180612884
submission
hackingbear writes:
China consumed totally 10.4 trillion kilowatt hours (10.4 petaWh) in 2025 according to data from the National Energy Administration. That’s the highest annual electricity use ever recorded by a single country, and doubled the amount used by the US and surpassed the combined annual total of the EU, Russia, India and Japan. The surge in demand for power are results of growth in data centers for artificial intelligence (+17% over 2024) and use of electric vehicles (+48.8%). The State Grid Corp. of China said this week that it will lift fixed-asset investment by about 40% over the next five years, as the nation races to expand its power network. However, on a per-capita basis, China uses about 7,300 kWh per person vs about 13,000 kWh per American. New and electric vehicles (NEVs) drove China’s passenger vehicle market crossing the 30-million-unit mark in both production and sales in 2025. Passenger vehicle output reached 30.27 million units, while sales totaled 30.10 million units, up 10.2% and 9.2%, respectively, year over year, making it the world’s largest auto market for the 17th consecutive year. As policy support for NEVs has also been scaled back and NEVs no longer enjoy a full purchase tax exemption, growth in China’s auto market is expected to moderate in 2026 following a very strong 2025, which likely absorbed a large portion of pent-up demand. In a related development, China reported a world-record trade surplus of nearly $1.2 trillion in 2025, led by booming exports to non-U.S. markets as producers looked to build global scale to fend off sustained pressure from the Trump administration. Its December dollar-valued exports up 6.6% Y/Y, imports up 5.7%; beat forecasts. China, the world's top agricultural importer purchased a record volume of soybeans in 2025, buoyed by a sharp increase in shipments from South America, with Chinese buyers holding off from U.S. crops for much of the year as trade tensions lingered.
180602324
submission
hackingbear writes:
Breaking with the United States, Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff [back to 6.1%] on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. He said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports to Canada, growing to about 70,000 over five years. Prior to the 100% tariff, China exported about 41,000 vehicles to Canada in 2023. In exchange, China will reduce its total tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, from 84% to about 15%, he told reporters. Carney said China has become a more predictable partner to deal with than the U.S, the country’s neighbor and longtime ally. After helping the U.S. to arrest Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who has later been released without admitting guilty by the Biden administration after bickering with China, Canada had followed the U.S. in putting tariffs of 100% on EVs from China and 25% on steel and aluminum under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Carney’s predecessor. China responded by imposing duties of 100% on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood. It added a 75.8% tariff on canola seeds last August. Collectively, the import taxes effectively closed the Chinese market to Canadian canola, an industry group has said.
180529425
submission
hackingbear writes:
Scientists at China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) program rang in the new year with a stunning accomplishment: empirical evidence that they used the device to achieve nuclear plasma densities once thought to be beyond human capabilities. To reach a point where fusion reactor can power itself — a sustainable fusion reaction — requires that gnarly plasma to stay hot, dense, and stable for long stretches of time. For years, it was understood that higher plasma densities would inevitably result in instability, collapsing the fuel before it could ignite, a threshold known as the Greenwald limit. In deuterium-tritium fusion, the fuel must be heated to about 13 keV (150 million kelvin) to reach optimal conditions. At such temperatures, the amount of fusion power produced increases with the square of the plasma density. This new research seemingly flips all that on its head. As the EAST team explains, the method basically involves creating a high gas pressure environment in the reactor prior to plasma formation, which allows the plasma to interact with the reactor wall in a much less destructive way than it would otherwise. Scientists also manually pump extra energy into the plasma as it heats, allowing an even rise in density. The result is a plasma that remains stable even as its internal density rises, resulting in fuel densities “far exceeding empirical limits.” While there are still plenty of breakthroughs left before humanity achieves practical power production with fusion, shattering the Greenwald represents a major item on the to-do list — and another notch on China’s lengthy green energy belt.
