate specialties nationwide between 2020 and 2024. Yet popularity does not guarantee strong outcomes; fields like AI and digital media show polarised graduate prospects. High-paying technical roles in integrated circuits, semiconductors and automotive electronics are closely tied to electronic information engineering. The data reflects a strategic shift: students are aligning their degrees with national industrial policy, even as the job market rewards those with the strongest practical skills.

China sets mandatory targets for end-user clean energy consumption (link)

China's 15th five-year energy plan aims for non-fossil fuels to supply 50% of power generation and new energy (wind and solar, possibly biomass) 30% by 2030, up from about 22% today. A separate plan sets binding targets for provinces and heavy industries to consume low-carbon power and non-electric energy, monitored quarterly. A three-year industrial decarbonisation plan covering steel, aluminium, cement, chemicals and coal power expects to cut energy use by over 100 million tonnes of standard coal and CO2 emissions by more than 200 million tonnes annually by 2028. Heavy industries will face surcharges of up to 0.1 yuan per kWh for non-compliance. China's total power capacity reached 4,000 GW in May, with coal's share of the energy mix falling to 32% and non-fossil's share rising to 62%. China's total power capacity is larger than that of the US, EU, India, Russia and Japan combined.

China's electricity generation capacity vs the rest of the world

China Snapshot

Beijing’s hutong street scene frames a quiet neighborhood lane with scooters, bicycles, and low-rise homes, while the 528-meter CITIC Tower, better known as China Zun, rises in the distance. The contrast between shaded alleyways and the Beijing CBD skyline captures the city’s blend of old Beijing charm and modern urban ambition.

Photo by X F

🎁 Bonus Stories

Chongqing Beer starts production in Malaysia marking first overseas brewing by a Chinese beer brand (link)

Chongqing Beer, owned by Carlsberg, has become the first Chinese beer brand to brew overseas, with production starting in Malaysia. The first cans rolled off the line at Carlsberg Malaysia's Shah Alam factory last month and went on sale at 99 Speedmart, the country's largest convenience chain, on June 23. The Malaysian version contains 3.8% alcohol, lower than the local average of about 5%, targeting younger drinkers seeking lighter options. Local production avoids import tariffs and consumption taxes, giving Chongqing Beer a cost and pricing advantage over imported brands. Carlsberg has operated in Malaysia for 55 years, providing established supply chains and distribution networks. The move marks a shift from the industry's traditional export model, which relied on foreign distributors and low‑priced OEM production. Carlsberg acquired its stake in Chongqing Brewery in 2008 and became the controlling shareholder in 2013. The expansion signals a new phase for Chinese beer brands: moving beyond exports to local production in overseas markets.

Chinese AI hearing aid startup topped Amazon's charts in 12 months breaking a long-running monopoly (link)

ELEHEAR, a Shenzhen-based AI hearing aid startup, captured 18% of the US OTC hearing aid market on Amazon within 12 months, rising from 1% to top the sales charts. Its USD 399 AI-powered device undercuts traditional competitors averaging USD 3,000, disrupting a sector long dominated by five conglomerates controlling 90% of the market. The breakthrough followed the 2022 FDA OTC Hearing Aid Act. Annual sales exceeded USD 15 million, with 1,108% year-over-year growth. Its return rate is less than half the industry average. The startup was named to Fast Company's 2026 Most Innovative Companies list. ELEHEAR entered a neglected market with a lower-cost, good-enough product and then moved upmarket.

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2026-06-29 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• YMTC climbs to 13% NAND share, as China’s memory-chip race accelerates

• Visa-free travel lifts inbound tourism, with Southeast Asia and the Middle East surging

• Fusion magnets go fully domestic, moving China closer to practical clean power

• Reusable rockets prepare second takeoff, as constellations drive launch demand

Remember to follow us on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

🚀 Headlines

Bytedance to release Seedance 2.5 upgrade, China’s Zhipu AI is closing in on top US models at 5th of the cost (link, link)

ByteDance has introduced Seedance 2.5, its latest AI video model, during a conference in Beijing. The model can generate 30‑second 4K clips from a single prompt and now supports up to 50 reference pieces (images, videos, or audio), up from 12 in its predecessor. It will launch in China next month, with no timeline given for other markets. The new model is significantly improved from its predecessor, and ByteDance continues to release some of the most advanced video‑generation AI, rivaling OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Veo 3. The model offers greater creative control. The message is clear: China's AI video race is accelerating, and ByteDance is leading the charge.

Zhipu's GLM 5.2 has landed within a percentage point of Anthropic's Opus 4.8 on a key agentic benchmark, at roughly a fifth of the cost. OpenRouter token traffic climbed faster than after DeepSeek's V4 launch. GLM-5.2 is available under an MIT license and uses a novel IndexShare architecture that improves speculative decoding acceptance length by 20%. On SWE-bench Pro, it scored 62.1, outperforming GPT-5.5 (58.6). It ranks second globally on Code Arena. The open-source model is free to download and fine-tune, putting pressure on closed-source frontier labs. With frontier token spend straining budgets, enterprises are now focused on intelligence per dollar, making Zhipu's model an attractive alternative. The US may have the frontier models, but China is winning the battle for enterprise adoption. The cost gap is decisive.

Benchmark Performance

Eli Lilly reunites with Shanghai’s Abbisko in USD 1.9 billion multiple target R&D deal (link)

Eli Lilly, an American multinational pharmaceutical company, has expanded its partnership with Abbisko Therapeutics, committing up to USD 1.9 billion for the Chinese biotech to apply its discovery and early development capabilities to multiple Lilly-selected targets. The deal follows an earlier 2022 collaboration on a cardiometabolic candidate. Abbisko, a Shanghai-based oncology specialist, also has preclinical obesity and eczema programmes. The move mirrors recent Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer deals that channel internal programs through Chinese partners to accelerate early development. Lilly will pay an undisclosed upfront fee, with Abbisko eligible for milestones and royalties. The agreement continues Lilly’s aggressive dealmaking pace, fuelled by GLP-1 revenues. In the past month alone, Lilly has struck deals to acquire three vaccine developers, a neuroscience startup, and to license assets from multiple biotechs. The message is clear: China’s early-stage R&D speed is becoming integral to global pharma strategy. The deeper the ties, the faster the pipeline.

YMTC NAND market share climbs to 13% as global competition intensifies (link)

Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) has raised its global NAND flash market share from 8% to 13% in a year, becoming the fastest-growing player in the sector, according to Counterpoint Research. Samsung still leads with 29%, followed by SK Hynix at 18%, while YMTC now ranks fourth. Korean industry insiders acknowledge that the pace of China’s memory chipmakers has exceeded expectations, directly threatening the market positions of the two Korean giants. YMTC has recorded double-digit growth for three consecutive quarters, with Q1 2026 revenue reaching USD 2.6 billion, a staggering 445% year-on-year increase. The data suggests that China’s memory ambitions are no longer a distant threat; they are reshaping the global NAND landscape in real time. For Samsung and SK Hynix, the window to respond is narrowing. For YMTC, the trajectory is clear: catch up, then overtake. The race for NAND supremacy is now a three-horse contest. And the Chinese contender is gaining ground fast.

Global NAND Memory Market Share

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Xiaomi YU7 GT secures world’s first driverless Nürburgring lap in 10 minutes (link)

Xiaomi's YU7 GT electric SUV has become the first production‑ready vehicle to complete a fully automated lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife, recording a time of 10 minutes 29.483 seconds, exactly 3 minutes 7 seconds slower than the manual SUV record of 7:22.755 set earlier by the same model. The vehicle delivers 1,003 hp (738 kW), accelerates from 0‑100 km/h in 2.92 seconds, and achieves a top speed of 300 km/h. Range is 705 km (CLTC), with 570 km rechargeable in 15 minutes. Priced from 389,900 yuan (USD 57,596). The driverless lap sets an initial benchmark for production autonomous software. As one engineer put it: This is not about beating human drivers; it is about proving that autonomous systems can handle the world's toughest track. The real race is just beginning.

China's Lingsheng supercomputer tops global rankings with 2.19 EFLOPS (link)

At the ISC 2026 conference in Hamburg, China’s domestically built Lingsheng supercomputer topped the TOP500 list with a sustained performance of 2.19 EFLOPS, ending a nine-year gap since China last held the No. 1 spot. The system is built entirely with indigenous processors and components, demonstrating that China’s homegrown chips can compete at the highest levels of scientific computing. China had stopped submitting data due to US export controls, but its publicly available research papers provide transparency. The TOP500, maintained since 1993, ranks machines by LINPACK benchmark performance. Lingsheng’s return signals the effectiveness of China’s domestic chip strategy and has implications for AI training, climate modelling, drug discovery, and materials science. China is back at the top, and it is running on homegrown silicon.

China’s inbound tourism from 80 visa-free countries grows 50% (link)

Ctrip released its China Inbound Tourism Development Annual Report 2026, revealing that nearly 80 countries now enjoy visa-free entry to China, and inbound tourists from visa-free countries are growing at 50%, far outpacing countries that still require visas. Southeast Asia has emerged as the most dynamic source market. Visitor arrivals from Thailand more than doubled year-on-year, while Malaysia climbed from fifth to third place among China's largest inbound tourism markets. The Middle East saw arrivals increasing by more than 100% and demand rising for customized services, cultural experiences, and Muslim-friendly facilities. The report highlights a dramatic improvement in flight conversion efficiency, jumping from 1.6 tourists per flight in 2019 to 12.1 by the end of 2025, with demand recovery significantly outpacing supply. Ctrip describes this as China's official entry into a “strategic window period for a trillion-level market.” The report also builds on the broader China tourism rebound, with younger international travelers seeking authentic, in-depth experiences in smaller cities and lesser-known destinations.

China achieves breakthrough in nuclear fusion superconducting magnets (link)

China has completed the world's largest fusion reactor superconducting magnet, a toroidal field coil measuring 21 metres in length and weighing 582 tonnes. It also successfully tested a fully domestic high-temperature superconducting central solenoid coil under full operating conditions. Both components achieved 100% domestic supply chains, from materials to fabrication, with key performance indicators surpassing international counterparts. The magnets are critical for confining plasma heated to over 100 million degrees Celsius, bringing China closer to practical fusion power. The breakthrough was announced on June 27, 2026, following expert validation. For a country racing to secure clean energy, fusion is the ultimate prize. China is now a step closer. The technology is real. The supply chain is domestic. The implications are enormous. The fusion era may be closer than we think, and China is leading the charge.

China's CGN breaks ground at world's largest concentrated solar power plant (link)

China General Nuclear Power has broken ground on the world's largest concentrated solar power plant in Qinghai province. The project features a solar collection area of 3.7 million square metres, three tower fields of 1.1 million sqm each and one 400,000 sqm trough field, plus a molten salt storage system exceeding 11.7 million kWh, both global records. It will generate 1 billion kWh annually, save 320,000 tonnes of coal, and cut 860,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. China's CSP capacity doubled to 1.8 million kW in 2025, with a 2030 target of 15 million kW. Construction costs have halved to CNY15,000 per kW over the past decade, and generation costs have fallen to around 8 US cents per kWh. The project marks a major step toward Beijing's 2060 carbon neutrality goal. The technology is proven. The world's largest CSP plant is another sign that China's clean energy transition is accelerating rapidly.

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📸 China Snapshot

Shanghai’s Bund waterfront glows at night along Zhongshan East 1st Road, where the Customs House clock tower, Peace Hotel, and rows of historic façades shine in golden light. Dense traffic, evening crowds, and the tree-lined promenade capture the energy of Huangpu, showcasing the Bund as one of Shanghai’s most iconic night views.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

Commercial space sector poised for second takeoff on reusable rockets and constellation demand (link)

China's commercial space sector is set for a second growth wave, driven by reusable rocket milestones and surging constellation demand. In July, the Long March 10B (July 10-13 from Wenchang) will test the world's first maritime net-based recovery for a 5-metre methane rocket, while LandSpace's Zhuque-3 Y2 aims to demonstrate vertical landing. China's Qianfan constellation requires 1-2 launches monthly; the GW project plans 13,000 satellites, and G60 targets 15,000. In late 2025, Beijing submitted 203,000 frequency applications to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the United Nations, in one week, the largest single filing in history. The government has elevated commercial space to an “emerging pillar industry,” with STAR Market rules now offering an IPO fast track. The sector is moving from concept to execution.

