Chinas

A global trucker crisis is on the horizon. China’s solution: autonomous truck caravans

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The global freight transport market is facing a labor crisis. This is what the data says, pointing to a shortage of goods in Europe, North America and China. But also in Australia or Argentina. In search of solutions, Chinese companies are already proposing a way out: autonomous truck caravans. Shortage. 75% of the goods They are transported by road. 85% of the transport of perishable products opt for the same type of route. Although the transport of goods by train increases, the truck continues to be the alternative that best combines flexibility with contained costs and high efficiency for most companies. But these contained costs aim to disappear. According to the International Road Transport Organization (IRU) there is a global shortage of 3.6 million truck drivers. It is more or less 7% of the total places that are active right now. And the prospects are even worse. Road to retirement. The sector has a problem: retirement. A significant number of truck drivers are very close to slamming the door on their cabins. In Europe alone it is estimated that, in this year 2026, there will be a gap between supply and demand of one million truck drivers. And the problem is that the increase in online commerce will only aggravate this situation. By 2030, they believe that there will be a lack of 11% of the places necessary to cover the volume of work that would be necessary to effectively transport all the goods that will be put on the road. This situation is, according to IRUespecially serious in China where they estimate that before the end of the decade 19% of the truck drivers who are currently working will have retired. Let them go alone. With these perspectives on the table, Pony AIa company specialized in artificial intelligence that has your own autonomous car service in China and that has reached a agreement with Stellantis to advance joint developments for Europe, has announced that it has an autonomous truck solution to advance in a caravan. The idea is that the trucks in advance in a 1+4 convoy. Thus, the first of the vehicles is driven by a human and the four remaining autonomous trucks travel completely autonomously, guided by the first but applying level 4 autonomy. That is, trucks can circulate without anyone at the wheel. 2026. The project has a date: this year. Pony AI announced a few weeks ago a collaboration agreement with Sany, a vehicle production company for industrial work or the transportation of goods that will provide the hardware. The digital brain is provided by Pony AI. Together they believe they can have these self-driving truck caravans ready this year. If they are mass produced, they would be the first in the world to manufacture 5G, completely autonomous and electric trucks, They boast from Sany. According to their accounts, it is a business that will reduce the cost per kilometer by 29% and that can boost the operating margin of companies by 195%. First tests. In BBC They report that China was already experimenting with autonomous trucks last year. “Of course, I was a little scared the first time I drove an autonomous truck. But, after spending a lot of time observing and testing these vehicles, I think they are actually quite good and safe,” said one of the truck drivers who have gotten behind the wheel in these tests to take control if necessary. In the video You can see how the trucks circulated alone between Beijing and Tianjin, a route of more than 100 kilometers. It explains that the driver takes control in the first stages of the journey and must be seated to take the wheel at specific times. However, most of the trip is made without making any decisions and with four trucks behind him. Experience. Sany is not inexperienced in this sector either. The company, in addition to electric trucks for Pony AI, has also worked with industrial use vehicles such as trucks to transport minerals. In this videoFor example, a mine is shown in which an operator controls an excavator remotely. With it, it fills trucks with the extracted materials and these, once full, move completely autonomously to transport these minerals and make room for a new vehicle that has already made the same journey previously. A way of working that is also being studied Huawei. Photo | Pony AI In Xataka | Spain and Europe have a problem: they move 85% of their products in trucks and they are missing 3 million truck drivers

Samsung and Apple brought ultra-thin mobile phones to the market with little battery life. China’s response: hold my tank