180471383
submission
hackingbear writes:
China's state-affiliated Global Times reported that Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security ruled in a labor dispute arbitration that "AI replacing a position does not equal to legal dismissal," providing a case reference for resolving similar cases in the future. A worker with surname Liu had worked in a technology company for many years, responsible for traditional manual map data collection. In early 2024, the company decided to full transition to AI-managed autonomous data collection, abolishing Liu's department, and terminated Liu's labor contract on the grounds that "major changes have occurred in the objective circumstance on which the hiring contract was based, making it impossible to continue implementing the labor contract." Liu objected to the firm's termination, claiming it was unlawful and applied for arbitration. The labor board ruled that the company's introduction of AI technology was a proactive technological innovation implemented by the enterprise to adapt to market competition, and that termination of Liu's labor contract on the grounds that the position was replaced by AI shifts the risk of normal technological iteration onto the employee. The arbitration committee noted that, against the backdrop of the rapid development of AI technology, employers should properly accommodate affected employees through measures such as negotiating changes to the labor contract, providing skills training, and internal job reassignment. If it is indeed necessary to terminate the labor contract, employers must strictly comply with relevant laws and avoid simply applying "major changes in the objective environment" as grounds for termination. "This ruling safeguards Liu's legitimate rights and interests, providing reassurance to the vast number of workers, helping alleviate employees' anxiety about AI," Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
180392375
submission
hackingbear writes:
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, a democratic nation, tried to provoke North Korea, an authoritarian state, into mounting an armed aggression to justify his December 2024 martial law declaration and eliminate political opponents, a special prosecutor said on Monday. The prosecutor has confirmed an elaborate scheme allegedly masterminded by Yoon and his defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, going back to October 2023 to suspend the powers of parliament and replace it with an emergency legislative body. "To create justification for declaring martial law, they tried to lure North Korea into mounting an armed aggression, but failed as North Korea did not respond militarily," special prosecutor, Cho Eun-seok said. The South Korean military flew drones over Pyongyang in October at the order of then Defense Minister Kim. North Korea responded the provocation by blowing up a symbolic road to the South to avoid starting a war. Yoon may have been compelled to act in part because of the unrelenting political pressure he was under stemming from allegations of bribery against his wife, but there was no evidence to suspect Kim was involved in the conspiracy, Park Ji-young, a spokesperson for the special prosecutor's team, said. North Korea has for long time been labeled North Korea as a great threat to world peace.
180332559
submission
hackingbear writes:
Taiwan’s government has ordered a one-year block of a popular, mainland Chinese-owned social media app Xiaohongshu, also known as The Little RedNote, citing its failure to cooperate with authorities over fraud-related concerns. Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited Xiaohongshu’s, which does not have business presence on the island, refusal to cooperate with authorities as the basis for the ban, claiming that the platform has been linked to more than 1,700 fraud-related cases that resulted in financial losses of 247.7 million Taiwanese dollars ($7.9 million). “Due to the inability to obtain necessary data in accordance with the law, law enforcement authorities have encountered significant obstacles in investigations, creating a de facto legal vacuum,” the ministry said in a statement. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Taiwan's opposition party, Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun decried the government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu for one year as censorship. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on social media. Meta was facing fines earlier this year for failing to disclose information on individuals who funded advertisements on its social media platforms, marking the second such penalty in Taiwan for violating the anti-fraud act. "Meta failed to fully disclose information regarding who paid for the advertisement and who benefited from it," Depute Minister Lin of Ministry of Digital Affairs said at a news conference on June 18. If MODA decides to impose the fine, it would mark the second such penalty against Meta in Taiwan, following a NT$1 million (US$33,381) fine issued in May for violating the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act by failing to disclose information on individuals who commissioned and funded two Facebook advertisements. Meta's Threads were also included in the regulatory framework following nearly 1,900 fraud-related reports associated with the platform, with 718 confirmed as scams. Xiaohongshu has surged in popularity among young Taiwanese in recent years, amassing 3 million users in the island of 23 million.