China’s AI-powered laser mosquito zapper goes viral after crowdfunding success (link)

A Chinese startup, Photon Matrix Lab, has raised over USD 2.7m on Indiegogo for an AI‑powered laser device that detects and kills mosquitoes mid‑flight. Priced at around USD 600‑630 each, the campaign attracted more than 4,000 backers from over 50 countries, exceeding its USD 20,000 target 130‑fold. The device uses lidar, AI vision, and laser systems to hit targets as small as 2mm within 0.003 seconds, neutralising up to 30 insects per second. Detection accuracy exceeds 95% within a six‑metre range. The product’s viral success, driven by a TikTok video that racked up over 70 million views, underscores China’s ability to repurpose industrial and defence technology for consumer markets. With mass production slated for summer 2026, the device may be the first viable consumer laser mosquito killer.

The portable laser device from tech startup Photon Matrix Lab

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2026-06-22 | subscribe | homepage | LinkedIn

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the highlights for this week’s edition:

• Provincial trade engines, from Guangdong electronics to Anhui autos

• Electric heavy trucks scale, with 40% penetration targeted by 2030

• China-Africa trade shifts, as machinery, consumer goods, and energy products gain ground

• Solar-hydrogen storage goes live, linking renewables with industrial fuel

🚀 Headlines

Lenovo built the AI engine behind the 2026 World Cup (link)

For the first time, a Chinese company, Lenovo, is FIFA’s official technology partner, and on opening night it delivered. The referee‑view AI stabiliser reduced motion distortion by up to 50% with sub‑two‑second latency, offering viewers a stable first‑person perspective. 3D digital avatars of all 1,248 players enabled “scalp‑level” offside precision. The FIFA AI Pro, a generative knowledge assistant trained on millions of match data points, cuts post‑match analysis from two days to about two hours. On‑site ThinkSystem servers handled real‑time streaming across 48 teams and 104 matches, for an estimated 60 billion cumulative viewers, a scale thousands of times larger than the 2022 edition. Twenty‑four years after China’s team reached the World Cup, Chinese technology now runs its core operating system. The opening match was not just a tournament kick‑off; it was proof that China’s tech sector is now building the infrastructure for the world’s biggest live events.

China’s Zhejiang University tops Harvard in Nature Index world academic rankings (link)

For the first time since the Nature Index began in 2014, Harvard is not the top-ranked university in the world academic rankings. Zhejiang University has taken the crown, with Tsinghua third. Chinese institutions now occupy nine of the top ten places, up from eight last year, and 17 of the top 20. Zhejiang’s index score rose 22.7% year-on-year, while Harvard’s grew just 0.6%. China’s overall research output surged by 22.4%, the only top-ten country to post double-digit growth. The US managed 4.2%. In applied sciences and chemistry, Chinese institutions hold all top ten spots; in biological sciences, China ranks first globally. The US still leads in health and social sciences, but the balance of power is shifting. The Nature Index now tracks 178 journals across natural, health, applied and social sciences, and its latest edition confirms what many have suspected: China’s research engine is not just catching up; it is pulling ahead.

2026 Research Leaders: Leading academic institutions

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China’s specialized provinces power global trade (link)

China’s USD 1.2 trillion trade surplus is often discussed as a single number, but the reality is regional and specialised. In 2025, Guangdong alone recorded over USD 1 trillion in trade, more than one-fifth of the national total, exporting smartphones, computers, and semiconductors. Jiangsu and Zhejiang add high-end manufacturing and cross-border e-commerce. Shandong exports tyres and vegetables. Eight provinces ran trade deficits, serving as import and logistics hubs. Anhui and Liaoning are emerging as automotive and shipbuilding centres. China has overtaken the US in R&D spending (PPP-adjusted), and its five-year plan continues to push innovation and industrial upgrading. For global businesses, the message is clear: China’s trade competitiveness is built not on a single model, but on a patchwork of specialised regional economies, each playing a distinct role in the global supply chain. The challenge is domestic demand, which remains soft. The opportunity is understanding which province powers which part of the trade machine.

China targets 40% new energy heavy-duty truck penetration by 2030 (link)

Eleven government ministries have set a bold target: by 2030, new energy heavy-duty trucks (NE-HDTs) will reach 40% market penetration, with a fleet of over 1.6 million units, roughly one-fifth of all heavy trucks. The push makes economic sense: electric models already cost 62,000 yuan annually to run, versus 79,700 yuan for diesel equivalents. Penetration surged from 0.9% in 2021 to 28.9% by 2025, and in short-haul routes (mines, ports) it now exceeds 60%. To crack long-haul logistics, the plan calls for about 3,000 charging and swapping stations by 2030. Huawei is pushing megawatt-level charging; CATL plans 900 swapping stations by year-end, aiming to cover 80% of logistics corridors by 2030. The message is clear: for China’s trucking industry, the electric shift is no longer a question of if, but how fast.

Heavy Duty Truck Sales

Africa's trade is increasingly shifting toward China (link)

Over two decades, China has transformed from a minor trading partner into a powerhouse for Africa. In 2025, both China and Europe each accounted for 27% of Africa’s imports, a striking shift from earlier years. Africa’s exports to China remain dominated by oil, copper and cobalt, but imports from China have moved far beyond cheap consumer goods. Machinery, vehicles, electronics, solar panels, and batteries now make up a growing share. Recent trade growth in 2024‑2025 points to ever‑closer integration: Chinese industrial exports are gaining ground across Africa’s infrastructure, energy and consumer markets. The relationship is becoming structural, not transactional. China is embedding itself into Africa’s industrial and supply‑chain landscape. The days when trade was simply about raw materials for low‑cost goods are fading. A new phase of deeper economic integration is underway.

London Metal Exchange to launch steel HRC contract using Shanghai futures prices in October (link)

The London Metal Exchange (LME) will list a hot‑rolled coil (HRC) futures contract in October that uses the Shanghai Futures Exchange settlement price as its benchmark, under a deal signed at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai. The SHFE’s HRC contract is the world’s largest for steel plate, averaging 700,000 lots daily and 1.9 million lots in open interest. China produced 325 million tonnes of HRC last year, 22% of its total steel output, and exported 21.5 million tonnes, about 20% of its steel exports. For the LME, the tie‑up fills a gap in its cash‑settled steel lineup and deepens ties with the world’s top producer and consumer. For China, it is another step toward making the “Shanghai price” a global benchmark. The message is clear: Chinese commodity pricing is going global, one contract at a time.

The SHFE signed a deal with the LME at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai

From Alo to Texas Chicken, foreign brands bet on China despite stiff rivalry (link)

Premium and niche foreign brands are entering or re‑entering China, even as mass‑market players pull back. Alo Yoga, a Lululemon rival, announced its China debut this week. Guess returned in May, two months after closing all its stores. Texas Chicken plans to open at least 600 outlets, starting in Shanghai this summer. German supermarket Müller will open its first Asian store in Shanghai later this year. China is still too large and important to ignore. But the playbook has changed: localisation and differentiation are now essential. For foreign brands, the prize remains vast, but the path to profit is narrower. The message is clear: go niche, go premium, or go home. The smart ones are betting on China’s next consumer chapter.

World’s largest solar-hydrogen-storage project completed with 120,000-kWh backup (link)

China is shifting its renewable focus from sheer capacity to systemic integration, as evidenced by the completion of its largest offshore solar-hydrogen-storage project in Rudong, Jiangsu province. Developed by CHN Energy, the 400-megawatt facility pioneers an integrated “electricity-storage-hydrogen” model. It pairs a 220-kilovolt booster station and a 120,000-kilowatt-hour battery with an electrolyser capable of producing 1,500 standard cubic metres of hydrogen hourly, yielding up to 180 tonnes of green hydrogen annually for local industry. The project underscores a broader national pivot. With China’s operational renewable hydrogen capacity already doubling since 2024 to over 250,000 tonnes a year, and another 900,000 tonnes under construction, Beijing is moving beyond simple generation. Instead, it is engineering closed-loop, multi-energy systems designed to tame the volatility of renewables and secure stable, decarbonised fuel for heavy industry.

World’s largest solar-hydrogen-storage project

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📸 China Snapshot

Shanghai’s Lujiazui skyline in Pudong dominates the view from the LuOne office tower in Huangpu, with the 632-meter Shanghai Tower, Jin Mao Tower, and World Financial Center rising above the city. The view captures Shanghai’s layered skyline at peak summer: dense, vertical, and still defined by the river corridor that links finance, trade, and old urban fabric.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

Cancer-on-a-chip pioneer Chen Weiqiang returns to China from New York University (link)

Chen Weiqiang, a tenured biomedical engineering professor at New York University and pioneer of “cancer-on-a-chip” technology, has returned to China to join Nanjing University as a distinguished professor. Chen, an American Heart Association fellow, has published nearly 70 papers and led over 20 major international projects with total funding exceeding 63 million yuan (USD 13.2 million). In the 2026 Nature Index, Nanjing University ranks ninth globally; NYU ranks 72nd. Chen, who earned his bachelor’s from Nanjing in 2005, cited personal and career reasons for the move. He will focus on cellular biomechanics and organ-chip research, while nurturing talent and bridging industry and academia. His return is another sign that China is attracting top overseas scientists, not just in AI and semiconductors, but also in cutting-edge biomedical engineering. The flow of talent is accelerating, and China’s top universities are the destination.

Chen Weiqiang

Shanghai Disneyland celebrates 10th anniversary as it surpassed 100 million visitors (link)

On June 16, Shanghai Disney Resort celebrated its tenth anniversary. It is the sixth Disney theme park worldwide and the first in mainland China. Since opening, it has welcomed over 100 million visitors, and in 2024 attracted 14.7m guests, up 5% year-on-year, ranking fifth globally. The attendance numbers were boosted by the opening of the world’s first Zootopia-themed land in December 2023, which became the park’s eighth themed area. Characters like LinaBell, created locally, show how the park has become a benchmark for China-style theme parks and global brand localisation. The resort is deep into its next expansion phase. Construction of its ninth themed area, a Spider-Man zone, set to deliver the park's first major Marvel-themed attraction, reached a milestone just weeks ago when the last section of its roller coaster track was installed. Two additional themed hotels are also under development. In China, the magic has room to grow.

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2026-06-15 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• NEV penetration hits 63%, with local brands reaching 81%.

• World Cup merch booms, from Labubu dolls to Messi jerseys.

• Xiaomi automates EV charging, using a robotic arm.

• Yangtze gets an $11B upgrade, with a water-staircase project.

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🚀 Headlines

China exports beat forecasts on AI boom as exports rise 20% (link)

In May, Chinese exports surged 19.4% year‑on‑year, beating forecasts and accelerating from April’s 14.1% gain. The driver was the global AI boom: memory chip prices rose 20% month‑on‑month, helping push integrated circuit exports up 111%. High‑tech products jumped 50.9%, car shipments 39%. Imports also climbed 27.4%, and the trade surplus widened to USD 105.4 billion. Furniture, toys and footwear exports are flagging, and crude imports plunged 29% to an eight‑year low. Yet the pattern is clear. China’s vast manufacturing base, deep supply chains and dominance in chips and clean‑tech are turning AI demand into a trade superpower. Exports remain the primary economic growth driver. The world still buys what China makes, especially when it is smart.

China’s Trade

Chinese biotech outlicensing boom to reach USD 240 billion in 2026 up 76% from last year (link)

Chinese biotech is no longer just a supplier of cheap research. Outlicensing deals with Western pharma are projected to reach USD 240 billion in 2026, up from USD 136 billion in 2025. Now, analysts are asking: which local firm will first sell its own branded drugs abroad? Top picks include Hengrui (China’s largest pharma by market cap), CSPC and Hansoh. Hengrui recently sealed a USD 15.2 billion oncology deal with Bristol Myers Squibb, and CSPC signed a USD 18.5 billion weight‑loss agreement with AstraZeneca. US tariffs of up to 100% on imported patented drugs are pushing European buyers to seek cheaper alternatives, opening a window for Chinese quality at competitive prices. Analysts say it could take 10‑15 years, but the race to become “China’s Pfizer” has begun. The prize: a slice of the most profitable drug market on earth.

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General Mills hands Häagen-Dazs ice-cream business in China to local tea chain (link)

General Mills has licensed its Häagen‑Dazs ice‑cream shops in mainland China to a consortium led by Ningji, a fast‑growing tea chain backed by ByteDance and Tencent. Ningji, founded in 2021, already has 1,799 outlets across China, while Häagen‑Dazs has just 262. The premium brand’s store count has been falling for years; competitors such as DQ now exceed 1,800 locations. Footfall has dropped by double digits, and profit margins are thin. General Mills will retain ownership of Häagen‑Dazs’s broader retail and foodservice operations, but the licensing deal hands the physical shop network to local operators. It is a clear sign that foreign consumer brands are losing ground to nimbler domestic rivals and that Chinese chains are moving upmarket by taking over established names.

