china

China is about to launch the most powerful cargo drone in the world. And it will move it with hydrogen

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The aeronautical industry has been researching and experimenting for quite some time. with hydrogen turboprop engines on airplanes. A Chinese company is about to break that barrier, as it has taken off an airplane with one of these megawatt-scale engines. Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) has completed the first test flight of the AEP100, installed on a 7.5-ton cargo drone, in an operation that took off from Zhuzhou airport, in Hunan province. what has happened. The device flew for 16 minutes, reached an altitude of 300 meters and traveled 36 kilometers at a speed of 220 km/h before landing without incident. According to AECC, the engine operated stably throughout the flight profile and responded as expected. Chinese state media present it as the world’s first flight with a hydrogen turboprop of this power. Why is it relevant?. Yes, it is a short, unmanned, low-altitude test. But this means that hydrogen aeronautical propulsion leaves the laboratory and test benches to face real flight conditions. AECC maintains that the country already has a complete technological chain for hydrogen aeronautical engines, from essential components to system integration. direct combustion. The AEP100 does not use fuel cells to power an electric motor. It burns liquid hydrogen directly in a turbine cycle, just as a conventional turboprop would burn kerosene. This is the main difference with other bets. Airbus, for example, has prioritized fuel cells on its roadmap to a hydrogen commercial aircraft in 2035, while China has opted for direct combustion. Combustion is more complicated to tame in engineering, but offers much higher power density, something key to scaling up to larger aircraft. What aircraft is it intended for?. The AEP100 is custom designed for the W5000, a twin-engine cargo drone developed by Chinese startup Air White Whale. According to the manufacturer’s data, we are talking about a device with a maximum takeoff weight of 10.8 tons, 5 tons of payload, more than 65 cubic meters of hold and a range of 2,600 kilometers. Just like share from China Daily, when it completes its first flight, it will become the most powerful transport drone in the world, surpassing the Norinco Luca. Deadlines. Yuan An, general manager of subsidiary AE General Aviation Power Tech, has explained The engine is in the final phase of the type certification process and they hope to obtain approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in 2027. The process is progressing faster than usual because the AEP100 shares a core with the AES100 turboshaft, which shortens procedures. Yuan has also assured that the AEP100 and its variants will “end the heavy dependence on foreign engines” in Chinese general aviation. Where will it be used first?. For now, we have to forget about getting on a hydrogen-powered passenger plane. The bet goes through what they call the “low altitude economy”that is, situations in which unmanned cargo drones, inter-island logistics or controlled transport routes to remote areas are used, being scenarios where hydrogen refueling infrastructure, certification and operational economics are more manageable than in passenger aviation. Yuan remember also that the United States has more than 275,000 general aviation aircraft, while in China there are only a few thousand. The problems that remain unresolved. Burning hydrogen in a turbine is no small feat, as you can imagine. It burns at higher temperatures than kerosene and with a much higher flame speed, which requires the design of systems that avoid autoignition, flame flashbacks and combustion oscillations. Added to this is storage, since liquid hydrogen requires cryogenic temperatures close to -253 ° C, heavily insulated tanks and, most likely, redesigning the geometry of the fuselage itself to accommodate it. Sustainability. aviation Today it is around 2% of global CO₂ emissions, a figure that could skyrocket in the coming decades if the sector maintains its dependence on fossil fuels. China aims to reduce its exposure to imported oil in an increasingly complicated geopolitical scenario, so hydrogen can fit into both narratives. And now what. China’s road map mark 2028 as horizon to validate similar technologies in small unmanned aircraft, helicopters and urban air mobility, 2035 for applications in broader regions and 2050 for large commercial turbofan aircraft. The first flight of the W5000 with the AEP100 installed is expected in the coming months and will be the next litmus test. Cover image | CCTV In Xataka | For China, DeepSeek is more than just AI: it is the key to creating an industry that makes them independent of Nvidia

China already has a GPU that competes with Nvidia’s RTX 3060. The bad thing is that it arrives five years late and worse

