china

China has concentrated thousands of fishing boats off Japan, and its idea is not to fish

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The East China Sea is one of the more sensitive scenarios of the strategic balance in Asia for decades. territorial disputes, historical rivalries and the growing weight of new powers have turned these waters into a space where every movement is observed with a magnifying glass. There, apparently minor gestures usually fit into dynamic much deeperand China has just made a move. The diplomatic fuse. Japan’s detention of a chinese fishing boat within its exclusive economic zone, about 170 kilometers from Nagasaki, has rekindled a relationship already deteriorated between Tokyo and Beijing, with a certain island as a backdrop. He captain’s arrestafter refusing an inspection, occurs in a context of growing dispute marked by Japanese statements on Taiwan and the subsequent Chinese warnings its citizens to avoid traveling to Japan. Therefore, it is not an isolated episode, but rather the visible spark of a maritime tension that had been building for weeks. Images from space. AIS system data and the images by satellite show unprecedented concentrations of up to 2,000 fishing boats Chinese aligned near the median line between the two countries in the East China Sea. The formations, hundreds of kilometers long and with vessels separated by less than 500 meters, remained more than 24 hours in static positions despite adverse weather conditions. In other words, China was concentrating thousands of fishing boats off Japan, and its idea is not exactly to fish. The maritime militia and the “gray zone”. They counted on Nikkei that the vast majority of these fishing vessels are part of the so-called chinese maritime militiaa civil network that cooperates with the State and the Army in operations that do not reach the threshold of armed conflict. A priori, this strategy allows pressure to be exerted without formally deploying naval forces, thus making a direct response difficult. In other words, as we count A few weeks ago, what was presented as economic activity could become a test of maritime control or even the interruption of trade routes in the first island chain. Taiwan as a backdrop. Impossible to ignore it. The maneuvers coincide with statements by the Japanese government warning that a crisis in the Taiwan Strait would be an existential threat for Japan. Beijing, for its part, considers the island part of its territory and does not rule out the use of forcewhile Tokyo reinforces its deterrent posture. In this context, each movement in the East China Sea takes on a meaning that goes beyond fishing and is integrated into the regional strategic calculation. A pattern of sustained pressure. Furthermore, the activity is not limited to civil fleets. I remembered the Guardian that the Chinese coast guard has broken presence records around to the Senkaku Islandsalso known as Diaoyu in China, and has released images of patrols in disputed waters for the first time. Plus: the Liaoning aircraft carrier has expanded its radius of operations near Okinawa, while Beijing advances infrastructure on its side of the maritime median line. More than boats, an essay. Analysts interpret these concentrations like exercises of mobilization and coordination within the civil-military fusion plan promoted by Beijing. There is no doubt, the capacity of gather thousands of boats civilians at a strategic point in a short time sends a fairly clear message about the possibility of, for example, saturating maritime spaces without openly resorting to force. In this way, the pulse is no longer so much or only bilateral, but rather a warning to the entire region: China is perfecting tools to shape the balance of the Indo-Pacific, and it is doing so without firing a single shot. Image | Planet Labs, Marine Traffic, Anna Frodesiak, Micromesistius In Xataka | China’s best weapon doesn’t fire a single bullet: 300km ‘moving wall’ to close sea routes instantly In Xataka | China has turned deep-sea salmon farming into an engineering feat. This state-of-the-art boat proves it

