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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2026-04-20 | subscribe | homepage

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

• China narrows the AI gap, leading in papers, citations, patents, and model momentum

• Max Planck expands in Beijing, adding new climate and synthetic biochemistry centers

• China leads chemical discovery, now producing 41% of new reported substances

• Chinese bonds draw record trading, as foreign investors seek yuan asset exposure

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🚀 Headlines

Chinese robots break human world record at Beijing’s Half Marathon (link)

Smartphone maker Honor’s humanoid robot won Beijing’s half-marathon for robots on April 19 with a time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds, beating the human world record, which was recently set at 57:20. Participating teams jumped from 20 last year to over 100 this year. Nearly half of the robots, including the winner, navigated the 21‑km course autonomously, a sharp improvement from 2025 when most failed to finish. Honor claimed all three podium spots, with its winning robot featuring 90–95 cm legs and liquid‑cooling technology derived from smartphones. Last year’s champion finished in 2 hours 40 minutes. The race highlights China’s rapid advances in humanoid robotics.

Kering to take stake in Chinese fashion group Icicle, betting on its global growth (link)

French luxury giant Kering is taking a minority stake in Icicle Carven China France (ICCF), the global operating entity of Chinese fashion group Icicle, as part of its "House of Wonders" initiative to back emerging luxury houses with strong cultural relevance. Founded in 1997, Icicle acquired French label Carven in 2018 and merged into ICCF three years later; the group is headquartered in both Paris and Shanghai. Despite a shrinking fashion industry, Icicle has achieved double-digit compound annual growth in recent years, with global revenue exceeding EUR300 million (USD324 million) last year and more than 200 stores worldwide. The brand opened a Paris design center in 2013 and its first boutique in 2019, now operates five stores in Europe, and has been listed on the Paris Fashion Week schedule since last year.

Two new Max Planck Centers strengthen the research partnership with China (link)

On April 13, 2026, Germany’s premier independent, non-profit research organization, Max Planck Society, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) inaugurated two new Max Planck Centers in Beijing, expanding a 50‑year research partnership. The MAC‑Air Center investigates interactions between air pollution, extreme weather, and climate, using Beijing’s 325‑meter Tall Tower Observatory and the EarthLab supercomputing infrastructure. Partners include Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, and institutions from India, South Korea, and Finland. The Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, jointly led by the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and CAS’s Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, focuses on microbial natural products for medicine and crop protection. Researchers gain access to the Shenzhen Synthetic Biology Infrastructure for cultivation, analysis, and scale‑up. Both centers emphasize joint training and exchange programs for early‑career scientists.

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China has ‘nearly erased’ America’s lead in AI as it leads in AI publication volume, citations, and patent output (link)

Based on the Stanford AI Index Report 2026, China has emerged as a dominant force in AI research and development, leading global publication volume with 17.8% of AI papers in 2024 and capturing 20.6% of all AI citations. Chinese institutions produced 30 notable AI models in 2025, second only to the United States' 50, with Alibaba releasing 11 models and DeepSeek contributing 4. China now holds 74.2% of globally granted AI patents (97,990 in 2024). The U.S.-China AI model performance gap has effectively closed, with DeepSeek-R1 briefly matching top U.S. models in February 2025 and trailing the top model from Anthropic by just 2.7% as of March 2026. China hosts 449 AI data centers (fourth globally) and has seen its share of top-100 most-cited AI papers grow from 33 in 2021 to 41 in 2024, with Tsinghua University ranking among the world's most prolific AI research institutions.

China dominates the discovery of new chemicals and reactions (link)

China now discovers over 41% of new chemicals and reactions reported in scientific literature, up from less than 1% in the early 1990s. In comparison, the US share has fallen to 11%, from a quarter in prior years, according to a new analysis of data from 1996–2022. China leads in organic compounds (40%), rare‑earth‑based materials (40%), and organometallics (17%, top globally). Over 90% of China’s contributions come from domestic research rather than international collaborations. The top ten institutions, in terms of the number of high-quality applied science research articles authored by their researchers, were all based in China, according to Nature Index. In 2024, China outspent the US on R&D for the first time (purchasing‑power adjusted): USD 1.03 trillion versus USD 1.01 trillion, with annual growth above 14%. The 2008 financial crash marked the start of the US’s decline, while China’s growth remained unaffected.

Foreign trading of Chinese bonds via Hong Kong hits record high (link)

In March, overseas funds’ trading of Chinese onshore bonds via Northbound Bond Connect hit a record 1.22 trillion yuan (USD 179 billion), with average daily volumes also reaching an all‑time high of 55.6 billion yuan. Policy financial bonds (59% of volume) and Chinese government bonds (24%) were the most popular. The surge reflects growing foreign interest in yuan assets amid Middle East tensions, as investors seek diversification and stability. However, China’s 10‑year yield is about 250 basis points below US Treasuries, dampening demand. Foreign holdings of onshore debt stood at 3.19 trillion yuan at the end of March after 11 months of declines, accounting for just 1.8% of total interbank bonds outstanding.

Bytedance's billion-dollar bet on AI hospital, Tsinghua tests agent hospital platform across 8 Chinese hospitals (link, link)

Arion Cancer Center in Beijing is building a new 800‑bed campus with an estimated 6 billion yuan (USD 872 million) investment, aiming to become China’s first “AI‑native” hospital where AI serves as the brain of the entire institution. Opened in 2021, Arion is Beijing’s only private tertiary cancer hospital. It is part of the AmCare group, which was fully acquired in 2022 by ByteDance (owner of TikTok) for a record 10 billion yuan, giving ByteDance a 91% stake in Arion’s parent company. The hospital’s holistic design uses a specialized medical cloud powered by ByteDance’s Volcengine, deploying all operations as AI agents. Arion has not yet broken even, but ByteDance continues to fund the vision.

Tsinghua University spinoff Tairex is piloting its Agent Hospital platform at eight Chinese hospitals, integrating its "real consultation room" mode with existing Hospital Information Systems across more than a dozen clinical departments, primarily in internal medicine. The company recently raised nearly RMB 100 million (USD 14.6 million) from investors, including Link-X Capital and InnoAngel Fund. The platform enables AI-assisted outpatient consultations alongside a separate virtual training mode where doctors and medical students practice across 26 clinical departments with AI-generated patients simulating over 1,000 disease types. The system synthesizes examination reports and allows peer comparison of diagnostic decisions, while a digital avatar provides decision-making suggestions. Tairex plans to add multilingual support beyond English and Chinese and has opened limited public beta access through partner channels.

SEA e-commerce market is dominated by 3 China-linked platforms, with strong growth in Thailand and Malaysia (link)

Southeast Asia’s (SEA) e-commerce platform gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 22.8% year-on-year to USD 157.6 billion in 2025, driven by the fastest-growing markets, Thailand (51.8%) and Malaysia (47.6%), according to Momentum Works. Indonesia remained the largest market with a 37% share but slowed to 2.2% growth. The market is a 3-way race dominated by Chinese companies. Singapore-based Shopee, where Tencent owns 20%, Alibaba-owned Lazada, and ByteDance-owned TikTok Shop collectively controlled 98.8% of the platform market. Content commerce generated an estimated USD 49.7 billion in revenue, accounting for 32% of platform GMV. Non-platform channels added USD 27.8 billion, bringing total e-commerce GMV to USD 185.5 billion. Price reductions are still subsidy-driven rather than structurally lower costs, while AI is emerging as a disruptive force in content production and demand generation. In comparison, the combined GMV of China's top five e-commerce platforms is estimated to have reached approximately 28.6 trillion yuan (~4 trillion USD) in 2025.

📸 China Snapshot

Shot from a Suzhou Creek bridge beside Fotografiska Shanghai, this frame compresses the city into layers, historic Bund-style façades in the foreground, a strip of green, then the distant punch of Lujiazui’s skyline, where the Shanghai World Financial Center (the “bottle opener”) and Shanghai Tower rise through the haze. The diagonal slice of bridge anchors the scene, a reminder that Shanghai is not just vertical, but built on crossings, trade routes, and constant movement between old and new. What looks calm here is actually one of the city’s most strategic visual corridors, where industrial-era riverfront, art spaces, and global finance collide in a single line of sight.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

Yale pioneering scientist Zhang Kai leaves US to build ultra-large-scale cellular structure group data bank in China (link)

Cryo‑electron microscopy (cryo‑EM) pioneer Zhang Kai resigned from his tenure‑track position at Yale University on January 12, 2026, and joined the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei. One month later, a Nature paper for which he was the corresponding author reported a breakthrough in high‑resolution electron microscopy imaging. The study overturns the “cytoplasmic assembly hypothesis” that had prevailed for over a decade, finding that microtubules contribute approximately 97% of protein assembly efficiency. Zhang earned his PhD in biophysics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013 and conducted postdoctoral research at Cambridge’s MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology before joining Yale in 2019.

Zhang Kai

China’s pet market goes full wellness with acupuncture, heat therapy, and dog kindergarten (link)

China's USD 40 billion pet economy is shifting from basic care to emotional and lifestyle-driven spending, as owners increasingly invest in premium wellness services for their animals. The market now includes offerings ranging from acupuncture and sound therapy to "dog kindergarten," reflecting a broader trend toward holistic pet well-being. Specialized studios are emerging in cities like Shenzhen to provide alternative treatments and structured socialization experiences, signaling that Chinese pet parents are moving beyond traditional veterinary care to embrace enrichment programs and preventative wellness as core components of pet ownership.

A dachshund receives sound therapy treatment at a Shenzhen pet wellness studio

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2026-04-13 | subscribe | homepage

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

• Chinese universities dominate global research rankings, funding surge pays off

• China climbs in service exports, digital and ICT lead shift

• EV exports surge as global demand shifts, Europe share rises

• Energy storage firms expand overseas, global orders accelerate

Remember to follow us on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

🚀 Headlines

Alibaba behind a viral AI video model dominating global leaderboards (link)

Alibaba has confirmed its authorship of HappyHorse-1.0, an AI video generation model that appeared anonymously on the Artificial Analysis benchmarking platform around April 7 and rapidly climbed to the top of blind-test rankings for both text-to-video and image-to-video generation. The developers revealed via a newly created X account that the project belongs to Alibaba's ATH AI Innovation Unit and remains under development. The reveal comes amid intensifying competition in China's AI sector, with OpenAI recently discontinuing its Sora video generation app and ByteDance pausing its Seedance 2.0 rollout due to copyright disputes with major Hollywood players. On the Video Arena Quality ELO leaderboard, all models are from China-based companies.

Artificial Analysis Leaderboard

Chinese universities continue to dominate global high-impact research (link)

The 2026 Nature Index, released March 25 and covering January 2025–December 2025, confirms China's leadership in high-impact natural science research, with its article count rising 24.5% year-on-year. Nine of the global top 10 institutions are Chinese, one more than last year, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (11,480 articles). Among universities, the University of Science and Technology of China ranks 2nd (3,475 articles) just behind Harvard University (3956), followed by Zhejiang University, Peking University, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. China dominates chemistry, physics, and earth sciences, while the U.S. retains an edge in health sciences. Strategic investments underpin this growth: China plans a 10% science funding increase in 2026, with "Double First-Class" universities receiving approximately ¥1 billion annually, and over 12.7 million PhD graduates expected this year.

Nature Index

McDonald’s and KFC are growing like wildfire in China’s countryside through local partnerships (link)

Western fast-food chains are aggressively expanding into rural China as urban markets reach saturation. McDonald's plans to add 3,000 outlets to its existing 7,000 locations over the next three years, while KFC intends to add over 4,000 to its 12,600-strong network. Approximately two-thirds of China's population lives outside its 50 largest cities, presenting untapped demand. Market saturation is severe: roughly 70% of KFCs and 60% of McDonald's locations are within a ten-minute cycle ride of another outlet. This rural push is enabled by ownership restructuring; McDonald's China is majority-owned by state-backed Citic Capital, while KFC and Pizza Hut operate through NYSE and HKEX-listed Yum China, spun off in 2016. In their footsteps are Starbucks, which sold 60% of its China business to Boyu Capital in November, and Burger King, which announced a similar deal with state-connected investors. Chinese investors are providing capital and local expertise that Western parent companies lack for navigating smaller cities.

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China expands export of knowledge-incentive services (link)

China has rapidly ascended the global rankings as an exporter of knowledge-intensive services, climbing from 17th place in 2014 to 6th place in 2024 for digitally delivered services, according to World Trade Organization data. In 2024, ICT service exports reached USD 100 billion, surpassing traditional exports such as toys (USD 82 billion) and footwear (USD 51 billion), while "other business services" exports totaled USD 113 billion, exceeding iron and steel (USD 71 billion) and apparel (USD 85 billion). Construction service exports hit USD 34 billion. This growth stems largely from the Belt and Road Initiative's infrastructure investments and the digitalization of manufactured goods exports, with products like electric vehicles, robots, and solar panels now accompanied by recurring software updates and technical services. China's surplus in "other services" trade exceeded USD 80 billion in 2024, placing it behind only the US, UK, and India. Despite an overall services deficit driven by travel and education shortfalls, knowledge-intensive services have swung from deficit to surplus since 2015.

China EV exports jump 140% to record as fuel prices rise, Chinese carmakers squeeze out Asian rivals in Europe (link, link)

China's electric vehicle and hybrid exports surged 140% year-on-year in March to a record 349,000 units, driven by rising global fuel prices amid the Iran war. BYD accounted for approximately one-third of total exports, with Geely and Chery also ranking among the leading exporters. The spike reflects shifting consumer preferences toward electrified vehicles as fuel costs climb, paralleling Japanese automakers' gains during the 1970s oil shocks. Tesla's Shanghai factory shipments rose 9% year-on-year even as its China sales declined 24%, while BYD's domestic sales plummeted over 40%.

Chinese carmakers are rapidly gaining market share in Europe at the expense of Japanese and South Korean rivals, with EU imports of Chinese-made vehicles surpassing 1 million units for the first time in 2025. Imports jumped 30.7% year-on-year to 1.006 million vehicles, though import value rose only 4% to €13.7 billion (USD 16.1 billion), indicating lower pricing. Chinese-manufactured cars now account for 7% of EU sales, up from 5% in 2024, while Japanese and Korean market shares remained flat at 4% and 3%. BYD outsold Tesla in Europe for the second consecutive month in February with 17,954 registrations versus Tesla's 17,664. Meanwhile, EU passenger car exports to China collapsed 43% in value to €8.3 billion and 42.8% in volume to 159,743 units. China produced nearly 30 million vehicles in 2025, a 10.4% increase, and accounted for over 62% of global car output alongside record-high exports.

China Mar NEV sales edge up as soaring exports offset domestic weakness

Chinese energy storage firms push harder overseas as orders boom (link)

Chinese energy storage firms are rapidly scaling overseas operations amid surging international demand, with new overseas orders reaching 366 gigawatt-hours in 2025, a 144% year-on-year increase. Export momentum accelerated in Q1 2026, with large-scale system shipments up over 130% and residential units rising 65%. More than 70 Chinese companies now serve clients across 60+ countries, focusing on Europe, Australia, North America, and the Middle East. Key players are localizing production to navigate trade barriers: Hithium is investing €400 million in a Spain plant (operational 2027); Sungrow signed agreements for a 10 GWh Egypt facility and a €230 million Poland plant targeting 20 GW inverter and 12.5 GWh storage annual capacity; Guangzhou Great Power reported 300% overseas revenue growth in 2025. Expansion is driven by the integration of global renewable energy and AI-driven data center demand.

Chinese memory giants are scaling fast, and the AI boom is giving them cover (link)

China's two leading memory chipmakers, YMTC and CXMT, are rapidly expanding capacity to capitalize on AI-driven surges in demand. CXMT posted 2025 revenue of approximately USD 8 billion, up 130% year-over-year, as its monthly DRAM wafer capacity nearly tripled from 100,000 units in early 2024 to 290,000 by year-end. The company aims to begin mass production of high-bandwidth memory by year-end. YMTC is set to begin mass production at a new Wuhan facility in H2 2026, which would make it the world's third-largest NAND manufacturer, surpassing SK Hynix and Micron. Both firms hold over 15% price advantages against global competitors. UBS estimates China's combined memory capacity expansion could add 120,000 to 140,000 wafers per month in 2026.

Unitree's H1 Robot hits 10m/s peak speed, approaching human peak sprint capacity (link)

Unitree Robotics' H1 humanoid has reclaimed the speed record, achieving a peak velocity of 10 meters per second (22.4 mph), equivalent to a 10-second 100-meter dash, during an outdoor sprint on April 11, 2026. The Hangzhou-based company matched the benchmark set earlier this year by MirrorMe's Bolt, representing a 200% increase over the H1's previous 3.3 m/s record from early 2024. The 62 kg robot with 0.8-meter legs significantly outpaced competitors, including Tesla Optimus (2.7 m/s) and RobotEra STAR1 (3.6 m/s). The milestone validates Unitree CEO Wang Xingxing's March prediction that humanoids would surpass Usain Bolt's 12.42 m/s peak by mid-2026. The timing is strategic as Unitree finalizes its $580 million IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, targeting a $6 billion valuation, while preparing for international expansion through a partnership with Alibaba's AliExpress. The record precedes Beijing's second annual humanoid Half-Marathon featuring over 300 robots later this month.

📸 China Snapshot

Green Lake (Cuihu Park) sits on what was once a bay of Dianchi Lake, with roots tracing back to the Yuan Dynasty, later shaped into a garden during the Qing era, before becoming a modern urban park in the 20th century. Today it reads less like a monument and more like Kunming’s social core, where locals gather daily and, each winter, thousands of migratory black-headed gulls from Siberia turn the lake into one of China’s most distinctive seasonal urban rituals.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

China resumes flights and agricultural trade with Taiwan (link)

China announced Sunday it will resume certain diplomatic and economic ties with Taiwan, including direct flights to multiple mainland cities such as Xi'an and Urumqi, and the importation of Taiwanese aquaculture products. The announcement follows a Friday meeting between Kuomintang leader Cheng Li-wun and President Xi Jinping, where both expressed desires for peaceful relations. China also plans to advance the construction of a bridge connecting the Taiwanese islands of Matsu and Kinmen to the mainland.

China and Europe launch rare joint space mission (link)

Europe and China are launching the Smile (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) mission, a rare joint space collaboration agreed upon in 2016 between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). A Vega-C rocket will launch the 2.3-tonne satellite later this month from French Guiana into a highly elliptical orbit reaching 121,000 km above the North Pole, with each complete orbit taking 51 hours. The mission aims to study how Earth's magnetic field shields the planet from solar radiation and predict geomagnetic storms that can disrupt communications and power grids. The satellite carries four scientific instruments, including a soft X-ray imager built by Leicester University and a UV imager capable of 45 hours of continuous aurora observation. Logistical hurdles over technology export controls and safety regulations delayed the mission by at least one year. Despite current geopolitical tensions, both agencies are seeking further cooperation opportunities, though no follow-up mission is currently planned.

