china

China already has an army of 5.8 million engineers. His new plan involves accelerating doctorates

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China has a plan to win the technology race, one that began more than 40 years ago when decided to invest in training millions of engineers. We have seen it in the signings of the Meta superintelligence teamwhere the vast majority are Chinese. Chinese universities have a new plan to further accelerate the attainment of doctorates, one that puts aside theory to focus on practice. What is happening. They tell it in South China Morning Post. China is implementing a new policy that affects STEM students pursuing doctorates. The title PhD or ‘Doctor of Philosophy’ is the highest academic rank that can be obtained and until now required the development of a thesis. With this change, led by Harbin University of Technology, engineers can earn the PhD degree with the development of real products and systems. First case. The first student to achieve the PhD based on practical results was Wei Lianfeng last September. He graduated in 2008 and joined the China Nuclear Institute, where he worked for more than a decade until he decided to return to university to pursue his PhD, which he earned for his results in developing a vacuum laser welding system. To evaluate their work, the court that attended the oral defense included industry experts. Why is it important. The training of technical talent has been a priority for China for decades and more recently they have redoubled their efforts. In 2022, the government launched a program to promote STEM education especially in strategic areas such as semiconductors and quantum computing. Among the key points of the plan was close cooperation between companies and universities for joint training. This measure is the culmination of this strategy and the recognition that theoretical knowledge is not enough to compete in the technological race, especially with US blockades of key technologies. This allows China to solve the bottleneck in graduating higher-ranking engineers; It is not only about training more engineers, but about training them as soon as possible and with solutions that can be applied to the real world, instead of theses that are hundreds of pages long. STEM Power. The push to train engineers and scientists is part of a long-term government plan that began in the post-Mao era. And the plan is going from strength to strength. If we focus only on doctorates, according to data from 2023, China awarded 51,000 doctorates (PhD) in STEM careers, while the US was at 34,000. The projection at that time was that by 2025 the figure would rise to 77,000. In terms of total figures, In 2020, China was already the country that produced the most STEM graduates throughout the world with an abysmal difference: 3.57 million compared to the 2.55 million that India produced or the 822,000 in the United States. At the moment China already has 5.8 million graduates and it is estimated that more than 40% of all graduates choose a STEM career. Image | Joshua Hoehne in Unsplash In Xataka | Silicon Valley has a problem: its engineers are beginning to look to the other side of the Pacific. Specifically towards China

While the US and China dominate different sectors, Europe leads an unexpected leadership: heat pumps

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Europe is experiencing an energy and industrial crisis that has reopened old fears: factories that lose competitiveness, homes punished by gas and a political debate that looks backwards. But behind the noise, the data tells a completely different story: Europe is not going backwards. It is leading the largest energy transformation in the world. And at the center of that transformation is a technology that is already changing the rules: heat pumps. The real problem: an industry trapped by gas. A large part of public opinion believes that European industry is becoming more expensive because of climate policies. But, As Jan Rosenow points outOxford energy professor, in EUobserver, the reality is exactly the opposite: “I do not accept the analysis underlying the reversal narrative. The idea that green policies must be dismantled to lower prices is nonsense.” According to Rosenow, the real shock came after 2021, when Europe lost access to the cheap Russian gas pipeline and had to replace it with much more expensive LNG from the United States. The impact was brutal: energy-intensive industries stopped production and never returned to pre-Ukrainian War levels. Ember’s report quantifies it: Europe paid an accumulated extra cost of 930 billion euros during the energy crisis due to its dependence on imported fossil fuels. The conclusion is uncomfortable, the problem is not that Europe has gone too fast in the transition, but too slow. Europe leads the solution, although it does not know it yet. While the political debate goes in circles, the market advances. Europe is, today, world leader in heat pumpsa title that he does not hold by chance. In residential adoption, some countries are decades ahead of the rest of the world: Norway has 632 heat pumps per 1,000 homes and Finland has 524, according to European Heat Pump Association (EHPA). And the surprise is in the laggards, countries like Poland, Ireland or Portugal continue to grow even in years of weak market. The European industry dominates the market. European manufacturers such as Vaillant, Stiebel Eltron, Bosch, Viessmann, Danfoss, NIBE or Clivet dominate the global market. Unlike what happened with solar panels, Europe has retained manufacturing capacityalthough it still partially depends on imported compressors and electronics. Still, most employment, engineering and assembly remain on European soil. A revolution underway. Industrial projects are not prototypes: they are signs of the times: So why do we still depend on gas? Despite technological leadership, adoption is slower than it should be. There are four main blocks: Electricity continues to be weighed down by the price of gas. In much of central Europe, gas sets the marginal price of electricity. This means that even if renewables lower the cost, gas increases it again at the peaks. As the Financial Times points outthe result is an obvious paradox: the most efficient technology (the heat pump) seems expensive because electricity is distorted by gas. Taxation. The Oxford Professor details that the majority of European countries They charge more taxes on electricity than on gas. This penalizes the clean option and favors the fossil option. Lack of installers. The European Commission calculates that they are needed 750,000 additional installers before 2030. The German company Apricum adds that the experience installation remains “complex and fragmented”. Cultural barrier. As Rosenow explains: “Most industries are used to burning things.” Fire is perceived as safe and familiar, even though it is more expensive and inefficient. But this barrier disappears when you look at northern Europe: Sweden, Finland or Denmark already use heat pumps on a large scale even at sub-zero temperatures. Electrification is not a green whim. Heat pumps are not a technological anecdote, but the pillar of a broader movement: the electrification of the continent. According to the EMBER reportelectrification could halve the EU’s fossil dependence by 2040, and that two-thirds of energy demand could be met by mature technologies: heat pumps, electric vehicles, storage and solar. Today, however, the EU has barely electrified 22% of its final energy, which reveals ample room to triple that share in the coming years. The European Commission agree with this diagnosis. Brussels estimates that Europe will have to reach 60 million heat pumps installed in 2030 – compared to 25.5 million currently – to meet its climate and energy security objectives. Also, remember that the entry into force of the new ETS2 from 2027 fossil gas will progressively become more expensivenaturally accelerating its replacement by more efficient electrical technologies. Europe needs to trust its own leadership. European politics is trapped between nostalgia for cheap gas and the fear of losing competitiveness compared to other regions. But the data tells another story: Europe is leading the technology that can free it from those dependencies. While some in Brussels debate whether the Green Deal should be slowed down, the market and European engineers are saying the opposite. If Europe wants secure energy, strong industry and affordable bills, the answer is not in returning to gas, but in something much simpler: plugging itself in. Image | dbdh Xataka | Aerothermal energy is the heating of the future, but the electrical installation is stuck in the past