180234829
submission
hackingbear writes:
Jon McNeill, the former president of Tesla's global sales and marketing who now sits on General Motors' board, told Business Insider that Tesla has torn down Chinese EVs and that the lessons learned can be seen in some of Tesla's most popular models. The former Tesla executive said one lesson learned from Chinese EVs was the reuse of parts — using some of the same guts of one model for another — and that can be seen "across the [Model] 3 and the [Model] Y." It's not a unique concept to Chinese automakers; the automotive industry has long relied on using the same parts from one model of car for another in an automaker's lineup, including components such as the platform, the steering wheel or the turn-signal stalk. BYD and other Chinese automakers, however, are distinctive in the degree to which they reuse parts down to the ancillary components of a vehicle, from the battery packs to the heat pumps and motors inside the car seats, McNeill said. EV makers like Tesla, BYD, and Rivian are able to reuse parts at deeper levels because they're also highly vertically integrated companies, meaning the automaker develops and manufactures some of their car parts in-house. This level of control over design and production can enable automakers to standardize more parts and produce at higher speeds.
180019500
submission
hackingbear writes:
nVidia CEO Huang held a closed-door meeting in a top private room at the Grand Hyatt Taipei. There were only 12 invited guests, all heavyweight figures—executives from TSMC, Quanta, Wistron, and Hon Hai, as well as partners from two American venture capital firms. Just after the meeting ended, three participants leaked the content verbatim to a Financial Times reporter who published Huang's words (paywalled) and Reuters and Bloomberg verified it with all 12 attendees present that day, and everyone confirmed the authenticity of the report. The key sentences in the speech are explosive:
- The opening conclusion: "If you ask me who’s going to win the generative AI race in the next 5-10 years — China is going to win. Period."
- "They have one million people working on this 24/7. One million. Not 100,000 — one million. You know how many we have in the entire Silicon Valley working full-time on foundation models? Maybe 20,000 on a good day."
- "And they’re not going to quit. They’re not going to quit. The more you sanction them, the harder they work. You can’t stop them. The more you stop them, the more determined they get."
- On Huawei: ""Don’t underestimate Huawei. Their Ascend 910C is already within 8-12% of H100 performance in most workloads — and they make 200,000 of them per month now. Two hundred thousand. Per month. While we’re sitting here arguing about CFIUS."
- "These export controls? They’re the dumbest thing we’ve ever done. You just gave them the best national mobilization mission in 50 years. It’s like a Sputnik moment on steroids."
- "Washington thinks they’re stopping China. They’re not stopping China — they’re accelerating China. By 2027, China will have more AI compute than the rest of the world combined. Mark my words."
- The concluding remakr: "So yeah, keep the sanctions if you want. Just understand: you’re handing them the trophy."
179957912
submission
hackingbear writes:
South China Morning Post, citing Chinese state media, reported that an experimental reactor developed in the Gobi Desert by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics has achieved thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion, paving the way for an almost endless supply of nuclear energy. It is the first time in the world that scientists have been able to acquire experimental data on thorium operations from inside a molten salt reactor according to a report by Science and Technology Daily. Thorium is much more abundant and accessible than uranium and has enormous energy potential. One mine tailings site in Inner Mongolia is estimated to hold enough of the element to power China entirely for more than 1,000 years. At the heart of the breakthrough is a process known as in-core thorium-to-uranium conversion that transforms naturally occurring thorium-232 into uranium-233 – a fissile isotope capable of sustaining nuclear chain reactions within the reactor itself. Thorium (Th-232) is not itself fissile and so is not directly usable in a thermal neutron reactor. Thorium fuels therefore need a fissile material as a ‘driver’ so that a chain reaction (and thus supply of surplus neutrons) can be maintained. The only fissile driver options are U-233, U-235 or Pu-239. (None of these is easy to supply) In the 1960s the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) designed and built a demonstration MSR using U-233, derived externally from thorium as the main fissile driver.
179898810
submission
hackingbear writes:
Two Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) models, DeepSeek V3.1 and Alibaba’s Qwen3-Max, have taken a commanding lead over their US counterparts in a live real-world real-money cryptocurrency trading competition, posting triple-digit gains in less than two weeks. According to Alpha Arena, a real-market trading challenge launched by US research firm Nof1, DeepSeek’s Chat V3.1 turned an initial $10,000 into $22,900 by Monday, a 126% increase since trading began on October 18, while Qwen 3 Max followed closely with a 108% return. In stark contrast, US models lagged far behind. OpenAI’s GPT-5 posted the worst performance, losing nearly 60% of its portfolio, while Google DeepMind’s Gemini 2.5 Pro showed a similar 57% decline. xAI’s Grok 4 and Anthropic’s Claude 4.5 Sonnet fared slightly better, returning 14% and 23% respectively. “Our goal with Alpha Arena is to make benchmarks more like the real world — and markets are perfect for this,” Nof1 said on its website.