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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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2026-04-06 | subscribe | homepage

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

• China’s coffee war heats up, premium and budget chains diverge

• CATL expands battery swap logistics, targeting nationwide rollout

• Humanoid robots enter factory floors, scaling toward mass deployment

• Fusion startup hits record plasma run, commercial race accelerates

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🚀 Headlines

Alibaba tops global competitors with Qwen 3.6 launch, AI model ranks 2nd globally in coding benchmark (link, link)

Alibaba has officially launched Qwen 3.6-Plus, available immediately via API and Alibaba Cloud Model Studio, featuring a 1-million-token context window by default. The model achieves state-of-the-art performance in agentic coding benchmarks, scoring 61.6 on Terminal-Bench 2.0, 56.6 on SWE-bench Pro, 78.8 on SWE-bench Verified, and 73.8 on SWE-bench Multilingual, all outperforming competitors including Claude 4.5 Opus, Kimi K2.5, and GLM5. Alibaba highlights the model’s integration of reasoning, memory, and execution capabilities as it accelerates toward highly autonomous super-agents.

Alibaba’s Qwen 3.6-Plus large language model has secured the second position globally in the Code Arena programming benchmark, surpassing models from OpenAI, Google, and xAI, according to rankings released April 3 by the blind testing platform LMArena. The model is now the highest-ranked Chinese entry on the Code Arena leaderboard, which evaluates AI coding capabilities through blind testing to reduce bias. The achievement positions Alibaba’s Qwen series in direct competition with leading Western models, including GPT, Gemini, and Grok, while potentially boosting investor confidence in the company’s AI trajectory and strengthening its position in the competitive cloud computing market. Alibaba stated the result demonstrates the model’s potential to enhance productivity and innovation across the technology industry.

Chinese government bonds emerge as lone global haven during the Middle East conflict (link)

Chinese government bonds have emerged as a lone haven amid the Iran war, with 10-year yields dipping marginally to 1.81% since the end of February, even as US Treasury yields surged 0.38 percentage points to 4.34% and UK gilts jumped 0.7 percentage points. This resilience reflects China's low-inflation environment, February CPI was 1.3%, below the 2% target, and insulation from energy shocks via a diversified fuel mix, strategic reserves, and discounted Russian supplies. Strict capital controls have trapped domestic liquidity, creating uncorrelated demand. Since 2012, Chinese bonds have been a rare sovereign debt instrument that has delivered positive real returns relative to US inflation, outperforming markets like Japan, Germany, and the UK, which posted negative nominal returns. Investors anticipate potential People’s Bank of China (PBoC) easing, contrasting with tightening expectations in the West.

PUMA teams up with Shincell to develop next generation of leading running foam technology NITRO (link)

PUMA has partnered with Chinese sustainable foam technology leader Shincell to develop the next generation of its NITRO™ running foam technology, establishing a dedicated laboratory in Suzhou, China, to test new materials. Shincell specializes in purely physical foaming processes using atmospheric gases to create lightweight, high-performance materials with micro and nano bubbles. PUMA expects to launch the first collaborative products in the upcoming seasons. The German sportswear giant first introduced NITRO™ in early 2021 and recently validated its performance during major marathons in Boston, London, and New York, where over 250 athletes tested the technology and nearly 100 set new personal bests, 48 of whom improved their times by three minutes or more. The partnership aims to maintain PUMA's competitive edge in performance running while leveraging Shincell's sustainable material innovations.

German machine tool industry eclipsed by China as the top exporter in 2025 (link)

China's machine tool production reached a record 30 billion euros in 2025, cementing its global dominance with 37% of worldwide output, while Germany's production fell to 9.4 billion euros, missing the 10-billion mark and barely exceeding pandemic-era levels. For the first time, China surpassed Germany as the world's largest exporter, delivering 8.6 billion euros abroad (up 13%) against Germany's 7 billion euros (down 10%). The three leading nations, China, Germany, and Japan, account for 58% of global machine tool production. China also remains the largest consumption market at 25.2 billion euros (32% of global demand, up 5%), compared to the USA's 11.1 billion euros (14%) and Germany's 5.7%. German manufacturers faced a 3% overall decline in 2025 orders, with domestic demand plummeting despite a 3% rise in international orders.

China’s coffee market splits in two as Luckin moves upmarket and Mixue digs deeper (link)

China's coffee market is polarizing as budget brands pivot upmarket and premium players attract capital. Centurium Capital, Luckin Coffee's controlling shareholder, is acquiring Blue Bottle Coffee's global retail assets for under USD 400 million, below the USD 500 million Nestle originally paid for a 68% stake, signaling a push into premium positioning as Luckin's Q4 2025 net profit fell 39.1% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Cotti Coffee abandoned its RMB 9.9 (USD 1.4) pricing strategy and halted franchise applications in major cities from March 1. Tea giant Mixue Bingcheng is piloting freshly ground coffee using RMB 33,000 (USD 4,780) machines across its 40,000+ store network. The market added over 40,000 net new stores in 2025, reaching 215,000 locations, with chain penetration rising from 46% to 53%. Capital is flowing to the premium segment, with Keurig Dr Pepper acquiring JDE Peet's (including Peet's Coffee China) for USD 18.1 billion and Boyu Capital taking control of Starbucks China.

CATL signs deal with Chinese express giant to electrify delivery trucks (link)

CATL and STO Express have signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Ningde, Fujian province to electrify logistics fleets through green logistics initiatives and battery swap infrastructure. The partnership targets high fuel costs in mainline logistics, with CATL’s electric heavy-duty trucks delivering energy savings of 0.8 yuan (USD 0.116) per kilometer on routes such as Shanghai to Ningbo (400 kilometers), and total cost reductions of 0.3–0.5 yuan per kilometer after accounting for fuel vehicle depreciation. CATL currently operates over 300 commercial vehicle battery swap stations under its Qiji Energy brand and plans to expand to 900 stations by year-end 2026, strategically concentrated in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta economic circles where STO Express operates. The battery maker also signed a separate agreement with Jiangxi Yichun Transportation to electrify more than 160 rural buses and recently launched a standardized “75#” battery swap pack for heavy-duty trucks.

China’s factory employs over 100 humanoid robot interns, Ubtech offers USD 18 million a year for new chief scientist (link, link)

About 120 humanoid robots are training as "interns" alongside human supervisors at an embodied AI data collection and testing center in Liuzhou, Guangxi, preparing for industrial deployment. At Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor, 11 UBTech Walker S1 robots practice shop-floor tasks, including sorting parts and moving bins, within a dedicated 200-square-meter training zone. The facility replicates environments across automotive, pharmaceutical, and food production sectors to generate data for continuous learning. China recently launched its first high-capacity humanoid robot production line in Guangdong, capable of producing up to 10,000 units annually through a collaboration between Leju Robotics and Dongfang Precision Science and Technology. The facility integrates 24 precision assembly stages and 77 inspection checkpoints, completing a new robot every 30 minutes, a roughly 50 percent efficiency improvement over traditional methods.

UBTECH Robotics is offering an annual compensation package of RMB 15 million to RMB 124 million (approximately USD 2.1 million to USD 17.7 million) for a Chief Scientist in embodied intelligence, the company announced on April 2. The role will focus on developing foundational robot models, including vision-language-action (VLA) systems. The aggressive recruitment follows strong financial performance: UBTECH generated RMB 2.001 billion in revenue in 2025, up 53.3% year-on-year, with full-size humanoid robots contributing RMB 821 million (41.1% of total revenue) from 1,079 units sold, making it the company's largest business segment. Its industrial humanoid robot Walker S2 has entered mass production for manufacturing and logistics deployment.

World’s first fully HTS Tokamak sets fusion duration record in Shanghai (link)

Energy Singularity's Honghuang 70 (HH70) in Shanghai has set a record for the longest test duration by a commercial enterprise, achieving steady-state long-pulse plasma operation for 1,337 seconds. Located in the Lingang Special Area, HH70 is the world's first tokamak with a core magnet system fully constructed from high-temperature superconducting (HTS) materials, which improve plasma confinement while reducing volume and construction costs. The milestone marks the first time a commercial entity has mastered steady-state plasma operation exceeding 1,000 seconds. Since beginning operations in June 2024, the device has conducted 5,755 experiments. Founded in 2021, Energy Singularity has raised nearly CNY400 million (USD58.1 million) in angel funding in February 2022 and an equal amount in a Pre-A round in April 2023, with investors including miHoYo and Nio Capital, followed by a Series A round in February 2026.

World’s First Fully HTS Tokamak

How Jennifer Aniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads

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📸 China Snapshot

Kunming at sunrise, seen from above Green Lake (Cuihu Park), where the city wakes slowly under Yunnan’s famously mild climate. Known as the “Spring City”, Kunming averages 15–20°C year-round, which helps explain the dense greenery even in the urban core. In the foreground, old low-rise blocks and temple roofs sit next to newer towers, a compact snapshot of a city that has grown into a gateway to Southeast Asia while still keeping a slower, more livable rhythm than most Chinese capitals.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

Top Singaporean materials scientist Seeram Ramakrishna joins China’s Tsinghua University (link)

Seeram Ramakrishna, a leading researcher at the National University of Singapore and the most cited scientist from the city-state, has recently joined Tsinghua University as a full-time faculty member. He was appointed as a Xinghua distinguished chair professor, the university's highest title, and will also serve as the director of the iWearables Centre. Ramakrishna, known as the "father of electrospinning," has been instrumental in advancing nanoscience and nanotechnology, and his contributions are expected to enhance the university's research capabilities.

BYD launches first overseas SkyRail project with Brazil monorail (link)

BYD launched its first overseas SkyRail project on March 31, commencing operations of a monorail line connecting São Paulo's Congonhas Airport. The Shenzhen-based company took over the project in 2020, completing train adaptation around existing infrastructure. The automated trains feature BYD purpose-built batteries and were developed to address complex construction conditions and steep slopes. This infrastructure milestone accompanies BYD's strategic pivot to overseas markets amid intensifying domestic competition. BYD also operates a passenger vehicle assembly plant in Camacari, Bahia, which began production on July 1, 2025, and has secured 100,000 vehicle orders from Argentina and Mexico. The company will also invest 300 million reais ($58.2 million) in a Rio de Janeiro research center, with completion targeted for 2028.

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2026-03-30 | subscribe | homepage

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

• Chinese pharma giants deepen China bets, Novartis adds USD 480M

• Gap plans 50 new stores, aiming for a China comeback

• Chinese chip and battery makers widen global lead, rivals lose ground

• World’s first floating deep-sea lab takes shape, targeting 10,000-meter missions

Remember to follow us on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

🚀 Headlines

Chinese AI models surpass US peers by global usage for third week, China’s average daily token usage surges 40% (link, link)

Chinese large language models led global AI usage for a third straight week, according to March 23 OpenRouter rankings. Five of the top nine models were Chinese, including the top four: Xiaomi’s MiMo-V2-Pro, Step 3.5 Flash, MiniMax’s M2.5, and DeepSeek’s V3.2, with Z.ai’s GLM5 Turbo in sixth. Chinese models generated 7.359 trillion tokens, up 57% from 4.69 trillion the week before, while US models from Anthropic and Google produced 3.536 trillion, up 7.3%. Chinese open-source models also saw the highest global downloads in 2025, and US firm Cursor confirmed its latest release uses Moonshot AI’s Kimi 2.5.

China’s average daily token usage has risen 40% this month to over 140 trillion, up from 100 trillion at the end of 2025 and more than 1,000 times early 2024 levels. The surge reflects rapid ecosystem growth around data usage and distribution. By the end of 2025, China had built over 100,000 high-quality datasets totaling more than 890 petabytes. The government has named 2026 the “Year of Data Element Value Release” and is accelerating a national data registration system and AI-ready dataset development.

OpenRouter AI Ranking as of Sunday, March 29 

Novartis joins multinationals in China expansion with USD 480 million commitment to boost manufacturing and R&D (link)

Novartis will invest over 3.3 billion yuan (USD 480 million) to expand its China manufacturing and R&D operations, including 1.5 billion yuan to upgrade its Beijing facility, which has operated since 1987 with annual capacity of 3 billion tablets or capsules and 550 million boxes, and 1.8 billion yuan for the second phase of its Shanghai campus, its China headquarters and third-largest global R&D center. The company has also completed a 600 million yuan radiopharmaceutical facility in Haiyan, Zhejiang, producing therapies such as Lutathera and Pluvicto. With 140 years in China and over 80 million patients served, the country is Novartis’ second-largest market. The move follows major investments by AstraZeneca at USD 15 billion in January 2026 and Eli Lilly at USD 3 billion earlier in March.

Gap China operator plans 50-store rollout and Hong Kong return in 2026 (link)

Gap China operator, Shanghai-based e-commerce and digital commerce service provider, Baozun, plans to open 50 new stores across tier-one to tier-three cities in mainland China during 2026 and return to Hong Kong later in the year, marking a major expansion after achieving its first quarterly breakeven. Baozun, which took over Gap China operations in late 2022, grew the chain to 164 locations in 2025 by opening 29 new stores. Sales increased over 20% in 2025, with Q1 continuing the stronger performance seen toward year-end, and the company targets maintaining 20%-plus growth in 2026 before accelerating to 30% over the following two years. Baozun plans accelerated expansion and potential new brand partnerships beyond Gap and Hunter boot.

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China’s EV battery makers widen lead to over 70% global share (link)

Chinese EV battery makers captured 70.4% of global market share in 2025, rising four percentage points from 2024 and up from less than 50% in 2021, according to SNE Research. Six of the top ten manufacturers were Chinese, with CATL leading at 39.2% share and posting record net profit of RMB 72.2 billion (USD 10.5 billion), up 42% year-on-year. Global battery installation volume reached 1,187 gigawatt-hours in 2025, up 32%, with China accounting for approximately 60%. BYD ranked second globally. Conversely, South Korean competitors' combined share fell three points to 15.3%, roughly half their 2021 level, with LG Energy Solution's profit plummeting 76% to USD 53.9 million, less than 1% of CATL's earnings, and SK On cutting 1,000 jobs (40% of workforce) at its Georgia plant. Chinese manufacturers are currently expanding production in Hungary and Southeast Asia.

South Korean chip giants step up China investments, Swiss STM localizes supply chain with China’s Huahong (link, link)

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are ramping up investment in China to address tightening AI memory supply. In 2025, Samsung invested 465.4 billion won (USD 308.8 million) in its Xi’an plant, up 67.5%, which produces about 40% of its NAND output. SK Hynix invested 581.1 billion won in its Wuxi plant, up 102% and accounting for over 30% of its DRAM production, and 440.6 billion won in its Dalian NAND facility, up 52%. The move follows forecasts of a supply shortfall, with 2026 DRAM demand expected to exceed supply by 4.9% and NAND by 4.2%.

STMicroelectronics has begun shipping STM32 microcontrollers produced in China through a partnership with Huahong Semiconductor, establishing a dual supply chain. The first batch of 40nm eNVM wafers was produced at Huahong’s 300mm Wuxi fab, with packaging and testing in Shenzhen and through local OSAT partners. Production starts with the STM32H7 series, with expansion to STM32H5 and STM32C5 planned. The setup allows customers to choose between local and overseas supply. Huahong ranked sixth globally in Q4 2025 with a 2.5% market share, compared with SMIC in third place at 5.2%.

China’s airlines add 2,900 flights to Europe as Russia access pays dividends (link)

China’s airlines will add 2,891 net flights to Europe this summer compared to 2025. The expanded schedules, covering late March through October, include 1,120 additional flights by Air China, 839 by China Southern Airlines, and 654 by China Eastern Airlines, with Hainan Airlines also boosting capacity. The growth leverages Chinese carriers' exclusive access to Russian airspace, restricted to most Western airlines under sanctions related to the Ukraine conflict, enabling shorter routes and significant fuel savings. New direct routes are anticipated as carriers capitalize on competitive scheduling advantages while European and North American competitors continue operating lengthy detours.

A Boeing aircraft operated by Air China

China’s UBTech partners with Siemens Digital to mass produce 10,000 humanoid robots by 2026 (link)

Chinese robotics firm UBTech has partnered with Siemens Digital Industries Software to scale humanoid robot production, targeting an annual capacity of 10,000 units by 2026. The agreement, signed March 16 in Shenzhen, combines UBTech’s robotics systems with Siemens’ digital manufacturing tools, including simulation, digital twins, lifecycle management, and workforce training. UBTech began delivering Walker S2 industrial robots in 2025 and reported humanoid robot orders exceeding 1.4 billion yuan across manufacturing and logistics. The partnership aims to overcome scalability challenges as the industry moves from prototypes to commercial deployment, using Siemens’ Xcelerator platform to connect design, production, and operations.

UBTech Walker S2 delivering controlled accurate tennis strokes

China builds world’s first ultra-large floating island marine research platform (link)

China has launched the “Open-Sea Floating Island” in Shanghai, the world’s first ultra-large marine research platform for continuous deep-sea operations. The semi-submersible twin-hull design supports missions and equipment testing at depths up to 10,000 meters, covering the full range of ocean exploration. Expected to be completed by 2030, it will serve as an open-sea test site for deep-sea mining, marine equipment, and offshore oil and gas systems. Developed by Shanghai Jiaotong University, the platform can quickly reach target areas and switch to stable research mode through ballasting, enabling long-duration operations with high load capacity and strong weather resistance. It will also support ocean ecosystem research, resource development, and typhoon forecasting.

Floating research platform

📸 China Snapshot

Wan Chai, Hong Kong, where street speed meets layered identity. A blur of taxis cuts across a façade painted like an old double-decker tram, a nod to the city’s still-running fleet, one of the world’s oldest tram systems, operating since 1904.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

Cambridge top architect Francois Penz relocates to China from UK (link)

Francois Penz, former head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge (2017-2019), has joined Nanjing University’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning on a full-time basis after 45 years at Cambridge. The appointment was announced on March 17. Born in 1953, Penz was selected for China's National Leading Talent Programme in 2025 and has collaborated extensively with Nanjing University, where a former PhD student now serves as dean. A pioneer in integrating computer science and film with architecture, he established the field of architecture and film at Cambridge in 1991 and received the French Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 2009.

Pilot spring break for schools gives China's travel sector a boost (link)

Ten Chinese provincial-level regions are piloting a two-to-three-day spring break for primary and secondary students this year, with four implementing province-wide programs. Scheduled around the April 4 Tomb Sweeping Festival or late April to connect with Labor Day, the initiative has extended the holiday to six days. Bookings for air tickets, hotels, and scenic spots from April 1-6 have more than doubled year-on-year, according to LY.com. Domestic flight bookings surged 24% to 1.5 million, while outbound flights climbed 14% to around 560,000, per Umetrip. Average flight tickets cost CNY718 (USD104), up 5.8% from last year and returning to pre-pandemic levels. Airlines increased capacity from pilot cities, with flights up 32% in Changzhou and 18% in both Chengdu and Nanjing, transforming April from a low-demand period into a new peak travel season.