700 years of consumption to challenge China

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Whoever follows it, gets it. The world has embarked on the great adventure of finding rare earth anywhere to stop depending on China. Japan, with tense relations – to say the least – was one of the most interested, and has achieved what it been searching for two years: extract rich rare earth mud from about 6,000 meters deep. But it is one thing to find it and another to refine it on an industrial level. Success. Japan had a set schedule: its advanced Chikyu ship had to leave in January 2026 in search of rare earths. In 2024 they reported the discovery of what could be one of the largest deposits in the worldwith a prospecting for the beginning of 2026. The idea was to collect a sample of mud to see the composition, and the results could not have been more promising. ago uus daysnear Minami Torishima Island, Japan signed which is considered the first successful attempt to extract rare earth sediment at extreme depths. We are talking about some mud located in a pit at about 6,000 meters deep, where it is believed that there are a deposit of more than 16,000,000 tons of valuable material. It was an autonomous vehicle deployed at that depth that, using an unmanned excavator, circulated mud from that depth to the ship through a pipe. Similar to the technique used to prospect for oil and gas. Good rare earths. Rare earths are a set of 17 metals and elements that are essential for practically any industry today. From aerospace to medical devices, our mobile phones, electric cars or headphones themselves, they all need some of the metals from rare earths. But it turns out that some are more valuable than others. It is estimated that the lands of the Minami Torishima site stand out due to its concentration in dysprosium and terbium. These two are particularly rare and valuable because they are used in vehicle engine magnets and defense technologies. They also have a certain concentration of yttrium, which is used for lasers or superconductors. The rare earth war. As we read on Al Jazeera, Japan is ecstatic. A government spokesperson commented that this is “a significant achievement both for the country’s economic security and for its maritime development.” And the truth is that the discovery could not have come at a better time for Japan. We have already commented that China is the one that dominates rare earths. Not only its mining, but its production. For decades we have let China refine them because the process is very polluting and the laws in the Asian giant were somewhat more lax. The price has been high: the entire world industry depends on China, and China has not hesitated to use rare earths as a weapon when it has come under attack. For example, in the context of the technological war or with tariffs. liberally. And, speaking of context and war, the Pacific is abuzz. China claims Taiwan and some islands held by Japan while build artificial islands with varied purposes. Japan, meanwhile, has allied itself with a United States that is testing weapons in the area and deploying maritime units. And, furthermore, they are rearming. For that they need rare earths and, on January 6, China prohibited the export of all double items use to Japan. This implies anything that can be used to improve Japanese military capabilities. The order came after the Japanese Prime Minister announced that any action by China in Taiwan It would be responded to in a warlike manner by Japan. The Chinese statement did not specify which exports would be affected, but the Chinese media suggested that heavy rare earths were in the equation. Consumption for a while. That is, in the current context, it is not a whim for Japan to stop depending on China for the production of rare earths: it is a necessity. And there are already media outlets like the Nikkei that have described the deposit as the third largest reserve of rare earths in the world. Estimates point to more than 16,000,000 metric tons of rare earth oxides, something that would satisfy domestic consumption for several generations. For example, it point that there will be more than 730 years of Japanese consumption of dysprosium and more than 420 years of local consumption of terbium. Way to go. Now, Japan has found the clue, but now it is time to confirm the estimates and, above all, start extracting and refining these rare earths. That will be the task of researchers this year to, in 2027, begin carrying out large-scale extraction tests. The idea is to get 350 tons of mud a day. Then everything has to be loaded by boat to Minami Torishima, where a first cleaning of the sludge will be carried out to separate the valuable from the mud and, then, transportation to the continent, where the refining process will take place. With everything in hand, wait that the Japanese government publishes an economic viability report by March 2028. and red flags. It is evident that Japan’s announcement is hopeful both for its independence and for the rest of the world to begin to do something with the deposits it has been finding with the aim of achieving sovereignty in rare earths. But there are also challenges ahead. On the one hand, it esteem that each ton of sludge produces just two kilos of rare earth oxides. This means that enormous volumes of material have to be processed to separate the ‘wheat from the chaff’. Then there is the refining process itself, something pollutant due to what is necessary to do it and the waste that is emitted. And finally, the worry for the habitat destructionspecifically deep-sea ecosystems that, according to environmental groups, would receive an irreversible impact. And since we are what we eat, and more countries like China or Japan than They need fish with no possible alternativeclouds of particles from the seabed can affect the food … Read more

China is building submarines faster than anyone else. And that’s a problem for the United States.

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In a tense geopolitical moment on a global scale with several open fronts such as Greenland, whose melting ice is allowing us to see nuclear submarinesChina just achieved a historic milestone: it is manufacturing nuclear submarines faster than any other country in the world, according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. This is a complete surprise to the United States, the power that until now held this title, and threatens the advantage that Washington has maintained for decades. Brief notes on nuclear submarines. Without wanting to delve into their characteristics, it is worth distinguishing what types there are: He SSBN is a nuclear-powered submarine designed to launch ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads (some with intercontinental range). They are strategic second response platforms, practically undetectable and guarantee that if someone attacks first, they will receive a response. The SSN/SSGN are nuclear attack submarines (the second, guided missiles), true maritime control weapons: they can attack land or sea targets, block routes and operate for months without resupply. Context. American hegemony underwater lasts for decades, but Beijing has on its roadmap modernize its military capabilities by 2035: it already has the largest surface fleet in the world in the words of the Pentagon and now he has turned on the turbo to reach the last bastion of the United States: the depths. The data. China has surpassed the United States in the pace of launching nuclear-powered submarines (SSN/SSBN). Thus, between 2021 and 2025, the Asian giant launched 10 units compared to Washington’s seven, according to has discovered the IISS through satellite analysis of the Bohai shipyard in Huludao (northern China), as the epicenter of the industrial leap. In a decade, China has gone from being far behind to leading the race: Why is it important. This shift in underwater hegemony has three implications, one of which points directly to the US: Nuclear deterrence. The new submarines Type 094 and future Type 096 They expand China’s nuclear response capacity in the face of possible nuclear attacks. A preemptive attack is strategically unfeasible. Maritime control of commercial routes. SSGNs with high-speed missile systems add a layer of threat to foreign combat groups in the Indo-Pacific, complicating access for the US and its allies to potentially conflictive areas, such as the South China Sea or Taiwan. At a time when The United States is betting on boarding As a sign of maritime control, China has in this fleet a safeguard for its commercial routes. The United States cannot cope with that pace. John Phelan, US Secretary of the Navy, recognized in Congress that “All of our programs are a disaster, honestly. Our best-performing program is six months behind schedule and 57% over budget.” Phelan mentions the erosion of this industry, which according to the Government Accountability Office Today it faces problems such as aging infrastructure and a shortage of qualified labor. The surprise figures. The IISS Military Balance 2025 leaves other interesting figures to better diagnose the reality of both powers in nuclear submarines: Launch rate from 2021 to 2025: seven from the US to 10 from China. The difference in tonnage is notable: while those from China weigh 79,000 tons, those from the US are 55,500. Active nuclear fleet: The United States wins by a landslide, with 65 units compared to China’s 12 units (plus another 46 conventional ones). Quantity vs quality. We have already seen in the previous point that the United States continues to gain in numbers (still) and it is not the only reason for optimism for the country led by Trump. CNN echoes the IISS report where he explains that “Chinese designs are almost certainly behind American and European submarines in terms of quality.” Among other qualities, in noise: Chinese submarines are noisier, which makes them more vulnerable, they explain. But as a captain warns Retired US Navy Half USNI Officer, Biggest Fleets Win. In Xataka | In the midst of rearmament, Spain has just surprised Europe: 5,000 million for 34 warships and four submarines In Xataka | The new fear of Western fleets is not nuclear. They are conventional submarines armed with surprise and a flag: China Cover | CSR Report RL33153 China Naval Modernization: Implications for US Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress by Ronald O’Rourke dated February 28, 2014 – United States Naval Institute News Blog, Public Domain