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The china crusade for achieving the complete independence in the field of semiconductors has taken a new step. The problem is that this step has not been as promising as we expected, and in fact it makes it clear that today the Asian giant is still far away of the semiconductor manufacturers that dominate the market. The alternative for gamers that promised. Lisuan Tech (砺算科技), a Chinese company dedicated to manufacturing semiconductors and solutions such as graphics cards for the end-user market, has launched its new GPU for the consumer market, the LX-7G100. The price and expectations. The official starting price is 3,299 yuan (about 420 euros at the exchange rate), and at that price the equivalent graphics card should be at least an RTX5060 Ti, which is usually below 400 euros. What we get in performance is far from that. Performance tests of the LX-7G100 typically fell well short of the RTX 3060.Source: NotebookCheck. Worse than the RTX 3060. The problem is that those who have had access to this graphics card and have evaluated their benefits They have realized that this manufacturer’s GPU is very far from that price/performance estimate. In fact, it usually competes more with the RTX 3060 of 2021, but even with it it loses: it offers approximately 65% of the performance from its rival NVIDIA. Good specifications. On paper, the LX-7G100 should offer more performance. It has a 7G106 GPU, 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and decent bandwidth, for example. However, it does not have truly mature support for DX12 and does not offer an alternative to Nvidia’s DSLL or AMD’s FSR. When used in modern games, performance plummets due to rendering glitches and code translation bottlenecks. Not even for AI. At Lisuan Tech they have also tried to bet on their ability to run local and private AI models. However, most of the development of AI projects is linked to Nvidia’s CUDA architecture. It is true that the Chinese company has its own compatibility layer to translate PyTorch and CUDA code to its native architecture, but the loss of efficiency is notable, which makes inference or local model training tasks become too slow compared to those allowed by Nvidia graphics. difficult to compete. Lisuan Technology announced the first milestones of this launch a year ago. The rumors they indicated that its G100 graphics processor is manufactured by SMIC with a 6nm photolithographic process that complies with US restrictions. An attempt was made to launch in 2023, but Lisuan had financial problems and a capital injection of $27.7 million managed to keep the project going. It remains to be seen if sales ultimately follow through, although certainly its price/performance ratio makes it attractive only to audiences like the Chinese, who may have more difficulties accessing models like the Nvidia RTX. In Xataka | The end of Nvidia in China seems to be very near: its current market share is 0%

China is very clear that the future of education involves AI, so it is going to require its teachers to have knowledge

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China has one objective between its eyebrows: become the first world power. It is clearly an ambitious objective, but in the latest Five-Year Plan they detail the roadmap that must be followed to achieve that goal in the period 2026-2030. That of the five year plans is a very communist tradition which was not born in China, but in the Soviet Union, but which the Asian giant began to implement in 1953. It consists of setting guidelines to achieve certain objectives in all the main areas of the country. And one of those objectives is to be sovereign in artificial intelligence. This does not happen have models either chips to train those models: goes through an industrial renewal of all the legs of the system ranging from how it is designed, how it is applied, how it is powered and, above all, how AI is taught. And, to comply with it, China is clear that this is not just a matter for students: teachers must be on the hook. Teachers, learn AI to teach AI In April of this year, China’s Ministry of Education launchedwith the support of other government agencies, the “AI+ Education Action Plan” program. This is a national plan to integrate AI throughout the educational system with the aim of building “an AI literacy system for all levels of schooling and throughout life.” The Ministry exposes We are entering a new era in which teaching and learning must be reconfigured to ensure that all students acquire basic knowledge of AI. That is, it is clear that AI is important and that it is being used in classrooms around the world, but China is aiming for a profound update of the educational program. With this, they show that They consider AI a pillar of the future of education And, if students must obtain knowledge in AI and then be able to apply it in a world in which they will coexist with these systems, someone must transmit that knowledge to them. That will be the new job of the teaching staff. All primary and secondary school students in Beijing receive at least eight class hours of AI courses per academic year – Li Yi, director of the Beijing Education Commission This revision of the educational plan specifies that the program will incorporate AI exams into teacher qualification exams. In fact, this is not something that starts now. In 2025, the Ministry of Education published two guides about the use of AI and generative artificial intelligence to primary and secondary schools. That same year, the Administration organized specific training sessions in AI for directors of primary and secondary schools in which he emphasized the need to reinforce the digital and AI skills of teachers so that they can take advantage of their functions. In the end, everything is framed in that desire to have a world-class educational system by 2035 because this extends beyond primary and secondary school. That “AI literacy” order incorporate AI also in extracurricular services, as well as in vocational training and university, becoming in these cycles a general basic course with programs and degrees aligned with the industrial transformation driven by AI. “We teach children to use LLMs to solve problems and most importantly: think critically, question whether the AI’s answers are correct, and verify information from multiple sources” – Yao Xiaoying, principal of a primary school in Shenzhen And you may be wondering what teachers should apply to comply with this “AI literacy.” Here things are a bit fuzzy because speaks to promote the use of teaching systems throughout the educational process to automate tasks (such as tutoring, questions and answers and corrections), as well as analyze teaching practices so that their workload is reduced and they can spend more time training young people. For the adult population there is also a plan: carry out learning courses so that they adapt and are not left behind. Difficulties The truth is that there has been a debate about this situation for some time. Given the commotion caused by this, the Minister of Education came out lecture to prohibit students from using AI to complete their assignments. As we said before, AI should only be a supervised support tool. Because basically there is a question of class and resources, and there are already those who warn that AI can widen the social gap. While in large cities where parents may have more resources and educational level, families and the center can do a good job in training in AI so that children know how to use it and question the answers. However, in more rural areas where there may be less education, families have lower incomes, and parents must work longer hours, students run the risk of being “locked in” in some cubicles that have begun to bloom by several locations in which there is a tablet, it proposes tests and supervises the children’s responses, but does not teach or explain the subject. There are also those who point Almost as interesting as knowing the Government’s plans for teaching AI to both teachers and students is checking the speed at which all this goes from a political document to the reality of the classroom. In Xataka | China continues to draw up five-year plans in the old communist way. Objective: tech self-sufficiency