☕ 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

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2026-03-23 | subscribe | homepage

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

• Sanofi and AstraZeneca deepen China footprint

• Photoresist plant enters mass production

• Satellite-linked humanoid control is tested

• Smart rice farms lift yields

Remember to follow us on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

🚀 Headlines

China is getting everyone on OpenClaw, Xiaomi stuns with new LLM that nears western models (link, link)

Chinese local governments are rapidly adopting OpenClaw, a Western-developed AI agent. Shenzhen's Longgang district hosted an OpenClaw conference on March 14 with Moonshot AI, offering free installations, trial access to Kimi Claw, annual subsidies up to RMB 2 million per company, and application awards up to RMB 1 million. Hefei's High-Tech Zone introduced 15 support measures with funding up to RMB 10 million, promoting the "one-person company" business model. Changshu in Jiangsu unveiled 13 similar measures, including free deployment and training. Chinese tech giants Tencent, Huawei, and startups Moonshot and Z.ai have launched domestic alternatives replacing the system's "brain" with Chinese large language models for local data processing to address security concerns.

Xiaomi released MiMo-V2-Pro, a 1-trillion-parameter foundation model led by DeepSeek R1 veteran Fuli Luo, featuring 42 billion active parameters per forward pass and a 1-million-token context window via a 7:1 Hybrid Attention mechanism. The model ranks #10 on Artificial Analysis' Intelligence Index with a score of 49, placing it alongside GPT-5.2 Codex and ahead of Grok 4.20 Beta, while achieving #2 in China and #8 globally. Benchmarks show a 30% hallucination rate (down from 48% in the Flash version) and 77 million output tokens required for full index testing, significantly fewer than competitors. Pricing is set at USD1 per million input tokens and USD3 per million output tokens for contexts under 256K, roughly one-seventh the cost of GPT-5.2 or Claude Opus 4.6, with cache writes currently free. Xiaomi plans to open-source a variant once stable.

Sanofi launches innovation hub in Chengdu, AstraZeneca to build cell therapy hub in Shanghai (link, link)

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi inaugurated a new innovation and operation center in Chengdu on Thursday, announcing the launch via its Chinese social media platform. The facility is designed to strengthen the company’s research and development capabilities, bolster clinical operations, and improve manufacturing and supply chain services. This strategic expansion underscores Sanofi’s commitment to deepening its operational footprint in China by leveraging Chengdu’s local resources and the city’s growing significance as a regional healthcare hub. The Chengdu center represents a key component of Sanofi’s broader strategy to enhance innovation and operational efficiency within the Chinese market while supporting the company’s clinical and manufacturing infrastructure across the region.

AstraZeneca unveiled plans to build a commercial cell therapy manufacturing hub in Shanghai's Lin-gang Special Area and an R&D center in Zhangjiang High-Tech Park, becoming the first multinational pharmaceutical company with end-to-end cell therapy capabilities in China. These facilities are part of a USD 15 billion investment pledge through 2030 announced earlier this year. The company also announced a separate radioconjugate factory in Guangzhou for actinium-225-based prostate cancer treatments following its Fusion Pharmaceuticals acquisition. With nearly USD 6.7 billion in 2025 local revenue, AstraZeneca is China's largest foreign pharma, operating two global R&D centers and four manufacturing bases. The company also launched a Shanghai-U.K. life sciences collaboration program with the University of Glasgow and King's College London.

Luckin Coffee owner buys Blue Bottle premium coffee chain from Nestle (link)

Beijing-based Centurium Capital, Luckin Coffee's controlling shareholder with 53.6% voting rights, has agreed to acquire Blue Bottle Coffee's global retail operations from Nestle for under USD 400 million. Nestle, which purchased a 68% stake in Blue Bottle for under USD 500 million in 2017, will retain the fast-moving consumer goods business. Blue Bottle generated approximately USD 250 million in revenue for the 12 months ended June 30, 2025, USD 150 million from the US and USD 100 million from Asia Pacific, with profitability expected in 2026. The specialty coffee chain operates 140 stores globally as of the end of 2025, including 31 in Asia and 15 in mainland China since entering in 2022. The acquisition supports Luckin's push into premium segments and international expansion. Luckin currently operates over 30,000 stores domestically and approximately 160 overseas, primarily in Southeast Asia.

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JD.com launches Joybuy in Europe, offering same-day delivery (link)

JD.com launched its European e-commerce platform Joybuy on March 16, entering six markets, including the U.K. and Germany, to challenge Amazon and Chinese rivals AliExpress and Temu. Unlike competitors' asset-light marketplace models shipping directly from China, Joybuy operates as a first-party retailer with local warehouses and logistics networks, enabling same-day delivery for orders placed before 11 a.m. and free delivery on U.K. orders over £29. The company also introduced JoyPlus, a £3.99 monthly membership offering unlimited free delivery, undercutting Amazon Prime's £8.99. Following six months of beta testing, the platform features brand stores from L'Oréal Paris and De'Longhi, targeting customers with authentic international brands rather than utilizing the de minimis customs exemption for low-value goods. Joybuy plans to expand its warehousing footprint across Europe step by step to extend same-day delivery coverage.

Dinglong starts mass production at China’s first full-process integrated circuit photoresist plant (link)

Dinglong Holdings has initiated mass production at China's first full-process integrated circuit photoresist plant in Qianjiang, Hubei province, with an annual capacity of 300 tons of KrF and ArF photoresists. The facility integrates the entire production chain from monomer synthesis to finished formulation and localizes key additives, including photoacid generators. The output targets high-end memory chips (3D NAND, DRAM) and logic chips at 14nm and below. Currently, domestic Chinese production accounts for only 3-5% of the KrF market and under 1% of the ArF photoresist market, with Japanese and US suppliers dominating. The plant features production lines for over 30 photoresist types; several have entered stable batch production, while more than half are undergoing customer verification.

Chinese lab develops first humanoid robot control system using space-based satellite and AI Agent (link)

GuoXing Aerospace Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University demonstrated the first humanoid robot control using space-based satellite inference, hosting Alibaba's Qwen3 large language model aboard orbiting satellites to process commands and transmit instructions to ground-based robots via the OpenClaw AI agent. The Chengdu-based firm, which launched a 12-satellite cluster last May, plans two additional deployments this year en route to a 1,000-satellite network by 2030 and a 2,800-satellite constellation by 2035, comprising 2,400 inference and 400 training units, to provide global orbital AI coverage for autonomous systems, including drones and vehicles. The architecture processes data directly in low Earth orbit, bypassing terrestrial infrastructure gaps, though heat dissipation in microgravity vacuum remains a primary engineering challenge for high-power AI inference chips.

China reports stunning 9.7 million critical minerals finds in western provinces as hi-tech US race heats up (link)

China has unveiled major critical mineral discoveries, reinforcing its industrial supply chain dominance. At the Maoniuping mine in Sichuan’s Mianning county, newly confirmed reserves include 9.7 million tonnes of rare earth oxides, raising the site’s total proven resources to 10.4 million tonnes. Surveys also identified 27.1 million tonnes of fluorite and 37.2 million tonnes of baryte, both classified as "super-large" deposits, along with 51,455 tonnes of antimony in Gansu’s Tanchang county, boosting that region’s reserves by over 50%. Fluorite is essential for semiconductor and lithium-ion battery manufacturing, while baryte is critical for oil and gas drilling. The discoveries strengthen Beijing’s position as it leverages export restrictions on seven rare earth elements and permanent magnets imposed last April, requiring government approval for shipments overseas. While December policy adjustments have revived exports to Europe, shipments to the US remain subdued amid ongoing trade tensions.

China to reduce food imports with super-efficient unmanned rice farms (link)

China has established the world’s first smart ratoon rice farm in Hunan province’s Datong Lake District, deploying unmanned machinery and AI-driven systems to achieve yields exceeding 18 tonnes per hectare, 6 tonnes higher than traditional two-season rice farming. Built in 2023 across nearly 33 hectares of experimental fields (200 hectares total), the facility uses 20 sets of unmanned machinery to service 666 hectares, leveraging cloud computing, IoT, and BeiDou navigation to operate transplanters and harvesters with minimal human intervention. The technology reduces rice stubble trampling to 18% compared with 45% using traditional manual methods. Ratoon rice, grown from stubble after the initial harvest without replanting, supports China’s strategic goal to produce 90% of its own grain by 2032, advancing food security through sustainable, high-efficiency agriculture.

Paddy field in Fujin, Heilongjiang province

📸 China Snapshot

Through low clouds and neon haze, the Oriental Pearl Tower glows like a vertical constellation, seen from Flair Rooftop at The Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong, one of the city’s highest open-air bars at roughly 260 meters above ground. From this angle, the tower’s 468-meter silhouette dominates the Lujiazui skyline, while LED-wrapped office towers flicker in the background, a reminder that Pudong transformed from farmland into a global financial hub in just three decades. A classic Shanghai moment, where fog, light, and scale blur the boundary between skyline and sky.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

Robots to challenge human records at world's second marathon for androids in Beijing (link)

Humanoid robots competing in Beijing’s second half-marathon on April 19, 2026 are targeting finishing times of about one hour, according to Tang Jian, CTO of the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, whose Tiangong Ultra won the inaugural 2025 race in 2:40:42, compared with the human world record of 57:20. This year’s entries feature stronger joint torque, greater explosive power, improved cooling for high-intensity stability, optimized motion control for more human-like gaits, and batteries that may remove the need for mid-race charging. Unlike last year’s remote-controlled machines, robots will navigate independently using electronic maps for perception, path planning, and real-time decision-making on a more complex course. Unitree Robotics founder Wang Xingxing also predicts humanoid robots could run 100 meters in under 10 seconds by mid-2026.

Pop Mart teams up with Sony Pictures to develop live-action LABUBU film (link)

Pop Mart has partnered with Sony Pictures to develop a live-action/CGI feature film based on its LABUBU character, with the project currently in early development. BAFTA-nominated director Paul King, known for the "Paddington" films and "Wonka," will direct, produce, and co-write the screenplay with Simon Farnaby. Creator Long Jiasheng (Kasing Lung) will serve as executive producer and guide creative development for the film, which combines live-action footage with computer-generated imagery. The collaboration follows record sales for the fanged bunny-like character, with Pop Mart announcing that LABUBU exceeded 100 million units sold in 2025. The Hong Kong-born artist created the character as part of his Nordic folklore-inspired "The Monsters" series, which has become a global phenomenon in the designer toy market.

Labubu heads to the big screen

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2026-03-16 | subscribe | homepage

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

• Lilly commits USD 3B to China, scaling next-gen weight-loss pill output

• Science funding rises again, with elite universities and key disciplines expanding

• Chinese wind giants take the global top six, led by Goldwind and Envision

• World’s largest CAES plant goes live, boosting long-duration energy storage

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🚀 Headlines

China's AI large language models weekly usage surpasses global leaders: MiniMax M2.5 remains at the top (link)

Chinese AI large models recorded 4.19 trillion weekly API calls during March 2–8, surging 34.9% week-on-week and surpassing the United States’ 3.63 trillion Tokens for the second consecutive week, according to OpenRouter data. Chinese vendors now occupy three of the top five global positions: MiniMax’s M2.5 model leads with 1.87 trillion Tokens (up 15%), DeepSeek V3.2 ranks third with 0.83 trillion Tokens, and Stepwise Star’s Step3.5 Flash jumped 69% to 0.75 trillion Tokens in fourth place. Kimi K2.5 declined to sixth with 0.74 trillion Tokens despite an 8% increase. Industry analysts attribute China’s sustained leadership to robust domestic AI application ecosystem activity and improved computing costs.

OpenRouter Weekly Leaderboard (March 16, 2026)

Lilly to invest USD3 billion in China over next decade to boost next-gen weight-loss pill output (link)

US drugmaker Eli Lilly plans to invest USD 3 billion in China over the next decade to expand production capacity for its next-generation oral weight-loss drug orforglipron, the company’s first oral GLP-1 treatment currently awaiting regulatory approval in the country. The investment includes boosting output at its Suzhou plant, adding new pill capacity in Beijing, and partnering with Chinese contract development and manufacturing organizations. In a separate deal, Lilly will invest USD 200 million in Chinese outsourcing provider Pharmaron to enhance technological capabilities for orforglipron production. The investment is part of Lilly’s largest-ever global capacity expansion program. It aims to build an agile supply chain for the oral therapy, which offers advantages for patients preferring pills or facing cold-chain challenges with injectable alternatives.

China boosts science funding, expands elite universities (link)

China has pledged a roughly 10% increase in science funding for 2026, allocating CNY 426 billion (USD 62 billion) in central government funding and CNY 1.3 trillion in total national fiscal spending—a 7.1% rise from 2025. The government is expanding the “Double First Class” initiative, which supports nearly 150 universities and 500 priority disciplines, with participating institutions adding approximately 38,000 student places over the past two years. The plan emphasizes “original innovation” in fields like artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, and advanced manufacturing, while fast-tracking program approvals. Administrative expenses will be cut by 7–10% to prioritize strategic investments. Overseas study is declining: Tsinghua’s 2025 graduates pursuing further study abroad fell to 8.5% from 9.6% in 2024, while 350,000 new university places were created through more than 540 transnational education partnerships with overseas institutions established over the past two years.

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Chinese wind turbine makers lead world's new installed capacity (link)

Chinese wind turbine manufacturers captured the top six global positions by new installed capacity in 2025, with Goldwind leading at 29.3 GW, followed by Envision Energy (20.9 GW), Ming Yang Smart Energy (18.9 GW), Windey Energy Technology (18.4 GW), and Sany Renewable Energy and Dongfang Electric Corporation tied at 13.5 GW each, according to BloombergNEF. This pushed Denmark’s Vestas to seventh place (10.6 GW), marking the first time Chinese firms dominated the top six. China’s newly installed wind capacity surged 51% to 126 GW, making it the first market globally to exceed 100 GW in annual additions, while worldwide installations reached 169 GW (up 38%). Chinese manufacturers’ overseas capacity increased eightfold as domestic reliance fell to 93% from 99%, with companies like Envision signing a 630 MW supply agreement in Brazil.

BloombergNef

Apple cuts China App Store commission fees after government pressure (link)

Apple will reduce its mainland China App Store commission fees from 30% to 25% for standard in-app purchases effective March 15, 2026, following discussions with Chinese regulators. Fees for developers in the Small Business and Mini Apps programs will also drop from 15% to 12%. State-owned Economic Daily estimated the reduction could save Chinese developers over 6 billion yuan ($873 million) in annual operating costs and potentially lower consumer prices by nearly 1 billion yuan per year. The policy takes effect on World Consumer Rights Day, one year after reports that China’s state watchdog began investigating Apple’s developer fees. Apple stated the new rates ensure its China terms remain “no higher than overall rates in other markets,” with developers receiving benefits automatically. The move applies to both domestic and international developers, including major players like Duolingo, which generates approximately $50 million annually from the Chinese market.

China Jan-Feb 2026 exports up 20%, Integrated circuit exports rise 70% as AI lifts mature-node (link, link)

China’s exports surged 21.8% year-on-year in January–February 2026, accelerating sharply from December’s 6.6% gain and blowing past economist forecasts. The trade surplus for the two-month period reached USD 213.6 billion, up from USD 169.2 billion a year earlier and far exceeding the USD 179.6 billion forecast. Semiconductor exports jumped 66.5%, the fastest growth in over a decade, buoyed by a global memory chip shortage and AI investment boom. Shipments to ASEAN rose 29.4%, while exports to Europe and South Korea climbed 27.8% and 27% respectively. Imports also strengthened, rising 19.8% compared with December’s 5.7% gain, as manufacturers stockpiled iron ore and crude oil amid Middle East tensions. The robust start positions China to exceed last year’s record trade performance, even as the country set a modest 4.5%–5% GDP growth target for 2026.

China’s integrated circuit (IC) exports surged 68.9% year-on-year to CNY 304.67 billion (approximately USD 42 billion) in January–February 2026, while export volume rose 13.7% to 52.46 billion units. The value surge outpaced volume growth due to rising global chip prices as major memory manufacturers shifted capacity toward AI supply chains. China’s mature-node chip localization rate has approached 45% (targeting 55% by 2026), with 3,901 domestic chip design companies generating combined sales exceeding CNY 835.7 billion in 2025. Meanwhile, IC imports also climbed 36.8% to CNY 550.27 billion (91.0 billion units) during the same period, reflecting robust domestic demand amid the global AI boom that drove worldwide semiconductor sales up 46.1% year-on-year in January.

China’s 600 MW/2.4 GWh storage plant becomes world’s largest CAES site (link)

China has commissioned the world’s largest compressed air energy storage (CAES) facility in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, with 600 MW of power capacity and 2.4 GWh of energy storage. The plant, which supplies four hours of continuous power at full output, compresses air into underground caverns to store excess electricity from the region’s abundant wind and solar resources. Developed with an investment of approximately CNY 10 billion (USD 1.4 billion), the project doubles the capacity of the previous global record-holder. It is critical for grid stabilization and renewable energy integration in northern China. Earlier, in January 2026, the record was held by a 300 MW/1.5 GWh CAES plant using two underground salt caverns in central China’s Hubei province. While CAES remains a relatively small share of China’s total energy storage market compared with batteries and pumped storage, the sector is expanding rapidly as larger long‑duration projects move forward.

China’s Zhongfu Shenying soars by limit after releasing world’s strongest mass-produced carbon fiber (link)

Shares of Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber surged 20% to CNY 43.25 (USD 6.28) after unveiling SYT80, the world’s strongest mass-produced carbon fiber. The T1200-grade ultra-high strength material achieves 100-ton level mass production with an engineering tensile strength exceeding 8,000 megapascals, 10 times that of ordinary steel, while maintaining only one-quarter the density. With a diameter one-tenth of a human hair, the fiber can lift an 80-ton aircraft. Parent company China National Building Material Group operates a 10,000-ton production base in Xining and a 30,000-ton facility in Lianyungang, targeting applications in aerospace, hydrogen energy storage, low-altitude economy, embodied intelligence, new energy vehicles, and medical devices.

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📸 China Snapshot

This is Franco Colapinto in his Alpine Formula 1 car, photographed yesterday in Shanghai during the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix weekend. The shot captures the speed and blur that define Shanghai International Circuit, where the long back straight and heavy braking zones make it one of the calendar’s more technical modern tracks. It also came on a historic weekend, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli taking his first Formula 1 victory in China.