China is building a megastructure for deep-sea research. For whatever reason, resist nuclear bombs

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China is building a mega thing. It doesn’t matter when you read this: the Asian giant always has a mega dam underwayhe highest bridge in the world either an impossible road in the bag. However, one of the country’s latest projects is not a mega-construction, but a floating artificial “island,” which can navigate and designed to be self-sufficient. Oh, and most importantly: prepared for the end of the world. The “island”. Waiting for it to receive a somewhat more “commercial” name, in a report by South China Morning Post They refer to the facility as the “Deep-Sea All-Wather Resident Floating Research Facility.” It is a name that is equivalent to “what do you want this station to do” and the answer is “yes,” and it is basically a mix between a research center, command center and nuclear bunker. It will be a semi-submersible platform with a 78,000 ton twin hull design and considerable dimensions: 138 meters long. 85 meters wide. Main deck 45 meters from the waterline. Long duration missions. The project specifications show that the platform is projected to house almost 240 people for four months without the need for any replenishment. In addition, it can sail at a speed of up to 15 knots and something that gives us a clue to its colossal ambition is that the engines allow a displacement comparable to that of the Fujian, the brand new Chinese aircraft carrier of 80,000 tons. Bomb proof (nuclear). If you’re thinking about a fortress that could be worthy of a Marvel movie, here’s the shot. The structure will resist waves up to nine meters high and category 17 typhoons, the highest for this type of cyclone. But the most striking thing is that it will have special armor to resist nuclear explosions. Instead of conventional steel armorthe walls of the complex will be built with a design that converts the powerful shock waves of a nuclear explosion into ones that the structure can assimilate. As a “dissipator” of the power of the wave, wow. To do this, they have resorted to a metamaterial which, when subjected to pressure, compresses, creating a denser and stronger structure than much thicker steel panels. According to simulations, its walls resist more pressure than those of a submarine and four times more than those of a conventional ship, but with a plate thickness of only 60 mm. Back.To withstand these long periods at sea, and as describe from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) in an article in which they talk about the superstructure, the installation contains critical compartments that guarantee emergency power, but also backup for communications and a navigation center equally protected against nuclear explosions. China is taking leaps and bounds in its fleet Strategy. The SJTU describes it as a research center and, although the project has been described as “civilian”, its specifications make it comply with the Chinese military standard GJB 1060.1-1991 against nuclear explosions. Therefore, although it can be used for deep-sea research, it could also operate in areas where warships could not be accessed (such as waters near diplomatically sensitive countries or territories). This is something that does not frighten a China that does not hesitate to deploy its ships in disputed territoriesand from SCMP they point out that the installation could function as a resilient command center, a logistics center or a surveillance station that, in addition, is less invasive than a fixed structure built on land. It’s not that far away. Although we now know of its existence, this station has been on the drawing board for a decade and is expected to reach operational status in 2028. Once completed, we will be able to see what it is capable of and, above all, what use it is given. Because therein lies its importance as a research center to support the “blue economy” (extraction of deep sea resources, renewable energies and marine research), but also its military component. The photo, by the way, is not of a real structure, but of an interpretation of the SJTU. Images | SJTU, 中国新闻社 In Xataka | China is immersed in a nuclear revolution and needs industrial quantities of uranium. His solution: “fish” it in the sea

