china

China activated a renewable “Marshall Plan” in 2011. It is achieving more than just decarbonizing the planet

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Between 1948 and 1952, United States destination 13.3 billion dollars at the time to rebuild Western Europe after the Second World War. This strategy was called the ‘Marshall Plan’. China has its own Marshall Plan, one focused on accelerating the development of ‘green’ technologies on a global scale. And it is redrawing the energy map of developing countries. The Green Marshall Plan. It is estimated that, since 2011, China has invested a whopping $227 billion in more than 450 new energy manufacturing projects. Of that amount, around 88% are concentrated from 2022, which shows an impressive acceleration in its roadmap. BRI. One of the centerpieces of the Xi Jinping government’s foreign policy is the Belt and Road Initiative, or “Belt and Road Initiative“The idea was to create a new concept of international relations based on free trade that took the ancient Silk Road as a model (something that China has taken up). Much of this investment in green energy is going to the countries that are part of the BRI, and only in 2024 will China invested 11.8 billion dollars in green energy. In the first six months of 2025, investment was 9.7 billion, which shows another acceleration in the expansion of its green policy beyond its borders. Overproduction as a lever of change. And, if the question is “why,” the answer is “because they can.” Although China continues to extract coal yqwants to become an oil powerhas also strongly supported the renewable energy sector. So much so that they have achieved an overwhelming manufacturing advantage compared to the West. HE esteem that China produces 80% of the world’s solar panels, 75% of lithium batteries and 70% of wind turbines. They have such strong internal competition that their companies have had to create a kind of OPEC to avoid stepping on each other. And, of course, this enormous production has collapsed the market: solar panels have rock-bottom priceshave crushed Western competition and these low prices allow developing countries or countries that want to change their energy model to do so at a lower cost than a few years ago. Proper names. In 2024, China exported technologies related to renewables (panels, turbines, batteries and electric vehicles) worth 177 billion dollars, which is equivalent to 5% of its total exports. Being the factory of the worldit’s outrageous. But of that figure, 72 billion were allocated to developing countries. And not only because those countries are buying from China, but because China is investing, directly, in them. An example is Ethiopia. In 2024, they banned the importation of new gasoline cars with the aim of betting on new energy ones. But at the same time, between 2011 and 2018, China invested 4 billion in the Ethiopian energy sector, with multiple wind farms or the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This year, another 500 million dollars have ended up in solar manufacturing plants: Chinese companies are establishing themselves in those countries. Another example is Moroccowith battery factories from chinese manufacturers to feed electric cars. In general, China is moving through Africa supporting this energy transition of countries traditionally very dependent on fossil fuels, but they are not leaving empty-handed: they are also building infrastructures that allow them to exploit mines of critical materials, a fundamental leg of the Chinese technological business and geopolitics. China’s ‘Great Solar Wall’ in 2017 And in December 2024 Brazil, like China. HE esteem that 90% of the solar panels installed in Africa are Chinese, and they are also expanding throughout Latin America. On the one hand, with influence: they build infrastructure and are becoming a key player in the railway rebirth of South America. On the other hand, they are installing factories in several countries. And there Brazil has moved very intelligently. The country increased tariffs on all automobile imports to force something that China itself did years ago when Western manufacturers wanted to enter the country: to open factories in its territory. BYD or Great Wall Motors are setting up plants in Brazil. Strange bedfellows. And then there is India. Diplomatic relations between both countries are not at their best and, in fact, India is taking advantage of any excuse to remind China that they also have military muscle. However, on the other side of those tensions, we find a country that is experiencing explosive growth in renewable capacitygoing from 190 GW installed to almost 500 GW projected by 2030. And what is making that change possible is the cmassive purchase of renewable technologies to China. India buys 17% of the solar cells that China exports, which creates a brutal technological dependency, as well as a dilemma: they need green energy with immediate availability, but they also want to develop their own industrial capabilities. And this overproduction in China, with such low prices, makes the goal of national manufacturing less attractive. Taking the role of the US. And, precisely, it was during the COP30 held a few days ago in Brazil, where China’s role was highlighted. In a report by The New York Times point out how, in the Paris Agreement, rich countries relied on poorer ones to begin taking measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In some cases, it remained a simple promise while developing countries claimed their right to industrialization, something for which they have been using fossil fuels. China has seen the gap and thanks to cheap renewables, these developing countries can continue their industrialization in a more environmentally friendly way. And we go back to what we did before: China presenting itself as a pillar of global stability in an event in which the United States has not made an appearance. And while Europe and the US analyze what to do, China continues to expand its influence. Images | POT, Korea Aerospace Research Institute In Xataka | China is the largest power in renewables. Now you have a problem: what to do with all those used turbines and plates