Photo by Zheng Hao

🎁 Bonus Stories

China unveils ‘blue-collar’ humanoid robot that switches tools in six seconds (link)

Chinese robotics firm XGSynBot debuted its Z1 wheeled humanoid robot designed for industrial factory environments, featuring the world’s first Modular-End-Effector Quick Change System enabling tool swaps in under six seconds. The robot integrates motors, reducers, and sensors into self-developed XG-High-Performance Joint Modules, and operates on dual-system central brain architecture with a 100Hz Fast System for real-time motor control. XGSynBot also announced the "STARFIRE" global corporate strategy to accelerate embodied AI adoption across 3C electronics, automotive, and renewable energy sectors through open hardware interfaces and gradually open-sourced datasets. The Z1 targets heavy-duty manufacturing environments where few humanoids have successfully operated, positioning it as a "blue-collar worker" rather than a laboratory.

Z1 wheeled robot during product launch

Chinese bubble tea chain giant Mixue starts building theme park project (link)

Chinese bubble-tea giant Mixue Bingcheng is building its first “Snow King” theme park in Zhengzhou, with the project formally listed as a key supported initiative during a February 26 city economic mobilization meeting. Located at Mixue’s flagship headquarters district near Zhengzhou East High-Speed Railway Station, the park will feature a dessert-themed fantasy world with indoor immersive experience zones centered on the company’s Snow King mascot. The development integrates Mixue’s global headquarters, flagship store, and entertainment venue into a combined “play + shopping + experience” destination. As of June 30, 2025, Mixue operates over 53,000 stores worldwide, of which 48,281 are in China and 4,733 internationally. Job postings for the park project advertise monthly salaries of RMB 10,000–24,000 (USD 1,400–3,350). The company has expanded its IP through animated series, including “Snow King Arrives” (2023) and “Snow King: The Fantasy Sandbank” (2024), which earned 9.9 and 9.8 ratings, respectively on Bilibili.

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2026-03-09 | subscribe | homepage

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

• FDA gives MicroPort stent graft priority status, accelerating complex aortic treatment

• Chinese EV buses gain ground across Europe, winning on price and battery tech

• Yuan financing hits a record, offshore borrowing and trade settlement keep rising

• Vertical pig farms scale up fast, with 26-story sites raising hundreds of thousands

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🚀 Headlines

China is world’s billionaire capital again as Hurun Rich List swells on stock surge (link)

China has reclaimed its status as the world's billionaire capital with 1,110 billionaires out of 4,020 globally, according to the latest Hurun Global Rich List released March 5. China added 287 billionaires since the previous edition, accounting for half of the global net increase of 578, more than recouping losses from the past three years. Artificial intelligence generated significant new wealth, fostering two Chinese billionaires: Yan Junjie of MiniMax (USD 3.6 billion) and Liu Debing of Zhipu (USD 3 billion). The country’s wealth creation surge was driven by industrial products (80+ new entrants), semiconductors (18 new billionaires, including Chen Weiliang of Metax at USD 4.7 billion and Zhang Jianzhong of Moore Thread at USD 4.6 billion, amid Beijing’s chip self-sufficiency push), healthcare (28 new entrants), and energy (19 new entrants from the EV battery ecosystem). Additionally, 42 China-born billionaires now reside in Southeast Asia and the US.

TikTok Shop narrows the gap with Shopee in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market (link)

TikTok Shop is rapidly narrowing the gap with Shopee in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market, particularly in Vietnam, where the two platforms now dominate. According to data from Metric, Vietnam’s four largest e-commerce platforms generated VND 429.7 trillion (USD 16.4 billion) in gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2025, with Shopee holding over 56% market share and TikTok Shop expanding to over 41%. Together, they command 97% of the country’s online platform GMV. The sector grew nearly 35% year-on-year. Meanwhile, TikTok Shop’s US GMV reached USD 15.1 billion in 2025, up 68% year-on-year, with 2,143 stores exceeding USD 1 million in sales. Analysts note Shopee’s adjusted EBITDA-to-GMV margin is projected to improve to 0.9% in FY2026, even as competitive pressure intensifies.

Shopee (delivered by SPX) and TikTok Shop (delivered by J&T Express)

US grants breakthrough device status to MicroPort’s innovative stent graft system (link)

US FDA granted Breakthrough Device Designation to MicroPort’s Hector Multi-Branch Thoracic Aortic Stent Graft System, qualifying it for priority review and accelerated approval. The device enables minimally invasive treatment of complex thoracic aortic lesions involving all three aortic arch branches, a condition carrying over 80% mortality upon rupture under traditional surgery. The system already holds EU custom device certification and has been launched clinically in Europe, though it remains in pre-market trials in China. MicroPort reported 12% annual profit growth to CNY 563 million (USD 78.3 million) and 12% revenue growth to CNY 1.4 billion (USD 187.8 million), with overseas sales jumping over 55% to CNY 250 million.

EU cities adopt Chinese BYD and Yutong buses for their low prices and more advanced EV tech (link)

Chinese electric bus manufacturers BYD and Yutong are capturing significant market share in Europe, accounting for 21% of the market in 2024, according to McKinsey. BYD buses cost approximately EUR 100,000 (USD 117,000) less than European competitors such as MAN or Daimler, which typically retail for EUR 600,000 (USD 702,000). Belgium’s De Lijn has contracted with BYD for up to 500 units, and the company plans to triple its production capacity to 1,250 vehicles annually at its new Hungarian facility. In Austria, operator Albus selected Yutong for a 34-bus order backed by a EUR 10 million (USD 11.7 million) subsidy. Recently, Deutsche Bahn ordered 200 BYD intercity buses as cities phase out diesel buses by 2030.

BYD bus in Helsinki, Finland

Yuan financing reached record USD 200 billion as China's currency internationalization gains momentum (link)

Yuan financing has surged to a record 218 billion yuan (USD 31.6 billion) in 2026, building upon USD 167 billion in 2025 borrowings, a tripling over five years. Dim sum bonds (offshore yuan debt) reached 103 billion yuan year-to-date, nearly double the prior year period, while panda bonds (onshore issuance by foreign entities) hit 51.4 billion yuan. Offshore yuan loans quadrupled to 42.5 billion yuan in 2025. Indonesia’s recent dual-currency offering priced its 10-year yuan tranche approximately 100 basis points below comparable euro debt. The currency’s share in China’s cross-border trade settlement reached a record 34.5% in 2024, up from 10% in 2017. Despite this growth, the yuan comprises merely 8.5% of global currency transactions and less than 2% of international reserves, ranking seventh worldwide.

Chinese EVs are dominating major international car markets (link)

Chinese-made battery electric vehicles (BEVs) now dominate multiple international markets, accounting for 89.9% of Mexico’s EV sales (53,742 units) and 61.6% of Indonesia’s (64,252 units) in 2025, up sharply from 28.3% and 3.2% respectively in 2023. While the U.S. market remains nearly closed at just 0.5% (6,070 vehicles), Chinese brands command 79.5% of Australian sales, 70.5% in New Zealand, and 84.8% in Israel. In Europe, the UK recorded 129,069 Chinese-made BEVs (26% of sales), while Italy reached 37%, Spain 35.9%, and Portugal 30.8%. China’s domestic market remains the largest, with nearly 8 million units sold in 2025.

Xiaomi deploys humanoid robots in EV factory, Xpeng to break ground on humanoid robot factory in Q1 (link, link)

Xiaomi has deployed humanoid robots in its EV factory for automotive assembly, marking a significant step in embodied intelligence. The robot achieved 3 consecutive hours of autonomous operation at a self-tapping nut installation workstation, delivering a 90.2% success rate for simultaneous bilateral installation while meeting the production line’s 76-second cycle time requirement. The system employs Xiaomi’s in-house 4.7-billion-parameter Vision-Language-Action large model, Xiaomi-Robotics-0, combined with reinforcement learning and multimodal sensory inputs to handle complex alignment tasks. Founder Lei Jun predicts large-scale deployment across Xiaomi factories within five years as the company expands validation to additional workstations, including bin-picking and front badge installation.

Xpeng will break ground on a 110,000-square-meter humanoid robot mass production base in Guangzhou’s Tianhe district in Q1 2026, targeting mass delivery by year-end. The facility, described as the industry’s first “full-chain” production base, will cover R&D validation through large-scale manufacturing following a strategic cooperation agreement with the Tianhe government. The company recently completed its “ET1” prototype, developed to automotive standards, and unveiled the “Iron” humanoid robot, standing 178cm tall and weighing 70kg, featuring all-solid-state batteries, three in-house Turing AI chips delivering 2,250 TOPS of processing power, and a second-generation Vision-Language-Action large model. The expansion aims to overcome industry bottlenecks, including insufficient training data and mass production barriers.

Xiaomi Robot

Massive 26-story “Pig Hotel” houses 650,000 animals (link)

China's first 26-story vertical pig farm, constructed in 2022 in Ezhou, Hubei Province, operates as an industrial-scale "hog hotel" managing 650,000 animals annually with the capacity to process 1.2 million pigs per year. The 390,000-square-meter facility uses a multi-level design, with floors dedicated to specific production stages, piglets, pregnant sows, and mature pigs, transported via industrial elevators. Automated conveyor systems deliver feed while CCTV monitoring enables one employee to manage approximately 1,500 pigs across 800 total staff. The vertical model emerged following the 2018 African swine fever losses of approximately 10 million pigs, with China now operating over 170 multi-story farms in Guangdong province alone as of 2025 to enhance biosecurity and land efficiency.

📸 China Snapshot

Hankou Railway Station, photographed today in Wuhan, a city where the Yangtze River and Han River divide the urban core into the historic triad of Hankou, Wuchang, and Hanyang. Once separate cities that grew into one metropolis, each district still carries its own identity, and Hankou emerged as the commercial gateway after becoming a major treaty port in 1861. The station itself is one of China’s busiest rail hubs, serving the heart of Central China and linking the region to the country’s vast high-speed rail network, where centuries of river trade have now been replaced by trains moving millions across the country each year.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

World-first accelerator-driven nuclear reactor nears as China eyes 1000-year energy source (link)

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences are completing the final installation of superconducting particle accelerators for the world’s first megawatt-level Accelerator-driven Subcritical System (ADS) waste-burning reactor in Huizhou, Guangdong province, scheduled for 2027 operation. The system fires proton beams at 80% the speed of light to bombard a liquid lead-bismuth alloy, generating neutrons that convert Uranium-238 waste into Plutonium-239 fuel. The technology burns uranium 100 times more efficiently than conventional reactors and reduces nuclear waste lifespan from approximately 100,000 years to just 300 years, a thousandth of its current duration. The subcritical design requires external neutron feed, physically eliminating meltdown risks. China initiated ADS research in 2011 and achieved operational intensity prototypes in 2021. The project aims to provide a stable “green” energy source capable of meeting human needs for the next 1,000 years, positioning China to lead the global transition toward a closed nuclear fuel cycle. The technology could slash the hazardous lifespan of nuclear waste by over 99.9%.

Archaeologists make jaw-dropping discovery of giant underground tunnels beneath ancient Chinese city (link)

Archaeologists have uncovered a sophisticated 4,500-year-old defense system at Houchengzui in Inner Mongolia, revealing six underground tunnels stretching three to twenty feet beneath the ancient city. First identified in 2005 and excavated since 2019, the 340-acre settlement features an oval design with concentric walls and a dense central district. The passageways, documented by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in December 2023, enabled discreet movement of weapons, supplies, and personnel, providing “three-dimensional” military capabilities rarely seen in Neolithic societies. Specialists note the stone city rivals the scale and ingenuity of ancient Mesopotamian urban centers, reflecting dramatic cultural and demographic development in the region. Further excavations are planned to uncover additional secrets from the site, which is considered one of East Asia’s most significant archaeological treasures.

China’s Tianmushan-1 hydrogen drone

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2026-03-02 | subscribe | homepage

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

• China targets 70% chip tool localization by 2027, 28nm systems near mass use

• Clean power capacity overtakes fossil fuels, solar up 1,500% in a decade

• Global pharma giants ink billion-dollar China deals, siRNA and GLP-1 expand

• Humanoid robotics gets national standards, 330 models released in one year

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🚀 Headlines

Japan’s Panasonic transfers its US and European TV business to China’s Skyworth (link)

Panasonic has partnered with China’s Skyworth Group to transfer its North American and European TV sales, marketing, logistics, and manufacturing operations to Skyworth starting April 2026. Panasonic retains brand ownership and quality control while focusing on high-end models in Japan; Skyworth, the world’s third-largest OLED TV manufacturer, assumes operational control to cut costs and improve profitability. The deal includes joint development of premium OLED TVs. It targets a double-digit market share in Europe, marking another Japanese electronics giant ceding TV operations to Chinese manufacturers following similar moves by Sony, Sharp, and Toshiba.

China's Frontier Biotech agrees to 1 billion siRNA therapy deal with UK’s GSK, Pfizer signs USD 495 million Sciwind’s weight-loss drug deal (link, link)

Frontier Biotechnologies signed an agreement with UK pharmaceutical giant GSK on February 16. GSK secured exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize two siRNA therapies in a deal valued at over USD1 billion. The financial structure includes a USD40 million upfront payment, USD13 million in near-term milestones, and up to USD950 million in development and commercialization milestones, plus royalties. Nanjing-based Frontier will advance Phase I trials and investigational new drug (IND) applications in China for the two drugs, one currently in the IND stage and one preclinical, while GSK leads subsequent global development and commercialization. The agreement provides Frontier with substantial cash flow and validates its siRNA technology platform internationally.

Pfizer has secured exclusive commercialization rights in China for ecnoglutide, a GLP-1 weight-loss drug developed by Hangzhou-based Sciwind Biosciences, in a deal valued at up to USD 495 million comprising an upfront payment plus regulatory and sales-based milestones. Ecnoglutide received approval for type 2 diabetes treatment in January, with its application for long-term weight management currently under review by Chinese regulators. The agreement targets China's expanding obesity market, where 14.1% of adults are classified as obese, amid intensifying competition that includes five approved GLP-1 drugs, Novo Nordisk's semaglutide and Eli Lilly's tirzepatide, which triggered a price war late last year with respective cuts of 50% and 80%. Sciwind has separately licensed rights to South Korea's HK Inno.N and UK's Verdiva for markets outside China.

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Nike-backed ACG opens 1st global store in Beijing amid China sportswear surge (link)

Nike-backed All Conditions Gear (ACG) has opened its first global brand store in Beijing’s upscale Sanlitun district, operated directly by Nike to capture China’s surging outdoor sports market. The move follows entries by Norway’s Norrøna, the UK’s Soar, and Canada’s Ciele Athletics last year, with Topsports International Holdings serving as the exclusive operating partner for the three brands in China. Topsports also launched Ektos, a running brand collection store featuring these labels. According to Authentic Brands Group, 70% of its portfolio focuses on outdoor sports. Nike’s China revenue remains roughly one-third of its North America sales, and significant expansion potential exists as consumer demand shifts toward higher-priced, specialized gear and as lower-tier cities present growth opportunities.

ACG Store

China ramps up chip tool push, sets 70% target by 2027 (link)

China has set a target to achieve 70% localization of semiconductor equipment for mature process technologies by 2027, up from current mandates requiring chipmakers to source over 50% of equipment domestically when expanding production capacity. The push, driven by U.S. sanctions and supply chain security concerns, is led by domestic champions SMEE, NAURA Technology Group, and AMEC. SMEE has advanced its 28nm ArF immersion lithography systems to the verification stage, while NAURA has initiated mass production of 28nm etching tools, and AMEC is verifying 14nm equipment. Additionally, China has reportedly assembled an EUV prototype using components from older ASML systems, targeting functional chip production by 2028. Industry reports indicate validation cycles for domestic equipment are being completed in approximately one year.

China's epic renewables boom lifts it into rare clean capacity club (link)

China achieved a historic energy transition milestone in 2025, deploying 1,494 gigawatts of clean power capacity, surpassing fossil fuel capacity (1,420 GW) for the first time by a margin of 73 GW. Clean sources now comprise 51% of China's power fleet, placing it alongside Brazil, France, and Germany as major economies powered mainly by clean energy. The transformation was driven by a 1,554% surge in utility-scale solar capacity since 2015, which expanded from 2.4% to 18.3% of operational capacity while coal's share dropped from 64% to a record low of 42.7%. Overall clean capacity expanded 253% between 2015 and 2025, compared to 50% growth in fossil fuel generation capacity, yielding a 113% rise in total power generation capacity over the decade.

BYD spotted testing 1500 kW Flash Charge in China, nearly triple Tesla V4 power (link)

BYD has commenced internal testing of its 1,500 kW Flash Charge network in Shenzhen, deploying liquid-cooled charging guns with 1,500A current capability on a 1,000V architecture, which is nearly triple the 500 kW peak output of Tesla's V4 Superchargers in China. The demonstration site displayed pricing at 1.3 yuan (USD 0.18) per kWh and restricted access to compatible vehicles bearing "Flash Charge" badges. Buyers of compatible vehicles are reportedly eligible for 1,000 kWh of free electricity annually. BYD aims to establish over 4,000 self-operated stations nationwide, with partner networks potentially exceeding 15,000 locations. The Flash Charging app is now live on Android, supporting plug-and-charge activation within approximately 10 seconds. BYD is developing second-generation facilities with a maximum output of 2,100 kW. The firm also plans to invest in 3,000 fast-charging stations across Europe by the end of 2026.

China releases national standards for humanoid robotics and embodied AI (link)

China has issued its first national standard system for humanoid robots and embodied artificial intelligence, unveiled February 28 in Beijing, to regulate the sector’s full industrial chain and lifecycle. Drafted by over 120 institutions under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s technical committee, the framework is organized into six components: basic commonality, brain-like and intelligent computing, limbs and components, complete machines and systems, application, and safety and ethics. It establishes technical specifications, data management protocols, and safety requirements as the industry scales. The move follows rapid 2025 growth when more than 140 domestic manufacturers released over 330 humanoid models, a year the authorities designated as the first of mass production, reflecting national and local government priorities to advance humanoid robotics in strategic development plans.

China ramps up electric ships in push to decarbonise waterways, leverage EV prowess (link)

China is accelerating maritime electrification to meet its 2030/2060 carbon goals, with over 1,000 electric or alternative-fuel vessels currently operating on domestic waterways, including 485 e-vessels predominantly serving passenger routes. The sector is pivoting toward commercial cargo: Fujian Shipbuilding recently launched a 1,000-tonne pure-electric cargo ship with a 200km range, while CATL, the world’s largest EV battery producer, has partnered with state-owned Jining Energy to deploy 2,000-tonne vessels capable of traveling 270km on a single charge, launching five units in December with orders for 50 more. CATL is also collaborating with French shipping giant CMA CGM on a 182 TEU electric barge for Vietnam’s waterways, with operations expected to commence this year. Despite electric vessels costing more than twice as much as diesel equivalents, policy mandates issued last June are driving infrastructure expansion, positioning Fujian province with 34.5% of China’s electric fleet and CATL with over 40% domestic market share in core equipment.