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Samsung was the first, and Apple followed a few months later. The introduction of increasingly thinner mobile phones on the market did not meet any specific need, beyond reducing weight and thickness. Betting on this format, at least with the proposals of Western manufacturers, brought with it sacrifices both in camera and autonomy. In China they are clear that There is no need to sacrifice one thing or the other.. The Honor Magic8 Pro Air. Recently, Honor presented the Magic 8 Pro Air in China. The surname already tells us where the shots are going. It is a mobile phone of only 6.1mm It has the best MediaTek processor It has a 5,500mAh battery It has a triple camera system (wide angle, wide angle and telephoto). It turns out that it was possible. There are a few millimeters of difference between the Honor Magic8 Pro Air and its direct rivals, the iPhone Air and Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. But the numbers speak for themselves. Honor magic8 Pro air iphone air samsung galaxy s25 edge dimensions 150.5 x 71.9 156.2×74.7x 158.2 x 75.6 thickness 6.1mm 5.6mm 5.8mm battery 5,500mAh Si/C 3.149mah Li-Ion 3,900mAh Li-ion camera system 50MP, 1/1.3″, OIS 64 MP, /1.2″, OIS 50MP 48 MP 1/1.56″ OIS shift sensor 200 MP, 1/1.3″, OIS 12MP,1/2.55″ The Honor device is 0.3mm thicker than an S25 edge and 0.5mm thicker than the iPhone Air. To give you context, there is a guitar pick difference and a 75% higher energy density in the case of the Chinese mobile. An outrage. Furthermore, China has shown that it is not necessary to give up a single camera to opt for this format. And when we talk about flagships, this point is key. The 10K club. Beyond demonstrating that in ultra-thin mobile phones, silicon-carbon technologies allow energy densities that were impossible until a few years ago, the “10K club” is adding more and more participants. Chinese phones with normal thickness or even less than usual with 10,000mAh batteries. The last one to join the club was Realme P4 Powerthe first mobile phone in the world with a 10,001mAh battery. These are figures that double the usual standard in the rest of the ranges. The answer? There is neither nor is it expected in the short term. China has been ahead in the race to deploy silicon-carbon batteries, one that is not so easy to get into. Such high density batteries require: Greater regulations at the transport level, especially in the European Union. Much higher prices, as Xiaomi advanced. A durability risk not yet proven. Moving towards silicon entails important changes that traditional manufacturers, accustomed to a conservative and slow strategy, are not yet willing to take on. Image | Honor In Xataka | The 80/20 rule seemed like the holy grail for cell phone batteries. It’s not as infallible as it seems.

Tesla turns on the mega-refinery in Texas with which it wants to break China’s game

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The map of global power is no longer drawn only with oil wellsbut with the critical mineral pathways. In a move that redefines the auto industry and energy geopolitics, Tesla has announced that its lithium refinery in Texas is already an operational reality. It is not just another factory; It is the West’s first major attempt to wrest the keys to 21st century mobility from China. The advertisement. tesla sent a strong message through its official channels: its lithium refinery is now operational. According to Elon Musk himselfthis milestone “marks the beginning of energy independence for North America.” The facility, located in Robstown, near Corpus Christi Harbornot only seeks to ensure the supply of components, but also to reduce logistics emissions and generate regionalized employment. As detailed by Spectrum Newsthe plant has met the ambitious deadlines set since it was launched the first stone in May 2023. What was then a project of more than 1,000 million dollars, today is, according to Musk’s wordsthe largest and most advanced facility of its kind on the continent. A look towards China. To understand the magnitude of this step, you have to look at the Asian giant. Tesla is replicating the successful strategy of the Chinese giant BYD: absolute vertical integration. It’s no longer just about designing software or assembling chassis; it’s about controlling the entire value chainfrom when the mineral comes out of the ground until it becomes a battery cell. The capacity of this plant is massive. According to the specialized media DiscoverAlertthe refinery has a capacity of 50 GWh per year, which translates into enough lithium to manufacture approximately one million battery packs per year. By eliminating intermediaries, Tesla not only ensures its production rate, but also shields itself from the frailties of global logistics and geopolitical tensions. Texas alchemy. The real revolution of this plant is not only its size, but its chemistry. As Jason Bevan explainsmanager of Tesla, the plant uses a pioneering process in the United States: alkaline leaching to directly convert spodumene mineral into lithium hydroxide suitable for batteries. Unlike traditional refining—which often relies on aggressive acids and generates hazardous waste such as sodium sulfate—Tesla’s method is acid-free (acid free). As the refinery staff explains in the official video released by the brandthis process eliminates toxic byproducts. Instead, it generates a mixture of sand and limestone known as “anhydrite.” This byproduct, far from being waste, is being integrated into the circular economy. tesla confirmed from the beginning of the project that this material would be used in the production of construction materials (concrete), turning a traditional waste stream into a useful resource. Is it possible to break away from China’s shadow? Despite the optimism in Texas, the reality of the global market remains overwhelmingly favorable to Asia. How we have developed in XatakaChina currently controls the refining of 19 of the 20 strategic minerals evaluated by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Their dominance is almost total, since they process 95% of the graphite and 98% of the rare earths on the planet. Furthermore, the Chinese advantage is not coincidental, but the result of decades of investment under the “Made in China 2025” plan. While Tesla has managed to build its refinery in a record time of 19 months, the IEA warns that, on average, a mine takes up to 17 years to be operational. However, the United States has begun to play its cards with unprecedented aggressiveness. According to OilPricethe US administration has moved from traditional lending to direct involvement, acquiring stakes in mining companies such as Lithium Americas. This paradigm shift seeks to close the gap with China through public-private collaboration that includes massive projects such as Thacker Pass in Nevada, which is expected to be the largest lithium supply in the Western Hemisphere by 2027. The mining ecosystem: from Nevada to Texas. Until now, lithium production in the United States was almost negligible. According to a CNBC report, the Silver Peak plant in Nevada, owned by Albemarle, has been the only active source in the country for decades. Their method, based on solar evaporation in giant pools covering 13,000 acres, is a slow process that requires 18 to 24 months to concentrate the mineral. The arrival of Tesla and other players such as American Lithium (which recently expanded its assets in Nevada according to their own corporate statements) is transforming the sector. While Albemarle focuses in the extraction of underground brinesTesla focuses on the refining of hard rock (spodumene), creating a diversified ecosystem that seeks to feed the growing demand for electric vehicles. A change of era. The success of the Texas refinery will not be measured only by the tons of lithium hydroxide it produces, but by its ability to demonstrate that the West can compete on costs and sustainability without depending on Chinese infrastructure. Tesla isn’t just making electric cars; is building the foundations of industrial sovereignty. This project is the first concrete step to reduce a dependency that until recently was considered inevitable. Time will tell if 19 months of Texan engineering can beat two decades of Chinese strategy, but, for now, Tesla already has one of the keys. Image | tesla Xataka | Tesla urgently needs to make its electric cars cheaper. And their plan is to produce batteries in Germany

