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China innovators

China innovators
Entrepreneurs and companies helping to lead the world’s second largest economy away from being the world’s factory into being one of its leading innovators and experimenters.
Illustration: Craig Stephens
US-China relations

Opinion | How Washington’s lawyers stack up against Beijing’s technocrats

While no system is perfect, balancing out the occupational composition of policymakers could hold the key to success for both countries.

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Hong Kong economy

Opinion | Hong Kong’s budget should move the city towards ‘inspirational’ development

Hong Kong economy

Opinion | With Hetao tech hub, Hong Kong is reimagining its economic future

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China society

Opinion | Key lessons from China’s ascent over the past 25 years

The country’s rise was shaped less by a single turning point than by its commitment to long-term planning, meritocracy and global engagement.

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Illustration: Craig Stephens
Hong Kong stock market

Standard Chartered keeps overweight call on China stocks, flags recovery in 2026

Despite renewed ‘bubble’ talk around AI valuations after a November sell-off, Standard Chartered says the cycle is different this time.

China’s private sector

China’s growing young billionaire class masks innovation hurdles, analysts say

Technological innovation – one of Beijing’s top priorities – is helping to drive wealth creation, report says.

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China economy

Opinion | As China’s tech rises, companies must rethink their R&D strategy

Firms seeking to localise in China must see the country not just as a place to manufacture and sell, but as a co-creator and innovator.

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Employees work on a production line for an electric flying car at a factory of Xpeng’s subsidiary Aridge in Guangzhou on November 6. Photo: AFP
China’s fourth plenum

Opinion | 15th five-year plan charts a course for China’s modernisation

By building on past successes and shoring up areas of weakness, China can lay firm foundations to achieve socialist modernisation.

China technology

Editorial | Chinese science contributes to safe and peaceful nuclear power

Scientists like Xu Hongjie, who pioneered China’s thorium reactor programme, are paving the way for peaceful nuclear energy.

US-China tech war

Rokid’s AI eyewear joins the quest to be the biggest thing since the smartphone

Start-up Rokid is teaming up with eyewear brand Bolon on lightweight AI glasses as competition heats up to deliver the next ‘iPhone moment’.

The Rokid AI glasses (left) and the newly launched Bolon-branded AI glasses without a display. Photo: Wency Chen
China manufacturing

Chinese AI, humanoid robot make Time magazine’s ‘Best Inventions of 2025’ list

New generation of innovators in spotlight as DeepSeek’s advanced reasoning model and Unitree’s affordable humanoid draw acclaim.

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Image of Unitree R1 humanoid . Photo: Handout
Artificial intelligence

Exclusive | Zhipu AI sees tenfold surge in foreign users as Chinese AI gains traction

The Beijing start-up is leveraging its affordable ‘good enough’ open model to compete in the fast-growing AI coding market.

China manufacturing

China calls for faster, wider adoption of advanced tech to strengthen industry

Locked in a tech war with the US, Beijing seeks greater commercialisation of cutting-edge technologies through large-scale application.

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Mainland China

When mines run dry: why some Chinese cities are racing to reinvent themselves

Once China’s answer to Pittsburgh, steel hub Panzhihua faces same challenge as other old industrial cities: how to avoid ‘rust belt’ decline.

Illustration by Lau Ka-kuen
China’s economic stimulus

Explainer | China has a new 500 billion yuan ‘financial instrument’. How will it be used?

Beijing created the special financing tool to turbocharge domestic innovation and help the economy ride out the trade war.

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An employee works at a chip factory in China’s eastern Shandong province. China is channelling more funding to support domestic innovation amid the trade war. Photo: AFP
China economy

Opinion | How China can position its K visa for success in race for global tech talent

Beijing must assuage local concerns while ensuring transparent selection, institutional support and the equitable integration of foreigners.

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China economy

Opinion | Critics are missing the big picture on China’s economic transition

Thanks to green infrastructure, digital connectivity and world-class research, China’s economy is no longer reliant on one source of growth.

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Open Questions series

Open Questions | Economist Liu Qian on China’s innovation, rivalry with US

From DeepSeek to WeChat, China innovates differently, says Liu, who also weighs in on the Thucydides Trap and Chinese women’s advancement.

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Illustration: Victor Sanjinez Garcia
China technology

China vows faster global roll-out of BeiDou, its GPS rival, to expand ‘friends’

From smartphones to e-bikes, the system has rapidly embedded itself in daily life at home – now, Beijing eyes faster international expansion.

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China manufacturing

The hidden standards battle: inside China’s push to rewire global manufacturing

China is quietly vying to influence the bodies that set global manufacturing standards, which Europe and the US have long dominated.

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China energy security

China targets global leadership in AI-driven energy sector by 2030

Beijing plans to incorporate the cutting-edge tech across energy as part of its new “AI Plus” strategy.

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People attend the launch event of the first commercial application of artificial intelligence for the mining industry in Jinan, Shandong province, on July 18, 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE
China education

AI enters the classroom: China’s Hangzhou makes lessons compulsory in schools

Local governments are beginning to take action after Beijing said it wants all primary and secondary students to study the advanced tech.

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Primary school students watch a dancing robot performance in Handan, China, on October 29, 2024. Photo: NurPhoto via Getty Images
Technology

Editorial | First humanoid robot games are proof the future is already here

From automation to athletics, the merging of artificial intelligence with robotics holds great promise, and peril.

US-China trade war

China debuts first e-beam lithography tool for commercial use in chip milestone

Beijing’s efforts to build its own chipmaking tools may be paying off as global competition in the sector heats up.

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China consumption

Beijing urged to curb ‘free milk tea’-style cash burn in e-commerce battle

Instant retail has potential to boost domestic demand, but more government policy support needed to end excessive competition, central bank adviser says.

Ele.me food deliveryman and a Meituan food deliveryman ride on the street on May 14, 2025 in Yancheng, Jiangsu province of China. Photo: VCG via Getty Images
China shipbuilding

Why China’s first rocket recovery ship is a milestone for its space programme

The launch of the drone ship marks a step forward for China’s push to develop reusable rockets, a technology currently monopolised by the US.

A SpaceX drone ship carrying a Falcon 9 booster berths at Port Canaveral. China has now launched a similar system as it strives to pivot to using reusable rockets. Photo: SpaceX
China travel

China’s high-speed rail nears 50,000km milestone – but is it sustainable?

The network dwarfs global rivals and has reshaped domestic travel – but analysts warn debt levels cannot be ignored.

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Made in China 2025

China’s booming low-altitude economy spurs demand for ‘drone flight planners’

Beijing eyes growth in the emerging sector, but industry faces a severe talent shortage.

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