Inside China's "Token Capital": Ulanqab's Zero-Carbon Computing Bet2026-09-29
On the grasslands of northern China, about 240 kilometers from Beijing, a city of fewer than 2 million people has quietly become an important player in the country's AI drive.

Ordos: How a city of wool and coal comes to the frontier of zero-carbon industries2026-09-23
When Sakolsky, a retired American teacher, finally met Yin Yuzhen, a Chinese heroine of desert control who had received a $5,000 donation from him, few noticed the setting for their high-profile encounter: Ordos Ejin Horo International Airport, where the world's first zero-carbon airport technology is verified and applied.

Justin Yifu Lin: open-weight AI could give the Global South a second chance2026-09-21
The first three industrial revolutions left much of the Global South behind. Justin Yifu Lin argues that the fourth need not - for one reason: this time, the frontier technology is within reach.

China's One-Person Economy: How AI is Changing the Way Young People Start Businesses2026-09-21
At an open-plan desk in the Yungu OPC Community in Hohhot, the capital city of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Li Xiaoyu stares at his screen as AI generates scenes for a short drama frame by frame.

Can China-Africa AI cooperation turn access into local capability?2026-09-12
In May, Ethiopian academic Kedir Yassin Hussen spent six days teaching colleagues and students in a computer laboratory at the University of Gondar. He had just returned from an AI computing programme in China and was bringing its curriculum home, according to FlagOS, the software project used in the programme.

Services emerge as new frontier for China's global trade2026-09-12
Engineering, software and supply-chain know-how increasingly travel with Chinese goods. Developing economies could gain from the shift, provided they secure local participation and a voice in the rules.

Why America and China need each other more in services trade2026-09-12
The US services trade surplus has hit a record high, with China as its largest source. As AI and digital technologies reshape the landscape of services trade, the complementarity between the two countries in this area is becoming more pronounced than ever.

The rise of physical AI: China’s next wave of industrial transformation is taking shape2026-09-11
China's next industrial growth stories may not come less from another generation of AI models, but more from the machines and systems that put those models to work.

Renting robots, by the month2026-08-26
China's robot industry has spent the past few years trying to make machines cheaper, smarter and more capable. At this year's World Robot Conference in Beijing, some companies were also trying something less glamorous, namely, renting them out.

Europe’s Car Crisis Goes Beyond China2026-08-12
Europe’s automotive problems are increasingly structural. Tariffs might slow the arrival of Chinese-made cars, but they cannot make an expensive factory competitive, restore lost technological ground or create demand that is no longer there.

Quiet Engine of CPEC 2.0 Reshaping Pakistan's Industry2026-07-30
For Ameer Hamza, vocational training received in China opened a door he never thought possible. As a student of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad Community College, he took part in the Sino-Pak Dual Diploma Program in Modern Agriculture Technology and studied at Beili Vocational College in 2022.

What is missing in the “China overcapacity” narrative?2026-07-30
The term “overcapacity” itself, is actually a rather vague and contested one, with no universally accepted definition among international organizations.

China's BCI Tech Steps Out of the Lab2026-07-29
Ten years after a car accident left him with impaired hand function, a patient at Shanghai's Huashan Hospital received the world's first commercial implant of a regulator-approved invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) on July 13.

Beyond cheap money: Why Indonesia and other sovereigns are turning to panda bonds2026-07-24
This week, Indonesia moved from speculation to execution. The government successfully issued 7 billion yuan (around US$1.03 billion) in yuan-denominated Panda Bonds on July 23, marking its first entry into China’s onshore bond market.