China is clear about who should lead the advances of its best AI and robotics companies: Generation Z

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Those who now enter the labor market find themselves with a rival that is difficult to beat: they have no agreement or need for rest or fulfillment. In addition, it does the tasks of junior profiles quite well: artificial intelligence is limiting the landing of Generation Z in the offices. in the United States, we have seen it in the UK and also in the Big Four that make up the Madrid skyline. Replacing those who start working with AI has been revealed as the West’s formula to boost productivity… from the point of view of the bosses. If you have to fight with her and validate her, not so much anymore. But it is by no means the only way, nor does it happen to everyone. In fact, China is betting just the opposite: it is turning Generation Z and millennials into heads of areas as strategic as robotics or artificial intelligence itself. They are not just any young people: they are true galacticos, their best assets. Give me someone young. As collect TechAsiaa trend is emerging in China: that of hiring millennials and young people from generation Z for positions with high-level technical profiles in large AI and robotics companies. The best example is Vinces Yao Shunyu: at 28 years old he has already been at OpenAI. A couple of months ago he returned to his native China to become the chief scientist of Tencent. He now reports directly to the CEO. Shunyu’s is just the tip of the iceberg of this new organizational strategy of Chinese companies. There are other cases, such as that of Luo Jianlan, formerly of Google since a year the chief scientist of AgiBot. Or of Dong Haochief scientist at PrimeBot after earning his PhD at Imperial College. By the way, OpenAI and Meta have copied the recipe: the first with Polish Jakub Pachocki and the second, with the Chinese Zhao Shengjia. They are scientists, but they could just as well be professional footballers: none of them are over 35 years old. Why is it important. When thinking about a boss within a modern business structure of a certain size, it is inevitable that team management, meetings and bureaucracy come to mind. However, this strategy of Chinese big tech is deliberately different from what we have in the West and is based on three reasons that SMCP explains: Institutional separation of research vs. product. A chief scientist looks to the future, he does not manage human teams or budgets. Competitive advantage in a saturated market, allowing you to build your own technologies without depending on third parties. If you have the best at home, you don’t have to ask for permission or sign abroad. The top youth asset. AI is evolving by leaps and bounds and with this movement, China is ensuring that it has those who have been at ground zero of the great milestones of recent years: elite universities or laboratories of renowned institutions such as OpenAI, Google or Princeton. China is a world source of engineers. That China is a country of engineers is no secret: it is a plan that has been underway for 4o years. In fact, now he has opted to go one step further and accelerate doctorates. The Chinese labor market is already showing signs of some saturationwhich has also brought diversification, changing routes to avoid even setting foot in the university in its new bet on FP. In any case, having an army of almost six million engineering professionals gives you an advantage with AI. And it has more than enough: it has engineers to export. Without going any further, the vast majority of signings of the Meta superintelligence team from last year they are Chinese. But young engineers who stay at home have an opportunity beyond joining a leading company in the sector: leading it. Disclaimer: a chief scientist is not a CTO. It is worth remembering a difference between positions that are often confused: a chief scientist is not the director of technology. While the first profile investigates, explores and plans in the medium and long term without touching products or marketing, the second manages teams, designs architecture and meets business objectives. Confuse both profiles or mix them, as the SMCP remembers what Alibaba or Baidu did, ends up subordinating science to the urgency of the market. In any case, it is a fragile position in a company that is not clear why it is needed. In Xataka | China looks at VET: why more and more generation Z students prefer trades over university degrees In Xataka | If Spain wants to imitate China and be a “country of engineers”, this map reveals the extent to which it has a problem Cover | and Hyundai Motor Group and cottonbro studio

