china

China is building the fusion-fission reactor that the US canceled decades ago. The future of nuclear energy depends on your fate

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In the newly built Yoohu scientific island, next to the city of Nancheng, China advances discreetly in its plans to materialize a project that the United States explored and abandoned decades ago: the hybrid fusion-fission reactor. Xinghou-1. His name means “spark”, and is inspired by an appointment by Mao Zedong: “A single spark can set the entire meadow.” But it’s no small thing: it has behind An investment of more than 200,000 million yuanthe equivalent of 28,000 million dollars. The objective: build a hybrid central with 100 megawatts of electrical power, 300 megawatts of thermal power and, most importantly, a plasma energy gain factor (Q) greater than 30. An unprecedented achievement that could redefine the future of nuclear fusion nuclear energy. What all this means. To understand the magnitude of this objective, you have to put it in context. The nuclear fusion, the same process that feeds the stars, promises clean energy without the radioactive waste of current nuclear fission. The great challenge is get a fusion reaction to generate more energy of which consumes. The National Ignition Facility of the United States achieved in 2022 a historical milestone with a value q of 1.5demonstrating for the first time a net energy gain. The International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor (Iter), a gigantic multinational project that is being built in France, aspires to achieve a Q> 10 to demonstrate the viability of large -scale fusion. Xinghuo, however, points to a Q> 30, the threshold that experts consider necessary for a merger plant to be commercially profitable. How does China plan to make this giant leap? The answer is in your hybrid approach. A fusion-fission reactor. That is, a reactor that uses the high energy neutrons generated by a fusion reaction (the “spark”) to bombard a mantle of fistible material such as uranium. This triggers a fission reaction that greatly multiplies energy production. In essence, use the fusion as a catalyst to make the fission much more efficient. The Xinghuo-1 project has already entered into the initial phase, which includes the tender and evaluation of its environmental impact. Its development is in charge of the state company Nuclear China Industry 23 Construction Corporation (CNI-23) and the private company Lianovation Superconductor. The road that the United States abandoned. The concept is not new. During the 1970s and 1980s, the United States Department of Energy investigated hybrid reactors before political priorities changed. Concerns about nuclear proliferation (hybrids can be used to produce plutonium) and a strategic commitment to “pure fusion” such as the definitive and cleaner solution led to the abandonment of this line of research. United States, and with it much of the West, They put all their chips on projects like the iter. China, on the other hand, has seen a shortcut in the hybrid model. While pure fusion follows decades away from its commercialization, a hybrid reactor like Xinghuo could connect a merger plant to the electricity grid much earlier. As soon as in 2030, According to SCMP. A coordinated national commitment. Xinghuo is part of a well -financed fusion ecosystem. China also maintains the East project, a Tokamak fusion reactor that has been able to maintain a 100 million degrees plasma for more than 17 minutes. The Huanliu-3 project, a newer and more powerful tokamak in experimentation phase. And the CFETR project, A large -scale pure fusion reactorconsidered the Chinese equivalent of Iter. The success of Xinghuo not only depends on its own advances, but also on the development of a complex industrial supply chain for key components such as superconductor magnets and the thermal vacuum chamber. If China makes Xinghuo work, either in 2030 or 2035, the implications would be seismic. They would demonstrate the viability of a route to commercial fusion energy that the rest of the world abandoned long ago. He could put Beijing years, if not decades, ahead in the energy race. Image | Xinhua In Xataka | The largest nuclear fusion project fails before the first ignition: Iter delays one of its key milestones at 2033

The C929 wants to be the great leap of China in commercial aviation. For now, your heart remains in Western hands