China has been building the Great Green Wall for 50 years. What I had not planned was to alter the rains

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The China’s forests are growing. It has nothing to do with a natural process, but with a meticulously followed strategy to contain the desert expansion and reforest the country with billions of trees. The consequence of this reforestation is not limited to having more trees and two studies have just shown the counterpart of massive ecological engineering. This is not good news: the continental hydrological cycle is being altered. The Green Wall. Of China’s deserts, the Gobi may be the best known, but the Taklamakan It is one of the most problematic. 85% of this 337,600 km² desert are dunes, which at certain times of the year generates sand storms that leave the surrounding towns without crops. And countries like the two Koreas or Japan too they suffered the effects of storms. Furthermore, it was growing, so in 1978, the country launched march the Refugio Tres Norte Forest Program. The strategy: a series of tree belts to contain the expansion of its largest deserts. The objective: to go from forest cover in the country of 5.05% in 1997 to almost 15%, and the idea is complete that belt by 2050 with a total of 4,500 kilometers long. At the moment, the Great Green Wall has completed the shield around Taklamakan with a belt of about 3,000 km, observing a decrease in sandstorms. Consequences in water. Apart from that desert, in others such as Ulanbuh, Korqin, Hunshandake, Maowusu and Kubuqi, tens of thousands of square kilometers of forest and pasture have been built. And, although the storms have decreased, different investigations are noticing a secondary effect: an alteration of the water cycle throughout the continent. Published in Earth’s Future, a study carried out by Chinese researchers shows how new vegetation has increased evapotranspiration in the region. Bottom line: More water is being pumped from the ground into the atmosphere, meaning winds are transporting water to regions like the Tibetan Plateau as rain while the monsoon regions of the northwest and east are suffering a decrease in its net water availability. Non-uniform redistribution. This greater green cover causes restored forests and grasslands to transpire more water than bare soil or traditional crops. This additional moisture It enters the atmosphere, which falls in other regions as rain. According to the study, the consequences at the national level were the following: Evapotranspiration increased by 1.71 mm/year. Precipitation also increased by 1.24 mm/year. Water availability (from aquifers and springs, for example) decreased by 0.46 mm/year. And, as we say, the process is not uniform because the water is moving from one area to another. Greening/conserving water. It is not the only study published on the subject, but it is one that coincides in time with another published in August of this year in which, after analyzing 1,046 hydrological stations and their data from the last 60 years, they discovered that the flow of the rivers decreased by more than 70%. Their conclusion is that it is not an effect of climate change, but of changes in the landscape caused by human intervention. It makes perfect sense: trees need water to grow, and that amount of new trees makes them act like a giant pump, reducing the amount of water that feeds the rivers. Thus, there is a tension between greening China and conserving its water, since once in the clouds, it precipitates air currents wherever you go. Implications. In the end, the researchers conclude that the strategy when managing water must be changed and that hydrographic plans must take into account both the land basins and the “air basin”, anticipating where the water evaporated by the forests will travel. Because the ambitious reforestation plan has 24 years left and the country has invested a lot in it directly – by planting trees – but also with policies that prohibit the felling of forests or with incentives for farmers to convert their croplands into pastures. And, well, the consequences not only have to do with water. That the Natural Forest Protection Program prohibited logging in primary forests provoked that Chinese loggers would ‘loot’ the Burmese forests. Something that adds to the conflict between both nations. Images | Siggy Nowak, Janwillemvanaalst, Kanenori In Xataka | In China they already have room for the first city with a vertical forest: a million plants and trees

The US has joined the “party” of China, Russia and Japan in the Pacific: with its nuclear bombers