📸 China Snapshot

Wuxi’s Huishan Ancient Town glowing for Spring Festival, centered around a radiant horse and the blessing “马到成功” (mǎdào chénggōng), meaning success arrives the moment the horse appears. The Year of the Horse is considered an auspicious year. Lantern fairs trace back over 2,000 years, yet today they fuel a booming night economy that turns historic streets into immersive light festivals across Jiangsu Province and beyond. With the Year of the Fire Horse underway, the symbolism is: speed, momentum, decisive action.

Photo by Lightman Qian

🎁 Bonus Stories

Top neuroscientist Arthur Konnerth leaves Germany for full-time role in China (link)

Arthur Konnerth, recipient of the prestigious Brain Prize, has joined Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (SZBL) on a full-time basis, the institute announced on January 29. The German neuroscientist is renowned for pioneering the in vitro brain slice patch-clamp recording method, a technique that became a cornerstone of modern neuroscience, alongside Bert Sakmann, Frances Edwards, and Tomoyuki Takahashi in 1989. Konnerth's research focuses on fundamental mechanisms of learning and memory using electrophysiological, imaging, and cellular techniques. In 2003, he introduced an imaging method enabling scientists to observe entire networks of brain cells simultaneously. His move to SZBL, which previously recruited neurobiologist Wang Jing from the US, underscores China's growing appeal for top-tier international scientific talent as it expands its neuroscience capabilities.

Arthur Konnerth

Guangdong leads China in tourist numbers and revenue during Chinese New Year break (link)

Guangdong Province led China during the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday, recording 86.5 million tourist visits and generating CNY 84.8 billion (USD 12.4 billion) in revenue, both national records among 26 provincial-level regions reporting. Nationwide, domestic trips reached 596 million, up 18.9% year-on-year, with total spending rising 18.6% to CNY803.4 billion (USD 117.5 billion). Six provinces exceeded 50 million visits, with Jiangsu (75.8 million), Henan (62.8 million), and Hubei (60.1 million) trailing Guangdong. Revenue rankings placed Zhejiang (CNY 67.9 billion) and Jiangsu (CNY 60.9 billion) second and third. Southern provinces rebounded as growth leaders after northern regions dominated last year, with Hainan posting the fastest visitor growth at 28.9% and Hunan leading revenue expansion at 33.8%. Beijing recorded the highest per-capita spending at CNY 1,670 (USD 244), up 2.5%.

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2026-02-23 | subscribe | homepage

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

• China grants near-total duty-free access to 53 African nations, trade gap under scrutiny

• Fully unmanned container ship completes autonomous docking, smart port milestone

• Quantum network stretches 3,700 km, wafer-scale chips enable scaling

• China leads global R&D growth at 13.1% CAGR, innovation map redraws

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🚀 Headlines

Humanoid robots dominate China’s 2026 Spring Festival Gala (link)

The 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, which is China's most-watched television event of the year, featured humanoids from Unitree Robotics, Galbot, Noetix, and MagicLab, marking a decisive push to integrate robots into mainstream entertainment. Unitree deployed over a dozen G1 robots performing synchronized martial arts with human children, including "drunken boxing" sequences and weapon-wielding, allegedly paying USD 13.7 million (100 million yuan) for sponsorship. Noetix presented its USD 1,400 (9,998 yuan) "Bumi" humanoids in a family comedy sketch, while MagicLab robots performed in the musical "We Are Made in China." The international CGTN Super Night broadcast separately featured AgiBot and PND Botics' "Adam," after AgiBot declined domestic gala participation to host its independent AGIBOT NIGHT 2026 event on February 14.

ByteDance records 1.9 billion AI interactions on New Year’s Eve gala, Alibaba’s Qwen sees 5 billion commands from 130 million users (link, link)

ByteDance’s Doubao AI powered the 2026 Spring Festival Gala to a record 1.9 billion AI interactions on Chinese New Year’s Eve, February 17, 2026. The "Toutiao New Year" activity generated over 50 million New Year-themed profile pictures and 100 million personalized greetings. Computing demand peaked at 9:46 PM when the Toutiao large model achieved 63.3 billion tokens per minute throughput, with ByteDance’s Huoshan Engine ensuring stability through flexible computing allocation. Beyond mass interaction, Doubao’s Seedance 2.0 video generation model was deeply integrated into stage visuals, restoring ink painting brushstrokes in "Riding the Wind Song" and creating individualized floral spectacles for each performer in "Celebrating the Flower Goddess" using an "AI-generated images and real-stage expansion" approach.

Alibaba’s Qwen AI assistant recorded 5 billion "Qwen, help me" voice commands from over 130 million users during its 11-day Spring Festival campaign (February 6–17, 2026), demonstrating deep integration into holiday consumption scenarios. The AI processed orders for bubble tea, New Year goods, movie tickets, flights, and hotels through Alipay. Since the campaign’s second wave launched on February 14, AI movie ticket orders surged 372-fold, with third- and fourth-tier cities spiking 782-fold. Zhang Yimou’s "Silent Awakening" emerged as the top choice. AI ticket orders jumped 22-fold and flight/transportation bookings rose over 7-fold, with nearly half of orders originating from county-level cities. Notably, 4 million users over age 60 adopted AI ordering, as Qwen’s "one-sentence order" feature broke down age and regional barriers, signaling mainstream penetration of voice-activated AI commerce in lower-tier markets.

China grants duty-free access for nearly all products from Africa (link)

China has enacted the China–Africa Development Economic Partnership Agreement (CADEPA), granting duty-free access for nearly all products from 53 African countries beginning May 1, 2026. The policy excludes Eswatini due to its diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. Bilateral trade between China and Africa reached USD 222 billion between January and August 2025, up 15% year-over-year. However, a significant imbalance persists: Chinese exports to Africa surged 24.7% to USD 140.79 billion, while African imports to China rose only 2.3% to USD 81.25 billion, creating a nearly USD 60 billion trade deficit. The agreement aims to address this disparity while building on the Belt and Road Initiative's infrastructure investments.

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China’s Anta launches 1st directly operated US store in Beverly Hills (link)

Chinese sportswear giant Anta opened its first directly operated North American flagship store on February 13, 2026, in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. 3,000-square-foot location marking a strategic pivot from distributor partnerships to a direct-to-consumer "Brand + Retail" model. The store, designed around "Eastern aesthetics, global expression," showcases Anta’s core product lines, including the Kai series and Hela lifestyle collection, while positioning itself as a "Sports Lifestyle Hub" hosting running clubs, basketball culture events, and technology workshops. The launch coincided with a lifetime partnership announcement with NBA player Klay Thompson, whose signature line will debut through the store, and global ambassador Kyrie Irving attended the grand opening with his Chinese New Year Kai 3 release. The Beverly Hills flagship signals Anta’s ambition to evolve from a domestic Chinese brand into a global sportswear competitor with controlled retail presence in key international markets.

China’s tablet shipments climb 13.1% in 2025 on subsidy boost (link)

China’s tablet shipments rose 13.1% year-over-year to 33.8 million units in 2025, driven by device replacement cycles and national subsidy policies, according to IDC. Fourth-quarter shipments grew 7.2%, though the stimulus effect showed signs of fading as regional subsidies tightened. The consumer segment led growth with 14.4% annual shipment increases and clear upgrade trends, while the commercial market declined 1.6% due to budget constraints. Huawei Technologies dominated the full-year market with 29.2% share (down 3.1%), followed by Apple at 24.5% (down 2%) and Xiaomi at 13.1% (up 0.4%). In Q4, Apple briefly reclaimed the top spot with 26.7% share, while Huawei fell to 24.9% and Lenovo surged to 13.1% (up 4.9%). Analysts emphasize the urgent need for manufacturers to accelerate AI integration and scenario-based upgrades amid rising cost uncertainties.

China’s first commercial intelligent container ship achieves fully unmanned navigation, berthing, and operation (link)

China's first intelligent container ship, "Zhifei," achieved fully unmanned navigation, berthing, and operation on February 21, 2026, precisely docking at Qingdao Port's automated terminal in Shandong Province. The vessel, equipped with a domestically developed intelligent navigation core system, operates in three modes: manual driving, remote control, and unmanned autonomous navigation. Upon arrival, automated vacuum mooring systems secured the hull using suction cups in under 30 seconds, eliminating manual mooring. The terminal's independently developed Automated Terminal Operating System (A-TOS) and Automated Equipment Control System (A-ECS) commanded gantry cranes and guided vehicles with millisecond-level response speeds to complete container loading and unloading. This milestone marks the first time China has achieved fully unmanned operation across the entire container ship process—from navigation through cargo handling—demonstrating significant advancement in commercial maritime automation and smart port integration.

Chinese scientists expand range of quantum communication network to 2,300 miles (link)

Peking University scientists have demonstrated secure quantum communication over 2,300 miles (3,700 km), the longest range achieved to date, by eliminating trusted relay nodes that introduce vulnerabilities into quantum networks. Published February 13, 2026, the breakthrough utilizes a super optical comb on the server side, generating ultra-stable laser lines with 40-hertz width, paired with 20 independent quantum transmitter chips on the client side operating as quantum-level telegraph operators. Each chip pair communicated over 230 miles (370 km) of standard fiber-optic cable with a 97.5% success rate, with aggregate networking spanning the full 2,300-mile distance. Both server and client chips were manufactured on industry wafers, enabling scalability and cost reduction compared to custom-built Quantum Key Distribution systems. The approach supports intercity networks for hundreds of users without special cabling, though researchers note the technology currently requires controlled laboratory conditions and are advancing toward deployment by integrating single-photon detectors and expanding microcomb channels.

China leads the world in R&D growth in percentage terms, with spending rising at a 13.1% compound annual rate (link)

Global R&D spending reached nearly USD 3 trillion in 2024, up from less than USD 1 trillion in 2000, with China leading growth at a 13.1% compound annual rate, which is the fastest globally. Chinese R&D expenditure surged from USD 40.8 billion in 2000 to USD 785.9 billion in 2024, accounting for 27% of global R&D and over 36% of worldwide AI patent filings. Saudi Arabia ranked second in growth (13.0% CAGR), followed by Egypt (11.8%) and Indonesia (11.3%). Meanwhile, the US, despite being the second-largest absolute spender at USD 781.7 billion, grew at just 3.3% annually, placing it 69th globally. The data, compiled by the World Intellectual Property Organization using constant 2015 PPP-adjusted dollars, reveals a fundamental shift in innovation geography, with emerging economies now driving research intensity while established powers face slower expansion rates.

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📸 China Snapshot

Yangshuo, Guangxi, deep in China’s legendary karst heartland, where limestone peaks erupt from the plains in near-perfect cones shaped over hundreds of millions of years. This narrow summit, wrapped in stairways and crowned with a lookout, turns raw geology into a vertical promenade, while the ribbon-lined suspension bridge adds just enough drama to match the landscape. Guilin’s karst scenery has been immortalized in Chinese painting and on the 20 RMB banknote, and today Yangshuo stands as one of the country’s most photographed hiking and adventure destinations.

Photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos

🎁 Bonus Stories

China has planted so many trees around the Taklamakan Desert that it's turned this 'biological void' into a carbon sink (link)

China’s massive afforestation efforts have transformed the Taklamakan Desert, one of the world’s largest and driest deserts spanning 337,000 square kilometers, from a "biological void" into a carbon sink. The Three-North Shelterbelt Program ("Great Green Wall"), initiated in 1978, has planted over 66 billion trees in northern China to date, completing a vegetation encirclement of the desert in 2024. Scientists analyzing 25 years of satellite data and ground observations found that vegetation cover along the desert’s margins has expanded significantly, absorbing more CO₂ than the desert releases. Wet season precipitation (16mm monthly average) has boosted photosynthesis, lowering atmospheric CO₂ from 416 ppm (dry season) to 413 ppm (wet season). While experts debate the program’s impact on sandstorm frequency, the study demonstrates that human-led intervention can effectively enhance carbon sequestration even in extreme arid landscapes, potentially serving as a model for other desert regions globally.

Vegetation cover around the Taklamakan Desert

China launches ‘world’s first’ humanoid combat league, offers free T800 robots (link)

China launched the Ultimate Robot Knockout Legend (UKRL) 2026 in Shenzhen on February 9, 2026, the world’s first free humanoid robot combat league, offering participating teams EngineAI T800 robots at no cost. The winning team will receive a gold championship belt valued at USD 1.44 million (10 million yuan). The T800, released in December 2025, features aviation-grade aluminum construction, 450 Nm torque joint motors, 360-degree LiDAR, stereo cameras, and a solid-state lithium battery enabling 4 hours of continuous high-intensity operation. The tiered competition runs through December 2026, testing motion control, dynamic balance, and impact resistance while accelerating technology development cycles by over 30% through real-world validation. Analysts note the initiative enhances public awareness, helps smaller firms overcome R&D barriers, and integrates industry-academia-research collaboration.

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2026-02-16 | subscribe | homepage

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

• China supplies over 70% of key drug ingredients, pipelines surge

• Chinese TV brands near 60% share in Japan, price gap widens

• Singapore investment flips east, Chinese firms overtake US

• Humanoid cargo drone completes maiden flight, 1.5-ton hybrid range

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🚀 Headlines

ByteDance launch of Seedance 2.0 AI video model goes viral turns heads with Hollywood-style video creation (link)

ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0, launched on February 11, 2026, marks a major step forward in AI video generation. Positioned as an end-to-end “AI filmmaking engine,” it produces cinematic, multi-shot videos from text, images, audio, and reference clips with synchronized sound and visuals in a single workflow. The model offers detailed control over camera movement, lighting, and visual effects while maintaining physical accuracy and scene consistency. Unlike earlier text-to-video tools, Seedance 2.0 generates audio and visuals natively, removing the need for separate dubbing or post-production. The launch quickly went viral in China and drew strong industry attention, with potential to significantly reduce production costs in advertising, gaming, and film.

China supplies over 70% of world’s essential pharmaceutical ingredients, developing 1000s of new innovative drugs (link)

China’s biotechnology sector has become a global manufacturing powerhouse, supplying 70 to 95 percent of the world’s essential pharmaceutical ingredients, including ibuprofen and paracetamol. In 2024, Chinese firms developed more than 1,250 new drugs, surpassing the EU and approaching the US total of about 1,440. They also conducted roughly 20 percent of global commercial clinical trials, up from 9 percent in 2018. Patent Cooperation Treaty filings rose from 119 in 2010 to over 1,900 in 2023. At the same time, policy shifts are reshaping the landscape. A September 2025 State Council directive favors domestic procurement, while the December 2024 US Biosecure Act restricts federal funding recipients from working with certain Chinese biotech firms. Despite its scale and regulatory speed, China still relies on international collaboration for basic research, with nearly 40 percent of cell therapy trials between 2021 and 2023 targeting known molecules rather than novel discoveries.

China’s technology influence on display at Winter Olympics, Chinese TV brands to capture 60% in Japan market (link, link)

Chinese technology firms are showcasing their capabilities at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics (February 6–22), with 2,900+ athletes from 92 countries competing across 116 events. Alibaba Group partnered with the International Olympic Committee to deploy the first AI assistant in Winter Olympics history, built on its Qwen model, enabling multilingual services for national team members and "bullet-time" slow-motion broadcasting via multimodal fusion algorithms. TCL Technology supplied hundreds of HDTVs, digital signage, and LED displays for venues, broadcast centers, and the Olympic Village, while operating a product exhibition at Piazza Duca d'Aosta from February 5. Midea Group’s Clivet brand provided smart HVAC solutions for the 16,000-seat Milano Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena, and Shenzhen-based Ledman Optoelectronic installed a 272-inch 8K Micro LED screen for China Central Television’s broadcast operations.

Chinese television brands are projected to capture approximately 60% of Japan’s domestic TV market. In 2025, Hisense and TCL already held roughly 50% combined market share, with REGZA ranking first individually. The share will climb to 60% once Sony’s TV brand transitions to a joint venture led by TCL. Price disparities remain substantial: a 43-inch 4K LCD TV from TCL retails for approximately ¥50,000 (USD 320), compared to roughly ¥100,000 (USD 640) for an equivalent Sony model. Japanese manufacturers continue to rely on external suppliers for critical components such as LCD panels, contributing to the competitive gap with Chinese brands that have leveraged integrated supply chains and cost efficiency to dominate the premium and mid-range segments of the world’s third-largest economy.

 

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40% of Chinese population is now enrolled in KFC’s loyalty program (link)

Yum China Holdings reported its KFC and Pizza Hut loyalty programs now exceed 590 million members—representing over 40% of China’s population—making it the world’s largest restaurant loyalty program. Membership grew 13% year-over-year, with 55% of total sales flowing through digital channels and 265 million active users (defined as engagement within the past year). The Shanghai-based operator of 18,000+ stores, including roughly 13,000 KFC locations, noted that 80-90% of sales at its upscale KPRO brand come from existing KFC loyalty members. The company’s AI ordering assistant, which completed nationwide rollout in January, has already served 2 million members. China’s loyalty program market reached nearly USD 20 billion in 2025 and is projected to hit USD 33 billion by 2029, driven by mobile-first consumer behavior and tiered membership benefits, including free delivery and queue prioritization unavailable in Western markets.

Chinese companies overtake US in Singapore investment (link)

Chinese companies overtook the US as Singapore’s largest source of fixed-asset investment in 2025, capturing 20.6% of commitments versus 17.3% by American firms—a dramatic reversal from 2024, when the US held 55.5% and China just 2.5%. According to the Singapore Economic Development Board, China also accounted for over half of total business expenditure in 2025, up from 15% the previous year. The surge reflects a "Singapore washing" trend where Chinese firms—including ByteDance, WuXi Biologics (USD 1.4 billion R&D hub), and Haid Group—relocate global headquarters to the city-state to bypass geopolitical scrutiny and access global markets.

China shatters 3d printing speed record, fabricates objects in just 0.6 seconds (link)

Researchers at Tsinghua University have set a new 3D printing speed record, producing complex millimeter-scale objects in just 0.6 seconds using a technique called Digital Incoherent Synthesis of Holographic Light Fields, or DISH. The study was published in Nature on February 12, 2026. The method uses high-dimensional holographic light fields to form entire 3D structures simultaneously inside a resin container, removing the need for layer-by-layer printing. The system reaches a printing rate of 333 cubic millimeters per second while maintaining 12 micrometer feature sizes, about one-fifth the thickness of a human hair, and 19 micrometer resolution across a one-centimeter range. Unlike conventional volumetric printing, DISH employs a high-speed rotating periscope to project light from multiple angles without rotating the resin. The technology could enable large-scale production of components for smartphone cameras, photonic computing, micro-robotics, flexible electronics, and high-resolution biological tissue models.