In the midst of a race towards immortality, China believes it has found a way for us to live 150 years: with grapes

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Aging is the objective that a good part of society has right now with different diets to look younger, ‘anti-aging’ treatments or even cocktails that promise this (although our biology has a fairly clear limit). Now, China is targeting a biotechnology company that affirms be developing a pill capable of prolonging human life to 150 years. A simple grape. A priori it seems that it has nothing to do with human aging, but we are quite wrong. The Shenzhen biotechnology company claims to have identified in its seeds a compound called procyyanidin C1 (PCC1) which achieves the effect that many want and has a great antioxidant effect. Zombie cells. To understand how this supposed miracle compound works, we must first talk about the enemy of aging: senescence cellular. As time goes by, some of our cells stop dividing, but they do not die. They remain in a state of limbo, accumulating in the tissues and secreting inflammatory substances that damage neighboring cells that are not so lazy and continue dividing. These cells that do not want to die is what known as ‘zombie cells’ because in the end there are quite a few parallels. As. Once taken into account, this is where PCC1 comes into play, which is nothing more than a natural flavonoid. Where the interesting begins is in a key study published in Nature Metabolism where it is pointed out that PCC1 acts as a senolytic agent. This means that it has a fairly important selective capacity to act on the cells that are bothering us the most. Specifically, at low doses, PCC1 inhibits the toxic substances emitted by zombie cells, but at high doses it kills them without harming healthy cells. And up to this point everything is quite solid, since it has been scientifically proven. There are ‘buts’. The scientific basis that the Chinese laboratory uses for its claims comes almost exclusively from animal models to whom this substance was applied. In this way, the researchers achieved several things by applying PCC1 on old mice: Reduce the load of senescent cells in vital organs. Reverse motor dysfunctions, making the mouse have more strength and better balance. Increase life expectancy between 9 and 60%. The big ‘but’ we found is that it has only been tested on mice and not on humans. And given this we can ask ourselves something quite simple: why are we skeptical about the claim of 150 years in humans? There are several reasons to be so. The first of them is that saying that because a mouse lives 60% longer, a human will live 60% longer is also a biological fallacy. The metabolism of mice and humans is not similar at all, and that is why there are drugs that, although they have worked in a mouse, have failed in humans. we are not equal with the mice. That’s why we don’t age in the same way. Although it is true that humans have senescent cells that are related to aging, we are much more complex. Aging involves genomic instability, telomere shortening, mitochondrial dysfunction, and stem cell exhaustion. That is why cleaning the ‘zombie cells’ could improve health in old agebut it is unlikely that on its own it will make us exceed the current biological limit of our species. This is also added to the fact that to date there are no published clinical trials that support the safety and effectiveness of using this compound in the human body. That is why, in conclusion, we can conclude that PCC1 is a very important finding to identify a door to therapies that make us age better. But talking about extending life to 150 years undoubtedly presents many doubts, since surely this ‘Chinese pill’ will not make us immortal overnight. Images | Maja Petric Daniel Franco In Xataka | Not all brain cells age at the same time: we have found a “hot spot” of aging

China had a tank more typical of science fiction. Now he has added a hypersonic missile in a video that attacks Japan