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As if it were an air parade of an air force planetarythe sky of the Asia-Pacific has become a scene of military exhibitions that have rarely been seen outside of a major war conflict. It happens that these fireworks can lead with a single spark into something very different. The improvised aerial party. As we said, the sky of Asia is a tour de force where every time it hides lessand where you patrol, joint exercises and strategic flights function as political messages in broad daylight. Russia and China have been setting the pace with bombers and fighters over disputed seas, Japan responds by raising the profile of its air defense and, now, the United States has decided to join visibly to this choreography of power, incorporating its strategic bombers into a dynamic that reflects the extent to which the region has become one of the epicenters of global rivalry. Bombers Made in USA. The joint flight of two American B-52s with Japanese fighters over the Sea of ​​Japan represents a qualitative leap in the signal sent from Washington, not so much because of its technical novelty as because of its symbolic load. The presence of bombers capable of carry nuclear weapons escorted by Japanese F-35s and F-15s, publicly reinforces the idea that the alliance between both countries is not rhetorical, but operational, and that the United States is willing to support Tokyo with strategic assets at a time of maximum friction with Beijing. The background. This show of force does not arise in a vacuum, but in the midst of an accelerated deterioration of relations between China and Japan that we have been telling, fed by the statements from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on a possible conflict scenario around Taiwan. Beijing considers these words a direct provocation and has responded combining diplomatic pressure, economic threats and a notable increase in military activity near Japanese airspace and disputed islands, raising the risk of unwanted incidents. Russia enters the scene. The previous presence of russian bombers Flying alongside Chinese aircraft near Japan and South Korea adds an additional layer of complexity to the scenario, projecting an image of strategic coordination against US allies in the region. For Tokyo, these joint patrols are not routine exercises, but a clear sign of directed pressure, which explains why the Japanese response has involved reinforcing its coordination with Washington and unambiguously accept the presence of high-profile American assets. Washington balances muscle. Although the White House has tried to reduce the drama of these flights, pointing out that they were planned in advance, the regional context gives them meaning. hard to ignore. The United States tries to maintain a delicate balance: show military commitment to Japan and deter China without completely breaking the channels of dialogue with Beijing, especially at a time when Washington continues to seek commercial stability and avoid an open escalation in the Pacific. An increasingly charged sky. With fighters blocking radarsstrategic bombers crossing disputed seas and joint exercises Happening at an almost routine pace, the airspace of East Asia has become a board where each flight counts as a political statement. The explicit input of the United States in this aerial “party” confirms that the fight between China and Japan is no longer just bilateral, but a broader reflection of the competition between great powers, one in which bombers and fighters seem to speak louder (and clearer) than diplomatic communications. Image | Japan’s Ministry of Defense In Xataka | That Chinese and Russian bombers patrol together is not surprising. That they do it against Japan and South Korea has had an immediate response In Xataka | If the question is how far the tension between China and Japan has escalated, the answer is disturbing: they are targeting each other.

China is not only eating the West in electric cars or televisions. It also threatens Starbucks