Video games have grown a lot this year. But the money goes to China, Roblox and the owners of mobile platforms

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The global video game industry had a turnover of around $185 billion in 2024 and continues to grow. But there is a catch: this growth does not reach the studios or the area that traditional players look at, those of the console wars and the old PC Master Race. Matthew Ball’s usual annual report leaves a less complacent diagnosis: revenue is concentrated in China, on platforms like Roblox and on the owners of mobile operating systems. The rest survive as best they can. The Old Times (2021): There is still talk about how great the year 2021 was for video games. It seems like it was yesterday when the pandemic (insert meme of Grandpa Simpson telling stories to the kids here) confined hundreds of millions of people to their homes, and games (mobile, console, PC, free, subscription) absorbed the benefits of that confinement. As Ball, CEO of Epyllion, analyzes in The State of Video Gaming in 2025the factors that drove that peak were an extraordinary sum of factors: mobile platforms, free-to-play models, games as a service, the cross play and new genres like battle royale and social play. Downhill. The flip side of that was a much bigger recession than expected: global spending on video games fell 3.5% in 2022 and barely recovered a few percentage points towards the end of 2024. According to the consulting firm MIDiA Research, the sector had enjoyed growth of 26.3% in 2020 and 9.8% in 2021, and the rebound was inevitable. According to Ball, the engines that had driven the industry between 2011 and 2021 stopped all at once: the smartphones They were no longer surprising with each interaction, social networks were paralyzed, the free-to-play was normalized. 6.5% of total gaming time in 2023 corresponded to new video games, says Ball, and only four titles shared half of that percentage. Layoffs in full force. He report also speaks how the sector’s layoffs since 2022 illustrate this adjustment: more than 44,000 jobs, 61% of them concentrated in North America. This does not mean that it is the end of the industry or that the same pattern is being repeated. crash 1983, as has been said (the industry is too diversified and globalized to repeat a systemic collapse of that magnitude). What we are paying is the cost of having built a structure designed for an industry in continuous growth during the pandemic. The Chinese monster. Ball puts on the table that global spending on video games grew by approximately $10 billion between 2021 and 2025. But… where did that money go? The report assures that to Beijing: about 4,000 million of that growth is from the Chinese market, and another 1,500 million are from titles developed in China sold in international markets. In total, Chinese publishers have racked up about half of global growth since 2019. And there are more data: Gamer spending in China reached $49.2 billion in 2024, with a base of 722 million active gamers, more than double the total population of the United States. China is already the first market in the world by income. Not foreigners. Very significantlythat market remains almost closed to foreign games. 84% of Chinese gamers’ spending goes on titles produced in China, and that percentage has increased, as unusual as it may seem: 20% of Chinese domestic spending goes on imported titles (a figure that also registered a decrease of 5% between 2023 and 2024). It is comparable to what happens with cinemawith local films devouring foreign ones at the box office. A situation favored by a combination of factors: First, the Chinese regulatory framework favors national titles through a licensing system; second, development costs are substantially lower than in the West; Finally, the work culture of the country’s studios allows for more intensive production cycles. You don’t have to dig far to find examples of great Chinese international successes: ‘Genshin Impact‘, from miHoYo, raised more than $3.5 billion in its first year70% outside China with a character design rooted in anime. ‘Honor of Kings‘, from Tencent, dominated the Chinese mobile market for years before making the international leap with adaptations of character names. AND ‘Black Myth: Wukong‘, developed with support from Tencent, sold ten million copies in its first three days launching in August 2024, betting on the opposite of assimilation: an unequivocally Chinese mythology without thematic concessions to Western taste. Roblox sweeps. The numbers sing: 70% of the growth of the video game market outside of China in 2025 was absorbed by ‘Roblox‘. Which is an infrastructure on which millions of creators build interactive experiences using the platform’s own tools. Players access it for free and spend real money on cosmetic items and access within these worlds, transactions that are carried out in Robux, the ecosystem’s virtual currency. Of every dollar spent,’Roblox’ historically retained around 70% leaving the creator with approximately 25 or 30 cents. In September 2024, ‘Roblox’ announced a new delivery model for paid games that increases the creator’s commission up to 70% on titles that sell for $49.99. What does this translate into? In 2024, ‘Roblox’ paid around $923 million to its creators (an increase of 25% compared to 2023), while its total revenue grew by 29% until reaching 3.6 billion dollars. Its intentions are colossal: CEO David Baszucki stated that the company’s goal is to capture 10% of the global video game content market. Some more questions. Just to finish outlining the portrait: ‘Roblox’ registers sustained net losses (a accumulated deficit of 3.5 billion) with the logic of the platform in the expansion phase, sacrificing immediate profitability. Some observers they point because ‘Roblox’ has become the video game equivalent of YouTube, a platform that extracts value from the work of its creators in the form of data, advertising and infrastructure. And one last thing: two titles on the platform (‘Blox Fruits’ and ‘Brookhaven RP’) each accumulate 60% of the monthly gaming hours of all of Electronic Arts. 30%. If the global video game market reached an all-time high in … Read more