If the question is how to deflect projectiles without skyrocketing military costs, China has found the solution: crocodiles

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In recent years, the US military has even tested fibers inspired in spider silk for future bulletproof vests. The reason was simple: some natural materials achieve absorb impacts and deform better than many modern artificial compounds. The idea of ​​using animals. The search for more effective shielding has been inspired by natural solutions for decades. Since the Second World War, different armies have studied biological structures capable of absorbing impacts, distribute energy or resist attacks better than expected. China has just joined this tradition with a peculiar proposal: armor inspired by the crocodile scales. The logic behind the project is simple. Instead of relying solely on making armor thicker, heavier and more expensive, researchers are trying to modify the way projectiles hit the surface to force them to deflect, lose stability and fragment before passing through. How it works. The Ningbo University team replaced the traditional hexagonal plates used in many armors composed of small rhomboidal ceramic pieces placed at 45 degree angles. The arrangement imitates the irregular, overlapping structure of crocodile scales. During testing, the design was able to more effectively reduce the residual velocity of hardened steel projectiles and increase fragmentation of the ammunition upon impact. The objective is not only to withstand the shot, but to alter the physical behavior of the projectile at the moment of contact so that part of its energy is lost before reaching the main armor. The obsession with reducing costs. The most relevant thing about the project is not only the additional protection, but the attempt to make it cheaper. Chinese researchers they insist in that any structural improvement that allows the same materials to be used with better results can greatly reduce the manufacturing cost. There is no doubt, this obsession makes a lot of sense in modern warfare. Shielding vehicles, helicopters or troops against increasingly powerful ammunition requires enormous amounts of advanced materials and gigantic budgets. From that perspective, if a relatively simple geometric modification achieves better results without increasing weight or industrial complexity, the economic impact can be enormous on a large scale. Logic born of recent wars. If you like, the Chinese research also reflects a broader change that is already seen in Ukraine and other recent conflicts: it is increasingly important economic efficiency of weapons and defenses. For years, military innovation was dominated by extremely sophisticated and expensive systems. Now many countries are looking for solutions that are sufficiently effective, easy to manufacture and sustainable in long wars. In this sense, Russia already demonstrated how relatively simple glider bombs could cause enormous problems at low cost. Ukraine responded with cheap drones capable of destroying much more expensive equipment. The shielding crocodile inspired fits perfectly into this new logic: trying to unbalance the relationship between cost and effectiveness without having to resort to futuristic technologies that are impossible to mass produce. Future battlefields. For now, the Chinese system remains in the experimental phase and still needs much more demanding tests, including multiple impacts and firing from different angles. Still, researchers believe it could end up being used in armored vehicles, helicopters, ships and even light aerospace structures. What is interesting is that China does not present the project as a spectacular technological revolution, but rather as a pragmatic improvement based on simple principles. geometry and materials. An idea that pretty well sums up where part of current military innovation is heading: less obsession with creating impossible weapons and more interest in find smart ways and relatively cheap to survive in an environment where each projectile and each armor cost more and more money. Image | David Shackelford, PXHere, Unsplash In Xataka | China is manufacturing missiles at an unprecedented speed. And the final objective is not Taiwan, it is another island 3,000 km away In Xataka | China has made a science fiction dream come true: an electromagnetic cannon capable of reaching 3,000 shots per minute