The Fujian is officially China’s largest power catapult. Beijing already has a button to challenge the US Navy

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It has been almost two years since China ended its long-awaited Fujian aircraft carrierits largest warship with cutting-edge technology for the nation. From then until now it has been going through different scenarios of tests and tests that will confirm reliability of what should be the spearhead for Beijing to compete in the same league as the United States. That day has already arrived. The naval power of the 21st century. China has made official the entry into service of Fujian, its first aircraft carrier with electromagnetic catapultsa milestone that marks a qualitative leap in the country’s naval ambition and in their direct rivalry with the United States. In a ceremony held in the port of Sanya, on the island of Hainan, President Xi Jinping performed the symbolic gesture of pressing the launch button from the ship’s control bubble, in an act that state propaganda presented as the beginning of a new era for the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Projection and vulnerability. With 80,000 tons displacement, 300 meters in length and capacity to operate nearly 60 aircraft, the Fujian becomes the jewel of the Chinese fleet, the third in service after from Liaoning and the Shandong. Its distinctive feature is the electromagnetic catapultsan aircraft launch system similar to the American EMALS that only equips one other ship in the world: the USS Gerald R. Ford. China has thus jumped directly from aircraft carriers with a “ski jump” ramp to a generation of electromagnetic propulsion directed personally, according to Beijing, by Xi. This technical advance has clear strategic implications: improves the rate of departures, reduces wear and tear on aircraft and allows the operation of drones or lighter devices, opening the door to a more flexible and modern on-board aviation. Fujian The jump and the dimension. The Fujian represents more than just a technical improvement: it is the first completely designed and built in Chinafree of the Soviet legacy that conditioned the previous ones. The Liaoning was originally a ukrainian helmet unfinished work of the eighties and the Shandong su national derivativeboth with STOBAR systems short takeoff. With Fujian, China abandons that past and exhibits its technological maturity, especially in a context of industrial rivalry with the United States, whose own EMALS program has faced years of failures and cost overruns. In contrast to the Gerald R. Ford problemsXi’s speech and the staging of the ceremony convey a message of effectiveness and national pride: that of a power capable of manufacturing its own cutting-edge ships while the adversary hesitates. The choice of the port of Hainan was also not accidental. from there, China control access to the South Sea and projects its influence towards the western Pacific and the Taiwan Strait. On that board, the Fujian is not just a ship, but a political statement about Beijing’s ability to contest global maritime dominance. Fujian Target of the future. However, the relevance of these steel colossi coexists with a paradox. While the great powers continue to invest billions in building them, the conflict in Ukraine has shown that he size no longer guarantees invulnerability. With low-cost naval drones, Ukraine has managed to disable much of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, inflicting a “functional defeat” without possessing a single aircraft carrier. The contrast is eloquent: asymmetric warfare reduces the effectiveness of the most expensive conventional weapons, but not their strategic value. In the case of China and the United States, aircraft carriers maintain their role as projection and deterrence instrumentsuseful for both combat operations and coercive diplomacy. Make fear. Washington continues to use them as pressure tool geopolitics: Donald Trump himself ordered the deployment of the Gerald R. Ford against Venezuela as a symbolic warning to the Nicolás Maduro regime. The scene, with an aircraft carrier escorted by four destroyers and armed with 70 aircraft, illustrates the extent to which these ships continue to be armed ambassadors of the superpowers, beyond their debatable military profitability. Global deterrence. Modern navies are aware that aircraft carriers are both a symbol like a target. During the Cold War, it was estimated that twelve conventional missiles to sink a super aircraft carrier. In 2005, the experimental sinking of the USS America required four weeks of sustained attacks, confirming its structural resilience, but also its exposure. In a scenario saturated with hypersonic missiles, swarms of drones and long-range anti-ship systems, its survival in real combat is increasingly uncertain. However, no other platform offers the combination of mobility, air capacity and logistical autonomy that an aircraft carrier provides. That is why China, despite investing in missiles to repel a US fleet off its coast, considers these ships essential for its own global ambitions. As pointed out analyst Nick Childsfrom the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Beijing understands them as an indispensable tool to project influence and support an eventual operation on Taiwan. Geopolitics of steel. we have been counting: the rise of Fujian is part of a broader strategy of naval expansion that has turned Chinese shipyards into the most productive on the planet. The country’s surface and submarine fleet is growing at a pace the United States can no longer match, and each new vessel reinforces the narrative of industrial self-sufficiency that Xi Jinping presents as an emblem. of the “national renaissance”. Facing eleven US aircraft carriers (ten nuclear and one conventionally powered), China has threebut with plans to build at least a nuclear one, the future Type 004which could directly rival the Fords of the US Navy. Unlike Russia, whose only aircraft carrier, the aging Admiral Kuznetsovhas been out of service for years and is headed for scrapping, China and the United States are today the only powers capable to sustain fleets with great oceanic projection. Europe, for its part, maintains a symbolic presence: the United Kingdom uses its aircraft carriers Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales on diplomatic or training missions, while France prepares its new future-generation nuclear aircraft carrier. Century of the seas and fragility. If you like, Fujian also symbolizes the meeting point … Read more