China manufactures 90% of the world’s humanoid robots and the reason is not its industrial policy: it is crossing the street

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On Chinese New Year, 16 Unitree humanoid robots danced a folk dance before almost a billion viewers. The West reacted as always: some with panic, others with disdain, others with an undisguised admiration that sometimes tends to concoct theories with more clichés regarding China than real analysis. None of those answers is entirely true and that blindness has a cost. The context. China manufactures about 90% of the humanoid robots sold in the world. In 2025, about 13,000 units were shipped, with Chinese companies (AgiBot, Unitree, UBTech…) dominating the ranking by volume, according to Omdia data collected by Bloomberg. Tesla, with all its brand reputation and all its industrial apparatus, internally deployed around 800 units of the Optimus that same year. The figure. He Unitree G1 It costs $13,500. He Tesla Optimus will exceed 20,000. That gap is the difference between being able to iterate ten times with the same budget or staying at one. Between the lines. The story circulating in the West has two versions, equally lazy: The first: all this is the five-year plan, the hand of the State, industrial policy made robot. The second, reserved for the most condescending: it is because they copy. Neither of them explains what is really happening. China’s advantage in robotics does not come from the Communist Party. It comes from the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze Delta: the two densest manufacturing ecosystems on the planet. Motors, actuators, sensors, custom PCBs… everything is available within walking distance. Is what it describes Rui Xuan engineer who has worked in robotics startups in China and Silicon Valley. When Unitree wants to test a new joint design, it crosses the street and comes back with the right component. A team in San Francisco has to wait weeks to receive the same component from China. The background. That difference in iteration speed changes everything in hardware engineering. It stops being a problem of talent, because Chinese and American engineers are equally capable, and becomes a problem of infrastructure. Breaking a robot, learning, replacing it, and trying again: that’s what builds cumulative technical advantage. If breaking a robot costs three weeks of logistics, learning stops and times become longer. Yes, but. China does have state support, and it is completely legitimate to point this out. The government has injected a lot of money into that sector and has set production targets. But it’s not that Silicon Valley is an impoverished region: it has more capital, investors with more experience and resources, and more decades of experience financing high-risk bets. If this were a war to see who has the fattest checkbook, the United States would win handily. But it is not. Furthermore, Chinese state money comes with strings attached: it is classified as “state asset” and founders assume personal liability if the company fails. That pushes capital toward politically safe bets, not necessarily toward the most innovative ones. The question. Can the West make up ground in robotics? Yes, but not like he’s trying. Attracting foreign talent helps on the margin, but does not solve the underlying problem. The equalization involves building local supply chains capable of delivering a spare part in two days, not two weeks. And that is not an immigration or R&D problem. It is an industrial-based problem, and solving it takes many years of work. And of thankless work, from which those who arrive later may reap the fruits. Until then we are going to see many more viral videos of Chinese robots doing pirouettes with increasing naturalness. And it’s because they’ve built the best environment in the world to break things and try again. In engineering, that explains almost everything. Featured image | CCTV In Xataka | Folding clothes or taking apart LEGOs has always been a tedious task. Xiaomi’s new AI for robots has put an end to it

The US is obsessed with achieving General Artificial Intelligence before China. China couldn’t care less