While China boasts of its high-speed trains, there are others that go at 40 km/h and are just as important

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We have spoken on many occasions about the enormous China’s railway infrastructurewith a very extensive network of high speed trains who serve this colossal country. But in parallel to this technological showcase, China also operates another network of trains that travel at less than 40 km/h, cost less than the price of a coffee and have not raised their prices for decades. And no, they are not a vestige of the past that no one has bothered to dismantle. They are perfectly functional and provide a very important service in the country. What exactly are they? They are officially known as public welfare trains, although many of the population refer to them as “slow trains for the poor.” The Chinese government maintains 81 active routes of this type throughout the country, all of them inherited from the era of Mao (Mao Zedong, who ruled the People’s Republic of China from 49 until his death in 76) and preserved as a social service. According to collect Marketplace, are trains painted in military green with a yellow stripe (the classic image of the Chinese railway before modernization) that stop at each station along the way, including small remote villages that no other transportation connects with the outside. Its prices are so low that the train itself has a sign painted on the side that identifies it as a “slow train in the fight against poverty.” How cheap are they? To give an example, the minimum fare for the train that travels 376 kilometers between the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan is 2 yuan, which is equivalent to about 25 euro cents. The maximum, for the complete journey of more than 11 hours, is 25.5 yuan (less than 3.50 euros). According to People’s Dailythat price has not changed for more than 30 years. What are they really for? The point is that these trains not only transport passengers, they are economic, health and educational infrastructure for communities that would otherwise be isolated. People’s Daily account how some carriages incorporate notice boards with crop prices to facilitate trade between farmers and urban buyers. In several trains, rows of seats have been removed so that farmers can board with their goods (vegetables, chickens, construction materials, etc.) without restrictions. Just like account According to the Xinhua agency, these types of trains are like a mobile artery that takes villagers to the market, transports livestock and allows children to go to school in the nearest towns. Tsocial ermometer. Axi Aga has been working on train 5633 since 1996. He started as a flight attendant when passengers boarded carrying potatoes, corn flour and turnips, and could barely afford instant noodles during the journey. In 2020 explained to the portal of the Chinese State Council (SCIO) that currently sees passengers boarding who are concerned about how they are dressed, wearing traditional costumes on holidays and recording videos for social networks. “The train is like a mobile town in which I have witnessed the changes it has brought to people over the last 25 years,” he told the outlet. According to Aga, girls used to barely appear among the students. Today they represent two thirds of the students who use the train. Beyond transportation. In recent decades, these routes have evolved into something more akin to a service platform. According to People’s Dailysome trains in the north of the country already have shelves of books, study tables with plugs and school supplies for children who do their homework during the journey, with conductors who help them during breaks. They also carry hot water bottles, thermal bags and portable chargers. In winter, the carriages are kept at 20 degrees to protect passengers from the freezing cold. Furthermore, over time they have incorporated air conditioning and progressive improvements without giving up their public service mission. Why the government keeps them at a loss. They are more of a social policy strategy than a commercial one. These routes lose money, since their fares do not cover operating costs and the State subsidizes them directly. The decision to maintain them is simply territorial cohesion, that is, ensuring that the most remote and poorest areas of the country are not disconnected from the rest of China. The Global Times points out that these routes have been in operation for more than 60 years and that the national railway considers them a structural measure to combat poverty, not a residual service. Cover image | Wikimedia Commons and People’s Daily In Xataka | 16,000 passengers per hour, 9.5 billion trips: China is showing the world what high speed is for