Tesla FSD

China's May NEV penetration hits record 63% (link)

In May, China’s NEV retail penetration hit a record 62.9%, even as NEV sales themselves fell 7.5% year‑on‑year to 950,000 units. The paradox is explained by the rapid implosion of the internal‑combustion market: total passenger vehicle sales tumbled 22.1% to 1.51 million, with conventional ICE sales plunging 39%. Among local Chinese brands, NEV penetration soared to 81.4%. Battery‑electric vehicles bucked the trend, rising 3.9% to 637,000 units, while plug‑in hybrids and extended‑range EVs fell. Overseas demand is booming: NEV exports surged 112.6% to 424,000 units, making up 54% of all passenger vehicle exports, a record. BYD remained the undisputed leader with 207,372 domestic retail sales. China’s auto market is no longer transitioning; it is bifurcating, with petrol cars vanishing faster than anyone predicted.

China cashes in on World Cup fever with specialized merchandise (link)

Sales of World Cup merchandise in China have surged just before kick‑off. A collaboration between Pop Mart’s “The Monsters” series and the tournament has made Labubu dolls, vinyl plush hangers, blind‑box accessories, and instant hits; the “Catch the Win” plush in a custom kit is the top seller. Argentina’s home jerseys are flying off shelves on speculation that this will be Lionel Messi’s last World Cup. Hotels with big‑screen rooms saw bookings jump 47% for opening day, with weekend occupancy above 90%. Yet Chinese beer brands have largely sat out the tournament: matches run from midnight to late morning Beijing time, dampening drinking. Instead, brewers are pouring money into popular local leagues. The World Cup may be global, but China’s consumer playbook is increasingly local.

China rewrites the rulebook for its USD 3 trillion global capital (link)

On June 1, Beijing issued its first comprehensive regulation on outbound investment, effective July 1. The rules formalise a national security review system, bar the use of overseas projects to export banned goods or technologies, and for the first time, extend oversight to individual investors. The framework seeks to balance China’s accumulated $3tn in outbound direct investment (end‑2024) with growing concerns over technology leakage and geopolitical friction. A battery plant in Michigan, backed by Ford and CATL, shows how new structures such as license‑royalty models are emerging to navigate the fraught environment. In May, Beijing blocked Meta’s acquisition of AI start‑up Manus, citing regulatory arbitrage. The message is clear: Chinese capital must go global, but on Beijing’s terms, with tighter scrutiny and stiffer penalties for non‑compliance.

China’s Xiaomi unveils robotic arm that enables remote, hands-free home EV charging (link)

China’s electric-vehicle ecosystem is rapidly automating the final hurdle of ownership: plugging in. Xiaomi has unveiled a production-ready robotic charging arm for home use, slated for commercial release in the fourth quarter of 2026. Designed to integrate with smart-parking systems, the arm autonomously detects a vehicle’s position, connects the cable, and disconnects once charging limits are met, all controllable via smartphone. The demonstration, filmed in a real-world environment rather than a lab, signals that hands-free charging is nearing market reality. Xiaomi is not alone in this race to eliminate refuelling friction. Competitors are aggressively pursuing similar integrations; Li Auto is testing its own charging robot, while the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance demonstrated a comparable system with the Aito M8 last August. As China’s EV market matures, the battleground is shifting from battery range to seamless, AI-driven consumer convenience.

China to unlock Yangtze River chokepoint with USD 11 billion ‘water staircase’ project (link)

The Three Gorges Dam has become a victim of its own success. Cargo passing through its ageing locks hit 173m tonnes in 2025, far above the 100m‑tonne design capacity. To bust the bottleneck, China has begun a 77.2 billion yuan (USD 11.4 billion) project to build a new two‑way, five‑stage ship lock. Stretching 6.68km, it will allow 10,000‑tonne vessels to transit, doubling annual throughput to 336m tonnes. Construction will take 112 months (9.3 years). The project, included in the 15th five‑year plan, aims to ease logistics along Asia’s longest waterway, linking inland industrial clusters to the coast. For an economy built on connectivity, unclogging the Yangtze is not just an engineering feat; it is a growth imperative.

📸 China Snapshot

Zhangyuan (张园) is one of Shanghai’s oldest and most ambitious urban restoration projects, where 1880s shikumen lane houses, European-style villas, and modern luxury retail now coexist within a single city block. Once known as the “No.1 Garden of Shanghai,” it hosted political gatherings, theatrical performances, and some of the city’s earliest public events. The restoration itself was a remarkable engineering feat, with entire historic buildings lifted and relocated using advanced underground technology to construct new infrastructure beneath them, before being carefully returned and restored. Today, Zhangyuan stands as a showcase of how Shanghai preserves its architectural heritage while reinventing it for a new era, with historic façades, landscaped gardens, and the soaring towers of Jing’an District sharing the same skyline.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

Chinese independent movie hit ‘Dear You’ sets out on global theatrical run (link)

“Dear You”, a Teochew‑dialect family drama, has become one of China’s biggest hits of 2026, grossing over RMB 1.5 billion (USD 222 million), second only to “Pegasus 3”. Its Douban score of 9.2 from more than 700,000 ratings is one of the highest for a local release in a decade. The film, which weaves in the UNESCO‑recognised qiaopi (remittance letters) tradition, will go global from June 18. Damai Entertainment (formerly Alibaba Pictures) is handling the rollout, starting with Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, then moving to the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, France, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. Produced on a shoestring budget of just 10 million RMB (1.5 million USD), the independent budget regional drama to travel this far is unusual. It shows that Chinese storytelling, rooted in diaspora history, can find an audience far beyond the mainland.

Kimi and state-owned bank launch world's first AI-native credit card (link)

Moonshot AI’s Kimi has teamed up with a large state‑owned bank and an international card network to create the Kimi Credit Card, the first physical credit product that turns everyday spending into AI compute credits. Every transaction generates credits proportional to the amount spent, which can be redeemed directly for Agent usage quotas and premium features inside the Kimi ecosystem. Cardholders also get priority access to beta versions of new models. The card is now open for reservations. For Moonshot AI, it is a novel way to monetise beyond API subscriptions; for the bank, it embeds AI into daily finances. The move signals a broader trend: tokenised AI access entering mainstream consumer finance, as natural as airline miles or cashback. China’s AI and fintech sectors are converging.

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2026-06-08 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• Merck opens Shenzhen hub, as global firms localize innovation in China

• China indices tilt toward AI chips, pushing passive funds into new tech leaders

• EV batteries hit 72.2% share, with seven Chinese firms in the global top 10

• Blue-collar wages keep rising, narrowing the gap with white-collar pay

Remember to follow us on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

🚀 Headlines

Chinese AI Large Language Models seize over 50% market, Qwen becomes AI concierge for China’s brands (link, link)

China’s dominance in global LLMs is increasing. According to OpenRouter’s latest rankings, Chinese providers now command 53.5%, an increase of over 11% in just 2 weeks, driven by DeepSeek's 20.9% share and Tencent's 16.5%. The country’s leadership is vividly illustrated in the leaderboard: 4 of the top 5 models are Chinese. DeepSeek holds the top spot with its V4 Flash (3.69T tokens), followed by Hy3 preview (Tencent) at number two (2.94T), MiniMax (2.5T) and Mimo-V2.5 (Xiaomi) at number four (2.19T). DeepSeek's V4 Pro and V3.2 are also present in the top 10. With Alibaba’s Qwen model not listed in the top usage rankings, the final Chinese model market share is likely even higher.

Alibaba’s Qwen app is opening its platform to third‑party AI agents, turning a general‑purpose assistant into a service hub. Luckin Coffee, KFC, Mixue, and China Eastern Airlines are the first to test the feature. Users can now order a two‑person meal under RMB 60 (USD 8.8) from the nearest KFC for pickup or arrange travel, using natural language. The move builds on six months of integrating Alibaba’s own ecosystem, mapping, ride‑hailing, shopping and instant retail. Future agents will remember user preferences, manage trips, and handle repeat purchases. By courting outside brands, Qwen aims to make a single chat interface the gateway to daily transactions. The question is whether consumers will embrace it and how smoothly these agents perform in the real world.

Open Router Leaderboard

Merck opens innovation hub in Shenzhen in collaboration with local government, Celanese shifts production to China from Korea (link, link)

Merck, the German science and technology giant, has launched a new innovation and collaboration centre in Shenzhen’s Nanshan district, spanning 2,500 square metres. The facility is a joint effort with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shenzhen government, featuring a 1,900‑square‑metre CAS‑run laboratory open to students and researchers. The centre aims to unite policy support, academic ideas, and industrial scale to drive breakthroughs. With 93 years in China, Merck sees the country’s opening‑up moving from a manufacturing‑led phase (1.0) to an innovation‑led one (2.0), focused on talent and ecosystems. The hub will also help local firms align with global standards. It is Merck’s latest bet on the Greater Bay Area as a springboard to world markets.

Celanese, a Fortune 500 American specialty materials firm, is closing its compounding plant in Ulsan, South Korea, and shifting production to Nanjing, Shenzhen, and Silvassa, India. The move is part of its “Grow & Fortify” strategy to optimise its Asian manufacturing network. Production will focus on specialty materials used in automotive, electronics, and consumer goods. By consolidating into larger, more advanced facilities, Celanese hopes to strengthen supply chains for high‑growth Asian markets. The shift underscores a broader trend: multinationals are concentrating production in China and India, betting on their scale and infrastructure to outcompete smaller regional hubs.

China on track to surpass US as world’s leading travel and tourism economy (link)

China welcomed over 68 million international visitors in 2025, a 15.5% jump from the previous year, with spending up 10.5% to USD 135 billion, already above pre‑pandemic levels. The World Travel & Tourism Council predicts China will overtake the US (68 million international tourists in 2025) as the world’s largest travel and tourism economy. Spending is forecast to surge 22.5% to nearly USD 280 billion in 2026. Business travel ranked second globally, at USD 192 billion. Visa‑free stays of up to 30 days for more than 50 countries, better air and rail links, and biometric entry systems are driving the rebound. New cultural attractions and theme parks are diversifying the offering. By 2036, China is expected to generate one in five new tourism jobs worldwide, with the sector nearly doubling to USD 3.5 trillion.

Travel & Tourism Economic Impact Research 2026

China exchanges overhaul major indices to favor AI and chip stocks (link)

China’s bourses are tilting their benchmark indices decisively towards artificial intelligence and semiconductors. In a semi-annual rebalancing taking effect on June 15th, exchanges are overhauling more than a dozen key gauges, including the CSI 300, SSE 50, and STAR 50, to phase out traditional consumer electronics in favour of computing and memory chipmakers. The shift is already moving markets: between June 1st and 4th, GigaDevice Semiconductor attracted 4 billion yuan (USD 589m) in net institutional inflows, sending its shares up 13.3%. With STAR 50 tracking products already managing 130 billion yuan, and the CSI 300 and SSE 50 pools vastly larger, passive funds will be forced to funnel billions into the newly minted tech darlings. Meanwhile, offshore, the Hang Seng Tech Index added AI firms MiniMax and Zhipu AI on June 8th, underscoring Beijing’s broader push to channel capital toward technological self-reliance

Seven Chinese companies rank among top 10 in global EV battery market commanding 72.2% market share (link)

In the first four months of 2026, global EV battery usage reached 352.7 GWh, up 13.8% from a year earlier. Seven Chinese firms captured 72.2% of the market, a 2.1-percentage-point gain over 2025. CATL, the behemoth, grew installations 19.8% to 141.4 GWh, raising its share to 40.1% (from 38.1%). BYD, in second place, slipped 2.4% to 50 GWh, its share falling to 14.2% from 16.5%. Still, the two Chinese giants together control 54.3% of the market. South Korea’s LGES ranked third with 9.1%, while Japan’s Panasonic saw its share shrink to 3.4%. China’s CALB, Gotion, Eve, Svolt and Sunwoda all posted double‑digit growth, squeezing rivals. The message is clear: the world’s battery supply chain runs through China, and its dominance is only deepening.