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For years, the domain of commercial sky has been in the hands of two giants: Airbus and Boeing. China wants to break that hegemony, and is willing to do it with its own name in the cabin. Comacthe China commercial aircraft corporationhe has been trying to make planes capable of competing with global references for years. First was the C919. Now, the bet is redoubled with The C929. This new model, even in a preliminary design phase, represents the most serious ambition of Beijing for placing a long -range plane on the international board. The objective is clear: to deal with heavyweights such as the Airbus A330neohe A350 or the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. And the figures accompany: capacity for about 280 passengers, an estimated autonomy of 12,000 kilometers and a design that, on paper, would allow to cover routes such as Beijing – New York. The internal deployment of C919: a discreet but strategic conquest The C919 has not conquered the global sky, but it has begun to take off within China. Since It was officially presented in 2017has gone through years of evidence, certifications and adjustments. SCMP points out thatas of June 2025, about 18 units fly domestic routes, mainly operated by airlines such as China Eastern. It may seem little, but the fact that it works only in China is not necessarily a failure. On the contrary: We talk about one of the largest aviation markets on the planet. And in that context, having its own plane capable of covering regional routes without depending on Western manufacturers is already, in itself, a strategic movement. The real commitment of Comac, however, is the C929. A plane from Width and long scope fuselage which aims to stand up to the most advanced models in the market. The project has won impulse in recent months: Air China signed an agreement To become a launch customer, and a supplier has reported that he hopes to deliver the first fuselage section in 2027. PROMOTIONAL IMAGE OF COMAC C-929 The development of C929 has a peculiar history. In the beginning, it was a joint effort with Russia. The project was then known as CR929, under the baton of a mixed company between Comac and the UAC Russian, called CRAIC (China-Russia Commercial Aircraft International Corporation). However, political tensions, the invasion of Ukraine and international sanctions on Moscow ended up forcing The dissolution of that alliance. Since 2023, Comac has moved on solo, turning C929 into an exclusively Chinese project. Comac has presented this plane highlighting several advanced technologies, including a Optimized aerodynamicsstate -of -the -art engines and integration of smart flight systems. In theory, it is a plane at the height of its western competitors. A C-919 Landing in China But there is a key detail: to fly, the C929 needs much more than Chinese wings. His “technological heart” continues to depend on the West. Safranthe French giant of the aerospace industry, He has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with COMAC to supply the brake system, ice detection, tire pressure sensors and oxygen system. For her part, the American Crane Aerospace will provide sensors for cabin doors. Although these agreements show that Comac is still able to attract international suppliers, they also put an uncomfortable reality on the table: their program remains, to a large extent, Tied to foreign technology. And that, in an uncertain global context, is a latent risk. The Russian precedent that China cannot ignore Russia offers a mirror. The latest Western sanctions cut off the country’s access to key components for its aeronautical industry. The TU-214a half-long reach that could transport between 155 and 210 passengers and fly to about 6,500 kilometers, was severely limited. Many of their critical systems depended on foreign technology. Moscow has worked since then in local substitutions, but possibly at the expense of performance and reliability. China, of course, has proven to be very resilient. He has dodged restrictions in sectors such as semiconductors, and has learned to convert traction obstacles. However, a change in United States commercial policy I could leave them without western engine. “If the US authorities prevent ge supplies the engine, then there will be no CFM engine,” A spokeswoman for Safran warned during the Paris Aeronautical Hall. Images | Comac In Xataka | The C919 Comac

Take cars from China to Mexico. It sank with 3,000 vehicles on board after burning

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It was called Morning Midas. Sailed on May 26 From the Chinese port of Yantai with more than 3,000 vehicles on board and destination to the Mexican port of Lázaro Cárdenas. It never arrived. On June 23, after several weeks to drift for a fire on board, the freighter He sank into deep water From the North Pacific, more than 600 kilometers southwest of Adak, in Alaska. It disappeared in silenceleaving behind a trail of smoke, steel and cars that will never touch the mainland. The fire began on June 3. According to the United States Coast Guardthe smoke came from the roof where electric vehicles were. On board 22 crew members were traveling. Everyone managed to evacuate in time in a lifeboat and were rescued without injuries to the freighter Cosco Hellaswhich was in the area. A freighter that remained to the Mercer in the middle of the ocean For days, Morning Midas was drifting, still wrapped in smoke. Rescue teams worked alongside Zodiac Maritime – the British ship of the ship – to evaluate the situation and prepare a possible recovery. But he didn’t have time. The combination of structural damage, bad weather and water entry ended up sinking it more than 5,000 meters deep. The cargo was as valuable as revealing: 3,048 vehicles, including 70 electric and 681 hybrids, According to data updated by the Coast Guard After verifying the information with Zodiac Maritime. Each unit possibly already had an assigned destination: a dealer or a buyer. Now they rest at the bottom of the ocean, without any possibility of recovering them. Morning Midas The history of Morning Midas clearly illustrates the scope of maritime car transport, a global chain that we rarely see but holds the flow of millions of vehicles a year. It also remembers other recent episodes. In 2023, the Fremantle Highway freighter, with about 3,000 cars on board –including about 500 electric-,burned for days at the North Sea. A crew member died. The ship ended up being towed to a port after a week of uncontrolled fire. Morning Midas That case led to the Dutch authorities to demand urgent improvements in emergency protocols for this type of transport. Since then, the focus on the difficulty of containing fires into ships that transport cars has been made. Morning Midas Zodiac Maritime has deployed several ships equipped with Anticontamination systems To monitor the area. According to the Coast Guardno discharges have been detected to date, although the risk is still present: the ship He transported 1,530 tons of fuelulo of low sulfur content and another 350 marine diesel. Maritime car transport is a key piece of industrial gear. And while loading more than 3,000 units on the same ship may seem shocking, the truth is that today is almost common. Manufacturers such as ByD have begun to operate their own ships. One of them is already in service and can move up to 7,000 electric cars on a single trip. It has not yet been confirmed whether the fire aboard the Morning Midas is related to any of the electric vehicles he transported. What is clear is that this type of incidents occur in full electric car boom. Each route that is planned is part of a learning process. And even if we still have no answers, there is a question that resonates: are we safely transporting thousands of high voltage batteries per sea? Images | US Coast Guard (1, 2, 3, 4) In Xataka | The cars are getting bigger and the squares do not grow. There are those who have a solution: the parking ‘spine’