In its leap to electric cars, Europe fears total dependence on China. Your solutions arrive (quite) late

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The rope tightens. This time it is Europe that pulls to its side. Or, at least, that is what he wants according to what is stated in Financial Timeswhere we read that the European Union wants to force car manufacturers to reduce their level of dependence on China. Now, forcing them to buy fewer components from their suppliers. A new goal. It is, according to Financial Timeswhat the European Union wants to impose on companies in key sectors such as automobiles, industrial machinery or the chemical sector. In the newspaper’s information we read that European institutions are looking for tools to put pressure on their own companies. In the information, which is attributed to two European officials familiar with this project, the objective is to put a limit on the percentage of components that can be supplied to a single country. That is, if a company wants to manufacture a product in Europe, it could not buy all of its components (or the vast majority) from China. To distribute the purchases. If the project goes ahead as we read in the British media, a company could only buy between 30 and 40% of its components from the same country. It is sought that, at least, the origin of the parts that, in this case, make up a car is from three suppliers and from at least three different countries. This would not be much of a problem if it were not for the fact that the 30-40% barrier could not be overcome. “Gradually dependent”. “In many areas we are gradually becoming dependent on China’s exports,” the words are from a senior European Union official consulted by the newspaper. According to Financial Timesthe organizations are very aware of the extent to which a stoppage of Chinese factories or exports can damage the European economy. In fact, last summer some factories had to stop or saw their production compromised after China put greater impediments to export of products in which rare earths are used such as the magnets in electric car motors. Just a few months later, The Nexperia crisis once again set off the alarms of possible interruptions in the supply chain since a good part of the chips used by the European industry uses components from this company. They are not key products for its operation but without them, a car cannot be sold because They are essential for auxiliary but basic functions How to raise and lower the car window. 1 billion. That is what, according to Financial Timesthey calculate in the European Union that we lose to China. 1,000 million euros of deficit in the trade balance. 1,000 million. Diaries. The figure has been floating for two years now. and the automotive industry is one of those that has suffered the most. According to the European Union, they have achieved this with a doped industry, which has led to the lifting of tariffs on electric cars arriving from China. And the Chinese manufacturers have wanted to land abroad on our continent but also the Europeans have wanted to manufacture in China because it was cheaper. Spain? According to Anfac dataIn Spain we have a deficit in our trade balance of 5,000 million euros annually if we talk about components. As the second largest car producer in Europe, our auxiliary fabric is not enough and we need to buy components worth 16,893 million euros when exports exceed 11,525 million euros. There is no data on the origin of these imported components but we do know that The second country that exports the most cars to Spain is China. Last year, 9.2% of cars purchased in our country from outside our borders arrived from China. Very far, yes, from the German 26%. The problem is that despite importing cars worth almost 2.7 billion euros, China does not appear among the 10 countries to which we export the most cars and we barely place 658 million euros in exports to all of Asia. The game of balance. Yet the European Union is discovering that perhaps it has arrived late to the trade battle. Yes, it has lifted tariffs on electric cars sold from China but the country’s tentacles reach deep into vehicles made in Europe, producing all kinds of cheap components but also producing key technology such as semiconductors or batteries of electric cars. China is aware that it can squeeze European industry but it also needs our trade to export all the cars that are already surplus there. It is no coincidence that Europe has not imposed tariffs on cars arrived with combustion engines and? have negotiated with China the possibility of lifting trade barriers to electric cars. The Band-Aid. Until now, a very important part of the components used in European cars had their origin within the borders of the European Union itself. However, China’s weight has skyrocketed in recent years. In 2024, China has already become the main exporter of cars to Europe and the weight of its components within the cars manufactured here is increasingly greater, which reduces the competitiveness of our exports, according to this report BBVA. This imbalance is doubly worrying because the European Union is trying to reduce Chinese dependence now that it is seeking to make the definitive leap to the electric car, a technology where the Asian country dominates the supply chain. In recent months, Europe has tried to curb dependence promoting mineral mining on our soil or battery production but Chinese dependence remains evident. Photo | Michael Fourset and Sou Jest In Xataka | Japan has been charging a 0% tariff on foreign cars for half a century. It will be very difficult for you to find one on the street.