China’s memory sector booms as 13 A-share firms project triple-digit profit growth in 2025 (link)

China’s A-share memory sector is riding a global pricing upcycle driven by AI demand, with 13 of 52 reporting companies projecting triple-digit net profit growth for 2025. BIWIN Storage Technology expects revenue of CNY 10–12 billion (up 49–79%) and net profit of CNY 850 million–1 billion (up 427–520%). Shenzhen Techwinsemi Tech forecasts revenue of CNY 10.3–11.3 billion (up 116–137%) and net profit of CNY 650–800 million (up 85–128%), with Q4 net profit alone surging over 1,050% year-over-year. Longsys anticipates revenue of CNY 22.5–23 billion and net profit of CNY 1.25–1.55 billion (up 151–211%). Companies are aggressively expanding: Longsys announced a CNY 3.7 billion fundraising plan, Techwinsemi is raising up to CNY 3.2 billion, and price hikes are underway—Cmsemicon lifted MCU and NOR Flash prices 15–50%, while Goke Microelectronics increased KGD packages by 40–80% effective January 2026.

YH-1000S: China’s colossal uncrewed cargo aircraft completes first flight (link)

China’s YH-1000S unmanned cargo aircraft completed its maiden flight on February 1, 2026, in Chongqing, marking the world’s first hybrid autonomous transport platform of its class. Developed by the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (CAAA), the aircraft features a high-power hybrid propulsion system enabling very short takeoffs and landings on secondary roads, dirt runways, grassy fields, water (with float kits), and snow (with ski kits). The YH-1000S boasts a 1,500-kilometer range, 1,200 kg payload capacity, and front-loading/underbelly drop capabilities for flexible logistics. The project launched in June 2024, with the predecessor YH-1000—capable of carrying 400 kg—first flying in May 2025 and completing ground taxi tests in January 2025. Beijing anticipates the platform will serve international logistics, disaster response, ocean monitoring, maritime supervision, and weather modification, advancing China’s "low-altitude economy" strategy for western regions.

China’s YH-1000S unmanned cargo aircraft

📸 China Snapshot

Yulong Snow Mountain at sunrise, its 5,596-meter summit catching the first light above Lijiang. Below, traditional pavilions and arched bridges frame a scene that feels almost staged, yet entirely real. This massif has 13 peaks, is sacred to the Naxi people, and rises abruptly from the plateau, snow lingering year-round despite Lijiang’s relatively mild climate. A classic golden hour moment in one of China’s most photographed alpine backdrops, where ancient town, minority culture, and Himalayan geology meet in a single frame.

Photo by QQ Z on Unsplash

🎁 Bonus Stories

World-leading computational biology pioneer Bao Zhirong returns to China from US (link)

Bao Zhirong, a world-leading computational biologist, has returned to China after 30 years in the United States. He is now a full-time professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, where he will explore topics such as brain circuit maturation and the biological changes around birth. His previous positions included a chair professor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, where he led significant NIH-funded research projects. Bao is known for developing AceTree, a cell-tracking software that has been crucial in developmental biology and cancer research.

Bao Zhirong

China aces test of next-gen lunar capsule and rocket in effort to land humans on moon before NASA (link)

China successfully conducted a low-altitude abort test of its next-generation Mengzhou ("Dream Vessel") lunar capsule on February 11, 2026, at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan Island. The capsule demonstrated emergency escape capabilities by maneuvering away from its Long March 10 rocket and splashing down under parachutes. The Long March 10's reusable first stage also achieved a powered vertical splashdown, marking progress toward booster recovery and reuse. The Mengzhou capsule and Long March 10 rocket are central to China's goal of landing astronauts on the moon by 2030, potentially ahead of NASA's Artemis 3 mission targeted for 2028. China has also advanced testing of its Lanyue crewed lunar lander. The successful trials strengthen China's position in the crewed lunar race, though NASA's timeline depends on the upcoming Artemis 2 circumlunar mission.

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2026-02-09 | subscribe | homepage

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

• Tencent tests AI-powered group chats, pushing social use cases

• China’s battery giants widen lead, CATL and BYD top 55% share

• Inland provinces drive trade growth, EVs, batteries, solar surge

• Chinese chip toolmakers break into top tier, Naura climbs to global top five

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🚀 Headlines

Chinese PE firm CPE gets majority stake in new Burger King China JV for USD 350 million (link)

Chinese private equity firm CPE has acquired an 83% majority stake in Burger King China through a USD 350 million joint venture with parent company Restaurants Brands International, which retains 17% and a board seat. The newly established entity, Burger King China, secured exclusive 20-year development rights for the brand across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. The partners aim to expand Burger King's China network from approximately 1,250 current locations to over 4,000 by 2035, with the USD 350 million investment remaining within the JV to fund growth. Founded in 2008, CPE manages around CNY10 billion (USD 1.4 billion) in investments across technology, healthcare, and consumer services, including portfolio companies such as Mixue Group and Aier Eye Hospital.

Tencent tests Yuanbao Groups for AI-powered social interaction (link)

Tencent has launched Yuanbao Groups (元宝派), a beta social feature for its AI assistant Yuanbao, enabling users to create or join groups and invite friends via WeChat and QQ for AI-powered group chats, collaborative tasks, and interactive entertainment. The feature allows users to @Yuanbao to ask questions, summarize conversations, set reminders, and facilitate fitness or study check-ins, with upcoming "Watch Together" and "Listen Together" capabilities for real-time media sharing. The move addresses persistent challenges in AI applications around user retention and limited usage scenarios, positioning AI as a "social lubricant" for both practical needs and emotional connection rather than purely one-on-one tool-based interactions. Tencent announced it will distribute CNY1 billion (USD 140 million) in cash red envelopes through the Yuanbao app starting February 1 to drive Lunar New Year engagement and traffic to the new social feature. Yuanbao, launched in May 2024 as Tencent's standalone AI assistant built on its Hunyuan large language model, represents the company's effort to integrate AI deeper into social networking scenarios.

China accounted for 35.6% of the global automotive market in 2025, a new record high (link)

China captured a record 35.6% of the global automotive market in 2025, selling 34.35 million units—up 9% year-on-year—against total worldwide sales of 96.47 million vehicles, according to China Passenger Car Association data. This marks a steady climb from 30% in 2016-2018 and 34.2% in 2024. Among the top 10 global automakers, three Chinese companies ranked: BYD (5th, 5.4%), Geely (7th, 4.6%), and Chery (10th, 3.7%). China also maintained its position as the world's largest vehicle exporter for the third consecutive year, shipping 8.32 million units—a 30% increase—with new energy vehicle exports surging 70% to 3.43 million units, though average export prices declined to USD 16,000.

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CATL and BYD continued to lead global EV battery market in 2025 (link)

Global EV battery installations reached 1,187 GWh in 2025, representing a 31.7% year-on-year increase from 901.4 GWh, according to SNE Research data. Chinese manufacturers CATL and BYD maintained market dominance with a combined 55.6% share, totaling 659.5 GWh. CATL retained its position as the world's leading supplier with 464.7 GWh installed—a 35.7% increase—capturing 39.2% market share, up from 38.0% in 2024 and making it the only provider globally exceeding 30% share. BYD ranked second with 194.8 GWh, up 27.7% year-on-year, though its market share declined slightly to 16.4% from 16.9% in 2024. South Korea's LG Energy Solution placed third with 108.8 GWh and 9.2% share, followed by China's CALB at 5.3% and Gotion High-tech at 4.5%. Chinese manufacturers secured six of the top ten positions, with Eve Energy and Svolt Energy ranking eighth and tenth, respectively, with market shares of 2.6% and 2.4%.

China’s central and western provinces drove exports in 2025 (link)

China's inland central and western provinces drove 2025 export growth, with nine of the top ten fastest-growing regions located outside coastal manufacturing belts. Xinjiang led with 19.9% foreign trade expansion, followed by Shaanxi (18.5%) and Hubei (18.2%), while growth centered on the "new three" categories—NEVs, lithium batteries, and solar products. Chongqing reported a 73.5% surge in these sectors. Hubei’s lithium battery exports jumped 163%. Henan’s NEV/battery/solar exports hit CNY 33.6 billion (up 1.8 times). And Anhui became the first province to export over 1.2 million vehicles annually. Despite this interior shift, coastal provinces including Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang maintained value dominance, accounting for CNY 34.1 trillion—more than half of China’s total foreign trade.

Shenzhen's Nanshan District becomes China's 3rd with GDP of over CNY1 trillion (link)

Shenzhen's Nanshan district has become China's third city district to surpass CNY 1 trillion (USD 144 billion) in GDP, joining Shanghai's Pudong New Area and Beijing's Haidian district. The district's economy grew approximately 6% in 2025, reaching GDP per square kilometer of CNY 5.4 billion (USD 777 million) and per capita GDP of CNY 540,000 (USD 77,705). Despite covering only 185 square kilometers—one-tenth of Shenzhen's total area—Nanshan contributes one-quarter of the city's GDP, one-third of its patents, and two-fifths of its listed companies. The district hosts tech giants including Tencent, DJI, ZTE, and Huawei's R&D headquarters, alongside over 637,000 market entities, 6,037 high-tech companies, and 28 unicorns. Nanshan's R&D investment intensity reached 7.9% of GDP, nearly three times the national average, with 860 invention patents per 10,000 people—23 times the national average.

Three Chinese chip toolmakers enter global top 20 as Naura rises to 5th by sales (link)

Three Chinese semiconductor equipment manufacturers have entered the global top 20 rankings for the first time, up from just one in 2022, as U.S. export restrictions accelerate domestic supply chain development. Naura Technology climbed from eighth place in 2022 to fifth globally in 2025—trailing only ASML, Applied Materials, Lam Research, and Tokyo Electron—with estimated sales growth of approximately 21% last year. AMEC ranked 13th, with its etching systems reportedly used in 5nm chip production and TSMC's Nanjing fab placing orders for 5nm dielectric etching tools. SMEE placed 20th globally in lithography equipment. Domestically produced tools now account for roughly 20%–30% of China's semiconductor equipment usage, up from approximately 10% three years ago. Two additional Chinese firms, ACM Research and Hwatsing Technology, entered the global top 30. However, Chinese manufacturers have yet to develop EUV lithography systems required for 3nm and 2nm chips.

World's largest eVTOL aircraft completes maiden test flight in China (link)

Shanghai-based AutoFlight has completed the maiden public test flight of the V5000 Tianjilong, the world's largest electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, at its Bailian Lake Low-Altitude base in Jiangsu province. The hybrid aircraft features a maximum takeoff weight of 5,700 kilograms and a range of 1,500 kilometers—substantially exceeding mainstream eVTOL models that typically weigh 1.5 to 3 tons. The passenger version accommodates 10 people, comparable to business jets, while the cargo edition holds two AKE containers. AutoFlight's smaller V2000CG CarryAll cargo aircraft has already obtained Type, Production, and Airworthiness Certificates, with commercial logistics operations expected to commence this year. The six-seat V2100 Shengshilong is undergoing airworthiness certification with completion targeted for 2026, while Tianjilong certification applications are anticipated within one to two years.

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📸 China Snapshot

Kunming Changshui International Airport, captured last week under clear blue skies, feels less like a transit hub and more like a piece of contemporary architecture. The sweeping golden roofline and fluid curves are inspired by Yunnan’s mountains and clouds, as well as architectural styles, a deliberate choice for a gateway to China’s southwest. Opened in 2012 and designed to handle over 65 million passengers annually, Changshui anchors Kunming’s role as a regional aviation hub linking China with Southeast Asia and South Asia, where even departures start with a sense of scale and calm.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

China’s Luckin Coffee opens first high-end store as it takes on Starbucks (link)

Luckin Coffee has opened its first high-end flagship store, the 420-square-meter Luckin Coffee Origin Flagship in Shenzhen, marking its 30,000th location globally and representing a strategic pivot from its budget-priced kiosk model to compete directly with Starbucks Reserve. The two-floor store offers premium pour-over and cold brew coffees priced higher than its standard USD 1-2 Americanos, featuring beans from Brazil, Ethiopia, and China's Yunnan province. The opening coincides with Starbucks' planned sale of 60% of its China business to Boyu Capital at a USD 13 billion valuation. Luckin reported USD 1.55 billion in revenue for Q3 2025, up 48% year-on-year from self-operated stores, and has expanded to 10 stores in New York City and 68 in Singapore.

The second floor of Luckin’s new flagship in Shenzhen, China

Chinese firm unveils world's fastest humanoid robot Bolt (link)

Chinese robotics startup MirrorMe Technology has unveiled Bolt, a full-size humanoid robot that achieved a peak speed of 10 meters per second during real-world testing—making it the fastest humanoid of its size outside laboratory conditions. Standing 175 centimeters tall and weighing 75 kilograms, Bolt features newly designed joints and an optimized power system intended to replicate natural human movement at extreme speeds. MirrorMe, formally established in May 2024 and headquartered in Shanghai with a core team from Zhejiang University, previously set quadruped speed records with its Black Panther II robot, which ran 100 meters in 13.17 seconds at 9.7 meters per second—surpassing Boston Dynamics' WildCat at 8.8 meters per second. The company envisions Bolt serving as a "steel sparring partner" for Chinese athletes to help push beyond human speed limits.

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2025-02-02 | subscribe | homepage

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

• German investment in China hits a four-year high, firms localize supply chains

• AstraZeneca commits USD 15B to China, R&D and cell therapy expand

• Inland provinces power export growth, EVs, batteries, solar lead

• China becomes net soybean oil exporter again, processing capacity reshapes trade

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🚀 Headlines

German firm’s China investments surge to four-year high (link)

German corporate investment in China surged to a four-year high in 2025, reaching EUR 7 billion (USD 8 billion) during the January–November period—up 55.5% from EUR 4.5 billion in 2024 and exceeding the EUR 6 billion average recorded between 2010 and 2024, according to IW German Economic Institute data. The acceleration reflects strategic repositioning amid U.S. trade tensions, with Beijing reclaiming its status as Berlin's top trading partner after being overtaken by Washington in 2024. Companies including BASF, Volkswagen, and Infineon are expanding local production capabilities—exemplified by ebm-papst’s EUR 30 million investment accounting for over one-fifth of its total capital expenditure—to build "China-for-China" supply chains that insulate operations from potential tariff disruptions while maintaining access to the world’s largest automotive and chemicals market.

China’s Anta invests USD 1.8 billion in German athletics brand Puma to become its largest shareholder (link)

Chinese sportswear giant Anta Sports Products announced it will invest EUR 1.5 billion (USD 1.8 billion) to acquire a 29 percent stake in German peer Puma from Groupe Artémis, becoming the brand’s largest shareholder while explicitly ruling out a full takeover. The all-cash transaction, funded entirely from internal reserves, is expected to close by year-end, pending regulatory approvals. The deal targets Puma amid operational headwinds. The German sportswear maker posted cumulative losses of EUR 309 million (USD 367 million) through the first three quarters of 2025, with shares having nearly halved over the past year before jumping 17 percent on the news. The acquisition accelerates Anta’s globalization strategy following its 2019 purchase of Amer Sports (owner of Arc’teryx, Salomon, and Wilson) and last year’s USD 290 million acquisition of Jack Wolfskin, supported by 45 to 50 percent retail sales growth across its non-Anta brand portfolio in 2025.

UK’s AstraZeneca to invest USD 15 billion in China through 2030 (link)

Cambridge, UK-based AstraZeneca announced plans to invest USD 15 billion in China through 2030, significantly expanding manufacturing and R&D capabilities in its second-largest market. The investment targets next-generation modalities, including cell therapy and radioconjugates, building on the 2024 acquisition of Gracell Biotechnologies to make the company the first global biopharma leader with end-to-end cell therapy capabilities in China. Operations will expand across existing manufacturing sites in Wuxi, Taizhou, Qingdao, and Beijing, alongside new facilities, while the workforce will grow beyond 20,000 from its current level of over 17,000. Since 2023, AstraZeneca has signed 16 global licensing agreements with 15 Chinese partners—including AbelZeta, CSPC, and Harbour BioMed—and its Beijing and Shanghai R&D centers collaborate with over 500 clinical hospitals. The initiative aligns with Beijing’s Healthy China 2030 strategy and follows the UK Prime Minister’s recent visit to China.

Central and western provinces drive China’s export growth in 2025 (link)

China's inland central and western provinces drove 2025 export growth, with nine of the top ten fastest-growing regions located outside coastal manufacturing belts. Xinjiang led with 19.9% foreign trade expansion, followed by Shaanxi (18.5%) and Hubei (18.2%), while growth centered on the "new three" categories—NEVs, lithium batteries, and solar products. Chongqing reported a 73.5% surge in these sectors; Hubei’s lithium battery exports jumped 163%; Henan’s NEV/battery/solar exports hit CNY 33.6 billion (up 1.8x); and Anhui became the first province to export over 1.2 million vehicles annually. Despite this interior shift, coastal provinces including Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang maintained value dominance, accounting for CNY 34.1 trillion—more than half of China’s total foreign trade.

China’s Alibaba, Moonshot release flagship AI models, Alibaba and others ramp up AI app race with Spring Festival giveaways (link, link)

Hangzhou-headquartered Alibaba and Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI simultaneously released flagship AI models on January 27, 2026, challenging US market dominance. Moonshot’s Kimi K2.5—a 595-gigabyte open-source multimodal system processing text, image, and video—scored within points of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind in third-party benchmarking while operating over four times cheaper than American counterparts. The model features "agent swarm" capability, enabling up to 100 parallel subagents, though computational constraints limit this to premium users. Moonshot reached a USD 4.3 billion valuation after raising USD 500 million in December from Tencent, Alibaba, and IDG Capital. Alibaba concurrently launched Qwen3-Max-Thinking as its best model so far. US semiconductor export controls have forced Chinese labs toward efficiency-optimized Mixture-of-Experts architectures, yielding high-performance open-source alternatives.

Alibaba Group committed CNY 3 billion (USD 432 million) to a Spring Festival campaign launching February 6, 2026, to drive mass-market adoption of its Qwen AI app across its ecosystem, including Taobao, Shangou, Fliggy, Damai, Amap, and Freshippo. The campaign offers lottery-style free orders and red packets, following rival spending: Tencent allocated CNY 10 billion and Baidu CNY 5 billion for their AI apps, while ByteDance secured an exclusive AI cloud partnership with CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala (February 16).

2 down, 10 to go, Jilin becomes China’s second province to exit high-debt-risk list (link)

Jilin has become the second Chinese jurisdiction to exit Beijing’s high-debt-risk list, following Inner Mongolia’s departure in August 2024. Governor Hu Yuting announced the northeastern province’s removal from the roster of 12 high-risk regions, which includes Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Tianjin, citing 5 percent GDP growth and 13.3 percent growth in general public budget revenue for 2025. The move lifts strict investment controls imposed in 2024 on high-debt jurisdictions and eases local financing constraints. Ningxia submitted its exit application in March 2024, but Jilin secured the second departure, signaling potential fiscal stabilization in China’s northeastern rust belt, while the remaining ten jurisdictions remain subject to borrowing restrictions.