The material created in China that lowers the temperature of the buildings without consuming a single electricity watt

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A world where buildings are not only well isolated from abroad, but cool them as much as an air conditioning, without consuming a single electricity watt. That is what a team of Chinese and Australian scientists promises with their new bioplastic material. Short. Researchers at the University of Zhengzhou and the University of Australia del Sur presented a biodegradable film capable of cooling buildings without using electricity. According to a study published in Cell Reports Physical Sciencethis coating can reduce the temperature of a surface to 9.2 ° C in full sun. 9 degrees less. In the material field tests, carried out on a Zhengzhou roof, east of China, the results were overwhelming. In full sun, during noon, the material reached a cooling peak of 9.2 ° C below the ambient temperature. The average tests was -4.9 ° C during the day and -5.1 ° C during the night, which is equivalent to a cooling power of up to 136 watts per square meter. The film takes advantage of a known phenomenon, “passive radiative cooling” (PRC). In a nutshell, it is a lining designed to do two things: reflect sunlight so as not to heat up, and emit internal heat outwards. But it does it in an extremely efficient way. According to the simulations presented by the researchers, apply this film on the roofs of a city like Lhasa, in the Tibet, would reduce annual cooling consumption up to 20.3%. How it works. The “metaphilm” is made of polyactic acid, better known as Pla plastic; A material derived from plant sources such as corn or sugarcane, so it is biodegradable. The turn is how researchers managed to create a porous and continuous structure through a novel phase separation technique at low temperature. This microstructure has an ultrabaja thermal conductivity (of 0.049 w/m · k) and reflects almost all the solar radiation that affects it (98.7%), avoiding the initial heating and heat transfer to the interior. It also emits heat abroad thanks to its porosity. The manufacturing process is relatively simple: the PL is dissolved in chloroform, crystallizes at -20 ° C and then ethanol is used to induce phase separation before drying the film. This method is suitable for large -scale production, which paves the path for commercialization. More resistant than other attempts. One of the great challenges of previous radiative cooling materialsespecially biodegradables, it was their durability. But this new coating has demonstrated exceptional durability. The researchers submerged him in acid for 120 hours and then exposed him to ultraviolet radiation equivalent to eight months of weathering exposure. Surprisingly, the material not only survived, but maintained a cooling performance between 5 ° C and 6.5 ° C below the ambient temperature after the hard aging process. The team attributes it to its high crystallinity, which gives it a thermal and chemical stability much higher than that of its predecessors. The applications go far beyond the roofs of the buildings. Researchers already explore their use in transport, to cool vehicles, agriculture, to protect crops, electronics and even the biomedical field, to apply to dressings that regulate the temperature. Images | Yangzhe Hou et al. In Xataka | With the electric consumption triggered by the air conditioning, Singapore has had an idea: buildings that “sweat”

This city of China is the world epicenter of rare earths. The problem is that nobody thought of its inhabitants

