Science & Technology
The Ludi satellite monitors the Asia-Pacific from 36,000 km (22,370 m) up. Its beam synthesis coordinates phased-array emitters across the 65 ft. (20m) foldable antennas and, “mathematically compensates for orbital curvature that would blur conventional SAR images beyond recognition”. Only China makes it.”
DJI announced a “MiniSAR” drone with 0.2m. resolution, a 55 min. battery life, weighing 2.7kg, it makes Synthetic Aperture Radar – used to create two-dimensional images or three-dimensional reconstructions of objects – more widely available.
DeepSeek AI would make $562,027 in daily revenue, giving them a “cost profit margin” of 545% (5x the costs of development).
China’s Akeso’s lung cancer drug, Ivonescimab, bested Merck’s Keytruda ($130 billion sales), going 11.1 months before their tumors began to grow again, vs. 5.8 months for Keytruda.
Secure data transmission using quantum mechanics sets a world record for speed and distance. QSDC directly transmits information in quantum states, like photons, without encryption keys.
The Bayan Obo mine holds 1 million tonnes of thorium – enough to fuel China for 60,000 years.
Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital Releases China’s First Cardiovascular Diagnosis AI Model, trained on 800,000 medical records, processes electrocardiograms, ultrasound images, and lab tests to make diagnostic and treatment recommendations.
Economy & Trade
China produces 77% of the world’s natural graphite and 95% of its synthetic graphite, refines 98%, monopolizes synthetic diamond production and builds pure, hexagonal diamonds from graphite, 40% harder than natural diamond.
The Bayan Obo mine has 1 million tonnes of thorium – enough to fuel China for 60,000 years, according to scientists’ estimates.
By 2004, US grain traders had monopolized China’s soybean industry so, when U.S. traders drove soybean prices to historic lows, attempting to wipe out Chinese farmers completely, the Chinese government stepped in.
China’s mature chips to be 39% of world production by 2027. Western companies Wolfspeed and Onsemi see significant layoffs and stock value drops.
The number of China-based sellers on American Walmart’s third-party marketplace up 28%. Rising Amazon platform fees prompted Chinese sellers to seek other options.
US firms in China eye long-term success with 33% surge in China reinvestment plans to reinvest $14.59 billion, a 33.18% increase from previous figures.
China’s overseas completed foreign direct investment (FDI) rebounded to pre-COVID levels in 2024, to $58 billion.
Society
Nini’s workplace, being a prestigious municipal elementary school, has an unwritten rule: if a teacher receives an Unsatisfactory year-end review for two consecutive years, their Bianzhi at the school will be canceled.
The content below was originally paywalled.
“A Barely Satisfactory review means I technically passed but only escaped punishment – I didn’t meet their standards,” she explained. What are these unstated standards?
China released benchmarks for elderly-care robots covering product design, manufacturing, testing, and certification and specifies accessibility, reliability, energy efficiency, and noise control.
Scientists find genetic link between Attila’s Huns and empire that fought Han China.
Ne Zha 2 is the first non-Hollywood film to exceed $2 billion in global earnings.
Making a state’s population go up for the sake of it is meaningless maximizing. Once you ask why a growing population might be beneficial (to an individual or the social planner), it becomes clear that actually-existing immigration makes the problems of population decline worse, not better.
9.02 billion inter-regional passenger trips across China during the 40-day Spring Festival, chunyun, a record, up 7.1% YoY.
Environment
Governance
We investigated and dealt with 118,000 cases of hedonism and extravagance, and criticised, educated and dealt with 157,000 people. A total of 107,000 cases of formalism and bureaucratism were investigated, with 156,000 individuals criticised, educated, or disciplined.
We thoroughly investigated and dealt with new types of corruption and hidden corruption. Strengthened embedded supervision, penetrating inspection, and three-dimensional analysis and assessment, focusing on new trends such as falsely using ‘market behaviour’ to disguise power-for-money transactions, adopting ‘layer upon layer of nesting’ to put an ‘invisibility cloak’ on corruption, and setting up ‘isolation belts’ for bribery through proxy holdings by others, and seriously investigated and dealt with behaviours such as ‘shadow companies’, ‘shadow shareholders’, ‘fake investments’, and ‘options corruption’.
Propaganda
The situation is even worse when it comes to China reporting. China has a complex political and economic system hard to find a parallel elsewhere. Instead of studying and analyzing what happens in the country, western media tend to go for the easy answers with superficial analysis and wishful thinking. The result is your typical media hack job fit for a 30-second TV soundbite that bears no resemblance to reality.
Geopolitics
The fate of Taiwan keeps American policymakers up at night, and it should. Letting Taiwan fall to Beijing would dent Washington’s credibility and create new challenges for U.S. military forces in Asia.
USAID spends a lot of money in Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province, where there are terrorist attacks on Chinese workers. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor terminates in the province at the Port of Gwadar and the entire province borders Iran too.
The ‘80s, ‘90s and noughties were the heyday of European economic power, propped up by cheap Russian energy carriers, Chinese consumer goods and NATO, supported by US military power. But it is one thing to solve one’s existential issues under the wing of a powerful military ally with ships and reconnaissance satellites. It is quite another to do this alone – at one’s own expense.
Scientists tested a satellite network to track hundreds of millions of shipping containers worldwide and demonstrated its ability to collect real-time data from IoT sensors on cargo containers to track cargo movements globally in real time and monitor location, internal conditions, and tamper alerts.
Defense
First Oblique Detonation Engine (ODE) powered by aviation kerosene. Its combustion rate is 1,000 times faster than supersonic combustion ramjets. It travels at 12,000 mph./20,000 kph.
South Korea’s semiconductor technology trails China’s in all key areas as of last year, marking a shift from previous assessments, a survey showed Sunday.
Quantum physicist Jian-Wei Pan: “Quantum firms first need to temper their hype, secure long-term government investments, and not let political tensions stand in the way of international collaboration. Like the first quantum revolution, the second will lead to societal advancements. Long-term development requires a positive, rational, cooperative environment.”