Source: AI-generated, Public Domain Information

China to become net exporter of soybean oil for second year in a row (link)

China is poised to remain a net exporter of soybean oil for the second consecutive year, transitioning from its 2012/13 status as the world’s largest importer. The shift is fueled by record crude soybean oil shipments to India, which circumvent New Delhi’s tariffs on refined products, alongside significant refined exports to South Korea. As the world’s largest soybean oil producer, Beijing has moved from import dependency to a structural surplus following major processing-capacity investments, fundamentally realigning its position in global vegetable oil markets.

China builds 35.6, tesla magnet 700,000 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field (link)

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have built the world’s strongest all-superconducting user magnet, reaching a central magnetic field of 35.6 tesla, roughly 700,000 times Earth’s magnetic field and 12 to 24 times the strength of hospital MRI scanners. Unveiled at the Synergetic Extreme Condition User Facility in Huairou Science City, the system features a 35-millimeter usable bore and can sustain peak fields for more than 200 hours continuously. The facility, which passed national acceptance in February 2025, operates at ultra-low temperatures with zero electrical resistance, enabling extreme-condition experiments in materials science and life sciences. Developed collaboratively by the Institute of Electrical Engineering, CAS and the Institute of Physics, CAS, the magnet is now open to domestic and international research teams, marking a milestone in high-temperature superconductor applications for large-scale scientific instruments.

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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. Clear skies offered rare postcard views this August, even as daily highs push 38°C, marking the peak of Shanghai’s hottest season.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

UK passport holders granted visa-free access to China (link)

Effective immediately, UK passport holders may enter China without a visa for stays of up to 30 days, following agreements signed during Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s January 29, 2026, visit to Beijing. The policy aligns Britain with other visa-free nations, including France, Germany, Italy, and Australia. The announcement followed high-level talks between Starmer, President Xi Jinping, and Premier Li Qiang, yielding a Bilateral Services Partnership alongside protocols on food safety, animal and plant health, and expanded UK exports. The visa exemption eliminates the previous bureaucratic barrier that had diverted UK travelers to alternative destinations, streamlining access for both commercial and leisure visits. The Czech Republic, Lithuania, Moldova, Kosovo, and Ukraine remain the last European countries without a 30-day tourist visa-free agreement to enter China.

China's MLBB World Tourney in Indonesia sets record as most-watched mobile esports event (link)

China’s ByteDance-owned Moonton’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) M7 World Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia, set a mobile esports viewership record with 5.68 million peak viewers on the final night, while 3,000 spectators attended offline and 10,000 gathered outside. A total of six records have been broken, including the most-watched mobile esports event ever by the hours watched (135,559,616) and the esports peak viewership record by the number of South East Asian regional languages. As MLBB’s largest market by monthly active users, Indonesia has driven over 100 million hours of watch time per season for the past five years. The decade-old title is now expanding beyond Southeast Asia: developer Moonton announced new European and American divisions, with the M8 championship heading to Türkiye and MLBB joining the 2026 Nagoya Asian Games as an official event.

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2025-01-26 | subscribe | homepage

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

• Cross-border digital yuan usage surges, transactions jump 25× since 2022

• Green plastics investment shifts to China, Europe loses flagship project

• Electric heavy trucks pass 50% penetration, charging plugs top 20 million

• Nuclear-powered chemical plant breaks new ground, heat and power combined

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🚀 Headlines

China-led cross-border digital currency platform sees surge (link)

Transactions on China's digital currency platform, known as e-CNY, have surged to over USD 55 billion, marking a significant increase of approximately 2,500% since early 2022. The platform, tested by central banks in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, has processed more than 4,000 cross-border transactions. The e-CNY is now estimated to account for about 95% of the total transactions on the platform. This growth indicates a push towards alternatives to dollar-dependent global payment systems and a gradual expansion of the yuan's internationalization through digital infrastructure. The People's Bank of China has processed over 3.4 billion transactions worth about USD 2.4 trillion, representing an over 800% leap from the previous year.

China’s TCL takes control of Sony Group’s global home entertainment business (link)

Sony Group is transferring control of its home entertainment business, including the Bravia television brand, to TCL Electronics, a leading Chinese electronics conglomerate. Sony will sell a 51% stake in this division to TCL, and both companies plan to establish a joint venture set to begin operations in April 2027. This venture will produce TVs that will carry both the Sony and Bravia names but utilize TCL's display technology. The move follows a trend of Japanese companies reducing their presence in the low-margin consumer electronics market. TCL's shares surged over 16% in Hong Kong following the announcement, marking the largest intraday gain since April 2025, while Sony's stock dipped 0.9% in Tokyo. This strategic shift allows Sony to focus on expanding its intellectual property assets, such as anime, films, music, and sports broadcasts.

Alibaba’s Qwen open-source models surpass 1 billion downloads, ranking first globally (link)

Alibaba's Qwen open-source large language model family has surpassed 1 billion total downloads and 200,000 derivative models on Hugging Face, the world's largest AI open-source platform. This achievement has positioned Qwen as the most downloaded open-source large model globally, outpacing Meta's Llama series. The number of derivative models built on Qwen has exceeded 200,000, making it the first open-source foundation model to reach this scale worldwide. With an average of approximately 1.1 million downloads per day, Qwen's influence and adoption are growing among global developer and research communities, highlighting its significant impact.

Vioneo drops Euro 1.5 billion green plastics factory plans in EU and opts for China (link)

Vioneo, a subsidiary of Danish shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk, has abandoned plans to construct a €1.5 billion green plastics factory in Antwerp, opting instead to build the project in China. The decision was confirmed after Belgian business daily De Tijd reported on the matter. Vioneo aims to produce fossil-free plastics and believes that constructing in China will make this more affordable, reduce CO2 emissions, and expedite market access. China offers better access to green methanol, a key raw material, which would lower costs and speed up the route to market. The Antwerp project was to be Vioneo's first large-scale factory, producing up to 300,000 tonnes of green plastics annually, supplying sectors like healthcare and the car industry. The cancellation is a setback for Antwerp's sustainability goals.

China's new energy heavy-duty truck penetration pases 50% for 1st time, EV charging plugs surpass 20 million (link, link)

In December 2025, China achieved a milestone with new energy heavy-duty truck sales reaching a record 45,300 units, accounting for 53.89% of total heavy-duty truck sales of 84,000 units. This marked the first time the penetration rate of new energy heavy-duty trucks in China exceeded 50%, jumping over 17% from November's figure. The surge is attributed to front-loaded demand due to the impending expiration of trade-in subsidies and anticipated new energy vehicle purchase tax costs in 2026. Despite this, the annual penetration rate for 2025 was pushed to 28.9%, more than doubling the previous year's 13.61%. Shanghai led registrations with 34,100 units, followed by Shenzhen and Guangzhou. The economic advantages of new energy trucks, such as saving about RMB 1.2 million over a ten-year operational cycle compared to fuel-powered vehicles, are cited as a fundamental reason for consumer willingness to pay for them.

By the end of 2025, China's total number of electric vehicle (EV) charging plugs reached over 20 million, marking a 49.7% increase from the previous year. This includes 4.717 million public charging plugs, which saw a 31.9% year-on-year increase, and 15.375 million private charging connectors, up 56.2%. The total rated power of public chargers reached 22 million kW, with an average power of about 46.53 kW. The growth is driven by the rapid increase in EVs and AI data centers, with China's electricity consumption surpassing 10 trillion kWh for the first time in 2025, a 5.0% year-on-year increase. New energy vehicle (NEV) manufacturing saw electricity consumption growth exceeding 20% in 2025. China's total vehicle sales reached 34.4 million units, with NEVs accounting for 16.49 million units sold, contributing 47.9% of China's total vehicle sales for 2025.

Airbus buys humanoid robots from UBTech for its assembly line (link)

Airbus has purchased humanoid robots from China's UBTec to integrate into its aircraft assembly lines. The Walker S2 model, standing at 176cm tall and weighing 70kg, can walk at a speed of 2 meters per second and has hands with 11 degrees of freedom. It can hold 7.5kg in each hand and 1kg with each finger. This robot can also hot-swap its own batteries and pivot nearly 180 degrees at the waist. This marks the Walker S2's entry into the aerospace sector, which is now the fifth major application area for Ubtech following automotive manufacturing, 3C electronics manufacturing, smart logistics, and semiconductors. The Walker S2, launched in July last year, is designed for smart manufacturing and supports human-robot collaboration in complex factory environments. UBTech has shipped around 1,000 humanoid robots globally, ranking it third in shipments. The company aims to produce 5,000 industrial humanoid robots this year and 10,000 for 2027.

Chinese researchers create world’s first fiber chip, paving way for wearable electronics (link)

Chinese researchers from Fudan University have developed the world's first fiber chip, marking a significant shift from traditional silicon chips. This innovation integrates high-density integrated circuits into a fiber thinner than a human hair strand, boasting 100,000 transistors per centimeter of fiber. The chip's information-processing capability is comparable to most commercial chips but offers unique advantages like extreme flexibility, stretchability, and twistability. It can be woven into soft, breathable electronic fabrics, potentially revolutionizing wearable technology, electronic textiles, and brain-computer interfaces. The technology could enable smart displays in clothing and tactile gloves for remote robotic surgeries, enhancing human-machine interaction. The research team has created over 30 types of functional fiber devices, with potential applications in energy storage, power generation, light emission, display, and biosensing. Some technologies have been transferred to leading domestic firms for applications in the automotive and clothing sectors.

China is building world-first triad reactor system to power world-class chemical plant (link)

China is constructing a pioneering triad reactor system in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, to power a world-class petrochemical plant. The project integrates two third-generation pressurized water reactors with one fourth-generation high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) to produce both heat and electricity. This system will supply 32.5 million tonnes of industrial steam annually and generate up to 11.5 billion kWh of power. The initiative aims to reduce coal use by 7.26 million tonnes per year and carbon dioxide emissions by 19.6 million tonnes annually, equivalent to removing nearly five million petrol vehicles from the roads for a year. This marks the first instance of a facility providing both power and ultra-high-temperature process heat at an industrial scale using multiple nuclear technologies.

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📸 China Snapshot

Waibaidu Bridge, a Shanghai taxi cutting through the frame, and the Oriental Pearl Tower locked in the background. Old steel, new skyline. The Bund’s only surviving steel truss bridge still carries daily traffic more than a century on, while Lujiazui keeps stacking icons behind it. Motion in the foreground, permanence in the back. This is Shanghai at street speed.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

China builds world's largest car carrier capable of transporting 10,800 cars (link)

China has constructed the world's largest car carrier capable of transporting 10,800 vehicles. Built by Guangzhou Shipyard International Company (GSI) for South Korea's HMM, the carrier exceeds previous records held by Anji Logistics' two 9,500-car vessels, "Anji Soundness" and "Anji Ansheng." The new carrier meets the International Maritime Organization's Tier III emission standards and features a 14-deck design for flexible loading of various vehicle types. This development aligns with the expansion of China's auto exports and the acceleration of its shipbuilding industry. SAIC Motor, through its subsidiary Anji Logistics, operates China's largest car carrier fleet, with an annual transport capacity exceeding 1 million vehicles.

Visa becomes first international card organization to support Chinese cardholders on Apple Pay (link)

Visa has become the first international card organization to support Chinese cardholders on Apple Pay, enhancing cross-border payment convenience. This move allows Chinese cardholders to link their locally issued cards to Apple Pay, enabling contactless payments at overseas NFC-enabled locations without opening apps. Visa's support for Apple Pay card binding is initially available for credit cards from eight major Chinese banks, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, and others. Visa and Apple are also working to expand this service to additional issuing institutions. This aligns with the growing global consumer demand for mobile payments and Visa's commitment to providing Chinese cardholders with diverse and secure payment options worldwide.

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2026-01-19 | subscribe | homepage

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

• Chinese universities take 8 of the global top 10, research output keeps rising

• China’s trade surplus hits a record, exports pivot away from the US

• Huawei lifts domestic parts to nearly 60%, supply chains localize fast

• Coal-to-plastics buildout accelerates, reducing oil import dependence

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🚀 Headlines

Chinese universities continue to dominate global ranking of the top research universities, placing 8 in the top 10 (link)

Harvard University has dropped to third place in a global ranking that measures academic output, with Chinese institutions leading the list. Zhejiang University ranks first for the second year in a row, a significant rise from not even being in the top 25 a decade ago. Shanghai Jiaotong University is ranked second, moving up from 3rd last year. The Leiden Rankings, produced by Leiden University in the Netherlands, now place seven other Chinese schools in the top 10 and 13 in the top 15. This shift reflects a broader trend of China increasing its education investment and attracting top talent, while American universities are facing reduced research funding and stricter immigration policies. The rise of Chinese universities is part of a larger pattern where Asian schools are increasingly outpacing Western institutions in global academic rankings.

CWTS Leiden Ranking Traditional Edition 2025

Canada-China deal cuts tariff on Chinese EVs and Canadian farm products, China to scrap visa requirements (link)

Canada has reached a significant trade agreement with China, marking a notable shift in their economic relations. The deal includes an increase in the import limit of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) to Canada, with up to 49,000 units to be admitted at a "most favored nation tariff rate" of 6.1%, which removes the 100% tariff. By 2030, the import limit will increase to 70,000, and half of these imports must cost less than $35,000, aiming to make EVs more affordable. In return, China is expected to reduce canola seed duties to 15% from 84% by March. Canadian canola meal, lobsters, crabs, and peas will no longer face "anti-discrimination" tariffs from China, effective from March through the end of the year. China has also committed to visa-free travel for Canadians. This agreement follows a trade dispute that began in 2024 and escalated with reciprocal tariffs in 2025.

EU and China agree to bring in minimum pricing for Chinese EVs to replace high tariffs (link)

China and the European Union have reached an agreement to implement a minimum pricing mechanism for Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) imported into the EU, replacing high tariffs. This agreement follows over a year of negotiations and aims to address EU concerns about subsidies for Chinese EVs. In October 2024, the European Commission imposed additional import duties of up to 35.3% on Chinese EVs for five years, on top of the existing 10% standard car import tariff. The new guidelines will assess pricing proposals from Chinese exporters fairly and in line with WTO rules. This resolution is expected to stabilize market access for Chinese EVs in the EU and promote deeper cooperation between China and the EU on market expansion and technological innovation in the EV sector. China exported approximately 580,000 pure EVs, 250,000 plug-in hybrid models, and 170,000 conventional hybrid models to the EU in the first 11 months of last year, making it the largest market in each category.

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Qwen AI app surpasses 100 million monthly active users, integrates shopping and travel direct purchases (link)

Alibaba Group's Qwen AI app has surpassed 100 million monthly active users as of January 2026, marking a significant milestone for the company. The app, which was launched in mid-November, has integrated deeply into Alibaba's ecosystem, enabling voice-powered shopping, travel booking, and digital tasks. Qwen became the world's fastest-growing AI app in November, with a 149% increase in monthly active users globally. The app now allows users to complete a range of tasks, from e-commerce and food delivery to ride-hailing, travel bookings, and movie ticketing, with simple voice commands. Alibaba expects AI to take over up to 70% of digital tasks within two years, with Qwen capable of handling over 400 digital tasks, from coding to office collaboration and data analysis.

Huawei boosts ratio of Chinese parts in latest smartphones from 19% to 57% in 5 years (link)

Huawei Technologies has increased the domestic components ratio in its new smartphones to nearly 60% by value, reflecting China's strides in central processing units and memory chip production despite US export restrictions. A teardown analysis by Nikkei of two Huawei models, the Mate 70 Pro (2024) and Pura 80 Pro (2025), showed a rise in domestic parts from 19% in 2020 to 57% in the Pura 80 Pro, with an estimated total component cost of USD 380. The proportion of components from Japan, the US, and South Korea decreased by over 20 percentage points from 2023 to 2024. Huawei's system-on-a-chip for the Pura 80 Pro uses the Kirin 9020 chipset designed by HiSilicon, marking progress in domestic production of expensive components.

China's annual trade surplus hits a record USD 1.2 trillion, even as exports to U.S. decline by 20% (link)

China's annual trade surplus reached a record high of USD 1.2 trillion in 2025, marking a 20% increase from the previous year. December exports surged by 6.6% from the same month a year earlier, exceeding expectations of a 3% growth. Imports also rose by 5.7%, beating forecasts of a 0.9% increase. Despite a 20% decline in exports to the U.S., China's shipments to the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations rose by 12% and 11%, respectively. Imports from European nations expanded by 18%, while those from Southeast Asia fell by 5%. The trade surplus with the US narrowed from USD 33.5 billion in December 2024 to USD 23.25 billion in December 2025, a decrease of 31.8%.

China is planning dozens of plants that use coal instead of oil to make plastics (link)

China is advancing its strategy to utilize abundant coal reserves for the production of plastics and synthetic rubber, aiming to decrease reliance on imported oil. The country has approved over 30 projects, with 20 already operational, to produce olefins from coal, with an annual capacity exceeding 24 million tonnes in regions like Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia. This shift to coal-based production of olefins, a key raw material for various chemical products, is economically viable as long as oil prices remain above $35 per barrel. Industry calculations suggest that producing materials from coal costs approximately $900 per tonne, which is about 15% less than using oil.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative’s project funding surges by 74% to record in 2025 (link)

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) saw a significant increase in funding in 2025, reaching a record USD 213.5 billion, a three-quarter rise from the previous year. The investment surge was primarily driven by gas megaprojects and green power, with 350 deals signed last year, up from 293 projects worth USD 122.6 billion in 2024. The total cumulative value of BRI contracts and investments since the initiative's launch has now reached USD 1.4 trillion. The 2025 growth was fueled by multibillion-dollar projects, including a gas development in the Congo, Nigeria's Ogidigben Gas Revolution Industrial Park, and a petrochemical plant in Indonesia. Energy-related projects accounted for USD 93.9 billion, the highest since the BRI’s inception and more than double the amount from 2024, highlighting China's focus on clean technology. The BRI has made China the world's largest bilateral creditor, with 150 countries involved in the initiative.

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📸 China Snapshot

Chengdu IFS panda, peeking over the edge beside Taikoo Li, shot under rare winter blue skies just days ago. The sculpture has become one of China’s most photographed urban icons, a playful counterpoint to the glass towers around it. Chengdu leans into this contrast, slow living, youth culture, street fashion, gaming, hip hop, and food, all stacked into a city that consistently ranks among China’s top destinations. Even the skyline smiles back here.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

Zheng Yu, ‘rising star’ in chemical engineering from MIT, quits US for China (link)

A leading young Chinese chemical engineer has left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to return home to Peking University. Zheng Yu recently completed her postdoctoral training in bioelectronics in the US and has now joined the Chinese university’s College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering as an assistant professor. Zheng will be working on wearable and implantable electronic devices, such as smart bandages that are used to monitor health. Her research focuses on special materials that allow electronic devices to understand the biological signals sent by the body. She has spent the past 3 years at MIT, where she was selected for the university's ‘rising star’ program in chemical engineering in 2022.