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New York is so damn big that it would be logical that the news of the opening of two coffee shops would pass unnoticed. After all, the city that never sleeps is full of places where one can taste (or pick up) a lattecappuccino, macchiato or any other coffee variation that comes to mind. The opening of the first two Luckin Coffee stores a few months ago in the Big Apple was however sneaked into media such as CNN either The New York Times and has inspired analysis of all kinds out of the country. Logical. After all, in just a few years Luckin Coffee has achieved bend your pulse to Starbucks in China. Now, for his landing in New York, he has chosen a place located barely 60 meters from one of their cafes. What is Luckin Coffee? If its name doesn’t sound familiar to you, don’t worry, it’s more than understandable: Luckin is a coffee shop chain founded in 2017 in China by Jenny Qian and Charles Lu and since then its expansion has focused mainly on the Asian giant. In 2023 he achieved a key milestone by surpassing Starbucks as the largest coffee brand in China and in recent years it has not stopped growing: from close to 16,200 stores that it had that year in China (more than double that of its American rival) has gone on to manage more than 20,000 in several countries. In July the company spoke of 24,097 points of sale spread across mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. During the first quarter of 2025 alone, it launched 1,757. After taking over the Chinese market, a few months ago the company announced his landing in America with two stores in Manhattan and Washington Square Park, an area popular with students. “This is just the beginning. New York, we are here,” warned Luckin in networks. Is it that important? The landing of Luckin Coffee in the US market has generated expectation inside and outside the country. Normal. Your surprise Starbucks in China in 2023 (both in sales and number of stores) had a symbolic value that goes far beyond the numbers. To begin with, because the Asian giant is one of the big markets of the American multinational. Starbucks has also been established in the country for some time: it opened its first establishment in Beijing in 1999, contributing greatly to establish coffee culture in a nation that has traditionally opted for tea. That’s why Luckin’s jump to the US has generated so much interest. How has it succeeded? With a bet well defined. At least until now, Luckin Coffee’s strategy has been based on three pillars. First, a dizzying expansion focused on gaining market share. Second, the user experience. Customers manage their orders directly through an app and in just a few minutes they can collect their orders at the counter, without any human interaction. The mobile application is not only dynamic; It allows the company to retain its customers by using discounts, bonuses and gamification. The third bet is a wide offer and, above all, affordable prices. During its landing in the US, the Chinese chain has decided to launch aggressive discounts that leave its coffees in less than two dollars, considerably below of what Starbucks charges for its drinks in the Big Apple. In fact there is who points that the American multinational’s strategy to stand up to its Chinese rival will be to move in the opposite direction: if Luckin focuses on app orders and low prices, Starbucks has proposed eliminate the premises of their network that only accept orders via app and for pickup due to their low “warmth”. The idea: return to the origin, to the traditional cafeteria experience. Does it only happen with Luckin? No. In fact Luckin is just one of many Chinese tea chains, hot potsdrinks… that are landing in the US to compensate for the changes in the Chinese market. How he slid TNWT in a recent analysis On the subject, there they find an excess of supply and an economy weighed down by the real estate crisis and weakened consumption, which leads them to look to the other side of the Pacific. One of the threats that its US competitors face is that this leap comes with aggressive tariffs. Gaining a foothold in the US market will not be easy. The Luckin case is a clear example. It has just opened its first stores in New York, but in front of it it has almost 17,000 establishments that Starbucks manages in the US. If the Chinese chain has demonstrated something, however, it is its resistance. In fact, it has managed to overcome the serious crisis it experienced in 2020, when an accounting scandal left it on the edge of the abyss. Since then it has not only managed to recover and grow. Now aspire to quote again in the USA. Images | Xataka In Xataka | China has just beaten the United States in the most unexpected fight: that of branded coffee shops

Smart glasses find their “iPhone moment” in China. The key to your success: payments

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In China, AI glasses allow you to pay by looking at a QR code and giving a voice command. Alibaba itself launched its Quark for $268, integrated with Alipay for payments and Taobao for purchases. Xiaomi presented its glasses with AI in June and they became the third best selling in the world in the first half of 2025, despite being available for only one week. The Chinese market for smart glasses is growing exponentially in the second half of the year, according to a study by BigOne Lab. Why is it important. After more than a decade of unfulfilled promises, smart glasses have finally found their reason for being. And it is something as prosaic as paying without taking your cell phone out of your pocket. AND It’s working in China like nothing else has before. in this sector. From the adoption for payments, the rest of the value proposition is built. The context. China’s digital infrastructure, where even the elderly use their smartphone for everything, facilitates adoption. QR codes are in all shops and Meta does not operate in China without a VPN, which has left the field clear for local companies to experiment without direct competition. Yes, but. The price is determining. Chinese glasses cost between 200 and 300 dollars, a price not too high. Xiaomi, RayNeo, Thunderobot, Kopin, Baidu and Alibaba compete in the Chinese domestic market. The payment functionality does not require very sophisticated screens or complex optics. All you need is a basic camera, voice recognition and connection to the payments ecosystem. This makes production much cheaper. The big question. Will we see something similar in Europe with Bizum? Mobile payments here are less ubiquitous than in China, but Bizum has achieved enormous penetration in Spain. If businesses adopted Bizum QR codes, as some already do, smart glasses could find their practical use here as well. The European ecosystem has advantages: stricter privacy regulation, greater consumer trust in traditional banking systems, and a population accustomed to incremental innovations. But it doesn’t have the density of QR codes that makes China the perfect terrain for this experiment. Between the lines. Chinese companies are not just developing hardware. They are creating the use case that justifies wearing smart glasses all day, and instead of looking for something spectacular and complex, they have found something much simpler and everyday: not having to take your phone out of your pocket. Rokid boasts that its glasses are not tied to a single generative AI model: they work with OpenAI, Llama, Gemini and Grok. They also offer simultaneous translation into English while someone speaks in Chinese. But none of that matters as much as the payment feature. And now what. Meta dominates the global market with a 73% share in the first half of 2025, according to Counterpoint. His success with Ray-Ban Meta This is explained by a design that is almost indistinguishable from normal glasses. In addition, Western manufacturers maintain advantages in chips. But Chinese companies have obvious advantages: many brands and models, rapid iteration, and the ability to adapt quickly to market changes. In Xataka | The POCO F8 Pro and F8 Ultra are a great change of direction for the brand. We spoke with POCO to find out what awaits us now Featured image | Xiaomi