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China presented in August to the world a family of vehicles that broke with the classic logic of armored warfare: the Type 100 hybrid tank and its support vehicles ZBD-100. With barely 40 tons, these armored vehicles mix the lightness of a rapid deployment tank with an electronic architecture capable of converting them into nodes of a system hyperconnected combat. Now it has presented something more disturbing: a hypersonic missile aimed at a target. The Type 100 as a symbol. The robotic turret of the armored vehicles presented, their optical and laser sensors distributed throughout the hull and the fusion of data with drones and external radars give them a situational awareness which surpasses that of many Western cars. China does not seek to reproduce the heavy paradigm of the Abrams or the Leopard, but get ahead of him: Prioritizes sensors over armor, information on raw power, mobility over mass and active survivability against direct fire. His GL-6 system active protection, based on AESA radars that monitor an entire hemisphere, represents this new philosophy: in a battlefield saturated by drones, mines and loitering missiles, armor is no longer measured in centimeters of steel, but in milliseconds of electronic reaction. And more. The autonomy of its attack modules, the use of loads capable of imitating the power of the Abrams despite the smaller caliber and the incorporation of kamikaze drones from the support vehicles point to an ecosystem expressly conceived for contemporary war. He Type 100 also shows the Chinese commitment to lighter platforms that can operate in mountains, rice fields or coastlines, with less demanding logistics and easier to deploy near Taiwan or in possible points of friction with India. Overall, this armored vehicle reflects a theoretical break: China is betting on complete computerization of land combat and the massive use of distributed systems that share data in real time, something that can be decisive if it can be reliably integrated into doctrine and training. Type 100 The leap: low-cost hypersonics. Now, private company Lingkong Tianxing’s announcement that it is already mass manufacturing YKJ-1000 hypersonic missiles at a cost equivalent to 10% of a conventional missile It represents a profound alteration of the military balance in the Asia-Pacific. The fact that a private actor has entered into the systematic production of Mach 5-7 weapons points an industrial transition important: China is moving the frontier of war innovation outside of state monopolies, accelerating technological cycles and reducing prices to levels unthinkable for equivalent programs in the United States, where long-range hypersonics around 40 million dollars per unit. A clear threat. The YKJ-1000 not only stands out for its speed and its range of up to 1,300 kilometers, enough to cover the entirety of Japan from northern China, but also for its architecture autonomy-oriented: detection, target selection, defense evasion and evasive maneuvers in mid-flight. Its ability to travel inside standard shipping containers makes it a weapon hidden deploymentdispersible and easily moved by road or ship, adding strategic uncertainty in any crisis scenario. Plus: the images that close the promotional video (several missiles flying towards targets in Japan) constitute an unmistakable message in the midst of increasing regional tensions. The promise of a future version with integrated artificial intelligence anticipates a generation of cheap, extremely fast missiles designed to overwhelm or deceive defensesgenerating a new family of threats that could multiply in numbers that current anti-aircraft systems are simply not prepared to absorb. Frame from the missile video Japan, Taiwan and an escalation. The appearance of the YKJ-1000 comes at a time when relations between China and Japan are going through its most delicate phase in a decade. The statements of the new Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, hinting at a military response if Taiwan were attacked, have been interpreted in Beijing as a strategic shift of enormous significance. It we have counted: China has responded with travel advisories, flight cancellations and a public campaign suggesting Tokyo is getting dangerously close. to a red line. For Japan, China’s accelerated militarization is not an abstract phenomenon: it is a direct challenge to its sea routes, its energy security and its commitment to deterrence in the Taiwan Strait. For China, on the other hand, Japan is an actor that can decisively influence the American presence in the region. An intimidating missile. In this context, the massive deployment of the YKJ-1000 (capable of reaching bases in Okinawa, Kyushu or Hokkaido in minutes) takes on a obvious political component: It is a weapon designed both to operate and to intimidate. Furthermore, the mobile container system complicates pre-detection, while the multiplication of low-cost hypersonic platforms increases the pressure on Tokyo to reinforce anti-missile systems which, even in their most advanced configuration, were designed for slower, more predictable threats. He result is a spiral in which Japan accelerates its rearmament, the United States reinforces its air and naval presence and China responds by further expanding its panoply of both conventional and hypersonic missiles. Armored and missiles in it ship. What makes these developments more than isolated advances is their internal coherence. So much the Type 100 as the YKJ-1000 They reflect the same emerging doctrine: war based on saturation, speed, autonomy and distributed networks. The tank is not just a vehicle, it is a sensory node capable of sharing data with drones, radars and aerial platforms. And the hypersonic missile is not just a projectile, it is a mobile, cheap and difficult to intercept weapon designed to exploit vulnerabilities in complex systems. China is incorporating into its planning the idea that future conflicts will be decided by the ability to integrate sensors, automate decisions, and generate waves of simultaneous threats that outpace the adversary’s response. An island in the background. Thus, in a hypothetical attack on Taiwan, or in a limited confrontation with Japan, this synergy could allow China to combine computerized ground forces with hypersonic attacks of saturation intended to degrade enemy defenses, air bases and command nodes in the first minutes of the crisis. An explosive … Read more

After electrifying cars, China is targeting trucks. It is a slap in the face to global diesel consumption