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The promise of the AGI has become the “the wolf is coming” from some AI companies. The gurus of American AI companies do not stop hype with the long-awaited general artificial intelligencethe one that will surpass humans in all areas of knowledge. Meanwhile, In China it doesn’t seem to matter too much. The AGI gap. Elon Musk, Dario Amodei, Sam Altman…everyone agrees that the AGI is about to fall, or so they have said at some point. We cannot know how close they are, what we do know is that to achieve AGI they need more computing power, for which they need a lot (more) money. The AGI as a justification for an insane investment. They count in High Capacity that China barely mentions AGI in its 2025 AI+ initiative nor did it mention it in the ‘Next Generation AI Development Plan’ 2018. AI is a strategic technology of great importance, but they focus on specific applications such as industrial automation, autonomous driving or robotics. Transformative, yes, but not turning points that will change the world completely. Whoever arrives first wins (or not). It’s American logic in this race. To achieve this, they are betting everything on one horse and AGI is the goal. If they arrive before, they will obtain an insurmountable economic and military advantage: they will have won. On the other hand, if China arrives before, the power relationship would change completely. The truth is that things have to go a lot wrong for the US to not win this race. The problem is that, while they are making this titanic effort, China is beating them on other fronts such as the electric car, industrial robotics, drones, solar panels… Win the AI ​​battle, but lose the economic war. China is calm. Why aren’t China so excited about AGI? To begin with, it is not so clear that scaling the models is the fastest route to AGI and that requires a gigantic investment with no guarantees. But above all it is because they do not buy the idea of ​​”arriving first”; Even if the US overtakes them, they can simply copy them and catch up quickly. Yao Shunyu said itchief AI scientist at Tencent: “History shows that once a technical pathway is validated, Chinese teams can quickly replicate it and even surpass it in specific areas, such as electric vehicles or manufacturing.” The question is not so much who gets there first, but who makes the best use of it. Who does talk about AGI in China. Yao Shunyu’s statements occurred within the framework of the AGI-Next Summit, where several leaders of Chinese AI companies met to talk about the future of the sector. Figures such as the founder of DeepSeek, the CEO of Ziphu or the founder of Moonshot have talked about their goal being to achieve AGI, although they have not shared many more details. Maybe the company that Alibaba has gone deeperwhich gave a presentation detailing its plans to achieve superintelligence (ASI). These leaders, like those of American companies, may have commercial motivations in these statements, but there are other organizations in China that are investigating this field such as the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence or the Chongqing Institute for General AI. There are initiatives, but there is nowhere near the level of obsession that they have in the US. A restful strategy. While the US hoards chips and scales like crazy, in China they are choosing to do it more slowly. They are prioritizing national chips and open source with the idea of ​​promoting the adoption of their models. It is a more long-term vision. A long distance race, not a sprint. In Xataka | There is a city in China that goes head to head with Silicon Valley: welcome to Hangzhou, the home of the ‘Six Little Dragons’ Image | Steve Johnson in Unsplash

The US was convinced that China was testing nuclear weapons, and now it has proof

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Washington and Moscow maintained an unwritten rule which has now been broken: if a test was carried out, the world had to find out. For decades, the global strategic balance was sustained by fragile agreements, mutual distrust and red lines that no one wanted to openly cross. When those limits have started to fadeeven the slightest hint can alter the stability that seemed guaranteed. This is how the accusations begin nuclear. A tremor reopens the ghost. The story we tell it last week, but now, a priori, there is more data to support Washington’s rhetoric. The United States has toughened its accusation that China conducted an underground nuclear test low-yield on June 22, 2020 near Lop Nur, Xinjiang, supporting in detected seismic data by a station in Kazakhstan that recorded an event of approximate magnitude 2.75. Washington maintains something that for them is evidence: that the signal cannot fit with an earthquake or mining explosions, and that Beijing would have used “decoupling” techniques to dampen the seismic signal and make detection more difficult, although it admits that it cannot precisely determine the performance of the supposed detonation. The treaty that does not bind. The background of everything is the Treaty of the Complete Ban on Nuclear Tests of 1996, the same one that prohibits nuclear explosions but has never fully come into force due to lack of ratifications, despite the fact that the great powers claim to respect its initial spirit. For its part, the international supervisory body detected two small seismic events separated by 12 seconds on the indicated date, but also recognized that They were too weak to attribute them with complete certainty to a nuclear explosion, which leaves the dispute in a technical field where the public evidence is, to say the least, ambiguous. Strategic pressure without New START. The accusation comes after expiration of the last treaty that limited the strategic arsenals of the United States and Russia, and at a time when the Trump administration seeks to promote a new agreement that also include China. From that perspective, publicly detailing the alleged test can function as diplomatic leverage to force Beijing to sit down to negotiate. At the same time, it serves to Washington to open another perhaps more disturbing scenario: to warn that it will not accept to sit idly by what it has called an “intolerable disadvantage” if others carry out low-yield tests while the United States maintains its moratorium in force since 1992. In other words, whether it was a real nuclear test or not, the powers seem be taking positions now that there are no pacts involved. The debate about pressing the button. In fact, Trump has hinted that the United States could resume tests “on equal terms” if China and Russia are also carrying them out, a possibility that worries arms control experts who fear breaking the post-Cold War taboo and trigger a new test race. The discussion, therefore, is not only technical, but political: if Washington responds with its own detonations, it could legitimize other powers to do the same, eroding decades of informal containment. Nuclear balance in transformation. Although the Chinese arsenal (estimated around 600 warheads) is still lower than that of Russia and the United States, its rapid expansion It worries Washington, which interprets any low-yield tests as part of a strategy to modernize and perfect its nuclear force. Beijing denies having crossed the line and defends that it respects its moratorium. And, meanwhile, the debate over clandestine testing reveals an increasingly fragile international system, one where distrust and opacity technology weigh almost as much as the weapons themselves. Image | Planet Labs, Google Earth In Xataka | Satellite images leave no room for doubt: China’s nuclear renaissance is already visible from space In Xataka | The United States is convinced that China is conducting nuclear tests. The problem is that you can’t prove it.