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To get an idea to what extent It has control Of those precious minerals that form the set of rare earths, the greatest enemy that China has is not outside its borders. It is such a monopolization in the sector that the danger has in “house” through of the smugglers. And of all enclaves, one stands out greatly as an epicenter of the entire heart. His name is Baotou, and everything that shines for the surrounding inhabitants is not gold. A normal city in appearance. Baotouan industrial core of 2.7 million inhabitants on the border with the Gobi desert, seems to the naked eye a second category Chinese city like so many others: shopping centers with western chains, local restaurants overflowing and children playing late. However, a short journey to the outskirts is enough to discover His true nature: A landscape dominated by factories, smoking chimneys and an environmental legacy forged by one of the most strategic and persecuted sectors of the planet. The heart of rare earths. Yes, the enclave houses More than 80% of the Rare reserves of China. Since in the 30s they were discovered in the nearby Mining District of Bayan Obo elements such as Cerio, Lantano or Samario, its exploitation has turned the city on a chain axis on global supply on industries such as electronics, automotive and defense. We have counted before: During the 90s, China increased its production by 450%, while other countries, such as the United States, They closed their mines. This concentration made Beijin the almost exclusive supplier of these critical metals, and today, in the midst of the commercial war with Washington, its control has been transformed In diplomatic weapon. Economy vs Human Cost. The problem? The Guardian told that mineral wealth has favored the economic development of Baotou, whose GDP per capita It widely exceeds the national average. However, prosperity has Your reverse: Processing plants generate toxic (often radioactive) waste that are discharged into huge artificial rafts. The most infamous, the Weikuang dam, for years was the largest landfill of rare earth waste on the planet, without adequate coating and directly close to the Yellow River. In fact, official reports have confirmed that these activities caused a 87% decrease of ammoniacal nitrogen in a tributary between 2020 and 2024, although accumulated ravages remain visible. Yin mountains on the outskirts Cancer and poison. For example, numerous studies They have documented devastating consequences in the health of nearby communities: from bone malformations to a “Epidemic” of cancer. Exposure to these elements, capable of crossing the blood brain barrier, has been associated with motor and sensory disabilities, as well as alterations in fetal neurological development. Not just that. 2020 investigations revealed that the dust of the streets contains concentrations so high that the children of Baotou and surroundings are exposed to dangerous levels Just to breathe. Daily particle ingestion rates in mining areas far exceed the limits considered safe. A washing … halfway. Given the growing international criticism, China has tried to clean its image. In 2022, state media announced that Weikuang’s dam had been transformed into an urban wetland, now supposed paradise of migratory birds. The reality? Explained the medium British that when arriving at the place, what one is located is a concrete wall that hides a dry and desolate lodazal. Behind, ruins of ancient “villages of cancer” and oxidized industrial structures extend. New homes built for displaced are practically empty, and foreign journalists are It usually blocks actively to prevent them from talking to residents. Rural sacrifice. So things, Baotou exemplifies an uncomfortable truth: the China domain In the rare earth market it has been possible not only for its geological reserves, but for a political decision where rural communities have been allowed to support Toxic costs of a globalized economic boom. It is not an exempt problem from China, of course, the same thing happens in other sectors such as AI and its data centers (we recently counted it with the Elon Musk Supercomputer). Be that as it may, and although there are less polluting technologies to process these metals, they are rarely used: its implementation would make the low costs that have cemented the Chinese position. If you want, in a context of growing international pressure and commercial sanctions, the extractive model It reveals both the fragility of environmental balance and the rawness of contemporary geostrategic priorities. Image | 柏尔莫华, 天王星 In Xataka | The key to China’s success with rare earths are not the rare earths: it is the magnet In Xataka | China’s domain of rare earths has nothing to do with geography: it is born from 39 university programs

If we want to know what the end of cash will be like, we just have to look at a country that is living it: China