China’s blueberry boom is reaching Southeast Asia (link)

China’s blueberry exports to Southeast Asia are surging, thanks to the China‑Laos Railway and the RCEP trade pact. In April, China shipped $24.4m worth of fresh blueberries and cranberries; first‑quarter exports reached $38.8m, already close to 2025’s full‑year total of $50.8m. Yunnan province, the main growing region, more than doubled its cultivation area and output between 2020 and 2025. Berries now reach Kuala Lumpur in days, not weeks, and sell for about USD 7 per kg, 30‑50% cheaper than Australian or Japanese fruit. China overtook the US as the world’s top blueberry producer in 2020. With year‑round availability, better refrigeration and faster logistics, Chinese fruit is winning over consumers from Singapore to Malaysia. The boom shows how trade and infrastructure can turn a domestic surplus into a regional advantage.

China’s blue-collar wage growth beats white-collar pay for sixth year as flexible workforce tops 300 million (link)

For the sixth consecutive year, blue‑collar wages in China have grown faster than white-collar pay. The average monthly gap narrowed 32.7% to CNY 2,250 (USD 332) in 2025, down from a peak of CNY 3,344 in 2013. Top earners include maternity caregivers (CNY10,128 a month), food‑delivery riders (CNY 8,325) and truck drivers (CNY 8,279). Riders saw compound annual income growth above 10%, with hourly earnings of CNY 37.30. The flexible workforce now exceeds 300 million and is expected to reach 320 million this year, over 40% of urban employment. While basic medical insurance covers 91.5% of these workers and occupational injury protection 86.2%, only 42.3% feel confident about retirement, and just 54.8% see meaningful career prospects. The labour market is rebalancing, but security lags behind rising pay.

China unveils world’s first superfast quantum memory, paving the way for practical computing (link)

Researchers at Zhejiang University have built the world’s first superfast quantum random access memory (QRAM), overcoming a key hurdle in making quantum computers useful outside the lab. The chip allows quantum machines to read classical binary data without slow, costly conversion. The team implemented the QRAM architecture in a superconducting quantum processor and successfully shared 4‑bit and 8‑bit data with the quantum chip. That means a quantum computer could, for example, sift through millions of molecular structures for drug discovery in superposition, arriving at the right answer exponentially faster than any supercomputer. The breakthrough also promises to speed up AI tasks such as natural‑language processing and image recognition. With the first practical QRAM now demonstrated, quantum computers are finally getting ready to work with the world’s existing data.

Quantum RAM

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📸 China Snapshot

A giant Unitree Robotics banner now dominates the façade of a mall beside Jing’an Temple, turning one of Shanghai’s busiest commercial districts into an unexpected showroom for humanoid robots. The actual Unitree Experience Center at ground level is surprisingly compact, but the message overhead is anything but. Founded in Hangzhou, Unitree has become one of China’s most watched robotics companies, known for its robot dogs and increasingly capable humanoid robots. The scale of the advertisement says as much about the company’s ambitions as the technology itself.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

China's second purpose-built cargo airport in Jiaxing takes off (link)

Jiaxing Nanhu Airport, China’s second purpose‑built air cargo hub and the first in the Yangtze River Delta, has completed its maiden international flight, a Boeing 767 to Dhaka. The airport began domestic passenger and cargo operations last December. Its runway can handle large freighters like the Boeing 747, with 33 of 56 parking spots reserved for cargo planes. YTO Cargo Airlines, the main operator, has moved its headquarters from Hangzhou to Jiaxing and plans 20 international cargo routes this year, including to Budapest and Seoul. Previously, 70% of the region’s air cargo relied on Shanghai Pudong. Jiaxing will act as a specialised cargo hub, complementing Pudong as the leader and Hangzhou as a belly‑cargo centre. For exporters, transit times have fallen from days to fixed weekly flights. China is building a more efficient air freight network.

China debuts world’s first consumer wing craft flying inches above water at 53 mph (link)

China’s NAVEE, formerly an electric-scooter maker, is pivoting from urban pavements to the water’s surface. The company recently unveiled the WaveFly 5X, billed as the world’s first consumer-grade wing-in-ground (WIG) craft. Utilising aerodynamic lift between its dual tandem wings and the water below, the carbon-fibre vessel glides inches above the waves. It boasts a top speed of 53 mph, a 309-pound payload capacity, and a 50-mile range. Showcased on Dong Taihu Lake, the craft targets China's push into the "low-altitude economy", a sector Morgan Stanley projects could exceed USD 2 trillion globally by 2030. NAVEE has already secured letters of intent from distributors across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. For a firm rooted in micro-mobility, the WaveFly 5X marks an audacious leap into aerospace-inspired recreational transit.

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2026-06-01 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• European firms deepen China manufacturing, despite de-risking pressure from Brussels

• Huawei reveals LogicFolding, a chip-design workaround for advanced-node limits

• CATL launches truck battery swaps, with 120-second exchanges for urban logistics

• Urban renewal gets a five-year plan, covering homes, pipelines, and old communities

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🚀 Headlines

European companies double down on China manufacturing despite EU de-risking push (link)

Despite the EU’s de‑risking rhetoric, European companies are deepening their manufacturing ties to China. A survey of nearly 300 members of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, conducted in early 2026, shows that for the first time in five years, the share of European companies reporting a worsening business environment in China has fallen. Optimism is edging up: 48% saw market access barriers ease (up from 44%), and the proportion citing China’s slowdown as a top challenge dropped 14 points to 57%. Profits remain solid, 70% of firms posted positive pre‑EBIT earnings in 2025, and 75% say their Chinese production is more efficient than anywhere else. Fully 94% view China as an important sourcing destination, citing speed, cost, and reliability. The survey found that 68% of companies are maintaining or expanding their local operations, while only 7% are shifting production elsewhere.

Key Takeaways from the EU Chamber’s 2026 Survey

Pfizer and China’s Innovent Biologics signed USD 10.5 billion global agreement to develop cancer drugs (link)

Pfizer has struck a global oncology collaboration with China's Innovent Biologics valued at up to $10.5 billion, underscoring the growing appeal of Chinese biotech innovation to Western pharmaceutical giants. The agreement, announced on May 29th, includes a $650 million upfront payment and up to $9.85 billion in contingent milestones across a portfolio of 12 programmes: eight early-stage assets originated by Innovent and four discovery initiatives proposed by Pfizer. For Innovent, which has already secured licensing deals with Roche, Takeda, and Eli Lilly, the pact validates its R&D pipeline, including the PD-1 inhibitor Tyvyt, approved for eight cancer indications in China. For Pfizer, still integrating its $43 billion acquisition of Seagen and navigating patent cliffs on legacy drugs, the deal represents a cost-efficient strategy to replenish its oncology pipeline through external partnerships rather than outright acquisitions.

Huawei plans new smartphone chips this fall as rivalry with Nvidia and Apple heats up (link)

Huawei has unveiled a chip‑design technique called “LogicFolding” that it will use in its Kirin smartphone chips this autumn. The company claims that by 2031, the approach could match the capabilities of a 1.4‑nanometre manufacturing process, even as TSMC, the world’s leading foundry, has only just begun volume production of 2nm chips. Blocked from buying advanced lithography equipment, Huawei has turned to alternative engineering. Over the past six years, it says it has mass‑produced 381 chips based on its so‑called “τ Scaling Law”. The move represents another attempt to bypass Western sanctions and sustain its rivalry with Apple and Nvidia.

Tingbo He, president of Huawei Semiconductor, at an industry conference in Shanghai

CATL launches China's first standardized light truck battery swap ecosystem (link)

CATL has launched China’s first standardised light‑truck battery‑swap ecosystem, partnering with logistics firm DST. A swap takes just 120 seconds. Over an eight‑year life cycle, energy costs are roughly half those of a diesel truck, saving more than 2,000 hours of refuelling time. The modular stations work with wheelbases from 2.7‑3.75 metres and serve both passenger and commercial vehicles using CATL’s #25 and #35 batteries. So far, 31 stations are operating in the Greater Bay Area; 140 are planned by year‑end. By the end of 2026, CATL and DST will put 5,000 battery‑swap light trucks into service, creating the country’s largest such fleet. The battery‑maker aims for over 3,000 passenger‑vehicle and light‑truck swap stations in 2026, with a long‑term goal of 30,000. The move extends CATL’s lead in electrifying urban logistics.

ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 hits Cannes with 95-minute AI film Hell Grind (link)

At the Cannes Film Festival, ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 model powered “Hell Grind”, a 95‑minute feature billed as the world’s first full‑length AI‑generated film. The movie was produced by Higgsfield, a US‑based AI company, using ByteDance’s video‑generation technology. A team of just 15 people completed it in 14 days on a budget of under USD 500,000, a fraction of the tens of millions that a traditional film of similar scale would cost. Most AI video tools still produce clips of only 15 to 30 seconds, making long‑form narrative a major bottleneck. “Hell Grind” suggests that the barrier is falling, shifting filmmaking’s constraints from budget and crew size to creative direction. For independent creators, the economics are revolutionary. Yet it also raises hard questions about authorship, workforce displacement, and what “artistic intent” means when emotion can be optimised by algorithms.

China unveils sweeping five-year urban renewal plan (link)

China has unveiled its 2026‑30 urban renewal plan, shifting focus from expansion‑driven growth to upgrading existing cities. The blueprint calls for renovating 500,000 dilapidated homes, upgrading 115,000 old residential communities, and revamping 4,000 urban villages. Some 365,000 km of underground pipelines will be improved, with total investment in pipeline work alone expected to reach about 5 trillion yuan ($737 billion). Local governments may use special‑purpose bonds to fund eligible projects. Authorities also plan to unlock idle land and unfinished properties, encouraging developers to participate. The announcement lifted property stocks, with markets betting that the renewal drive will boost construction activity. By building a sustainable financing mix of fiscal support, banking, and private capital, China aims to breathe new life into its ageing urban fabric.

China’s telecom giants move into AI token economy, Alipay launches world's 1st agentic personal AI wallet (link, link)

China’s three state‑owned telecoms are pivoting from selling data to selling AI tokens. China Telecom now offers consumer plans starting at 9.9 yuan for 10m tokens and professional tiers up to 299.9 yuan for 150m tokens. It launched a Token Ecosystem Alliance. China Mobile, working with Tencent and Alibaba, has pilot packages such as 400,000 tokens for 1 yuan in Shanghai. China Unicom targets OPC users with free 30m tokens and tiered bundles. The shift is driven by exploding demand: daily token usage in China has leapt from 100bn at the start of 2024 to 140tr by March 2026 – a 1,000‑fold increase in two years. The carriers aim to replace traffic monetisation with token operations as their new growth engine.

Alipay, Ant Group’s mobile payment arm, has launched the world’s first personal AI wallet, allowing users to oversee and authorise agent‑initiated payments. The wallet lets customers manually approve each transaction or set a small payment limit for automatic processing. Alipay also unveiled Token Pay, a service for token‑payment needs, and noted that its AI Pay now works with 95% of mainstream agent frameworks, including Qwen, Claude Code, and Hermes Agent, as well as smart cockpits from Li Auto, Chery, and Geely. AI payments have become a major growth engine: AI Pay processed 300m agent payments by May 27th, up from 120m in February. Industry experts highlighted the “three trusts” – identity, intent, and execution – as the foundation for secure agent payment systems.

China’s aviation market soars with record domestic demand and select international locations (link)

China’s aviation market is flying high. Domestic capacity remains the country’s backbone, accounting for 83% of all seats to, from, and within the country – 70.1m seats in May 2026. Guangzhou Baiyun International (CAN) leads the airport rankings with 3.4m seats (+1.5% vs last year), followed closely by Shenzhen (SZN) with 3.1m (+2.8%). China Southern and China Eastern dominate the domestic market, each holding a 15% share, with 10.3m and 10.2m seats, respectively. Spring Airlines stands out with the fastest capacity growth at 13.8%. International recovery is accelerating: the Republic of Korea is now the top destination with 1m seats (+13%). Russia and Malaysia are fast-growing markets (+25% and +21%), while Türkiye and the Philippines surged 62% and 43%, respectively. Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Russia, the UK, Turkiye, and Italy have surpassed 2019 levels. Beijing (5.3m seats) and Shanghai (4.9m seats) remain the nation’s largest air travel hubs, with Urumqi climbing into the top 10 with 9% growth. In May 2026, Total capacity grew 1% year-on-year, with international capacity up 2%.

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📸 China Snapshot

Wuzhen, one of China’s best-preserved water towns, has been built around canals for more than 1,300 years. Located in Zhejiang Province, between Shanghai and Hangzhou, it was once an important stop on the Grand Canal, the world’s longest artificial waterway. Today, wooden boats still glide past Ming and Qing dynasty architecture, stone bridges, and waterside homes, offering a glimpse of the Jiangnan landscape that inspired generations of Chinese painters, poets, and scholars.