China is trying another way to surpass the US number one

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Every time we talk about large-scale artificial intelligence we end up reaching the same point: data centers and their enormous amounts of GPUs. It’s not a coincidence. This type of chip has become a centerpiece because it is especially well suited to running many operations in parallel, just the kind of work that requires training AI models and running them at scale. We take it almost for granted: more AI, more GPU. But that equivalence does not exhaust all possibilities. China is trying a different routeone that tries to answer the same question from another place: what happens if the AI ​​​​muscle is built only with CPUs. CPU instead of GPU. HPC Wire notes that China has begun to deploy several CPU-only supercomputers in recent years for AI workloads and high-performance computing, largely due to US restrictions that limit its access to enough advanced GPUs for these types of systems. The difference is important: we are not simply talking about a technical preference, but rather a response conditioned by the geopolitical context. When access to the most coveted hardware is limited, the alternative is to squeeze out our own architectures and reduce external dependency. LineShine. The most striking case of this strategy is this supercomputer, linked to the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen. According to South China Morning Postit is a machine built entirely with domestic CPUs and designed to work without a GPU. The media also reports that Huang Xiaohui, deputy director of the Shenzhen center, presented it as an integrated architecture capable of supporting both traditional high-performance computing and artificial intelligence loads. The system, they explain, uses 47,000 CPUs spread across 92 computing cabinets. The LX2 chip. The piece that allows us to lower that bet into the realm of hardware is the LX2 processor, described as an Armv9 chip designed for AI loads and high-performance computing. Each CPU integrates two chiplets and has 304 cores, organized in eight clusters of 38 cores each. The architecture includes Arm SVE and SME units, designed to accelerate vector and matrix operations, widely present in AI training and scientific computing. Added to that is an unusual combination of HBM memory in the package itself and external DDR5, a mix aimed at moving a lot of data quickly without giving up capacity. The power. LineShine is designed to reach 2 exaflops, a figure with which China aims to place it above The Captainthe Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory supercomputer that is the current world leader with almost 1.8 exaflops. Huang Xiaohui, deputy director of the Shenzhen center, went further at a conference on April 24. According to statements collected by SCMP, he maintained that by the end of 2025 the system had completed its deployment and activation, with sustained performance greater than 2 exaflops. Not everything is positive. Going for a CPU-only machine may make sense for certain jobs, but does not eliminate the great advantage of GPUs in artificial intelligence. For more intensive and easily parallelized loads, these accelerators typically complete more work with the same power than a CPU-only system. That is why the industry continues to rely mostly on mixed architectures, with processors for general tasks and GPUs to accelerate heavier calculations. LineShine fits better as an alternative route under specific conditions than as proof that the dominant model is behind us. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | There was a time when Nvidia was a gaming company. That business is now pocket change for the owner and lady of AI

China finally has a competitive desktop processor. Its problem is that it is six years behind Intel

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China has your own alternative to processors for PCs, servers and data centers made by Intel, AMD and other companies. Loongson is one of the few Chinese companies that can manufacture advanced microprocessors. We have been following it for several years because in the current climate of geopolitical tension it has acquired more relevance than ever, and there is no doubt that its cruising speed is high. At the end of December 2022 this company launched its CPU 3A5000 32 corea general-purpose processor with LoongArch microarchitecture implemented by this company on the MIPS architecture. And in February 2024 it presented its LS3C6000 server processor, a CPU with DragonChain technology that could be scaled up to 64 cores. Its latest milestone is not the presentation of a new chip. The reason why we have decided to talk to you again about this Chinese company is that just a week ago it confirmed that it has distributed more than one million units of its flagship desktop processor, which represents a milestone in China’s efforts to build a self-sufficient semiconductor industry. The 3A6000 CPU has been designed and manufactured entirely in China Loongson implements its processors on the MIPS architecture, but the microarchitecture of these chips has been expressly designed by engineers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. By not using x86-64 or ARM architectures, this company has been able to continue refining its designs without being conditioned by US sanctions. Be that as it may, Loongson is dedicated to the design of microprocessors, but does not have the capacity to manufacture them itself. China recently had no alternative to US-made CPUs SMIC takes care of this (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp), what is the largest semiconductor manufacturer from China, in the same way that TSMC produces the integrated circuits designed by AMD, Apple, NVIDIA or Qualcomm. According to the publication Fast Technology, the third generation of Loongson chipsto which the 3A6600, 3B6600 and 3C6600 CPUs belong, has a performance comparable to that of the 12th Intel Core and 13th generation. Curiously, according to Fast Technology, the 3B6600 model in particular is the one that rivals these Intel CPUs and comparable AMD proposals. In fact, according to SCMP Loongson herself has acknowledged that the performance of her desktop processors is comparable to that of Intel chips launched around 2020. Six years is a long time in this sector, but it is important that we do not overlook that China recently did not have any alternative to US-made CPUs. This achievement by Loongson is part of Beijing’s effort to channel resources to reduce China’s dependence on foreign semiconductor technology. However, this strategy has been accelerated in response to restrictive export controls Americans who limit China’s access to advanced chips, integrated circuit design software and next-generation semiconductor manufacturing services. It will be interesting to see if Loongson finally catches up with Intel and AMD. Image | TSMC More information | SCMP In Xataka | China takes off in quantum computers: it already has the first dual-core and 200 qubits on the planet ready