Jensen Huang managed to convince Trump to sell his H200 chips in China. Now China doesn’t want to buy them

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When something gets into Jensen Huang’s head, he goes after it and often succeeds. This is what happened in July of this year when managed to convince Trump to let him sell his H20 chip in China. History has just repeated itself and has managed to the president lifts the veto on H200 chips (although keeping a part). The problem is China, which does not see it very clearly. what has happened. China is preparing restrictions aimed at limiting access to NVIDIA’s H200 chips, according to Financial Times. If these restrictions end up being implemented, it will mean that the chips will not be available to any company that wants to buy them; They will first go through a pre-approval process, which includes explaining why chips from domestic companies do not meet their needs. In addition, there is another fact that adds up: for the first time, China has put national chips from companies like Huawei and Cambricon in its official procurement list. This list is a kind of purchasing guide for public institutions and large state groups that move billions a year in contracts. Why is it important. It is further proof that the Chinese government’s priority is not to depend on American technology for the development of its AI. Their bet is to favor the use of national chips even though they are not technologically at the level of NVIDIA chips. It’s not the same. China has already responded with distrust when NVIDIA obtained permission to sell H20 chips months ago and it seems that now they want to follow the same path, but there is a big difference: the H20 chips were the most basic, the H200 GPUs are much more advanced and represent a greater technological advantage, especially in more demanding tasks such as training large language models. What Chinese companies say. According to South China Morning PostAI companies in China such as ByteDance, Alibaba or Tencent continue to prefer to use H200s because they are much more powerful than the national alternatives offered by Huawei or Cambricon. Additionally, much of these companies’ code is based on NVIDIA’s Hopper microarchitecture, allowing them to use the chips without having to rewrite the code. On the other hand, developers who do not need maximum performance are wary of using American chips given the instability of the situation. The energy. NVIDIA’s CEO has been around for a while pressing for the US to lift these restrictions. Their pitch is that if China does not have access to NVIDIA chips, then they will improve their domestic chips and win the AI ​​race, but there is more. He has also warned that China has a huge energy advantagelargely thanks to government subsidies. He has already managed to convince Trump to sell chips and now the most difficult thing remains. Image | Wikipedia In Xataka | China is very clear about what it must do to win the chip war against the US: resort to its technological geniuses