Photo by Yingying LI

🎁 Bonus Stories

Alibaba signs 6-year AI deal with UEFA, will bring 360 replay tech to major events (link)

Alibaba has signed an exclusive six‑year deal with UEFA to supply AI and cloud services for the Champions League, Europa League, Conference League (2027‑28 to 2032‑33), and Euro 2028. The Chinese tech giant will deploy its Qwen large language model and 360‑degree replay technology, already used at the Paris and Milan‑Cortina Olympics. The partnership aims to enhance fan interaction, media management, and immersive viewing. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin called it a way to bring fans “closer to the game”. Alibaba’s chairman, Joe Tsai, noted that AI is changing sports and the fan experience. The deal follows Alibaba’s long‑standing Olympic partnership, in which cloud-based broadcasting recently overtook satellite as the primary method of delivery.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin (left) and Alibaba Group chairman Joe Tsai

China’s first aviation sci-fi theme park takes off in Shanghai (link)

China's first aviation science fiction theme park, the "Nantianmen Project's Shanghai 288 Base," has officially broken ground in Shanghai's Lingang New Area. A preview area featuring two futuristic fighter aircraft named "Baidi" and "Xuannv" opened to industry professionals on May 11, 2026. The park is developed by AVIC Global Culture Communication, a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. Main construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, with an official opening date scheduled for August 1, 2027. A full visit will last 1.5 to 2 hours. The project aligns with Shanghai's 15th Five-Year Plan priorities in digital cultural tourism, commercial aerospace, AI, and intelligent robotics. A seminar was also held to explore producing a sci-fi movie based on the IP, following a "theme park + film" dual development model.

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2025-05-25 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• China becomes Germany’s top investor, with 228 projects led by electronics, logistics and energy

• Hukou rules start shifting, as public services move toward residency-based access

• Chinese DDR5 makers close the gap, with CXMT and suppliers pushing higher-speed memory

• Global brands chase China debuts, as subsidies reshape first-store and launch strategies

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🚀 Headlines

Chinese AI Large Language Models seize 42.1% market share, DeepSeek makes 75% price cut on V4 flagship (link, link)

China’s dominance in global LLMs is no longer a forecast but a hard reality. According to OpenRouter’s latest rankings, Chinese providers now command 42.1% of the market, largely driven by DeepSeek's 24.1% share and Tencent's 11.5%. The country’s ascendancy is vividly illustrated in the top-ten leaderboard: six models are Chinese. DeepSeek holds spot one with its V4 Flash (3.43T tokens, up 66%), while Hy3 preview (Tencent) sits at number two (3.07T). DeepSeek's V4 Pro and V3.2, alongside Stepfun's Step 3.5 Flash and MoonshotAI’s Kimi K2.6, complete the pack. With Qwen (3.9%) and Minimax (2.6%) also in the top providers, China’s AI ecosystem isn't just competing, it is setting the global pace.

DeepSeek has made a permanent 75% price cut on its V4 Pro model, elevating it to the global frontier for intelligence per dollar. The model now ranks among the world’s best for cost‑efficiency, far surpassing OpenAI and Anthropic. DeepSeek’s API price is as low as USD 0.0036 per 1 million cached input tokens and USD 0.87 per 1 million output tokens. Running Artificial Analysis’ Intelligence Index on V4 Pro costs USD 268. The move reflects a different competitive strategy among Chinese AI firms: offering cutting‑edge capabilities at dramatically lower prices than US counterparts that charge premiums. DeepSeek released the V4 generation (flagship V4 Pro and lighter V4 Flash) a month ago and has now made the promotional price cut permanent.

Open Router Leaderboard

China overtakes US as Germany's main foreign investor for first time in eight years (link)

For the first time since 2017, China has overtaken America as Germany’s biggest foreign investor by project count. Chinese firms launched 228 greenfield and expansion projects in 2025, a 15% rise from 2024, while American projects fell 10% to 206 and Swiss ones dropped 14% to 174. Overall, foreign investment in Germany slid 9.3% to 1,564 projects. Chinese money is flowing into electronics (30% of projects), transport and logistics (22%), and energy and raw materials (15%). Unlike the merger spree of 2015‑18, today’s investments are mostly greenfield, focusing on electric vehicles, autonomous driving, and industrial robots. Despite Germany’s sluggish economy and tighter foreign‑investment rules, Chinese firms are betting on the country’s industrial transformation.

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Tesla's FSD Supervised autonomous driving system available in China, BYD’s system lowered incidence rate by 83% (link, link)

Tesla has officially announced that its Full Self‑Driving (FSD) Supervised feature is now available in China, marking the first time the advanced driver‑assistance system has entered the world’s largest auto market. The announcement came a week after Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing, which Elon Musk attended as part of a business delegation. Tesla previously allowed Chinese customers to purchase FSD for a one‑time fee of RMB 64,000 (USD 9,420), but has since shifted to a subscription‑only model globally, though the Chinese website still displays the one‑time option. The rollout faces stiff competition from local rivals like Xiaomi and Huawei, which already offer sophisticated urban smart‑driving features.

BYD’s assisted-driving system, now on nearly 3 million vehicles across more than 60 models, has cut severe-accident rates to one‑sixth (by 83%) of human levels (measured by airbag‑triggered incidents per 10m km). Parking scratches fell to one‑fiftieth. Navigation assistance activates on over half of trips; parking aid on 86%. The carmaker’s Xuanji architecture and cloud‑based world models digest 190m km of daily driving data, enabling algorithm updates every three days. In April BYD sold 314,100 electrified vehicles, up 6.2% from March but 15.7% lower than a year earlier.

Tesla FSD

US fashion brand Guess to relaunch in China with local partner Ruisi Haishang (link)

US fashion brand Guess is relaunching in China with local partner Ruisi Haishang, about two months after closing all its stores in the country. Authentic Brands Group, Guess’s parent, announced the shift toward a more localized, partner‑led strategy on May 21, 2026. Ruisi Haishang, a Hangzhou‑based joint venture founded in March 2026 between Quanshang Technology (owner of Duibai and One Moment, and agent for MMLG and Vera Wang) and Yinian Huasheng (operator of MLB, Hunter, and Salomon), will handle development, production, distribution, and sales of Guess’s womenswear, menswear, and childrenswear lines. ABG said Guess will no longer apply a global universal model in China but will adjust product, marketing, retail, and user interactions to better align with local consumer needs.

The new debut economy policy brings global brands to launch in China first (link)

China has launched a two‑year pilot “debut economy” program across 50 cities, allocating up to RMB 400 million (USD 58 million) per mega-city to subsidize first‑to‑market brand launches, new consumption models, and cross‑sector IP collaborations. In the first two months of 2026, Shanghai welcomed 128 first stores and offered up to RMB 1 million (USD 147,000) in support to malls that attract them. During the 2026 Lunar New Year holiday, Alibaba’s Qwen AI model generated over 120 million consumer orders, including 10 million beverage orders in nine hours. A major German multinational recently relocated 248 of its 250 R&D engineers from Europe to Shanghai. The policy reflects a structural shift: China rewards brands that launch first, and treating it as a secondary market means forfeiting subsidies, premium retail incentives, and AI‑driven consumer attention.

In April 2026, Danish lifestyle brand Rains made its Asia debut in Shanghai

Meituan’s drone delivery infrastructure goes into commercial service (link)

Meituan has transitioned its drone delivery infrastructure from testing to full commercial operation. The system includes the self‑developed MDrone 4L Winch drone, M‑Port 3 smart transfer hub, and M‑DaaS 3 operations control system. After its first real order in Shenzhen (early 2021) and first regular route in Shanghai (December 2022), Meituan had 70 routes across cities, including Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Dubai by the end of 2025, with cumulative orders exceeding 780,000. A single site now handles up to 400 orders daily, up from about 10. Operating costs per order have fallen 40‑50% annually. Meituan is opening its low‑altitude logistics solutions to partners and has signed with 10 service providers, including routes for medical samples. The Guangdong‑Hong Kong‑Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Chengdu‑Chongqing Economic Circle are expected to become leading hubs for commercial low‑altitude logistics.

The end of the hukou system: China shifts to residency‑based public services (link)

China has ordered local governments to deliver basic public services based on where people live, not on their household registration (hukou). The directive, effective May 18th, aims to sever the link between registration and access to education, housing, social security, and health care. Migrant children will get schooling; non‑registered families will qualify for public rental housing; social insurance will be hukou‑blind. The central government will allocate funds according to the permanent population. In overstretched cities, authorities may ration services by employment and residency length, but cannot impose requirements based on education, titles, or tax payments. Rollout will be gradual, with pilots allowed.

Chinese memory makers accelerate DDR5 development as they near Samsung, SK Hynix & Micron levels (link)

Chinese memory makers are accelerating DDR5 development, with CXMT debuting 8000 MT/s DRAM modules in 16Gb and 24Gb capacities. Jiahe Jinwei, through Powev’s Sniker, offers 64GB DDR5 RDIMM modules at 5600 MT/s. CXMT currently holds about 10% of the global DRAM market share and is investing billions in an “Epic Expansion” to upgrade and build new facilities. The US has removed restrictions on CXMT and YMTC, opening doors for Chinese memory products to enter US, EU, and other major markets. Samsung’s abandonment of older LPDDR standards has also created opportunities for Chinese suppliers to ramp up LPDDR4 production. As supply constraints persist globally, Chinese memory makers are rapidly catching up with Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, aiming to serve AI, enterprise, and consumer segments with domestically produced DDR5 chips.

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📸 China Snapshot

Tianzhu Mountain (天柱山) in Anhui Province has inspired Chinese poets, painters, and Taoist travelers for more than a millennium. Its name means “Heavenly Pillar Mountain”, a reference to the dramatic granite peaks rising through the mist at over 1,400 meters. Unlike the sharper cliffs of Huangshan, Tianzhu Shan feels quieter and more ancient, with winding stone paths, twisted pines, and surreal rock formations that look almost sculpted by hand. The mountain is also part of a UNESCO Global Geopark, known for some of East China’s oldest exposed granite formations, shaped over hundreds of millions of years.

🎁 Bonus Stories

China and Europe jointly launch SMILE space weather satellite (link)

China and Europe jointly launched the SMILE (Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) satellite on May 20 at 11:52 Beijing time aboard a Vega‑C rocket from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana. The satellite successfully entered its planned orbit. SMILE is the first space science mission featuring comprehensive, in‑depth collaboration between China and Europe, building on the earlier Double Star mission. Using pioneering X‑ray imaging technology, it will conduct the first panoramic observations of solar wind‑magnetosphere interactions. The Chinese Academy of Sciences developed the satellite platform, magnetometer, light ion analyzer, and ultraviolet aurora imager; the European side provided the payload module, soft X‑ray imager, launch vehicle, and launch site. SMILE has a three‑year design life. Chinese and European scientists will jointly process and share data globally.

UNESCO’s first STEM education center in 14 years opens in Shanghai (link)

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has opened its first “category one” institute in China, a new STEM education centre in Shanghai. It is the first such facility in 14 years and the first in China. The institute will prioritise Africa, least‑developed countries, and small island states, drawing on China’s own rise as a science and technology powerhouse. Africa alone needs 23 million more STEM graduates by 2030. The centre will devise a global STEM framework with localised guidelines. Meanwhile, a UNCTAD report notes that 100 firms, mostly American and Chinese, account for 40% of global corporate R&D spending, underscoring the concentration of innovation even as Unesco tries to spread it.

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If you enjoy our newsletter, please consider buying us a coffee to keep us energized in bringing you the latest insights! 🤓☕

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China Insights is brought to you by Tomas Kucera, General Manager - Strategy & Business Development at Sino Matters, and Yereth Jansen, CEO at Darling Advertising + Design in Shanghai. Also follow us on LinkedIn.

2026-05-18 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• China exports hit a record, led by high-tech goods and chip demand

• Stellantis deepens China EV push, with Dongfeng to build Jeep and Peugeot models

• Huawei AI chips gain share, as Nvidia’s China exit reshapes the market

• Datang powers cloud with solar, linking data centers directly to green electricity

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🚀 Headlines

China sets new trade record in April, value of China's chip exports doubles in first four months (link, link)

China's April 2026 goods exports reached a record USD 359.4 billion (+14% YoY), rebounding from March's 2.5% gain, while imports rose 25% to USD 274.6 billion. US trade rebounded, exports up 11% after March's 27% drop, imports up 9%, though year-to-date US trade remains down 10.4%. High-tech sectors drove growth: Integrated Circuit (IC) export values nearly doubled despite modest volume gains (+3.7%), and data-processing equipment exports surged 47%, together accounting for nearly half of April's total export increase; auto exports also climbed 44% by value. While Middle East exports slumped 41% in March amid regional tensions, strong non-US market demand (USD 322.7 billion in April) and AI-driven semiconductor demand offset headwinds.