China looks at Spain and Spain is willing to be a European delegation of Chinese factories

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Renew or die. That is the maxim that the Government claims to follow in its plans and projects related to the automobile industry in our country. Some plans include the electrification of current plants and attracting more investments. Investments that, everything indicates, will come from China if the rumors take shape. Sweeping for home A few days ago, the Government ended up confirming the details of the Auto+ Planthe new aid system for the purchase of electric cars. With them it is confirmed that, now, The maximum discount for an electric car will be 4,500 euros But to obtain it it will be necessary to meet two requirements: the car has to be assembled in Europe and its battery too. Shortly after, Jordi García Brustenga, Secretary of State for Industry, defended the Auto 2030 Plan during the event Future: Fast Forwardorganized by 50 companies directly related to the automobile industry. There he presented the main lines of the future of the Spanish automobile: electrification and embrace of new investments. Wherever they come from. an obsession. “We are in favor of electrification and we will continue taking steps in the coming years in this obsession,” defended García Brustenga in statements collected by Europa Press. In them he stressed that the Government acts with the certainty that the electric car is the vehicle of the future. And to walk that path, the Government says it is open to taking the hand of anyone who does so in that direction. Asked about possible investments by Chinese manufacturers, the Secretary of State for Industry responded: “The Government’s position is to welcome these investments and we want to do it well, not with quick permits, but rather with compensation that represents advantages for both sides. It is important that these competitors have the Spanish value chain, technology and workforce” Because? The automobile industry is, after the agri-food industry, the one that produces the most in our country and it is the industry that it exports more products than it produces. Its weight translates into 10% of GDP and we are the second largest vehicle manufacturer in the European Union, only surpassed by Germany. It is logical, therefore, that the Government maintains its attention on the sector, which has focused enormous amounts of money in the form of subsidies taking advantage of European funds. The latest project, the Auto 2030 Plan, is based on 25 measures that focus on attracting investments to produce batteries and components for future vehicles in our country, new factories and the modernization of current plants. The project seeks to maintain the privileged position of our country. And between 2019 and 2024, 400,000 vehicles per year have stopped being manufactured on our soil, according to the information published by Anfac in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry. Furthermore, competitiveness has been lost in the market and we have suffered more with the cuts, since our industry is based on assembly and not so much in product development. Chinese interest. In the recent past, Spain has undoubtedly attracted Chinese interest in landing in Europe. Our country has repeatedly been considered one of the main candidates to host a new BYD European factory. The latest rumor is that Ford would be interested in sharing space with Geely in Valencia. But beyond collaborations, CATL does have it going the construction of a plant to produce batteries in Zaragoza and feed the Stellantis factory. Precisely, on the land of the latter the Leapmotor carsthe Chinese company that this automotive group distributes in Europe. And from 2024the Chery Group keeps the old Nissan plant in Barcelona alive with Ebro. Later Jaecoo and Omoda models should arrive. And not only from a manufacturing point of view. Spain has turned its ports into China’s gateway to Europe. 81% of vehicles exported from China to Spain and 13% to Europe They entered through Barcelona during 2024. He port of Santander was chosen by BYD in the first steps it took in our country. An approach. The Government’s position has been varying. So much so that we have gone from supporting tariffs on Chinese electric cars, that are still validto abstain from voting and put ourselves in profile so as not to compromise investments. Investments that China, everything indicateshas ordered arrests in the countries that finally supported this protectionist measure and that have remained in Spain after a Pedro Sánchez’s trip to the Asian country where he praised the Chinese automobile industry. Spain was risking the future of new investments and the future of the Iberian pig in one of its most important markets. Yes, but. For now, it is clear that Spain has made a strong commitment to attracting Chinese investments. The plan, everything indicates, has gained strength taking into account that it only proposes to deliver the maximum purchase aid to those who manufacture on European soil. Despite this, there are those who are questioning that these investments really impact the economy or, at least, impact as much as we are told. And CATL, like BYD is doing in Hungaryseems to give the bulk of your labor pool to Chinese employees. Likewise, at the moment at Nissan plans remain unconsolidated for Omoda and Jaecoo to drive cars through their doors. On the table was the intention to give the final assembly to cars that They arrived in kits already almost assembled. It is the same thing that is proposed for the Santana factory in Andalusia. Those plans have been delayed after the European Union has not ensured that serve as a bridge to skip current tariffs. Photo | Moncloa In Xataka | “They assemble Chinese cars with Chinese components and Chinese personnel”: the EU is beginning to suspect the manufacturers’ plants