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If you go to China and enter a trade, the most normal thing is that you cannot pay with cash. The blue and green logos of Alipay (Ant Group) and Wechat Pay (Tencent) dominate everything, and have been relegating to traditional coins and bills to an absolute background. While in the West we discuss what to do With cash And Europe considers What will happen to the digital euroIn China they are clear. Cash, nothing. Supermarkets, coffees, taxis, or public transport are some of the many types of scenarios in which The Chinese already pay with Alipay or Wechat Pay. At any point where it is necessary to pay the blue and green logos of these applications, everything dominate, and in fact many businesses do not even have a cash register. According to Le Mondemany taxis and local businesses refuse to accept cash payments, and if they accept them, they do not even have change for buyers. Source: Wikimedia Only the elderly pay with tickets. Ma Dian, a Hubei fruits and vegetable seller, commented in this newspaper how the disappearance of cash payments has lived. “I only accept effective to help the elderly. Below the 80s, practically everyone has made the change. Above, it is much more difficult to adapt.” The elderly are here the greats harmed, and they must ask their relatives for help from the difficulty that they propose to make mobile payments with Alipay or Wechat Pay. QR codes everywhere. The QR codes that we usually see in restaurants in Spain to consult the letter dominate everything in China. There the shops have static or dynamic codes (on screens such as TPV) that customers scan. If we are facing a static code, the client usually has to introduce the amount to be paid. In dynamic codes, the amount is automatically shown. The last step is to authenticate with a password, facial recognition or a fingerprint. Although initially Alipay and Wechat Pay used different codes, in some cases unified QR codes are already used for both apps and it is the client who chooses with which app works on his mobile. Banks lose relevance. The absolute presence of these two digital payment systems have caused Chinese banks – government supplies – also have a secondary role for many clients. It is necessary to have a bank account to have it linked to these applications, but its mobile applications and services are totally overshadowed by Alipay and Wechat Pay, with which users do it practically everything in the field of payments and economic transactions. As John Engen said In American Bankerbanks are often reduced to “passive actors.” Powerful, but at bay. Although both Alibaba and Tencent have managed to monopolize these transactions, the Chinese government It has already demonstrated that remain entities that can be punished in a wrecking way. It happened in 2020 when Ant Group He was about From going to heel. Jack Ma criticized his government at that time, which caused The cancellation of that IPO and An exile of years for one of the great figures of entrepreneurship in China. China wants its digital renminbi. The Chinese Central Bank has been looking for a digital currency for years. Your digital renminbi or Yuan Digital You are also getting more than being an alternative to the dollar: is creating a parallel system. The objective is to have an alternative to the popularity of cryptocurrencies, but a controlled by the Chinese authorities. Although the deployment of this digital currency has been in progress for years, its prominence is very limited, and Momne both Alipay and Wechat Pay continue to dominate everything. And tourists, what. Both platforms, which before They made it difficult To tourists, they have progressively adapted to their needs. For approximately two years both Alipay and Wechat Pay allow foreign visitors to create an account in these applications and associate it with a credit card. Last year too They increased The transaction limits, which in Alipay went from $ 1,000 to 5,000, for example. Better with Chinese mobile number. In Wechat Pay it is even possible to access a kind of purse that they can fill in so as not to associate your Credit card to the app, and thus make small payments. It is necessary to have Internet access for these payments, and hire a SIM or a local ESIM to get a Chinese number – for example, for Validations with SMS – is especially recommended to facilitate this type of transactions. Image | Sergio Kian In Xataka | China has made a drastic decision and unpredictable consequences: prioritizing “its” technology, even worse

China wanted to be the queen of high -speed trains. So he built all the longest bridges in the world