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China is one of the oil monsters. Not so much in generation, where they want to start being a powerbut in consumption. It is the fuel of hundreds of millions of vehicles They hit the road every day, but things are changing. Although the Asian giant has become one of the powers in car electrification, diesel seemed to have a break thanks to trucks. Not even that anymore. Diesel down. China is second diesel consumeronly behind the United States. transportation concentrate between 70 and 80% of that final consumption, but in recent years, the market has been going down. It is estimated that, in June 2024, diesel consumption fell to 3.9 million barrels per day. It’s still stupid, but it was 11% less than during the same period the previous year. It was the biggest drop since mid-2021 (logical because of the pandemic and the world situation) and despite the industrialization of the country and the rise of both national and international trade, this consumption has remained at a “plateau” for more than a decade. That is to say: it should be much greater than 10 years ago, but that is not the case. Another fact: in August 2024, 8% of new trucks were electric, but in August 2025, the figure was 28%. electric trucks. He rise of electric cars could explain this negative trend in diesel consumption, but as we say, the boats and, above all, trucks continued to support the market. That is no longer so clear, especially with the recent involvement of the Government. In April this year, the Ministry of Transport published, with the support of other government departments, a program to encourage the majority of new truck sales to be new energy by 2035. To achieve this, there are objectives, such as that by 2027 the share of electrical energy in final transport consumption must be 10% and the proportion of new new energy vehicles must be increased each year. The heavy truck seemed to be the bastion of diesel, but now it is one of the central pieces of this decarbonization of transportation. Paradigm shift. To achieve this, in addition to direct aid for the purchase of heavy electric trucks, China has launched a specific action to eliminate and replace old diesel trucks, with subsidies for their removal and replacement with new energy units. In fact, there are advantages: freer access to restricted urban areasfewer time limitations and discounts on tolls. In a report by The Associated Press This paradigm shift is reflected: if in 2020 almost all new trucks in China were diesel, by 2025 electric trucks already represent 22% of new heavy truck sales. As our colleagues point out Motorpassionthe arrow is inverse to that of diesel consumption: in the same period of 2024, that percentage was 9.2%. And the load? It represents a paradigm shift and there are analysts who predict that, by 2026, diesel will only account for 40% of sales. The rest: electric and gas trucks. Is the charging infrastructure? Because we are seeing advances in the development of solid state batteries that will allow greater autonomy, but until they arrive, it is necessary that there be numerous charging points to support the electrification of transport. The National Energy Administration and the Ministry of Transportation have already affirmed that 98% of highway service areas already have charging points, with widespread installation of 120 kW chargers and, in some segments, 600 and 800 kW chargers. The intention is for there to be some 28 million charging points throughout the country by 2027, and one of the key pieces in that expansion is CATL. The company is one of those leads the battery sector worldwideand is currently tracing a “green corridor” that will cover the major freight hubs to facilitate loading, but also to implement its battery exchange system that speeds up the process. Green curve… and economic. This electrification of commercial transportation would add to the objectives of decarbonization of the countrybut obviously truckers and companies also see a benefit in their pockets, or so they esteem. Although electric trucks are between two and three times more expensive than diesel trucks and cost 18% more than LNGare more efficient, have less maintenance and can help save between 10% and 26% over their useful life. Horizon. This change to the electrification of trucks would already be reducing the demand for oil in the equivalent of more than a million barrels per day, and that a giant like China stops depending on crude oil for its trucks is something that can shake the market internationally. And that ambition is not going to stay within its borders. If in recent months we have seen that China has flooded Europe with his electric carswe can expect something similar for 2026, but with trucks. And, furthermore, it has torn off in Hungary the construction of a factory for electric trucks and buses. It is evident that this path started by cars will be followed by trucks, which in the end are a important source of emissions in a world with increasingly global trade. Specificallya third of all transport-related carbon emissions in 2019. Images | Volvo, Cheng Long In Xataka | China’s energy paradox: an ‘electrostate’ that continues to feed on coal

China is sending drones to an island 100 km from Taiwan. The problem is that Japan and the US are filling it with missiles