Renfe needs new AVE and is already pressing for China to be its supplier

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That relations between China and the European Union are complex does not surprise anyone. That Spain is becoming one of the countries that is pushing the most to get closer to the Chinese State is another obvious fact. And our country has long been playing a complex game of balance in which it tries to keep all trade doors open with the Asian country while remaining within the rules set by the European Union. The evidence is there for anyone to see. The Ministry of Defense itself publish an article on your website in which he promotes the Spanish position as mediator between the European Union and China. The Government of Pedro Sánchez already tried to maintain balance during the April crossover game in the trade war between the United States and the Asian country. Months before, investments on Spanish soil were unlocked, like the CATL factory mounted together with Stellantis in Aragon, while was punished to the countries that were in favor of lifting tariffs against Chinese electric cars. Now it is the trains that are in the spotlight. Spain is looking for new high-speed vehicles. Renfe wants renew your fleet and it is confirmed that in the coming months it will launch a tender to which those companies that want to win the contract will have to attend. And meanwhile, Óscar Puente, Minister of Transportation, is surveying the different companies to get an idea of ​​the deadlines they manage. A round of interviews in which a manufacturer stands out. It’s Chinese, it has the fastest trains and they deliver them before anyone else. Puente has already made it clear. The question is what Europe thinks of all this. The best but with doubts “Chinese manufacturers deliver trains at half the price in a period of six months to two years, while the European industry offers them to you in 60 months. I am a politician, the one who buys, and I’m not 60 months old. I have discussed this problem with the European industry and with the EU Commissioner, and I believe that in the railway sector things should change and move towards the Airbus model, with which the aeronautical industry was saved.” With these words, Óscar Puente made it clear who he would entrust the purchase of Chinese trains to if it were only in his power. The person he is talking about is China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC). Their trains are the ones that are currently operating in the Asian country at 450 km/h (the infrastructure would have to be adapted so that in Spain they comfortably exceed 300 km/h) and according to Puente they can deliver them in much less time than those offered by European companies or Hitachi (Japanese). The words were spoken by Puente in an interview in the Chain Beingwith words collected by The Countrywhere it is noted that the Minister of Transport also has visited the German facilities from Siemens, another of the companies that could opt for the next big contract being prepared in our country. Siemens’ flagship train, the Velaro Novo, can also reach speeds of around 400 km/h top speed but the company has yet to demonstrate its ability to mass produce them. In Trenvista They analyzed the three vehicles that may be on the table, including an option with second-hand trains. Among the other competitors Featured is Hitachi. The Japanese company produces its trains in Italy. We are talking about the ETR-1000 or Freccisarossa, the same train that Iryo uses in Spain and which is underused in terms of top speed because the Spanish infrastructure does not allow it to reach the more than 350km/h for those that are approved. Alstom and CAF are also among the companies surveyed for transport. Companies that would be ahead of Talgo with whom the Government maintains an open conflict due to the delay in the delivery of trains and the breakdowns occurred on the Madrid-Barcelona line with cracks that They have taken AVLOs out of circulation on that line. All of them will be companies that will fight for a contract that is expected to reach around 27 million euros per unit purchased, according to 20 Minutes. In order to pay that money, Spain would go to European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance yourself at the best price. That would be one of the biggest complications for the Chinese manufacturer. CRRC is in the crosshairs of the European Commission which accuses the company of receiving huge state subsidies that allow them to put their trains on the market at a much more competitive price than that of European manufacturers. It is, therefore, a very similar case to what happens with the automobile market. The first conflict arose as a result of the intention of the Government of Bulgaria to acquire Chinese trains through a contract of more than 600 million euros. It included the delivery of 20 vehicles and their maintenance for 15 years. With the opening of the investigation, the manufacturer withdrew from the competition and finally the European Commission shelved the matter. Now it is Spain that is pressing to either acquire trains from this manufacturer or put the “Airbus model” on the table for the railway sector, with the aim of improving the competitiveness of the European Union in this market. Photo | Alejandro Luengo and Xataka In Xataka | The countries with the most kilometers of high-speed train, displayed in a graph with a brutal dominator: China