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Although Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are immersed in a war for have the highest skyscrapers in the worldwhen we talk about megaconstructions, there is no one to have China. It doesn’t matter if we talk about tunnels, Dams, roads and even half -skyscraper. And, when we talk about bridges, there yes There is no rival. From time to time They complete a new pharaonic bridgebut if there is something that shows China’s muscle about it, they are the bridges of the Beijing-Shanghái line. Because it is in it where the three longest bridges are located in the world. Massive and … boring? He Great Danyang-Kunshan bridge It is the longest bridge in the world. It measures just over 164 kilometers and can also be the most boring bridge in the world. The reason is that it is a bridge in which functionality prevailed. It is part of the high -speed network that joins Beijing and Shanghai and in its construction, 10,000 workers used 450,000 tons of steel and 2.3 million m3 of concrete to give life to a structure that had to endure possible ships of ships and the impact of earthquakes. It has 2,000 pillars, 22 tunnels, it has an average altitude of just over 30 meters and trains circulate at a speed of more than 320 km/h. Declaration of intentions. The most striking thing is that it only took four years to complete the work. It is an achievement if we consider that other bridges, such as the Constitution of Cádizthey took more than seven years for about three kilometers. They began in 2006 and the works were completed in 2010, inaugurating both the bridge and the line in 2011. The investment? 8,500 million dollars, and although in later bridges we have seen an aesthetic intention by the engineers, that of Danyang-Kunshan was a declaration of intentions. It became a global reference in rail engineering, but above all in a sample of the Technological advance of the country when undertaking the Infrastructure construction large scale in record time. It is something that has also attracted attention to subsequent works, the speed at which things do, especially, in many occasions of works of great complexity. In dark red, the bridge. In clear red, part of the full line Beijing-Shanghai, a monster. Because although this bridge Have the Guiness record in length and it was an important technical advance, the most imposing thing is that it is only a piece of the puzzle that supposes the high -speed line Between Beijing and Shanghai. It is a connection with a length of 1,318 kilometers and, apart from that of Danyang-Kunshan, there are three other bridges that are on the list of the 10 longest in the world. He Great Bridge of Cangde measures 115.9 kilometers and the Great Tianjin Bridge It “stays” at 113.7 kilometers. The three are the longest in the world, and in the seventh place on the list is the Great Bridge of Beijingwith 48.2 kilometers. The four were completed for the inauguration of the line in 2011, assuming a pharaonic work and, in total, representing a third of the total line length. The artificial island of the Hong-Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge, which is a bridge over the water until it becomes a submarine “bridge” It is called obsession. Because, if we look at the list of the longest trains in the world, China is a constant, monopolizing with eight structures the top ten positions. Not only are they very long bridges to house train lines (the Weinan Weije It has 102.7 kilometers, but it is not from the Beijing-Shanghai line), also for roads. The fifth longest bridge in the world is Hong-Kong-Zhuhai-Macaohe longest maritime bridge With 55 kilometers (and, this yes, quite attractive), the eighth of the list is the Quingdao Haiwanwith another 44.5 kilometers of road and the tenth is the bridge of line 1 of the Wuhan Metro with 37.7 kilometers. Within those positions of honor, we only find a 54 -kilometer Thai bridge, the Band Na Expresswayand the Lake Pontchartrain Road in the United States with 38.4 kilometers. Images | Mnxanl(2) Pechristener, Highestbridges In Xataka | Three highways, 20 access ramps: China has the most diabolical exchanger in the world in Huangjuewan

China already has an army of drones and firefighters. And fight the fire to cannon

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In recent days, a video has gone viral in Chinese networks: that of a skyscraper 150 meters with flames at the top. The special thing is that, fighting the flames there were no human firefighters, but drones. And, however futuristic it is, the craziest thing is that those drones are not alone: ​​next to you there are dogs, Robot dogs that have already been incorporated into the Fire Department. Fire drones. Fire can appear at any time. In Spain we know well, especially in summerand fighting it is dangerous for specialists. A way to give a first response to fire is Through robots and drones. But apart from being able to fight the fire without putting us at risk, the advantage is that they can reach high points to which a human would take longer to access. That’s why being able to fly, basically. In the video that we leave on these lines we can see some maneuvers in which two strategies against fire are raised. One is the most striking: robots that, armed with hoses, expel water and foam to placate the flames that appear abroad. As we say, it is something we carry years Seeing in different maneuvers in China. Fighting the fire to missile. Thus, there are several drones that can already rise to 200 meters and start fighting the flames in less than 30 seconds. It is a figure that a human cannot match and that gives time to land equipment to address the entrance to the building and rescue work. One of those models is the HZH CF30a drone with six blades capable of loading up to 30 kilos of weight and that has an interesting feature: it can be equipped with a multitude of tools, from emergency equipment for survival work to missile pitchers that are thrown into the interior to placate the flames from within. EHANG 216F. But there are also manned vehicles. An example is the EHANG 216-Fsimilar to the one that has already completed Test flights for the National Police of Spainbut focused on tasks of extinction and fire assessment in upper skyscrapers. With 16 propellers, an electric motor per propeller, a maximum speed of 130 km/Hy a flight time of 21 minutes, firefighters can use it in two ways. One, as an identification vehicle. Thanks to the camera and sensors like lidarThey can identify the location of the most critical points to act. The second, as a direct action vehicle thanks to its pressurized nozzle to expel fire extinction fluid and its six projectiles full of dry dust superfine. The payload they can transport is 220 kilos and the idea is that the cities fire stations can respond to fires in high -rise buildings that are within a three -kilometer radius with respect to the station itself. Special Unitree B2. Beyond the autonomous and manned drones, another recent added to the Fire Response forces are the United Square robots. Yes, the New Chinese technological jewel that has put to fight to two of his robots. A few weeks ago, They announced A version of your UNITREE B2 Designed for emergencies in dangerous environments. It is a modular robot that can be used within flames buildings to locate the focus, evaluate the level of gases or, directly, use a water and foam cannon that can be coupled to the spine. This model is reinforced with more resistant joints that help greater security when the robot is move through complicated landsuch as stairs or collapsed buildings. As we say, it has several modules that can be installed, being one of them a kind of “shield” that expels water not to turn off the fire, but to prevent the robot from overheating and can, thus, continue to operate in complicated conditions with fire. Rescue robots. And that there is so much device focused on rescue and emergency work in China is not a coincidence. It is something that is being promoted from companies and Governmentas demonstrates the recent International Emergency Exhibition of the Yangtze River Delta. Although it seems a specific name, the Expo has become a meeting point in which innovations are shown in the field of security, rescue work and disaster prevention. 500 companies from 20 countries gathered to show their technology, being models such as that of Unitree some of the main dishes of the event. Because, in the end, China is not alone in this. Japan already has its “Dragon firefighter”To combat the fire and we are clear that they can also be Help in natural disastersas forest fires. Images | UNITREE, Ehang In Xataka | In China patrol a new unstoppable police robot: identifies objectives, launches networks, gas bombs and almost never rests