Japan has been wanting fewer tourists for years. Now he fears China is making his wishes come true

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Japan has been choked by foreign tourism. And it is understandable. The weakness of the yen, the reactivation of demand after the pandemic stop and the enormous popularity that the country has achieved on networks has triggered its flow of visitors to record levelsstirring up the debate on he oversight and generating discomfort in some particularly congested destinations, such as Kyoto, nara or Osaka. To stop it, there is already talk of a tax increase. There are even cities looking for ways to reduce the flow of international tourists. Now, for reasons that have little or nothing to do with the tourism market, Japan is encountering the collapse of demand in its big market: China. The question is whether that is a blessing or a threat to your economy. Pack of tourists. The data is incontestable. Japan has become one of the most popular destinations among those planning their vacations. Last year the country received 42.7 million of foreign visitors, an absolute record that shatters the data from 2024, when it fell just short of 37 million. Beyond the year-on-year comparison, the data is interesting for two reasons. First, because never before had the Japan Tourism Organization (ONTJ) counted more than 40 million visitors annual. Second, because the data leaves the 31.9 million of 2019, the last year before the pandemic, far behind. If nothing changes, the Government plans to reach the 60 million this decade, which will translate into a powerful injection of resources into the Japanese economy. In 2025 alone, foreign travelers spent more than $60 billion. More than money. The problem is that this flow of tourists not only translates into full planes, hotels with the sign ‘no places left’ and hoteliers and merchants satisfied with their sales. The international tourism boom has generated tensions in some destinations especially congested, leaving almost almost surreal episodes, such as the one lived in Kyoto. There the authorities have had to prohibit “paparazzi tourists” from accessing one of the most emblematic points of the city. The reason: so that they do not harass the geishas. It is not the only proof of the tensions that are emerging due to tourist saturation. In Fujikawaguchiko the authorities, unable to contain the hordes of travelers eager to “hunt” the best selfiethey chose to install a fence that blocks the views of Fuji. In Fujiyoshida they just canceled your festival Sakura because it saturates the city with visitors who clog traffic, sneak into homes and leave trash in parks. And in Yamanashi they decided years ago start charging to ascend Fuji to preserve the mythical mountain. And the Taiwan crisis arrived. Whims of geopolitics and international diplomacy, Japan has just found that this record flow of visitors could receive a severe setback. And all on account of something that has little or nothing to do with the tourist market: Taiwan. To understand it, we have to go back to November 7, when the Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, warned during a parliamentary debate that Japan would not hesitate to mobilize its self-defense forces in case China entered Taiwan by force. Although the Japanese Government assures that its position remains the same as always, the truth is that Takaichi’s words broke the “strategic ambiguity” that Japan has maintained for decades. And that was not liked one bit in China. The relationship between Beijing and Tokyo became strained to such an extent that the Asian giant responded with more than complaints diplomatic: canceled concerts by Japanese artists, postponed the premiere of movies, he claimed the pandas on loan to Japanese zoos and restricted its valuable rare earth exports. What does it have to do with tourism? That in its response to Japan, Beijing also played one of its great economic assets: tourism. The Chinese authorities they advised its citizens to avoid Japan and even canceled dozens of routes airlines with the country. In November the BBC reported that some Chinese airlines were offering their customers refunds for their flights to Japan. Such a movement would not have much importance if it were not for the fact that China is one of the main sources of the Japanese tourism sector. The Asian giant is one of its big markets issuers, along with Korea. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, in 2024 China was the second largest source of tourists visiting Japan. concentrated about 19% of all demand, only behind Korea (24%). The data is also completed with the 7.3% of Hong Kong and the high weight that Taiwan also has in Japanese tourism. The flow from the Asian giant is key, however, for another reason: as remember The New York TimesChina not only moves many tourists but its tourists spend a lot in Japan. Goodbye Chinese tourists. Although the open conflict between China and Japan is recent, its effects have not taken long to be noticed in the tourism industry. TNYT assures that in December the flow of Chinese travelers already plummeted by 45% compared to the same month in 2024. And the situation does not seem to be improving in the coming months: Japan has fallen on the list of the most coveted destinations for the Chinese to enjoy their Lunar New Year holidays. There are those who already warn that Japanese hotels will welcome 60% less of Chinese. Why is it important? Beyond the percentages, this ‘puncture’ in the Chinese market represents a setback for a sector (Japanese tourism) that until recently seemed unbeatable. Despite how popular Japan continues to be in the rest of the world and the record data it is collecting, its balance of incoming tourist spending registered a drop of 2.8% during the last three months of 2025. It is not a high percentage, but it represents the first decline in more than four years. In November, Bloomberg already warned that the diplomatic row with China threatened to cost Japan’s tourism sector 1.2 billion in income. If the data were not conclusive in itself, it comes at a … Read more

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