BYD CEO is clear about why the company is losing steam in China

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Wang Chuanfu, president and CEO of BYD, has publicly acknowledged for the first time the reason behind the company’s sales decline in the Chinese market. During an extraordinary shareholders meeting held on December 5 in Shenzhen, the CEO bluntly admitted that the manufacturer has lost the technological advantage that differentiated it from the competition. According to local media, Wang said that they had lost that ‘wow factor’ in the domestic market, in reference to the impact that their innovations previously generated. The underlying problem. The local media China Securities Journal collected the statements of the head of BYD, who stated that the drop responds to two main factors. On the one hand, he admits that BYD’s technological advantage is no longer as pronounced as in previous years, which has reduced the surprise effect of its products in the market. On the other hand, the CEO acknowledged that unresolved practical problems persist, such as the slow charging speed of its vehicles in low temperature environments, a critical aspect for users in certain regions of China. The numbers confirm the trend. In November 2025, BYD sold 480,186 new energy vehiclesthe highest monthly figure of the year, but which represented a decrease of 5.25% compared to the same month in 2024. It is the third consecutive month of year-on-year decline. Domestic sales were particularly weak, at 348,300 units, a drop of 26.81% year-on-year. In contrast, exports exceeded 100,000 units per month for the first time, reaching 131,700an increase of 297% that has become the company’s main growth engine. We have already seen how they have broken into Europe. For BYD and the rest of the Chinese manufacturers, it is important to continue consolidating their foreign business for two main reasons: to continue feeding their factories and to increase their profit margins in the face of a China that seems to live in a constant price war. The competition tightens. Chinese manufacturers such as Geely, Changan and Chery They have intensified their offensive with efficient hybrid and more affordable electric models, eroding their market share. Furthermore, the homogenization of products in the industry has made it difficult for BYD to stand out like before. In September 2025, SAIC Motor even temporarily surpassed BYD in monthly sales, according to they counted from CarNewsChina. BYD’s response. Wang Chuanfu hinted that the company is preparing “heavy technologies” that will be announced soon, although it did not offer details. The CEO stressed that BYD’s strength lies in its team of approximately 120,000 engineers, who will be key to regaining technological leadership. The company plans to intensify its investment in electrification and smart technologies over the next two to three years. Self-criticism included. Wang also made an exercise in self-criticism by admitting that favorable market conditions in previous years generated a certain complacency in the areas of marketing and merchandising, as they point out from CnEVPost. And now what. BYD revised its global sales target for 2025 downward, from 5.5 million vehicles to approximately 4.6 million. Between January and November, the company accumulated 4,182 million units soldwhich represents 90.9% of the adjusted objective and a growth of 11.3% year-on-year. Figures that contrast with the spectacular expansion rates of previous years: 218% in 2021, 209% in 2022, 62% in 2023 and 41% in 2024. Stella Li, its vice president, already warned us during the Xataka Awards gala We will soon have very interesting news from the manufacturer. So we can only wait to see what the firm’s strategy will be to alleviate the effect of competition. In Xataka | The world’s rare earth reserves, laid out in this graph showing the brutal dominance of a single country

That the US authorizes Nvidia’s H200 to reach China is not a concession, but a plan. They prefer money to competition

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The chip war between China and the US has mutated from a blockade to a commercial transaction. Donald Trump has announced that he will allow Nvidia export its high-performance H200 chips to China. The authorization carries an unprecedented condition: the US government will receive a 25% commission about these sales. This “reverse tariff” transforms China containment into a source of income, breaking with the strategy of total suffocation and offering a lifeline to Nvidia in its most critical market. End of free blocking. The decision is a direct result of a meeting last week between Trump and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. The White House’s logic has changed: it argues that this measure is carried out under strict national security conditions, extending the model to competitors such as Intel and AMD. It is a movement that formalizes what was already intuited a few months ago, when Nvidia managed, after a first meeting with Trump, lift veto on bottom H20 chip. At that time, a precedent was already established of transferring 15% of income to the country, a figure that now scales to 25% for the most powerful hardware. Tap on the image to go to the original post A dose for China. That they chose this chip is no coincidence: the H200 is significantly more powerful than the H20—the trimmed model that China had started to boycott— but it is still behind the cutting-edge Blackwell architecturewhich is still banned. According to advisors such as David Sacks, the North American country seeks to keep China addicted to its technology: if they are denied all access, they are forced to look for alternatives of their own. In fact, Huawei has already admitted that it will take two years to match the performance of the H200, making this chip the perfect tool to slow down Chinese development while monetizing its need. Cracks and black market. The reality is that the total blockade was failing. Recent investigations showed how Chinese companies used shortcuts through Indonesia to access the power of banned chips. Furthermore, the second-hand market had become the main avenue for China get H100 and A100 GPUs off the radar. By allowing the sale of the H200, the US is trying to regain control over a flow that already existed, but in the shadows. At the same time, the Department of Justice announced “Operation Gatekeeper” to dismantle smuggling networks in countries like Hong Kong. China’s response. The great unknown is precisely this, the reception of the news in Beijing. Although Trump claims that Xi responded “positively,” the reality on the ground seems different. China has been for months banning your local businesses buy Nvidia chips to promote its domestic industry. The CAC (Cyberspace Administration of China) came to investigate the H20 looking for rear doorssomething that generated a climate of mistrust that not even the previous July agreement managed to completely dissipate. Jensen Huang, who warned about the danger of an “AI silk road” If the US continued to block sales, with this pact it gets a golden opportunity to not lose a market that represents 13% of its income, although its Chinese clients must now pay the price of American geopolitics. Cover image | Composition with images from Nvidia and RawPixel In Xataka | China has just redrawn the map of strategic minerals: its new rules on rare earths target the United States