China was supposed to be behind in chip-making equipment. Now its engraving technology is the standard and even TSMC uses it

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Gerald Yin Zhiyao is the president and CEO of AMEC (Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment China), one of the largest chinese companies specialized in the design and production of the equipment involved in manufacturing integrated circuits. During a roundtable held at the end of July 2024 this veteran executive maintained that Chinese chip manufacturing equipment was at that time between 5 and 10 years behind its most advanced competitors in terms of quality and reliability. Yin Zhiyao is one of China’s leading experts in semiconductor production equipment manufacturing. He has not hesitated on several occasions to publicly adopt a critical stance when assessing the degree of development of the Chinese chip manufacturing machine industry, which is why his statements tend to be interesting to say the least. And the one he did last Sunday on Chinese state television, and which has been picked up by SCMPit was. According to Yin ZhiyaoAMEC’s ​​plasma etching technology has established itself as a standard in the integrated circuit industry and has been adopted by its major international rivals. In fact, according to the founder of AMEC, TSMC, the Taiwanese company that leads the chip manufacturing marketuses some of its machines in its production chain. It may seem like bravado, but it doesn’t have to be. It makes sense for TSMC to use semiconductor processing machines designed and manufactured by AMEC. What China has and what it doesn’t have Much of the sanctions deployed by the US Government seeks to put out of reach of Chinese companies the most advanced chip manufacturing equipment available on the market. In this scenario Yin Zhiyao holds something very reasonable: the US bans have accelerated the development of China’s semiconductor industry. In fact, at the end of 2023 the Xi Jinping Administration handed over to its main companies that are dedicated to the manufacture of semiconductor production equipment no less than 41 billion dollars. Photolithography and etching are two different stages that are repeated dozens of times during chip manufacturing Despite this effort, China still does not have extreme ultraviolet photolithography (UVE), which are suitable for manufacturing cutting-edge chips. At least not in large scale production. What it does have, as the head of AMEC states, are the engraving machines (etching) involved in the production of advanced integrated circuits. These devices are responsible for removing material from the exposed areas in order to physically sculpt the circuits on the silicon wafer. In this context, it is important that we keep in mind that photolithography and etching are two different and consecutive stages that are repeated dozens of times during chip manufacturing. Photolithography aims to transfer the geometric pattern that describes the circuit from a mask or template to the surface of the silicon wafer using extreme ultraviolet light. This is the stage that ASML machines on the edge nodes solve. Immediately after, the engraving process takes place, which can be wet or plasma. This last variant bombards the surface of the silicon wafer with an ionized gas that produces a plasma. This is precisely the process carried out by AMEC machines. Image | TSMC More information | SCMP In Xataka | China has responded to the US with a milestone: it already has an AI model capable of running on GPUs with different architectures

22% of the electric cars we buy in Europe are produced in China. It’s just the tip of the iceberg