China's integrated circuit exports reached USD 103.5 billion in January–April, surging 83.7% year-on-year and accounting for 12.2% of mechanical/electrical export value. April exports alone doubled (+100.1% YoY). Growth was driven by memory chip price spikes. TrendForce forecasts Q2 2026 DRAM prices up 58–63% QoQ, NAND Flash up 70–75%, with average memory ASPs rising over 400% in 15 months. China's mature-process capacity now represents nearly 30% of global supply, enabling scaled exports in automotive, industrial, and consumer segments. April IC imports also hit a record USD 53.87 billion (+54.8% YoY), underscoring China's pivotal processing-trade role. Export structures are optimizing, with domestic advances in automotive-grade IGBTs, MCUs, and packaging boosting value-added output aligned with the 70–75% of global chip demand concentrated in mature nodes.

Bristol Myers Squibb forms USD 15.2 billion partnership with Hengrui Pharma for 13 early-stage clinical programs (link)

American multinational pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) has entered into a broad strategic partnership with Hengrui Pharma, paying USD 600 million upfront in a deal that could be worth up to USD 15.2 billion. BMS gains ex‑China rights to four of Hengrui’s oncology and hematology assets, and the two companies will jointly discover and develop five additional drug candidates. In return, BMS grants Hengrui rights to four of its immunology assets for China, Hong Kong, and Macau, with Hengrui responsible for early human development to accelerate clinical proof of concept. The timeline from early discovery to clinical trial filing is 50‑70% faster in China than elsewhere. China is on track to overtake the U.S. as the biggest source of new clinical trial filings globally.

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Stellantis, Dongfeng to invest USD1.2 billion to make Peugeot, Jeep EVs in China (link)

Stellantis is deepening its China strategy through a USD 1.2 billion joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Corp to produce Jeep and Peugeot vehicles in Wuhan starting in 2027. The partnership, involving over 8 billion yuan in investment with Stellantis contributing approximately UDS 151 million, will manufacture two Jeep off-road models and two Peugeot new-energy vehicles for both domestic and export markets. This move signals Western automakers' growing reliance on Chinese manufacturing, technology, and supply chains to enhance EV competitiveness. The agreement follows the resumption of Peugeot production with Dongfeng and expanded cooperation with Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology.

Jeep Product Family

German automakers accelerate China R&D amid rising innovation competition (link)

Per the German Chamber's Innovation Report 2026, based on surveys of 116 automotive-sector German firms in China conducted March–April 2026, 72% expect Chinese competitors to lead innovation within five years (+7 pp vs. 2024), with 22% stating this has already occurred (+10 pp). China-based R&D serving global markets has nearly tripled since 2024; 73% of respondents now conduct R&D in China (33% local-only, 33% local+global, 7% global-only). Localization and innovation partnerships drive efficiency: 45% report R&D speed gains of ~40% through localized operations or Chinese partnerships. Cost advantages are tangible—52% achieved modest savings (0–10%) via localized R&D, while 24% secured reductions exceeding 20% by leveraging AI and digital tools. The full report, drawing on 257 German companies, will be published in August 2026, offering deeper insights into how German industry is adapting its innovation strategy within China's rapidly evolving technological landscape.

China’s hotel sector shines in early 2026 as visa-free travelers account for 78% of inbound visitors (link)

China's hotel sector is outperforming globally, with four major international chains reporting strong Q1 Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) growth: Hyatt (+12.4% YoY), Marriott and IHG (+5.7% each), and Hilton (+1.3%). China's overall RevPAR exceeded the global average for the first time, driven by expanded visa‑free policies and restored flight capacity. In Q1, 8.31 million foreign travelers entered visa‑free (+29% YoY), accounting for 78% of all inbound visitors. During the Labour Day holiday, visa‑free inbound trips rose nearly 15% to 436,000.

Huawei is the biggest winner in Chinaʼs AI market after NVIDIA pullout with AI chip share to reach 60% this year (link)

Following NVIDIA's exit from China's AI chip market amid US policy restrictions, Huawei is positioned to capture 60% of China's AI chip market by the end of 2026, with AI chip revenue projected at USD 12 billion. The Ascend 950PR, which entered mass production in March, drives most orders, delivering up to 2 PFLOPs FP4 performance, MXFP4 instruction set support, and 128 GB of domestically produced HBM memory. An updated 950DT variant with 144 GB HBM is slated for Q4 2026, with the Ascend 960 (Q4 2027) and Ascend 970 (Q4 2028) on the roadmap. Morgan Stanley forecasts China's AI chip market will reach USD 67 billion by 2030, with Chinese suppliers accounting for 86% of supply; domestic supplier revenue is estimated at USD 21 billion in 2026. Huawei, relying primarily on SMIC for production, also secured Day-0 support for DeepSeek V4, underscoring its growing integration with China's AI software ecosystem.

China Datang brings online 500 MW solar farm for direct data center supply (link)

China Datang has commissioned a 500 MW solar plant in Zhongwei, Ningxia, China's first large-scale green power project designed to directly supply a data center cluster under a "computing-electricity coordination" model. Entered formal operation on May 2, 2026, the project is part of a 2 GW first-phase build-out for the Zhongwei Cloud Base with ~CNY 8.7 billion (USD 1.27 billion) planned investment. Phase one combines the 500 MW PV facility with a 1.5 GW wind farm (grid connection scheduled for September 2026) and energy storage. The solar plant will generate ~970 GWh annually, covering ~50% of the cloud base's electricity demand; full phase-one operation will yield 4.3 TWh annually, exceeding the facility's projected 2.29 TWh consumption. Using four dedicated 110 kV transmission lines and bilateral market trading, the dual-track model aligns with China's "East Data, West Computing" strategy and could template decarbonization for future data center expansion.

China ramps up building a national computing power network for AI (link)

China is accelerating construction of a "national computing network" to position AI infrastructure as a public utility, with state media linking tokens to mobile data as the AI era's measurable commodity. Daily token calls exceeded 140 trillion in March 2026, over 1,000 times the early-2024 level, per the National Bureau of Statistics, as rising model costs weigh on developers. Beijing now frames computing power among the "six networks" of national infrastructure, alongside power grids, water systems, next-gen communications, underground pipelines, and logistics. The State Council recently called for enhanced planning of these networks, with the National Development and Reform Commission projecting over 7 trillion yuan (USD 1 trillion) in related investment for 2026. Telecom operators are pursuing token-based services as new growth engines beyond traditional mobile data, signaling a strategic shift in how China scales AI infrastructure for mass-market adoption amid surging enterprise and consumer demand.

📸 China Snapshot

Even beyond the famous West Lake, Hangzhou is remarkably green. Parks, canals, and tree-lined boulevards run straight through one of China’s most advanced tech hubs. The city is home to Alibaba, Unitree Robotics, DeepSeek, Game Science (creator of Black Myth: Wukong), and other members of Zhejiang’s so-called “Six Little Dragons”, a new generation of companies shaping everything from AI to gaming and robotics. Few cities blend classical landscapes and frontier technology as naturally as Hangzhou.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

Top Singapore-based physicist relocates to China after superconductor breakthrough (link)

Stephen Lin Er Chow, a Singapore‑based physicist who designed a groundbreaking copper‑free superconducting oxide capable of high‑temperature superconductivity, has relocated to China and joined Zhejiang University full‑time. Last year, at age 27, he published the findings in Nature, the first top‑tier publication for his National University of Singapore (NUS) lab in two decades. In 2022, during his PhD studies, he became the youngest recipient of NUS’s Best Graduate Researcher Award. He arrived through Zhejiang University’s “100 Young Professors” programme and now serves as a principal investigator. Chow cited his fondness for Hangzhou’s living environment, his grandfather’s Chinese descent, and his Chinese wife as reasons for the move.

China’s Unitree debuts world's first pilotable humanoid for USD 574,200 (link)

Chinese robotics startup Unitree has unveiled the GD01, the world's first mass-produced pilotable humanoid "mech," priced at CNY 3.9 million (USD 574,200). Standing 2.7 meters tall and weighing approximately 500 kg when manned, the transformable robot operates in both two-legged and four-legged modes. The GD01 showcases Unitree's core competencies in sensors, controllers, and engineering. Potential applications include cultural tourism exhibitions, hazardous-environment operations, emergency rescue, terrain surveying, theme park performances, and film production. With road use facing legal obstacles and no tailored insurance policies yet available, public-road deployment remains unlikely, positioning the GD01 for closed-setting or niche collector use.

Unitree GD01

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2026-05-11 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• Leica shifts sensor strategy, partnering with China’s Gpixel on in-house development

• Tesla clears data rules, moving closer to self-driving rollout in China

• China pushes local wafers, targeting 70% domestic sourcing this year

• Tencent expands in gaming, as Supercell acquires Merge Mansion maker Metacore

Remember to follow us on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

🚀 Headlines

China's AI models surpass US in usage as Tencent's Hy3 soars 799%, Government releases first guidelines on AI agents (link, link)

In the week ending May 3, Chinese large language models recorded 7.942 trillion API calls, an 81.7% increase from the previous week, surpassing U.S. models, which fell 34.6% to 3.258 trillion calls. Tencent's Hy3 preview model led globally with 3.03 trillion weekly calls, a 799% surge. Kimi K2.6 ranked second. MiniMax M2.7 placed eighth with 729 billion calls, while DeepSeek-V4‑Flash debuted at ninth with 704 billion calls (up 344%). Total global AI model calls rose 8.6% to 23.9 trillion tokens. The data indicate that Chinese AI models are not only advancing but also rapidly achieving large‑scale adoption, reshaping the competitive landscape.

Chinese authorities have issued the first joint guidelines by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) to promote the standardized application and innovative development of AI agents. The document defines AI agents as intelligent systems capable of autonomous perception, memory, decision-making, interaction, and execution. It outlines fundamental principles stressing safety, controllability, orderliness, standardization, innovation-driven growth, and application-oriented traction. The guidelines identify 19 typical application scenarios spanning scientific research, industrial development, consumption boost, public well-being, and social governance.

May 11, 2026 LLM Leaderboard on OpenRouter

Leica swaps Japan for China as it moves to joint in-house sensor development with Changchun-based Gpixel (link)

Germany’s Leica is shifting its sensor strategy from Japanese suppliers to China's Gpixel, moving beyond a traditional supplier relationship into joint development, image quality fine‑tuning, and production preparation. Gpixel, founded in 2012 with offices in China, Japan, and Europe, is partnering with Leica to accelerate the camera maker's return to in‑house sensor development, a project Leica had already begun in 2022. With an annual turnover of around €500 million, Leica sees China as one of its most important markets, having previously collaborated with Xiaomi and Huawei on smartphones. Gpixel, despite lower turnover, is on a growth trajectory following its Hong Kong IPO. The partnership aims to give Leica greater control over core technology and differentiation in the premium camera segment.

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Tesla signs data security deal with Baidu, clears China's data security requirements for self-driving in China (link)

Tesla has cleared China's data security requirements and reached a deal with Baidu to obtain a mapping license, allowing the automaker to collect public roads data and integrate Baidu's lane‑level navigation system. The agreement removes a key regulatory hurdle for introducing self‑driving cars in China. Tesla's Shanghai factory, opened in 2019, produced more than 710,000 vehicles in 2022 alone. Over 1.7 million Tesla cars have been sold in China since the company entered the market a decade ago. Chinese Premier Li Qiang called Tesla's development in China an example of successful economic and commercial cooperation between the two countries.

A truck loaded with new Tesla cars is seen at its factory in Shanghai

China’s Shipbuilding Completes 15.68M DWT in Q1 with 195% Surge in New Orders, Green Ship Orders Top 80% (link)

China's shipbuilding industry posted broad-based growth in the first quarter. Completion volume reached 15.68 million deadweight tons (up 46%, 57.3% of the global total). New orders surged 195.2% to 59.53 million DWT, capturing 84.9% of the world market. The order backlog stood at 322.30 million DWT (up 43.6%), accounting for 69.8% of the global total. Among 18 major ship types, China ranked first in new orders for 15 categories. In large vessels – very large crude carriers, large car carriers, bulk carriers, and container ships of 10,000 TEU and above – China's international market share exceeded 90% for each segment.