The bridge with the largest steel span has completed its most difficult challenge. And it’s in China, of course.

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There is not a month that does not release one mega constructionand in that area, China leads with an iron fist. Both due to the magnitude of his works, the technique used or the land they save with the structurethe Asian giant has become an example of perseverance when it comes to creating, above all, infrastructure that connects all its regions. After the highest bridge in the world, in the province of Chongqing, they are involved with another record-breaking bridge. One with the largest steel span in the world. Fenglai Daxi River Grand Bridge. As is often the case with these works, something that stands out as much as its magnitude is the construction time. In just three years, they have up a bridge in an extremely complex area. It clears two cliffs and the causeway will be 310 meters above the water surface. But more than because of the terrain, if it is news for something, it is because of the opening, that space between two columns. The total length of the bridge will be 1,136 meters when it is finished and the span is almost half of it: 580 meters that are suspended leaning on an arch-shaped structure made of steel. The height The arch in its central part is 116 meters and both the photos and videos show the complex lattice-type structure. Precision. More than a whim, it is necessary if you want to bridge that distance while looking for a bridge that can withstand both the weight and the possible tremors that are frequent in the region. To build the structure, engineers turned to BIM methodology (either Building Information Modeling) that simulates by computer all the processes of both the construction of the structure and its future maintenance. This is common, but essential in this lattice structure where many embedded components require an accuracy of less than a millimeter of deviation. On November 28, the team complete the union of each of the pieces weighing more than 300 tons that form that great puzzle of the lattice span, and now it remains to create the road that will consolidate the union between regions. Necessary. Because the Fenglai Daxi River Grand Bridge is not simply a feat of engineering: it is a catalyst for something China is aggressively pursuing. The country wants to carry out an economic and social transformation of the most challenging regions of its geography, and the Chongqing region falls into those plans as it has a large number of mountain ranges that have traditionally challenged communication with large centers. When completed, the bridge will be part of the Wu-Liang Expressway that will link the urban center of Chongqing with the Wulong district in approximately one hour, when with the current detour it takes approximately three hours, having to do a mountain route. And it is just one piece of a much more ambitious plan, which includes 52 construction projects, more than 1,200 kilometers of highways and a total investment of 155 billion yuan, about 19 billion euros. Megathings = tourism. Thus, the bridge will seek to become an element that will facilitate the flow of goods between the regions, but also of people with the objective of promoting tourism. Currently, in Wulong About 350,000 people live there and it has traditionally been a poor area due to the soil not being the best for farming and its natural isolation. However, since 1994, tourism has transformed it, especially since the Karst Geology National Park out including on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2007. Now, Wulong aspire to become a global tourist destination, and this improvement in infrastructure seems key to achieving that goal. Furthermore, it is no longer just that China’s megaconstructions facilitate mobility: The buildings themselves are designed with the aspiration that they become points of interest. An example is Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridgean immense construction 625 meters above the level of the river that is used to cross from one side to the other, but It has a cafeteria and some adventure activities. Another is the Three Gorges Damwhich can not only move the axis of rotation of the Earthbut it also has a museum that documents the construction, an example of how the dam itself works and multiple observation points. Images | Xinhua Sci-Tech In Xataka | Young tourists from China have begun to visit random places en masse. There is an explanation: Xiaohongshu

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