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One in five electric cars purchased in Europe are Chinese. Chinese of origin, but it does not mean that their manufacturers are Chinese. However, it is a fact that does not explain the entire story. Chinese companies continue to gain ground in Europe and tariffs are clearly not slowing down their expansion. 22%. The data is brought Benchmark Mineral Intelligence in a report explaining how much ground Chinese manufacturers are gaining in Europe. According to them, 22% of the electric cars that have been purchased in Europe between January and April 2026 come from China. The figure is striking because it grows compared to the 19% that was registered last year. But, above all, because it grows by 27% compared to the same period in 2025. In the first four months, 400,000 electric cars from China were sold in Europe. Chinese and non-Chinese. As we said, the data includes all the electric cars that we have bought in Europe arriving from China. This is relevant because the European Union imposed tariffs to the cars that came from there alleging that the Chinese manufacturers are financially doped and that they do not compete on equal terms. But those trade barriers They also prevailed over European manufacturers who bring their cars from China. Tesla also suffers from it with every Tesla Model 3 sold in Europe. The consequences of these policies have been especially harmful for Seat SAwith a Cupra Tavascan that has barely been sold and that has had to eat the tariffs to be able to have a competitive price. Duty? As we pointed out, the European Union already imposed a 10% tariff on all cars that arrive from China to our market. Defending that many of the brands that came to play on price, They imposed new specific trade barriers for each brandpunishing more those who, in their opinion, had received the most aid from the State or had collaborated the least with the investigation. Rodhium Group shows that they have had a limited deterrent effect over time. When they were lifted in October 2024, China had exported 44,000 electric cars to Europe in a single month. Immediately, the figure plummeted but in February the same sales level was reached again in Europe. But, in addition, the number of plug-in hybrids has skyrocketed. While the sale of purely combustion cars from China has grown, the plug-in hybrid has experienced brutal growth, going from 7,000 units in October 2024 (when the tariffs were applied) to 26,000 units in February 2026. Among the best sellers. In addition to these general market figures, some Chinese manufacturers have managed to make a breakthrough in the markets where they have the most hope. They collect in Autovista24 that BYD was the fourth company in Europe that sold the most electric cars between January and March 2026. Its market share in this space reached 6.8% and is only surpassed by Volkswagen, BMW and Tesla (the latter with 7.3% and BMW with 7.4%). BYD is also, of course, the one that is growing the most, marking 154.7% more sales than last year in the same period. Among the 10 best-selling electric cars in Europe, the Leapmotor T03 It also sneaks into the list. If we look at plug-in hybrids, BYD has the best-selling model. The BYD Seal U is the car with this mechanic that has placed the most units on the market between January and March 2026 with 21,494 units. He is followed by Jaecoo 7 with 17,434 units. And BYD manages to place Atto 2 as the tenth best-selling plug-in hybrid in Europe. The market share. In global terms, S&P Global points out that in 2025 the market share of Chinese manufacturers in Europe was 5.8%. But Automotive News points out that last March, when Chinese manufacturers broke their export record to Europe in terms of volume, the market share already shot up to 9.41%. If we talk about quota, the record from December 2025 (9.48%) still stands. The vast majority of analysts assure that these figures will continue to grow over the years. In S&P Global They believe that by 2035 the market share of Chinese manufacturers will reach 15.5%. Because? What we are seeing, according to analysts, is the tip of the iceberg. BYD is a good reflection of how China has discovered a loophole through which to enter Europe. The brand came with the idea of ​​bringing only electric cars, it tried the BYD Seal U in its plug-in hybrid version and has discovered that it is a success. The Chery Group has not hesitated to bet on this technology. Geely has also come up with a plug-in hybrid upon arrival. And the same thing happens with Deepal, from Changan. These cars have no tariffs and it allows them to gain market share because they can push their prices much higher. In addition, it allows them to give a relatively easy exit to cars that are overproduced for the Chinese marketwhich has slowed down and is beginning to see itself unable to assimilate more growth in its sales. Without forgetting that more and more companies are looking for produce in Europe or Türkiye to skip tariffs. BYD will manufacture in Hungary and in this last country. The Group Chery already operates in Barcelona. Leapmotor will also do it in Spain and everything indicates that the number of models will increase destined for our country. Xpeng already uses factories in Austria. And one fact: S&P Global It anticipates that 44% of the Chinese cars we buy in 2035 will be manufactured in Europe or Türkiye. Photo | In Xataka | The plug-in hybrid is China’s Trojan horse: we looked at the electric car and its great weapon was the combustion engine

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