AI, fusion, undersea radar + forest and trees
Science & Technology
Above: China’s overlapping tech-industrial ecosystems.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt calls DeepSeek’s rise “a turning point” in the global AI race, in an op-ed in The Washington Post.
Provincial Sichuan University (SCU), overtakes Stanford, MIT, Oxford, takes 11th place among the world’s leading academic institutions.
China’s integrated circuit exports rose from $102 billion in 2019 to a record $160 billion compared to US IC exports of $32 billion
China surpasses the US in the number of top scientists. US had 36,599 top scientists, which declined to 31,781 by 2024, while China’s increased from 18,805 in 2020 to 32,511.
China could approach 1,400 Starlink satellites within 12 hours, using 99 satellites equipped with lasers, microwaves and other devices.
Tokamak maintained a steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for a record 1,066 seconds, a milestone toward fusion power generation.
Work began on an orbiting, one-km-wide solar array to deliver the same annual energy–transmitted to ground by microwaves–as all the oil that can be extracted from the Earth.
Economy & Trade
Li Auto opened its Munich R&D Center, advancing Sino-German NEV cooperation.
Chinese mobile phones’ global market share a record 56% in Q4. Global shipments grew 6.4% in 2024. Apple and Samsung fell 4.1% and 2.7%.
China’s total installed power generation reached 3.35 billion kW last year, up 14.6% YoY. solar power generation rose 45% to 890 MkW. Nuclear output rose 6%.
Exports to the US comprise 15% of China’s total shipments, down from 20% in 2018. Shipments to the Global South reached 21%.
China was third in America’s goods and sixth in services exports, generates 67% of
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Qualcomm’s global revenues and 26% of Intel’s.
Society
New Year Gala’s dancing robots, above
China building a childbirth-friendly society with improved hospital maternity services, free IVF, toddler care centers, “mom posts,” and birth subsidies.
12,000 humans will race humanoid robots in the world’s first half-marathon in April in Beijing.
China plants 4.45 million hectares (11 million acres) of trees in 2024 and improved 3.22 million hectares of grassland.
Governance
Xi Jinping said technological innovation is the main battlefield of the international strategic game, and military-civilian fusion the key.
Chinese courts crack down on science fraud, including falsifying or tampering with experimental data, fabricating patents and hiring others to write papers.
Propaganda
Defense
China’s unique, hypersonic air-to-air missiles pose an unprecedented threat to the USAF, including the B-21 stealth bomber currently undergoing flight testing.
Ninth Type 055 Renhai-class cruiser prepares for testing.
China increased the performance of CL-20, the world’s most powerful non-nuclear explosive and also reduced the risk of accidental explosions.
Deep-sea radar detects and tracks aircraft flying above by analyzing their sound waves.
