Just over a week ago, I attended a major artificial intelligence conference in Zhongguancun, Beijing’s bustling high-tech district. It was packed with fascinating sessions touching on everything from recursive self-improvement—the idea that models can tweak their own code and advance indefinitely—to humanoid robots. And it featured a few legends of computing, including Whitfield Diffie, co-inventor … Read more
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang earlier this month celebrated their decades-long alliance, with both sides vowing to elevate their ties to “new heights.” However, the summit reflected a marriage of convenience with clear limitations. The Xi-Kim summit was a meaningful indication that China-North Korea bilateral ties … Read more
The Trump administration’s move to impose export controls on Anthropic’s most powerful AI technology followed a spat over the company granting South Korean telecom giant SK Telecom access to its Claude Mythos model, according to people familiar with the matter. US officials were concerned about what they alleged were SK Telecom’s ties to China, those … Read more
At IO-AI Tech, a startup about 45 minutes north of downtown Shenzhen, China, I glimpsed a wacky new frontier of blue-collar work. Workers wearing the company’s VR headsets, handheld controllers, and motion-tracking gear remotely control humanoid robots for workplaces like factory floors and convenience stores. The company wants the robots to do useful work, like … Read more
Perhaps fearful of abandonment, or of being treated as a mere “bargaining chip” in negotiations with Beijing, Taiwan has worked diligently to ingratiate itself with President Donald Trump’s inner circle. Just last month, Taipei hired Checkmate Government Relations, a firm whose founder, Ches McDowell, enjoys close ties to Donald Trump Jr. and access to the … Read more
In China, for just $30, you can have Dwayne Johnson drive your Tesla for you. Sounds too cheap to be true? Well, it is. What you’re actually buying is a tiny replica of The Rock’s head, designed to sit above the rearview mirror and trick Tesla into thinking an attentive driver is behind the wheel. … Read more
Right-wing officials and data center investors are increasingly claiming that data center protests are being funded and influenced by the Chinese government. OpenAI added to the discourse on Wednesday when it released a report describing a cluster of accounts originating in China that, the company said, had been spreading anti-data center messages on social media. … Read more
China has become the first country in the world to operate an underwater data center, or UDC, powered by wind. Located off the coast of Shanghai, the complex represents a significant advance in the country’s strategy to secure energy supplies in the face of the accelerated growth of artificial intelligence, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, … Read more
“Dear You,” the Teochew-dialect drama that has become one of China‘s defining box office stories of 2026, is heading to international markets starting June 18, with Damai Entertainment – the distributor formerly known as Alibaba Pictures – handling the worldwide theatrical release. Directed by Lan Hongchun, the family drama follows Xiaowei, a young grandson who … Read more
The humanoid robot of the future is a hulking specimen with a body that’s made in China and a brain that runs on American silicon. This week, Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, announced a blueprint for the bot, which combines a few different things: a 6-foot, 150-pound robot called H2 Plus from Unitree, a … Read more