China pushes for 70% homegrown silicon wafer use as domestic firms ramp up 12-inch production (link)

China has set an unspoken mandate for chipmakers to source 70% of their silicon wafers from domestic suppliers this year, leaving only 30% for foreign players. The push is led by Xi’an Eswin Material Technology, which aims to produce 1.2 million 12‑inch wafers per month by 2026, enough to cover about 40% of domestic demand and lift its global share past 10%. Eswin already supplies SMIC and is being validated by Korean firms Samsung and SK Hynix. China met about 50% of its 12‑inch wafer demand by 2025, with domestic players’ global capacity share rising from 3% in 2020 to 28% in 2025 and potentially 32% by 2026. China is already largely self‑reliant in 8‑inch wafers for mature chips.

Supercell acquires Metacore, Tencent expands its presence in the global casual gaming market (link)

Tencent, which acquired a majority 84.3% stake in Supercell for roughly 8.6 billion in 2016, has seen the Finnish studio fully acquire Metacore and its flagship title Merge Mansion. The game has surpassed 60 million downloads and generated more than 600 million in lifetime revenue. The deal expands Supercell’s reach beyond its traditional competitive titles into the casual and light‑midcore segment, which appeals to a larger share of female and older casual audiences. For Tencent, the acquisition strengthens exposure to long‑life‑cycle casual experiences that can be sustained through live operations and content updates, reflecting a broader industry shift toward portfolio depth and user retention rather than relying solely on individual breakout hits.

China revives coal-to-gas projects to capture 12% of domestic natural gas needs (link)

China is reviving its moribund coal‑to‑gas industry to offset energy security risks from the Middle East war. State‑owned Datang restarted construction of its 25‑billion‑yuan (about USD3.8 billion) Fuxin plant in Liaoning in October 2025 after the project was shelved in 2014. Datang aims to bring the plant online by October 2026. Nationwide, 13 coal‑to‑gas projects are either under construction or being planned. If all are completed, China’s synthetic gas output could rise nearly sevenfold to more than 52 billion cubic metres a year, roughly 12% of the national gas supply. By the end of 2026, projects including Fuxin should deliver 12 billion cubic metres. In comparison, Qatar, China’s largest Middle Eastern gas supplier, provided 28 billion cubic meters in 2025.

China plans 8,500 AI robots for power grid operations with massive USD 1 billion push (link)

China's State Grid Corporation has allocated 6.8 billion yuan (about USD 1 billion) to deploy approximately 8,500 AI-powered robots across its power grid operations. The fleet includes roughly 5,000 quadruped robot dogs for inspections in mountainous terrain, 500 humanoid robots for live-line maintenance on ultra-high-voltage lines, and 3,000 dual-arm wheeled robots for coordinated tasks. The initiative is part of a broader push: together with China Southern Power Grid and other firms, total sector spending on embodied intelligence is expected to exceed 10 billion (USD 1.46 billion) in 2026. Leading domestic robotics companies such as Unitree, Deep Robotics, AgiBot, UBTech, and Fourier Intelligence are supplying the machines. Industry projections estimate embodied AI output will reach 2.1 million units by 2030, with China already dominating global shipments.

Unitree Robotics Robot Dog

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📸 China Snapshot

Last weekend at the 2026 World Brand Moganshan Summit in Deqing, Zhejiang, a classical dance performance opened a forum built around a modern question: how do Chinese brands tell their story to the world? Held near Moganshan, the mountain retreat long associated with both Republican-era villas and the landmark 1984 Moganshan Conference on economic reform, the event brought together executives, policymakers, and international speakers to explore how culture, innovation, and branding increasingly move as one. Sometimes the most strategic conversations in China begin with a performance, not a PowerPoint.

🎁 Bonus Stories

Convicted of China ties, former American Harvard scientist rebuilds brain computer lab in China (link)

Charles Lieber, a former Harvard scientist convicted in 2021 for lying about ties to a Chinese talent recruitment program, now leads a state‑funded brain‑computer interface lab in Shenzhen. The i‑BRAIN institute, part of the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART), has access to an ASML deep ultraviolet lithography system (valued at about USD 2 million) and a primate research facility with 2,000 cages. SMART’s 2026 budget rose 18% to USD 153 million. Lieber, 67, who is among the world's leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces, arrived in Shenzhen in April 2025. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as ALS and restoring movement in paralyzed patients. China has made brain‑computer interface technology a national priority.

The Rise of “New Chinese–Style” Theme Parks: From Cultural Roots to a New Narrative in China’s Cultural Tourism (link)

China's "new Chinese‑style" theme parks are rapidly reshaping the cultural tourism landscape, competing head‑to‑head with global giants. During the 2026 Spring Festival, Henan province claimed four of the country's top 10 scenic spots, with Kaifeng's Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City and Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden taking first and second place. Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden generated annual revenue of RMB 1 billion, over half from non‑ticket sources. Wansui Mountain's revenue surged to RMB 1.27 billion in 2025, roughly 15 times its 2022 level. New formats such as iQIYI Land (a 10,000-square-meter indoor park in Yangzhou) and Longyin Tiancheng in Chengdu integrate film IP with immersive, tech‑driven experiences. With daily performances numbering in the hundreds or thousands, affordable tickets (RMB 80 for three days at Wansui Mountain, RMB 198 at iQIYI Land), and a model focused on self‑owned IP and high engagement, these parks mark a shift from sightseeing to an experience‑driven, participatory economy.

China Tiangong Space Station

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If you enjoy our newsletter, please consider buying us a coffee to keep us energized in bringing you the latest insights! 🤓☕

👥 About us

China Insights is brought to you by Tomas Kucera and Yereth Jansen, CEO at Darling Advertising + Design in Shanghai. Also follow us on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• Electric two-wheelers surge overseas, as fuel shocks lift demand across Southeast Asia

• CSSC delivers the world’s largest car carrier, extending China’s shipbuilding lead

• Renewables pass 60% of capacity, with hydrogen and EV charging scaling fast

• Tiangong plans six modules, as China prepares for the post-ISS era

Remember to follow us on LinkedIn.

🚀 Headlines

China's AI race evolves into feature war in cars, Tencent launches Hunyuan Hy3 AI model preview (link, link)

ByteDance’s Doubao AI chatbot is now used by over 50 car brands, integrated into 145 car models, and more than 7 million vehicles, including the Mercedes‑Benz GLC, SAIC Audi E7X, and SAIC Volkswagen ID. ERA 9X. Alibaba’s Qwen AI is being integrated into vehicles from BYD and a Volkswagen joint venture, enabling voice‑commanded food delivery, hotel bookings, and package tracking. DeepSeek has also been integrated with 9 automakers, including Geely, Dongfeng, and Leapmotor. Many Chinese automakers are adopting a multi‑model strategy, integrating AI assistants from different providers either across different vehicle models or even within the same vehicle for different functions such as navigation, entertainment, and voice control.

Tencent has released a preview of its Hunyuan Hy3 foundation model, improving reasoning and coding capabilities, and integrated it into its chatbot, coding tool, and QQ. In March, the company reorganized research teams and plans to more than double AI spending to over USD 5 billion in 2026. Hy3 uses a Mixture of Experts architecture with 295 billion total parameters, activating 21 billion at a time to reduce costs. The project is now led by Chief AI Scientist Yao Shunyu, an OpenAI alumnus who returned to China to spearhead the development. Meanwhile, Tencent is in talks to take up to a 20% stake in DeepSeek’s first outside funding round, as Chinese tech giants build their own models while also investing in rivals to hedge across the fast‑moving AI market.

Chinese GPU maker Lisuan Tech joins Nvidia, AMD, and Intel to earn Microsoft Windows WHQL certification (link)

Chinese GPU maker Lisuan Tech has become only the fourth company ever, after US companies Nvidia, AMD, and Intel, and the first in China, to earn Microsoft WHQL certification for its drivers. The certification was awarded for the LX 7G100 graphics card, built on a 6nm process and featuring 12GB of GDDR6 memory. Performance is close to an Nvidia RTX 4060. WHQL certification allows the driver to be distributed through Windows Update and ensures compatibility and security. WHQL allows Lisuan’s GPUs to be pre‑installed in branded commercial PCs (Lenovo, Dell, Huawei) and to meet mandatory Windows compatibility requirements in finance, government, and industrial tenders. The milestone marks significant progress in software reliability for Chinese GPUs and could open the door to global markets.

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Airbus lands USD 21.4 billion order and total USD 55 billion over six big deals with Chinese carriers since December (link)

Airbus has secured a USD21.4 billion deal with China Southern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines, the European aircraft maker’s sixth large order from Chinese carriers since the end of last year. China Southern has ordered 102 planes from Airbus' A320neo family, and Xiamen Airlines has ordered 35. China Eastern ordered 101 A320neo planes in March, including the A320neo, A321neo, and A321XLR, with a sticker price of USD15.8 billion. At the end of 2025, Juneyao Airlines and Spring Airlines unveiled deals for 25 A320 and 30 A320neo worth USD8.2 billion, while Air China said it was buying 60 A320neo valued at USD9.5 billion. China Express Airlines also put in an order for three A320 costing up to USD420 million. All deals totaled over 55 billion USD and 356 planes. The A320 is one of the world's most-used single-aisle passenger jets, with around 11,300 in service. More than 2,000 fly in China, accounting for nearly half of the country's civil aviation fleet. The A320neo is the next-generation upgrade.

China Southern Airplane

Iran conflict boosts China’s electric two-wheeler exports to Southeast Asia (link)

Orders for Chinese electric motorcycles are fully booked through July, driven by rising demand from Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Q1 2026 exports by private firms rose 30% from last year. In Chongqing, one of China’s major motorcycle manufacturing hubs, exports reached 170 million yuan (about USD 23.4 million) in the same period, up 23.6% from a year earlier. Exports to Myanmar jumped 617.5% year‑on‑year to 64.7 million yuan, while shipments to Laos (+25.7%) and Cambodia (+34.2%) reached 43.5 million and 38.2 million yuan, respectively. Mainstream export models now offer over 150 km per charge, and Chinese vendors are also delivering battery‑swapping solutions for regions with unreliable grid access. In 2025, China’s combined exports of motorcycles, electric motorcycles, and e‑bikes reached a record 45.03 million units worth RMB 18.29 billion, up 23% from the previous year.

China produces half of the world’s tea with brands starting to expand overseas (link)

China is the world's largest tea producer, with output reaching 3.92 million metric tons in 2025 – nearly half of global production. Exports totaled 418,800 tons valued at RMB 11 billion (USD 1.6 billion), up 11.9% and 8.9% year-on-year, respectively. However, China's average tea export price is only USD 4-5 per kilogram, compared to USD 6-8 for Sri Lankan Ceylon tea and USD 25-30 for Japanese matcha. Green tea accounts for 88% of export volume. The industry is highly fragmented, with over 1.6 million tea-related companies and leading players holding less than 5% market share. New generation tea brands are expanding overseas: Mixue Bingcheng has over 4,400 stores outside China and Chagee has over 350. Early results include Longchi Gujing, an Xihu Longjing brand, generating about 20% of its revenue from overseas.

China State Shipbuilding unit delivers world’s biggest 10,800 vehicle carrier to South Korea’s HMM (link)

A unit of China State Shipbuilding Corporation has delivered the world’s largest roll‑on/roll‑off car carrier by capacity to South Korea’s HMM. The “Glovis Leader” can carry 10,800 vehicles, features 14 decks, a 19‑knot service speed, and an LNG/dual‑fuel system that meets IMO Tier III emissions standards. China remains the world’s top shipbuilder for the 16th consecutive year. CSSC Guangzhou Shipyard has secured over 40 PCTC orders, with a backlog of about CNY 1 trillion (USD 137.5 billion) and a production schedule fully booked through 2030.

China surpasses 60% renewable capacity share as hydrogen and EV infrastructure scale rapidly in early 2026 (link)

By March 2026, China’s installed renewable energy capacity had reached approximately 2.4 billion kilowatts, accounting for more than 60% of the country's total power capacity. China's total installed power generation capacity reached 3.96 billion kilowatts by the end of March 2026, up 15.5%, nearly 3 times that of the US. Solar power continued its rapid expansion, with capacity soaring 31.3% to 1.24 billion kW. Wind power also posted strong growth, rising 22.4% to 660 million kW. Wind and solar together totaled about 1.9 billion kilowatts, approaching half of China’s generation base. In Q1 2026, renewables generated 882.9 billion kWh, or 37.1% of total electricity. Annual renewable hydrogen production capacity exceeded 1 million tonnes, with over 250,000 tonnes already operational, more than double the operating capacity at end‑2024. Electric vehicle charging units reached 21.48 million, a 46.9% year‑on‑year increase.