179803562
submission
hackingbear writes:
The Dutch government said on Sunday that it had intervened in Chinese-owned Netherlands-based Nexperia, which makes chips for cars and consumer electronics. It cited worries about possible transfer of technology to its Chinese parent company, Wingtech. In a statement released on Sunday, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs said it had invoked the “highly exceptional” Goods Availability Act to intervene and take control of Nexperia on September 30. The Act allows the Netherlands to intervene in privately owned companies in exceptional circumstances, such as if the government perceives a threat to the country’s economic security or if it is necessary to ensure that critical goods remain available. However, the move came after rising U.S. pressure on the company to remove its Chinese CEO, a court ruling released on Tuesday showed, underscoring how the firm has been caught in the crossfire between Washington and Beijing. On Tuesday, Nexperia announced that it had suspended Zhang, founder of Wingtech, as a director and removed him as chief executive officer (CEO). It has appointed Stegan Tilger, chief financial officer (CFO), as interim CEO. China responded immediately by banning Nexperia from exporting from China.
In a related development, the European Union is considering forcing Chinese companies to transfer technology to European firms if they want to invest and operate in the bloc. “If we invite Chinese investments to Europe, it must come with the precondition that we also have some kind of technology transfer,” EU trade chief and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen told a news conference on Tuesday. The EU says China has benefited from large-scale technology transfers from European businesses set up there, such as transfers made as a condition of market access or via rules that mandate joint ventures with Chinese companies. Technology transfer is used by developing countries as part of the bargain in which they have agreed to protect intellectual property rights. The World Trade Organization's TRIPS Agreement aims to achieve the transfer and dissemination of technology as part of its objectives, and specifically requires developed country members to provide incentives for their companies to promote the transfer of technology to least-developed countries. There is no legal obligation for tech transfer in Chinese law but some argued that percentage cap on foreign ownership amounts to forced tech transfer, at least in spirit if no in letters; however, it is worth noting that, under WTO, foreign ownership cap is itself allowed even for China and each country commits to a schedule to remove the cap restrictions. Lastly, whether China is still a developing country, a self-declare status under WTO, is a subject of another heated debate — China is already the second largest economy with advanced technology capability, yet its per capita GDP still qualifies it as a middle-income developing country. Taken together these two contradictory developments, the western world is worrying about technologies being transferred to China on one hand while trying to snatch Chinese technologies on the other.
179733184
submission
hackingbear writes:
Following U.S. lawmakers' call on Tuesday for broader bans on the export of chipmaking equipment to China, China dramatically expanded its rare earths export controls on Thursday, adding five new elements, dozens of pieces of refining technology, and extra scrutiny for semiconductor users as Beijing tightens control over the sector ahead of talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The new rules expands controls Beijing announced in April that caused shortages around the world, before a series of deals with Europe and the U.S. eased the supply crunch. China produces over 90% of the world's processed rare earths and rare earth magnets. The 17 rare earth elements are vital materials in products ranging from electric vehicles to aircraft engines and military radars. Foreign companies producing some of the rare earths and related magnets on the list will now also need a Chinese export license if the final product contains or is made with Chinese equipment or material, even if the transaction includes no Chinese companies, mimicking rules the U.S. has implemented to restrict other countries' exports of semiconductor-related products to China. Developing mining and processing capabilities requires a long-term effort, meaning the United States will be on the back foot for the foreseeable future. The Commerce Ministry also added to its "unreliable entity list" 14 foreign organizations, which are mostly based in the United States, restricting their ability to carry out commercial activities within the world's second-largest economy for carrying out military and technological cooperation with Taiwan, or "made malicious remarks about China, and assisted foreign governments in suppressing Chinese companies", it said in a separate statement, referring to TechInsights, a prominent Canadian tech research firm, and nine of its subsidiaries including Strategy Analytics which were among those blacklisted.