China has won the data war without stealing any. We have given them to them

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Despite the bodies that are usually tried to attribute in that sense, at least much more disproportionately than on the other side of the Pacific, China has not needed to steal secrets or technological secrets of the West. We have given them to them in a silver tray. Why is it important. There are several cases that do not mean much but united form a puzzle. For example, Apple and Its accumulated investment of 55,000 million dollars in China to “form” in advanced manufacturing. Or bytedance accumulating billions of hours of video labeling – and western– To train the most sophisticated recommendation algorithm we know. And now Apple can repeat the pattern with AI. The context. The dominant narrative points to Chinese industrial espionage as a cause of its technological boom. It is not so simple: Western companies have been the greatest facilitators of technological transfer in modern history, and did it voluntarily. The promise in return: margins. In the short term. The panoramic. Apple was one of the great responsible for China’s change, which went from manufacturer Low Cost A superpower of manufacturing in just two decades. Bytedance has converted western behavior data – hours and hours deciding what we like and what is not based on Scroll– In algorithmic supremacy for a five years. Tesla accelerated the Chinese ecosystem of electric vehicles and now he has turned against him. DJI dominated civil drones by processing Western Maps. The pattern is repeated: West delivers knowledge, China absorbs it and begins to overcome it. Terry Gou, founder of Foxconn, understood that it was better to sacrifice immediate margins in exchange for tie up a company like Apple to get free training by US engineers. Between the lines. China applied what we could call “reverse Trojan horse.” Instead of infiltrating, it attracted Western companies to come voluntarily. Apple’s is a paradigmatic case: for years he thought it was she who was conquering China, but the reality seen with perspective is that It has been China who has conquered Apple. Examples: The progressive assignments of sovereignty. Apple has accepted content restrictions or Mandatory storage on local serverssomething that led many hands to many heads at the time just for the EU to end up demanding something very similar. Logistics dependence without turning. There is no plan B, leaving China would be a slow, expensive movement that would require many years and many dollars. The massive transfer of knowledge. The aforementioned formations to millions of Chinese workers, the investments of more than 7,000 million in own equipment for foreign factories. China has absorbed that know-how. Yes, but. Apple generated thanks to this a company of 3 billion dollars. In 2000 it was around 4,000 million. Thousands of times less. That growth could not have happened investing elsewhere. Tesla would have taken much longer to master the electric car without Chinese industrial capacity. The problem is the aforementioned: there is no medium -term plan can not have it. Without China, Apple cannot manage its complex logistics, its millions of daily components. Nor access engineers to dominate them. And now… Apple is working with Alibaba to take Apple Intelligence to China for legal imperative. Is being more complicated than it seemed. And bytedance I would prefer to close Tiktok in the United States rather than sell its valuable algorithm. The employer is also repeated here: Western companies seek to access the Chinese market delivering their most valuable technology. The threat. China is increasingly dominating the massive adoption of AI with models mainly open source. Tencent has already integrated Depseek in Wechat For its more than one billion users. In China, AI is not a separate application, but is integrated into what is already widely used. Possibly the next generation of intelligent agents will repeat the pattern of Apple and Foxconn. But in the field of software. China is not winning the data career spying on the West. He is winning for having opened the door for the West to teach him everything he needed to know in exchange for greater quarterly benefits. Today the student has become a teacher and is the one who puts the standards. In Xataka | For Apple, the price of its iPhone was sacred. Until he started falling into a vacuum in China Outstanding image | Collabstr in Unspash