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The small Japanese island by Yonagunilocated just over 100 kilometers away from Taiwan, has gone in a matter of months from being a remote enclave with a modest self-defense detachment to becoming one of the most sensitive points of the strategic balance in Asia. The United States, China and Japan itself are carrying their disputes to the small enclave. An island as a front. The intensification of chinese drone flights over the island and the strait, intercepted on two consecutive occasions by Japanese fighters, has reinforced the perception in Tokyo that the first island chain is entering a phase of chronic instability. Japan, aware of the real possibility of a conflict around Taiwan, has decided to turn Yonaguni into a defensive node fully integrated: a place where operates a FARP American that extends the range of Marine Corps helicopters, where capabilities are consolidated electronic surveillance and where the installation of air defense missiles is progressing like the Type 03 Chu-SAM. Weapons and more weapons. This system, capable of tracking one hundred simultaneous targets and shooting down twelve of them with Mach 2.5 missilesimplies that Japan is beginning to give teeth to a position whose mere proximity to the democratic island makes it an advanced platform to detect, deter or even respond to a possible Chinese attack. For Tokyo, reinforcing Yonaguni is not a provocation but a life policy national: any attack on Taiwan, as as stated the new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, would constitute an existential threat to the archipelago. Yonaguni Beijing’s reaction. China, which interprets any Japanese defensive measure as one more step in a strategic siege promoted by the United States, has reacted with increasing hardness. From historical comparisons to veiled threats, including the summoning of the Japanese ambassador and the suspension of economic exchanges, Beijing frames the installation of missiles in Yonaguni as an “offensive act” that violates the spirit of the bilateral normalization of 1972. The rhetoric has gone in crescendo after Takaichi’s words about the possibility of Japan intervening militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan, something that China considers a space invasion diplomat reserved for Washington. The climate has deteriorated to such a level that a Chinese diplomat even published (and removed) a direct threat against the prime minister, while the central government canceled meetings, stopped imports and called for boycott trips to Japansinking the influx of Chinese tourists who represented almost a third of foreign visitors. In parallel, China has intensified its military demonstrations, spreading videos YKJ-1000 hypersonic missile destroying Japanese targets, a message designed to emphasize that any expansion of the Japanese military footprint will be met with a response. The strategic dilemma. Far from backing down, Japan has adopted a tone unusually firm. Under the leadership of Takaichi, the political heir to Shinzo Abe’s strategic nationalism, Tokyo has made Yonaguni the tangible manifestation of a doctrinal turn: accept that Japanese stability requires preventing China from dominating the Taiwan Strait. from there the proliferation of radar installations, electronic warfare capabilities and additional plans that contemplate systems such as US Patriots, US Army Typhon, HIMARS and the NMESIS equipped with NSM missiles, capable of denying access to Chinese ships around the Taiwanese eastern coast. USA discreetly supports this redesign: approved sales of NASAMS and spare parts to the Taiwan Air Force, deployed CH-53E helicopters in Yonaguni (an unprecedented milestone) and coordinates with Japan a doctrine that assumes that, in the event of an outbreak of hostilities, the Marines must operate from the lethality zone itself of Chinese missiles. All of this positions Yonaguni not only as an advanced observatory, but as a critical point whose defense and survival would determine the first stages of any crisis in the strait. Yonaguni Taiwan’s hardening. While Japan reinforces the front line, Taiwan assumes that time to prepare is running out. President Lai Ching-te has announced a massive increase in military spending, raising it by $40 billion until 2033, with a roadmap that will place it at 3.3% of GDP in 2026 and with the declared ambition of reaching 5% before 2030. What Taipei is proposing is not a simple rearmament, but a comprehensive redesign: new missiles and drones, integrating AI into existing systems, protecting against infiltration operations, dramatically improving procurement (often delayed in the United States), and measures against transnational Chinese repression targeting Taiwanese abroad. For Lai, the most dangerous threat is not a Chinese landing but internal erosion: that Taiwan “gives up” due to psychological or economic pressure. It flatly rejects the “one country, two systems” model and affirms that the only way to maintain peace is to make an invasion too costly for Beijing. The United States, through its de facto representation, has described the decision as a crucial step to strengthen deterrence. A strategic powder keg. The juxtaposition of Japanese military movements, Chinese threats and unprecedented rearmament of Taiwan produces a “traffic” that raises the risk of calculation errors. The experts warn that a poorly calibrated comment, a overflight unreported or a maritime incident could accelerate a spiral that is difficult to contain, especially when Beijing tries to use its contacts with Washington to simultaneously pressure Tokyo and Taipei. In this context, Yonaguni becomes symbol and detonator: too close to Taiwan to be irrelevant, too exposed to be invulnerable, and too strategic for either side to relinquish control or influence. Plus: the island is both within immediate range of Chinese missiles and within the American concept of advanced distributed operationsmeaning it could be both a multiplier of Allied defense and a priority objective in the first minute of a war. A fragile balance. In short, China hardens his stanceJapan resignation definitely to ambiguity, Taiwan accelerate the shielding of its sovereignty and the United States consolidates its role as operational guarantor. In the midst of all this, Yonaguni emerges as a microcosm where the resistance of that regional order is tested. An enclave of barely 1,700 inhabitants that, due to its geographical positionhas become a thermometer, border and barrier. Its immediate … Read more

China does not want to give up ground as the world’s factory. Their plan involves deploying a legion of industrial robots with AI