179537240
submission
hackingbear writes:
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that he says will allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States in a way that meets national security concerns. Trump’s order will enable an American-led of group of investors to "buy the app" [up to 80% ownership] from China’s ByteDance, though the deal is not yet finalized and also requires China’s approval. However, much about the deal is still unknown. So did the US successfully snatch TikTok from ByteDance? It is probably up to individual's interpretation. As with any deals between U.S. and China, the devil is in the details. According Shen Yi, an internet influencer and a professor at Shanghai's Fudan university, what the US investor will eventually take control of is an entity known as TikTok US Data Security Company (“USDS”) which is a subsidiary of the TikTok US and is exclusively responsible to handle data security in the US. ByteDance will continue, through its U.S. subsidiary “ByteDance TikTok US Company,” to operate business and other related activities (such as e-commerce, advertising for brands, and cross-border commercial activities). It is important to stress that “Byte TikTok US Company” remains 100% owned by ByteDance through its global TikTok subsidiary—this arrangement has not changed. The TikTok algorithm remains the property of ByteDance, only licensed to USDS for use. This point was in fact explicitly clarified by a relevant official of China’s Cyberspace Administration at the press conference following the Madrid talks. After reaching the TikTok deal, Beijing and Washington are now selling it to their respective domestic audience, each highlighting the part of the deal that it can characterize as a win. Shen’s details are not in conflict with the widely-reported account given by Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, who emphasized “a new board with six American directors out of seven. Observers can also find the TikTok arrangement being very similar to that of Apple's iCloud operation in China being run by GCBD (AIPO Cloud (Guizhou) Technology Co. Ltd.) while Apple retain controls of the brand and business.
179523610
submission
hackingbear writes:
China is known for boasting the world's cheapest EVs, and is now also home to the fastest. Chinese automaker BYD's YangWang U9 Xtreme just blew the whole competition out of the water. The U9 Xtreme just hit a top speed of 308.4 mph (496.32 km/h) on the ATP Papenburg oval track in Germany, making it the fastest car in production, after demolishing the top-speed record for production EVs a few weeks ago. It was once again driven by German racer Marc Basseng, who piloted the hypercar beyond the previous record-holding Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, which managed 304.8 back in 2019. The U9 Xtreme sports an insane quad-motor powertrain on a 1200-volt system, combining for a total output of over 2959 horsepower. One small caveat that doesn't lessen the impressiveness of the feat is that while the U9 Xtreme does classify as a production model, it barely does. That's because BYD is planning to limit production of the top-speed version of the U9 to no more than 30 units. The Xtreme is a high-performance version of Yangwang U9, BYD's pothole-jumping hypercar, which costs around $233,000 in China.
179468108
submission
hackingbear writes:
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has demonstrated its ability to launch and recover aircraft from its first electromagnetic catapult-equipped aircraft carrier, the CNS Fujian. Official imagery released by the PLAN today confirms that the new J-35 naval stealth fighters, KJ-600 airborne early warning and control aircraft, and J-15T fighter jet are carrying out carrier trials. Ben Lewis, a co-founder of PLATracker, told USNI News that the test was a “significant milestone” for the Chinese military’s carrier program. “Once operational, the PLAN will have the capacity to field fifth-generation stealth carrier aircraft, supported by fixed-wing carrier-based airborne early warning and command aircraft, across the first island chain and Western Pacific Ocean,” Lewis said. Electromagnetic catapults offer several advantages, not least the fact that they can be more finely tuned to very different aircraft types, including ones that are larger and slower (like the KJ-600), or which are smaller and lighter, such as smaller drones. In contrast to the U.S. Navy, which gathered decades of experience with steam-powered catapults, China opted for electromagnetic ones for its first catapult-equipped carrier. It’s worth noting that the U.S. Navy’s USS Gerald R. Ford was the first carrier ever to get an aircraft into the air using what is also referred to as an electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS). However, it has not launched an F-35C so far, making the J-35 the first stealth jet to achieve this feat. Based on earlier predictions, the F-35C may not do the same for some years.