China reveals 198-ton ‘six-module’ plan for Tiangong space station as ISS era ends (link)

China plans to expand its Tiangong space station from a T‑shaped to a cross‑shaped six‑module configuration, with a total mass of approximately 180 tonnes (198 tons). A multifunctional module larger than the current core will be added, supported by a more powerful Long March 5B rocket and upgraded robotic arms. Since its completion in 2022, Tiangong has hosted over two dozen astronauts and supported more than 260 experiments. Its crew set a record 9‑hour, 6‑minute spacewalk, exceeding NASA’s 22‑year record. Astronauts from Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Macau are expected to join missions as early as this year. Designed for a 15‑year lifespan, Tiangong is positioned to become the only operational space station in low Earth orbit after the ISS is decommissioned by 2030.

China’s Tiangong Space Station

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📸 China Snapshot

Donghu Road in Shanghai, a short walk from the high-end IAPM mall, has recently shifted gears. Entire corners are being reworked into dense clusters of restaurants, cafés, and concept retail, drawing steady queues, cameras, and real spending. The Japanese burger spot behind this bar is one of many high-demand anchors, but the bigger story is the street itself, curated storefronts, open façades, people lingering, lines forming by default. During the May holiday, the effect amplifies, tourists, locals, return traffic, all feeding into a city that is clearly back in motion. Not a comeback headline, more a structural upgrade of urban life, where streets like this quietly turn into high-yield social hubs.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

Nobel laureate biochemist Hartmut Michel joins China's Jilin University (link)

German biochemist Hartmut Michel, winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has taken a full-time professorship at Jilin University’s First Hospital in northeastern China. Michel, 77, spent most of his career at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Germany, where he served as director from 1987 until his retirement in 2007. He shared the Nobel Prize with Johann Deisenhofer and Robert Huber for determining the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction center. He has visited China more than 30 times and was elected a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2000. He is also a foreign member of the Royal Society and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Shanghai to invest USD585 million in building world’s highest Ferris Wheel and 360-degree spherical venue (link)

Shanghai will invest CNY4 billion (USD585 million) to build five major cultural tourism projects, including the world's highest Ferris wheel. The 228-meter "Gate of Shanghai" in Baoshan district will cost CNY2 billion, with construction starting this year. The West Bund Star Dome, a 360-degree spherical venue seating 3,000 spectators, will cost CNY1.2 billion and is slated for completion by the end of 2027. Other projects include an 11.4‑km Huangpu River tour road, renovation of non‑riverside Bund blocks, and an AI‑based immersive theater at a film studio.

☕ Support our work

If you enjoy our newsletter, please consider buying us a coffee to keep us energized in bringing you the latest insights! 🤓☕

👥 About us

China Insights is brought to you by Tomas Kucera and Yereth Jansen, CEO at Darling Advertising + Design in Shanghai. Also follow us on LinkedIn.

2026-04-27 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• Solar exports hit record highs, as clean power overtakes fossil fuels globally

• Chinese shipyards win tanker orders, with China taking nearly 70% of new global orders

• Outbound travel rebounds, with visa demand nearing pre-pandemic levels

• RMB borrowing surges, as US banks tap cheaper offshore yuan funding

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🚀 Headlines

China’s solar exports double in March to hit record high, clean power surpasses fossil fuels first time in 100 years (link, link)

Chinese solar and battery exports surged to record highs in March 2026 amid the global energy crisis. Solar panel exports jumped 91% from February to reach 32 GW, while cell and wafer exports rose 108% to 36 GW, with the latter having overtaken panel exports in October 2025 as assembly shifts abroad. Combined cleantech exports, solar, batteries, and EVs, climbed 70% year-on-year and 38% from February. Battery exports alone hit USD 10 billion in March, up 44% month-on-month, driven by strong demand from the EU, Australia, and India. Ember notes that China’s record solar buildout is now displacing gas-fired generation equivalent to all LNG shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, while the global EV fleet cut oil demand by 1.8 million barrels per day in 2025.

Marking the first time this century that China’s fossil fuel electricity generation has declined, it fell by 56 TWh in 2025 as record clean power expansion met all domestic demand growth. China helped drive a historic global tipping point, with renewables reaching 34% of global electricity generation, surpassing coal's 33% share for the first time in 100 years. Solar alone met 75% of global demand growth, while total clean generation rose by 887 TWh, outpacing 849 TWh of new demand, causing global fossil output to drop by 0.2%.

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DeepSeek V4 released China’s first trillion‑parameter model that runs entirely on domestic chips (link)

On April 24, 2026, DeepSeek released the preview version of its V4 model, marking a major milestone for China’s AI applications. The model comes in two open‑source versions: V4‑Pro (1.6 trillion parameters) and V4‑Flash (284 billion parameters), both supporting a 1‑million‑token context. On a 1M‑token context, V4‑Pro uses only 27% of the compute and 10% of the memory of its predecessor V3.2; V4‑Flash uses just 10% and 7%, respectively. V4‑Pro scores 90.2% on the Apex Shortlist and a Codeforces Rating of 3206, outperforming all open‑source models in agentic coding. It runs entirely on domestic chips (Huawei Ascend, Cambricon) using the CANN framework, breaking Nvidia’s CUDA dependence. V4‑Flash’s API price starts at 0.2 yuan per million input tokens. While still 3–6 months behind top closed‑source models, V4 establishes China’s domestic AI infrastructure and application ecosystem.

chat.deepseek.com

China's pharma dominance is just beginning as it surpasses the US as the global drug development center (link)

China has overtaken the US as the center of the global pharmaceutical industry, ending the old Western‑anchored order. It has closed the research gap and, in some cases, moved ahead in new treatments, creating a bipolar industry centered on the US and China. China’s early‑stage drug programs surged from about 800 in 2015 to over 6,000 in 2024, a more than 600% increase, while US programs grew from 5,000 to 7,000, causing its global share to drop from half to a third. In Q2 2025, China overtook the US in such programs. The country outspent the US on R&D two years ago (OECD data). Record licensing deals hit USD 133 billion in 2025, up from USD 50 billion in 2024. Faster, cheaper clinical trials and regulatory reforms drive this rise, with implications for global drug development.

CATL shocks industry with a new 1,500 km car battery that charges in 6 minutes (link)

Chinese battery giant CATL unveiled breakthrough battery technologies headlined by a Kirin solid-state battery with 350Wh/kg energy density, double that of lithium iron phosphate and 75% above mainstream ternary lithium, delivering up to 1,500km range for sedans and 1,000km for full-size SUVs with a pack under 650kg. Its third-generation Shenxing ultra-fast-charging battery achieves 10C–15C power, charging from 10% to 80% in 3 minutes 44 seconds and to 98% in 6 minutes 27 seconds. CATL also announced mass production of new sodium-ion batteries by Q4 2026, reaching 175Wh/kg, retaining over 90% capacity at –40°C, and offering 8,000–15,000 cycle life (2–3× that of LFP), with cell costs at 0.35–0.40 yuan/Wh. The move leverages China’s sodium self-sufficiency to reduce reliance on imported lithium.

China’s shipyards secure wave of oil tanker orders as Iran conflict drives demand, secured 70% of new orders in 2025 (link, link)

Chinese shipyards are benefiting from the Middle East conflict, driving demand for very large crude carriers (VLCCs). Switzerland’s Advantage Tankers, traditionally reliant on South Korean yards, has ordered two 307,000‑deadweight‑tonne VLCCs from China, scheduled for delivery in 2028 and 2029. Geneva‑based Mercuria Energy Group has signed shipbuilding contracts in China worth nearly USD 650 million for up to four VLCCs and two LR2 product tankers, also expected by 2029. In addition, China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), country’s largest shipbuilding conglomerate, received an order for twelve 9,200 twenty-foot equivalent unit container ships worth about CNY9 billion (USD 1.2 billion). The orders reflect China’s strong capacity, lower costs, and shorter delivery times amid global shipping disruptions.

In 2025, new orders surged to 107.82 million DWT, capturing nearly 70% of the world market, driven by demand for tankers, LNG carriers, and energy transport vessels. China’s shipyards delivered 53.69 million deadweight tonnes (DWT), over half of global output and an 11.4% year‑on‑year increase. Chinese shipyards are moving beyond cost advantages into high‑end, green technology segments, reshaping global shipbuilding competition.

Chinese outbound trips to reach 2019 levels this year, trips to Turkey rise 47% following visa-free policy (link, link)

China’s outbound tourism is rebounding strongly, with visa application volumes in the first quarter of 2026 nearly returning to pre-pandemic levels. Schengen visa applications rose 20% year-on-year, and VFS Global expects the Chinese market to surpass 2019 levels this year. Canada, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and the US remain top destinations, driven by study, family visits, and business travel, with Italy seeing particularly strong growth. Retirees now account for more than one-third of visa applicants, favoring long-haul cultural trips and cruises. Chinese airlines are expanding European routes for summer and autumn 2026, notably to Frankfurt, while lesser-known destinations such as Hungary, Poland, Latvia, and Estonia are among the fastest-growing markets.

Following Turkiye’s visa‑free policy for Chinese citizens introduced in January 2026, the number of Chinese visitors has jumped about 47% this year, making China the most important source of emerging market tourists for the country.

Goldman Sachs leads record renminbi borrowing by US banks (link)

Goldman Sachs has led US banks to borrow a record RMB 47.5 billion in offshore renminbi debt so far in 2026, with total dim sum bond issuance hitting RMB 300 billion (USD 44 billion) year‑to‑date, more than double the same period in 2025. China’s 10‑year sovereign yield is about 1.82% versus 4.46% for US Treasuries, making renminbi borrowing roughly 60% cheaper. The yuan now accounts for 34.9% of China’s cross‑border goods trade settlements, up from 10% in 2017. In March 2026, Deutsche Bank placed the largest single panda bond by a foreign bank at RMB 5.5 billion, though European banks remain less active than US counterparts in dim sum issuance.

US banks lead renminbi borrowing

China’s vast nuclear power sector now able to build 50 reactors at a time (link)

China has announced it can construct up to 50 nuclear reactors simultaneously, according to a China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA) report released Friday. The country currently operates 60 commercial nuclear reactors and has another 36 under construction, representing more than half of all reactors being built globally. Chinese authorities have also approved 16 additional reactors for future development. Once all projects are completed, China's installed nuclear power capacity will reach 125 gigawatts (GW). The CNEA stated that China's nuclear technology capabilities have progressed from "following" to "keeping pace," and in some areas to "leading," signaling a major expansion of its domestic energy infrastructure and its ambitions to dominate the global nuclear sector.

🎁 Bonus Stories

Chinese universities surpass US rivals in AI ranking with Peking University at the top since 2022 (link)

Peking University has topped the global AI research output ranking since 2022, according to AIRankings, as Chinese universities surpassed their US peers over the past three years with a rapid rise in publications. The milestone helps explain the success of Chinese AI disrupter DeepSeek, which relied on local university graduates to build its model at far lower cost and with less energy than OpenAI's ChatGPT. Leading the charge is Zhu Songchun, a computer vision specialist who returned to Peking University from UCLA in 2020 to head its Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the School of Intelligence Science and Technology.

Robotaxis to make up 36 percent of China's total ride-hailing fleet by 2035 (link)

Goldman Sachs raised its China robotaxi fleet forecast, projecting vehicles will nearly triple from 5,000 in 2025 to 14,000 by the end of 2026, and reach 3.1 million units by 2035, 36% of all ride‑sharing vehicles in the country. Fleet estimates were raised 7% to 25% across the forecast period, citing smoother deployment and clearer operator guidance, with several players already achieving city‑level break‑even. As of April 2026, the top three Chinese robotaxi companies, Baidu Apollo, Pony.ai, and WeRide, each operate over 1,000 robotaxis across China and global markets, with Pony.ai targeting global fleet expansion to over 3,000 and WeRide to 2,600 by the end of 2026.

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China Insights is brought to you by Tomas Kucera, , General Manager - Strategy & Business Development at Sino Matters, and Yereth Jansen, CEO at Darling Advertising + Design in Shanghai. Also follow us on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.