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For years, looking at the label of any device, garment or charger has been almost a formality. The answer used to be the same: “Made in China“. That phrase became silent proof that the Asian giant had managed to establish itself as the factory of the world. From American brand mobile phones to small components of European appliances, much of what we use every day has come from Chinese production lines. But that reality is beginning to change. China’s industrial leadership is no longer sustained solely by abundant labor and low costs, and the model that dominated the last decades needs to be transformed. The shift is not only economic, but also social. Fewer and fewer young Chinese want to work in factoriesa phenomenon that in the United States follows similar patterns: physical jobs, long hours and little professional projection. In both cases, the industry is no longer synonymous with progress for many and is perceived more as a destiny from which one tries to escape. Even so, both China and the United States consider that manufacturing remains strategic, either to maintain global influence or to reduce dependence on foreign countries. Everything indicates that none of them are trying to recover the model of the past, but rather to build a new one based on automation and artificial intelligence. Robots and factories to avoid losing “Made in China” When the Chinese Vice Minister of Industry, Zhang Yunming, said that Adopting artificial intelligence is a necessary and not optional task, I was not speaking only in technological terms. He was referring to protecting one of the country’s great assets: its manufacturing industry, which represents around 25% of the national economy, well above the world average. China remains the world’s largest producer, but it can no longer rely solely on volume or labor. The challenge now is to maintain that leadership by manufacturing with fewer people and more artificial intelligence. In this context, China is responding decisively. The pace at which it is deploying industrial robots is unmatched. Last year alone it installed 295,000 units, almost nine times more than the United States and more than the rest of the world combined. according to the International Federation of Robotics. In some facilities there is already talk of “dark factories”, operations so automated that the plants can operate with minimal human intervention. The Wall Street Journal mentions the Baosteel caseone of the largest steel plants in the country, where workers only intervene every half hour, when before they did so every three minutes. Automation no longer consists only of mechanical arms that repeat movements, but of connected plants, capable of making decisions. The aforementioned newspaper points out how Midea uses an AI system that coordinates robots, sensors and virtual agents to detect failures, assign tasks and adjust processes without human intervention. In the textile industry, Bosideng uses AI models developed with Zhejiang University to conceptualize and design garments, reduce development times and cut costs. This type of solutions not only speeds up production, it also generates a competitive advantage over Western manufacturers that implement changes more slowly. Where China’s industrial ambition is also clearly seen is in the ports. In Tianjin, a fleet of autonomous trucks moves containers without visible human presencewhile artificial intelligence optimizes variables such as ship arrival times and crane capacity. The system, called OptVerse AI Solver, has compressed planning tasks that previously took 24 hours to about ten minutes. PortGPT, a system developed together with Huawei to analyze images and monitor security operations, has also been deployed. The American discourse is based on the idea of ​​sovereignty: manufacturing more within the country to depend less on the outside. The Trump administration has raised that strategy through tariffs on China, Vietnam and other Asian economieswith the aim of attract factories and rebuild supply chains. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick maintains that automation is not incompatible with employmentbut it can generate better-paid technical professions. In an interview he stated that “it is time to train people for the jobs of the future, not for those of the past,” and defended that these factories could support families for several generations. One of the differences between the two models is clearly seen in the ports. While China has deployed autonomous trucks, AI-based planning systems, and tools like PortGPT without significant union opposition, in the United States automation is subject to collective bargaining. The International Longshoremen’s Association and port operators they agreed to veto new automated terminals until the end of 2030, also limiting the use of artificial intelligence in administrative tasks. For unions, automation means losing jobs and bargaining power. For China, it is a national strategy. China wants to continue being the world’s factory, but not exactly the same. It is no longer about cheap labor, but about factories capable of producing more with fewer people and with more artificial intelligence. The United States seeks its own path, with more work conditions and a different rhythmbut with the same objective of not depending on the outside. What is at stake is not just where it is manufactured, but how. And it is possible that, in a few years, the label we find will not only be “Made in China”, but a different form of manufacturing where robots will no longer be accessories, but protagonists. Images | Homa Appliances | Xataka with Gemini 3 In Xataka | Nexperia China has been trying to contact the Dutch headquarters for days. The only response has been absolute silence

Nexperia China has been trying to contact the Dutch headquarters for days. The only response has been absolute silence

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After the escalation of tension, andThe Dutch government suspended the order to control Nexperia and Nexperia China resumed shipments of critical chips. The European automotive industry could breathe and everything was being resolved, everything except the relationship between the two Nexperias. The conflict has left an internal war that does not seem to have an easy or quick solution. what’s happening. They count in South China Morning Post that Wingtech, the company that owns Nexperia in China (we will call it Nexperia China for simplicity), has been trying to contact Nexperia Netherlands for days and has not received any response. Nexperia China called this silence “deeply regrettable and disconcerting.” Take control. Nexperia China’s intentions are not simply to have a chat. a few days ago They published a statement in their WeChat account in which they assured that “control of Nexperia has not returned to its rightful owner” and expressed their intention to use “all legal avenues” to achieve this. It seems that in Holland they do not agree with these statements and have chosen silence in response. Nexperia Netherlands. His latest official statement It is from November 19, the same day that the Dutch government announced the suspension of the control order over the company. In it, they noted that Nexperia China had stopped “operating within the established corporate governance framework and are ignoring legal instructions from Nexperia’s global management” and provided several examples, such as creating unauthorized bank accounts for clients to make payments, sending letters to clients “with false information” and misappropriating corporate seals. Current status. The conflict put the European automotive industry in checkwhich depends on Nexperia chips for electronic modules and control units of many vehicles produced on the old continent. The Dutch government revoked the order and China lifted the veto it imposed in response. Chips are flowing into factoriesbut the conflict has left a deep scar on the company whose solution seems far away. Recently Nexperia China has appointed Sophie Shen Xinjia as president expert in legal advice and law graduate, so everything indicates that there will be a legal battle for control of the company. Image | Nexperia In Xataka | China has so many electric cars running on its streets that it is going to use them to generate energy for homes