7th-freedom flights boost Hainan's international aviation market with first route from Prague (link)

Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) has secured the most liberal air rights in China, marking a significant advancement in China's aviation market. The FTP has been granted the "seventh freedom of the air," which allows airlines to operate independent routes between two foreign countries without touching their home base. This has been exemplified by Kazakhstan's SCAT Airlines launching a direct route from Prague to Sanya, marking Hainan's and China’s first under this arrangement. Georgian Airways is set to launch Hainan's first seventh-freedom cargo route. By the end of 2025, Hainan was operating 99 international and regional routes, with Sanya alone opening 42 international routes to 32 destinations.

The inaugural 7th-freedom flight of the Hainan FTP, from Prague to Sanya, arrives in Sanya

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2025-09-15 | subscribe | homepage

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

• Shanghai stocks hit a decade high, insurers and tech lead gains

• China dominates humanoid robots, vendors take most global shipments

• Clone-hybrid rice breaks yield limits, seed traits now self-replicate

• Supercritical CO₂ power goes commercial, waste heat turns into grid power

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🚀 Headlines

Zhipu AI soars in Hong Kong IPO making it world's first LLM to go public, MiniMax follows day later (link, link)

Zhipu AI, a Chinese startup and the world's first major large language model (LLM) firm to go public, saw its shares surge 12.4% on its first day of trading in Hong Kong, closing at HKD 130.60 (USD 16.76) per share. This brought its market capitalization to HKD 57.5 billion. The company's initial public offering (IPO) was heavily oversubscribed, with Hong Kong investors oversubscribing 1,159.5 times and international investors 15.3 times, raising over HKD 4.3 billion (USD 552 million). Zhipu AI plans to invest 70% of the net IPO proceeds in R&D for general-purpose AI models and 10% in optimizing its Model-as-a-Service platform.

A day later, on January 9th, MiniMax, an AI firm backed by Chinese game developer MiHoYo, experienced a robust debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with shares surging over 70% and briefly pushing the company's market capitalization above HKD 90 billion (USD 11.5 billion). The company, founded by former SenseTime vice president Yan Junjie, priced its IPO at HKD 165 per share, raising HKD 5.54 billion (USD 710 million) in gross proceeds. The IPO was significantly oversubscribed, with the Hong Kong public offering oversubscribed 1,837 times and the international placement covered 37 times. The company, which focuses on foundation models and AI applications, plans to use IPO proceeds to upgrade large language models and develop AI-native products.

With the MiniMax IPO, five artificial intelligence companies from Shanghai, including Biren Technology, MetaX, Insilico Medicine, and Iluvatar CoreX, which span fields from graphics processing units to AI-powered drug discovery, have completed their initial public offerings in one month.

Zhipu AI became the world’s first major LLM to list on the stock market

US semiconductor giant Nvidia chooses China’s Hesai for lidar sensors in Hyperion autonomous driving platform (link)

Hesai Group, the world's largest maker of vehicle lidar sensors, has partnered with Nvidia to supply lidar sensors for Nvidia's Drive Hyperion platform, designed for level 4 (L4) autonomous driving. Hesai's sensors, ready for mass production, will support a platform that includes system-on-a-chip processors and a safety-certified operating system. This collaboration is set to accelerate Hesai's global expansion. The company plans to double its production capacity to 4 million units in 2026 to meet demand. The partnership and production expansion come amidst China's approval of mass production for L3 vehicles and the potential for 300,000 driverless taxis with L4 capabilities operating in China's top-tier cities by 2030.

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Chongqing and Hefei lead China’s auto production, BYD and Xiaomi rise to top 4 globally by market cap (link, link)

Chongqing led China’s auto production from January to November, with nearly 2.5 million vehicles produced, a 12% year-on-year increase. Hefei ranked first in new energy vehicle (NEV) output, producing 1.2 million units during the same period, up 11%. Anhui Province’s total auto output reached 3.3 million, with NEV production at 1.6 million. Hefei’s industrial strategy has attracted major players including JAC Motors, Nio, Volkswagen Anhui, BYD, and Changan Auto, creating a dense NEV manufacturing hub. Other cities are also rising. Liuzhou, in Guangxi, saw a 38% jump in vehicle output in the first nine months of the year, led by growth in micro electric vehicles.

In 2025, the global carmaker market saw significant shifts with Xiaomi and BYD securing the third and fourth positions in market value rankings, respectively. Tesla led as the largest automaker by market capitalization, followed by Toyota. Notably, Porsche dropped out of the top ten, while BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen moved up. Xiaomi delivered over 410,000, and BYD reported 4.602 million new energy vehicle sales in 2025. Out of the top 50 global automakers by market capitalization, 19 were Chinese companies, with Seres Group at 18th, Great Wall Motor at 20th, SAIC Motor at 21st, Geely Automobile at 22nd, and Chery Automobile at 24th.

Shanghai’s Stock Market hits 10-year high as insurers gain (link)

The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 4,083.67 on January 6, 2026, marking its highest level since July 2015. The rally was led by insurance stocks, which rose 6.7 percent and 4.2 percent in the first two trading days of the year. New China Life Insurance and China Pacific Insurance hit record highs on both days. The Shenzhen Component Index climbed 1.4 percent to 14,022.55, its highest close since January 2022, while the ChiNext Index rose 0.8 percent to 3,319.29. Goldman Sachs projects continued momentum for China’s stock market, forecasting annual gains of 15 to 20 percent over the next two years, driven by earnings growth and higher valuations. Last year saw strong investor interest in tech stocks, with the Shanghai Composite gaining 18 percent, the Shenzhen Component Index up 30 percent, and the ChiNext Index rising 50 percent.

Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index traded at 4120 on Friday, January 9th

Chinese firms dominate global 2025 humanoid robot shipments as AgiBot leads with 38% market share (link)

In 2025, Chinese robotics firm AgiBot led global humanoid robot shipments with a 38% market share, shipping 5,168 units. This surpassed major US players like Tesla, which shipped 150 units, holding just 1% of the market. Five other Chinese companies made it into the top 10 list by Omdia, with Unitree Robotics ranking second at 32% market share and 4,200 units shipped. UBTech Robotics, based in Shenzhen, was third with 1,000 units. Total global shipments surged nearly 480% to 13,318 units, projected to reach 2.6 million by 2035. Chinese vendors are setting benchmarks in large-scale production. This growth is attributed to favorable policies, infrastructure support, and investments in both public and private sectors.

AgiBot robot at the 2026 CES trade show in Las Vegas

China creates world’s first clone-hybrid rice that could double global output (link)

Chinese researchers have developed the world’s first clone-hybrid rice, capable of self-replicating through cloning while retaining high-yield traits across generations. The breakthrough comes from the China National Rice Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and could transform global agriculture by eliminating the need for farmers to buy new hybrid seeds each season. In China, hybrid seeds can cost up to 200 yuan (USD 28) per kilogram, far more than regular varieties. The new rice uses a process called apomixis, where seeds develop without fertilization, and has been successfully tested over multiple generations in Hainan and Zhejiang. If adopted at scale, it could double global rice production and significantly improve food security. In parts of Africa, yields from this variety could reach nearly four times those of conventional rice.

Disney’s Zootopia 2 becomes China’s top Hollywood film ever (link)

Zootopia 2 has become the highest-grossing Hollywood film in China, earning approximately 4.256 billion yuan (USD 780 million), surpassing Avengers: Endgame, which made 4.25 billion yuan. The animated sequel also became the top-grossing film for Walt Disney Animation Studios, overtaking Frozen 2. Released on November 26, 2025, in China, the world's second-largest movie market. Zootopia 2 is part of a trio of films to cross USD 1 billion globally in 2025, along with Disney's live-action Lilo & Stitch remake and the Chinese animated film Ne Zha 2. The film's success has contributed to a 20% increase in China's overall box-office revenue, reaching 51.8 billion yuan, with animated films generating nearly half of that total.

World’s first commercial supercritical carbon dioxide power generator begins operation (link)

China has launched Chaotan One, the world’s first commercial supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power generator. Located at a steel factory in Liupanshui, Guizhou Province, the plant uses two 15-megawatt units connected to the grid. Unlike conventional systems that rely on steam, this generator uses sCO2 as the working medium to convert residual heat from steel production into electricity. The system is expected to boost net power generation by 50% and improve overall efficiency by more than 85% compared to traditional steam-based technologies. This marks a major leap in energy conversion, offering a simpler process and lower energy losses by eliminating the need to heat water into steam.

📸 China Snapshot

Yantai, perched on the Yellow Sea in Shandong Province, is one of northern China’s most livable coastal cities, known for its clean air, mild summers, and historic role as a treaty port. This stretch of water sits near Yantai Fisherman’s Wharf, a waterfront zone where European-inspired architecture, long piers, and leisure boating meet a calm, open horizon. The city is also famous for China’s oldest modern winery, Changyu, and for nearby Penglai, a myth-soaked coastline once believed to reveal islands of immortals rising from the sea.

🎁 Bonus Stories

Top European immunologist Andrew Macpherson joins University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei (link)

Renowned European immunologist Andrew Macpherson has accepted a full-time position at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, Anhui province. Macpherson, a leading expert in gastrointestinal mucosal immunity, joins from the University of Bern, Switzerland, where he was a professor and department director. His recruitment by USTC underscores China's growing reputation as a global hub for cutting-edge biomedical research and its ambition to lead in life sciences innovation. Macpherson has over 300 peer-reviewed publications, including significant studies in Nature and Science, and was awarded the Per Brandtzaeg Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award in 2022 for his work on gut microbiota and immune regulation.

Shanghai Lujiazui's first skyscraper to be demolished and turned into a park (link)

Lujiazui's first skyscraper, the Port Building, is scheduled for demolition and reconstruction in Shanghai. The building, completed in the 1990s and standing 108 meters tall, will be rebuilt 200 meters from its original location next to the Oriental Pearl Tower. The total investment for the project is 1.8 billion RMB, with an expected construction period of 1,300 days. The new building will have a total floor area of about 61,700 square meters across 21 office floors and four basement levels. The relocation is part of a larger upgrade plan for Lujiazui, aiming to expand the financial city and add 2.2 million square meters of mixed-use space. The project also includes creating a 15,000-square-meter public park and opening two new 24-hour pedestrian pathways.

Port Building stands tall in the middle

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2026-01-05 | subscribe | homepage

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

• Mixue lands in New York, China’s mass-market brands go global

• High-speed rail passes the rest of the world combined, network hits 50,000 km

• Drones folded into aviation law, Shanghai pushes for eVTOL leadership

• Super-cold air battery breaks scale limits, long-duration storage goes industrial

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🚀 Headlines

China rolls out super AI science network to challenge US’s Genesis Mission, Meta acquires Chinese AI startup Manus (link, link)

China has launched a powerful AI system integrated with its national supercomputing network, capable of autonomously planning and executing complex scientific tasks. The system, launched on December 23, 2025, serves over 1,000 institutional users and can complete tasks in about an hour that previously took a full day. It supports nearly 100 scientific workflows across materials science, biotechnology, and industrial AI. The system is built on China's National Supercomputing Network (SCNet), which links over 30 supercomputing centers nationwide. This initiative follows Beijing's "AI+" plan, aimed at accelerating scientific discovery and industrial innovation. The move underscores China's strategic push in AI, contrasting with the US's Genesis Mission, which faces strict deadlines for early demonstrations.

Meta has reached an agreement to acquire Butterfly Effect, a Chinese startup and developer of the AI agent Manus, for a multi-billion-dollar sum. This transaction ranks as the third-largest acquisition in Meta's history, following WhatsApp and Scale. Founded in 2022 by Xiao Hong in Wuhan, the company finalized the deal in approximately ten days. Xiao will assume the role of Vice President at Meta, while the company continues independent operations. Before the acquisition, the startup was negotiating a new funding round at a $2 billion valuation. Manus, capable of autonomous tool use for complex tasks, reached USD 100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in mid-December. Reports indicate that ByteDance had previously offered $30 million for the team in early 2024.

Chinese fast-growing consumer brand Mixue opens two locations in New York City (link)

Chinese beverage brand Mixue has opened its first two locations in New York City, one in Midtown and the other in Koreatown. In 2024, Mixue became the world's largest F&B chain by store count, and by June 2025, its number of stores surpassed 53,000, 22.7% more than a year earlier. The brand is known for its low-cost soft serve ice cream, fruit tea, milk tea, pure tea, and freshly brewed coffee. Mixue's menu features customizable sweetness levels and mix-and-match toppings. The brand's success is attributed to its tightly controlled supply chain and standardized processes. With plans to open more locations in New York, Mixue aims to become a go-to destination for affordable, freshly made drinks in the city.

China’s BYD overtakes Tesla as world’s top EV seller for the first time (link)

Chinese automaker BYD has overtaken Tesla as the world's top electric vehicle (EV) seller for the first time. BYD reported a nearly 28% increase in battery-powered car sales, reaching 2.26 million units. In contrast, Tesla delivered 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, marking an approximately 8% year-on-year decrease, which is Tesla's second consecutive annual decline. This milestone highlights BYD's extraordinary rise and contrasts with Tesla's recent challenges, including increased competition from Chinese EV manufacturers and the impact of CEO Elon Musk's political statements on the company's reputation. Despite these issues, Tesla's stock price has recently reached an all-time high following news of successful driverless vehicle tests.

Tesla vs BEV

China’s high-speed rail network surpassed rest of world combined (link)

China's high-speed rail network has surpassed 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles), outpacing the combined length of all other countries' high-speed systems. The expansion includes the recent Xi'an-Yan'an link, which reduces travel time between the cities from two hours to one. The network now covers 97 percent of cities with over 500,000 urban residents and represents over 70 percent of the world's total high-speed rail mileage. Notable routes include the Beijing-Guangzhou link, spanning over 2,000 kilometers, and the Beijing-Shanghai line, with trains reaching speeds of 350 kph (217 mph). China is also testing next-generation trains, such as the CR450, which reportedly reached 896 kph (557 mph) in a trial. Beijing plans to extend the network to 70,000 kilometers by 2035 and is financing railway projects in other Asian countries under its Belt and Road Initiative.

China’s three-runway airports rise to 11 after 2025 expansion (link)

In 2025, China expanded its aviation infrastructure by completing third runways at five airports, increasing the total number of three-runway airports to 11. The newly expanded airports are located in Wuhan, Lanzhou, Urumqi, Shenzhen, and Xi'an. Xi'an Xianyang International Airport began operations on its third runway on December 25, and Shenzhen's third runway started on November 29. Guangzhou Baiyun Airport also completed its fifth runway. Shanghai Pudong Airport is the only other airport in China with five runways. Experts predict that airports will evolve into comprehensive economic nodes, driving airport-edge economies and prompting regions across China to accelerate airport development.

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China to treat drones as aircraft under new laws to improve safety, Shanghai aims to be world's eVTOL capital (link, link)

Starting July 1, 2026, China will implement stricter regulations treating drones as aircraft under its aviation law. This move will bring drones under certification, traceability, and legal liability, aiming to enhance safety and accountability while supporting the drone industry's growth. The updated Civil Aviation Law will include a new chapter for drones, requiring industry participants to be certified with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Each drone must have a unique ID code for real-name registration, facilitating traceability and enforcement. The drone economy in China was estimated at 500 billion yuan in 2023 and is projected to exceed 2 trillion yuan by 2030. The new laws also respond to international concerns, such as those from the US, which has restricted Chinese drone use, citing security risks.

Shanghai aims to become the world's eVTOL (Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing) capital, targeting an annual output value of approximately RMB 80 billion ($11.4 billion) for its low-altitude economy core industries by 2028. The city plans to establish mass production capabilities for over 500 new-generation aircraft models by the same year. Shanghai intends to cultivate and attract 10 leading manufacturers of eVTOLs, industrial-grade drones, and new-energy general aviation aircraft. This initiative is part of China's acceleration in the low-altitude economy, with the country expected to have 100,000 eVTOLs in operation by 2030. The move also involves integrating into the global low-altitude economy market and expanding overseas.

Autoflight eVTOL displayed at CATL's booth

China is building world’s largest ‘super-cold air battery’ in the Gobi Desert (link)

China is constructing the world's largest liquid-air energy storage facility, known as the Super Air Power Bank, in the Gobi Desert. This facility, located in Qinghai province, uses a series of white tanks to compress and cool air to -194 degrees Celsius, turning it into liquid. The liquid air, when released, expands over 750 times in volume, driving turbines to generate electricity. The plant can deliver up to 600,000 kWh per discharge cycle and run for 10 hours continuously, generating approximately 180 million kWh annually—enough to power around 30,000 homes. It is designed to store energy from renewable sources during periods of abundance and release it during high demand, helping to stabilize the grid. The facility boasts a cold storage efficiency of over 95% and a round-trip efficiency of over 55%.

China to dominate critical mineral refining by 2030 (link)

China is projected to have the largest share (60%) of global refined critical mineral supply by 2030. Nickel is the only mineral for which another country, Indonesia (71%), is expected to have a larger market share than China (6%). By 2030, China will play a dominant role in lithium, rare earth elements (REEs), cobalt, and graphite, controlling nearly 60% of all critical mineral refining. Copper refining is relatively diversified. China holds 44.63%, but “Other” countries make up 40.99%, indicating broader global refining capacity.

📸 China Snapshot

Sunset in Sanya, caught through a taxi window somewhere between downtown and Phoenix International Airport. The South China Sea turns copper-orange as the sun drops fast, palms cutting the frame like silhouettes on film. Even in December and January, it is still warm, still tropical, still China’s winter escape, where daily life, tourism, and transit blur into one long golden hour.

Photo by Yereth Jansen

🎁 Bonus Stories

Nobel Prize jurist Thomas Mikael Oliveberg joins top medical school in southern China (link)

After working in Europe for 35 years, Mikael Oliveberg, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (RSAS) and a judge of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, has taken a full-time position at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University in China. Oliveberg has left Stockholm University after nearly two decades as a tenured professor with its Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Oliveberg has been a visiting professor at Guangxi Medical University since 2023.

China’s maglev hits 700 km/h in 2 seconds, sets world record (link)

China has achieved a significant milestone in magnetic levitation (maglev) technology, setting a world record by accelerating a 1.1-ton vehicle to 700 km/h (435 mph) in just two seconds on a 400-meter test track. This feat demonstrates a leap in control and power handling, showcasing China's advancements in ultra-high-speed transport research. The test, conducted by researchers from the National University of Defence Technology, resolved core technical challenges including ultra-high-speed electromagnetic propulsion and high-field superconducting magnets. The technology has potential applications beyond rail transport, such as assisting rocket launches and aircraft takeoffs, and simulating extreme-speed conditions for aerospace testing. China's broader maglev push includes a 2 km experimental line with a long-term goal of reaching 1,000 km/h (621 mph).

☕ 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, X or Facebook.