The United States is creating “the iPhone of AI”. China is doing “the Android of AI”

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There is an interesting paradox in the current development of AI that says more about geopolitics than about technology: USAtraditionally leader in proprietary software and monetization, is building closed models of AI. Chinahistorically more restrictive with the flow of information, it is leading the open source AI. An investment that is not accidental: each block adopts the strategy that best serves its structural interests. → United States (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google), is building the equivalent of the IPhone of the AI: Very sophisticated systems. Vertical integration. PUPLE POLIDED PREMIUM EXPERIENCES that justify charging for access. The logic is clear: when you control the best GPUS, the main cloud services and you have the capital to train the most advanced models, monetizing that advantage through payment APIs makes immediate economic sense. It is the model that has holding American software for decades. → China, on the other hand, with Deepseek, Qwen and Minimax Mastering the rankings of open models, it is creating the Android of the AI: A free and modifiable ecosystem. Downloadable for local use without depending on payment APIS. Permissive licenses without business restrictions, Unlike Meta with Flame. Accessible source code for independent research and development. As we said at the timethis approach is not due to altruism, nor by cultural difference. It is a strategy based on creating global dependence on a Stack Chinese technological when American becomes inaccessible. Or at least, to present it as a very attractive alternative even before seeing its results. It is true that he calls is American and is also in the league of the greats being open source (With an asterisk of the size of Mestalla). A habitual hypothesis also seems feasible: that target was released precisely because it was behind. The classic defensive strategy to erode the advantage of leaders. China does it from another position: growing strength. And in addition, having to deal with access restrictions to western markets. When your rival controls chips and cloud platforms, and can cut the tap at any time, the only way to create an alternative ecosystem is to make it so accessible that the world cannot ignore it. Soft Power Technological: give today to dominate tomorrow. That, or cling to developing markets plus the gigantic domestic market. This is how Huawei stopped competing to build a parallel reality. The numbers speak alone. According to the Benchmarks of artificial analysis (based in California, not in Shenzen), The three best open source models leave China. Each startup that Depseek uses instead of GPT, each country of the southern hemisphere that displays Chinese models because they are free, each university that trains over Qwen instead of Claude, is another node of the ecosystem that the United States cannot censor, regulate or disconnect unilaterally. It is a story very similar to that of The slow but unstoppable Chinese independence of GPS: In two decades it is no longer that I do not need it, it is that Beidou has reached 140 countries. It is also true that There are traps in both strategies: The American model generates immediate income but creates incentives for the rest of the world to look for alternatives, especially when commercial wars are intensified. Competence. The Chinese model conquers users but at some point it will need to monetize without frightening its base. The latter is something that Google learned with Android for the bad ones: after conquering 70% of the world, it began to monetize it aggressively and ended up receiving huge fines in Europe, antitrust demands in the United States and Chinese alternatives … as Harmonyos de Huawei. The circle closes. The lesson is that giving technology to create dependence works, but monetize that dependence once established attracts the attention that nobody wants: that of regulators. It is the dilemma that China will eventually face its “free” models of AI. The real battle is not for today’s best, but to control the Intellectual infrastructure Tomorrow. The United States sells the premium service. China gives the universal operating system. And the outcome will be that of two historically successful, but opposite philosophies: the American persistence by aggressively monetizing in front of Chinese patience to invest decades if necessary until it can lead. Immediate income against long -term dependence. Time will say. In Xataka | Four AI companies are monopolizing the intellectual future of humanity. They are not good news Outstanding image | Ilgmyzin in UnspashAlibaba, Xataka

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