A silent operation has compromised thousands of ASUS routers. Investigators target groups linked to China

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Few devices are as stable and discreet as the router. We barely think about them, we rarely review their configuration, and we rarely consider them part of the security debate. They are just there, connecting. This condition makes them ideal terrain for those seeking to go unnoticed. A recent investigation has revealed that ASUS routers are being used as part of a remote operating structure. They don’t cause problems, but they are no longer just an internet access point. According to SecurityScorecardthe signal reveals the existence of something more than a specific failure. The researchers observed that a significant volume of ASUS routers exhibited the same TLS certificatewith a validity of one hundred years, which does not fall within the usual parameters of this type of equipment. This coincidence made it possible to identify a structured campaign, called WrtHug, and conclude that the devices had been altered in a coordinated manner to remain connected and operational without alerting their owners. How WrtHug works. According to the analysis, the campaign is based on vulnerabilities present in ASUS routers and in the service AICloudwhich allows remote access to files and connected devices from outside the home network. By leveraging that channel, attackers can execute system-level commands and modify settings without requiring user intervention. The presence of the shared TLS certificate acts as a sign of this alteration and shows how the routers become part of an intermediary infrastructure, useful to hide the real origin of the activity. AiCloud is a function integrated into ASUS routers that allows you to access files stored on USB drives connected to the router or in shared folders on a computer from outside the home. It can be used from a browser or through a mobile application, making it easy to view documents, photos or videos without being physically on the local network. That legitimate remote connection capability, intended for convenience, also means that any alteration to the system has broader consequences if an external actor comes to control it. Which models are at risk. SecurityScorecard identifies several affected ASUS models, many of them old or end-of-life. Among those registered are: 4G-AC55U 4G-AC860U DSL-AC68U GT-AC5300 GT-AX11000 RT-AC1200HP RT-AC1300GPLUS RT-AC1300UHP Some are still used in homes, but others are installed in small offices or businesses that have never renewed the equipment. It should be noted that although ASUS has published security patches and the vulnerabilities are officially corrected, research indicates that the majority of compromised devices are EoL (end of life) or outdated models. This combination of lack of support and obsolete equipment multiplies the risk that the problem persists over time. Where the operation has been detected. The researchers observed that the compromised routers are concentrated in Asia-Pacific, with an especially high presence in Taiwan and other countries in the region such as South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. Active devices were also registered in Russia, the United States and several Central European countries. A map with the concentration of infected devices | Image: A notable element of the report is that no cases were identified in mainland China, which analysts interpret as a contextual clue, although not proof of authorship. The geographical scope confirms that this is not a local phenomenon, but rather a distributed infrastructure. What researchers say about China. SecurityScorecard does not definitively attribute the campaign, but notes that the behavior observed on the routers coincides with tactics previously used by actors associated with China. Researchers speak of “low-moderate confidence” that WrtHug is an ORB facilitation campaign operated by a pro-China actor, that is, a network of compromised devices that act as intermediate nodes to conceal the real origin of future operations. Among the technical parallels, analysts highlight similarities with a campaign called AyySSHush and the use of vulnerability CVE-2023-39780. What to do if I have an ASUS router. Detecting if a device is compromised is not easy, because the changes introduced by WrtHug do not affect its operation. The first thing is to check if the model is among those that have stopped receiving support and install, if it exists, the latest version of firmware available from the ASUS website, following the recommendations of its security notices. As additional measures, it is advisable to disable remote services that are not used, such as AiCloud, review possible unauthorized access and consider replacing the equipment if it is already at the end of its life. WrtHug shows that home routers are no longer a neutral element. They are devices always on, connected and with sufficient capacity to sustain discrete operations without altering their operation. This combination makes them useful pieces within a digital dashboard that previously seemed reserved for more complex systems. Images | ASUS | SecurityScorecard In Xataka | Correos and the DGT are already widely seen, so the scammers have changed their objective: an app to pay for parking

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