China’s “sorpasso” is now a real possibility

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2025 has been a lost year for NASA. No rockets have exploded, no spacecraft have crashed, but political instability, lack of leadership and budget wars have decimated the morale and operational capacity of the US space agency. The most absurd thing of all? self-inflicted harm has had the opposite effect whom the United States government was looking for. Nobody at the wheel. It all began on January 20, 2025, when Biden-era administrator Bill Nelson resigned as head of NASA. Janet Petro, director of the Kennedy Space Center, took over as acting administrator. In his six-month term he dedicated himself to abide by Trump’s divisive policiesstarting with eliminating the space agency’s Diversity and Inclusion office. donald trump had nominated for the permanent position of administrator to the young billionaire Jared Isaacman, who flew into space twice with SpaceX. Isaacman, who was seen as a commercial sector accelerationistpassed his confirmation hearing in April 2025. Everything seemed done. However, on May 31, shortly before Trump will exchange insults with Elon Muskthe White House abruptly withdrew his nomination. The official reason, published by Trump himself in Truth Social, was Isaacman’s “prior associations,” particularly his donations to Democratic candidates. The Duffy era. NASA was left adrift. On July 9, Trump named his Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, as acting administrator. Duffy, a former congressman with no aerospace experience, kept his Cabinet position while running NASA, and is said to have came to maneuver to integrate the historic space agency under the Department of Transportation. But Sean Duffy’s stellar moment occurred on October 20, when he set the goal of returning to the Moon while Donald Trump was president. In order to land astronauts on the lunar surface before China does so for the first time in 2030, Duffy reopened HLS contract that NASA had granted to SpaceX. Other companies such as Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin will compete with SpaceX’s Starship to transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon in the first manned lunar landing since the Apollo era. Life takes a thousand turns. In a twist that well illustrates NASA’s lost year, and despite Duffy’s efforts to show off to his president, on November 4, Trump reappointed Jared Isaacman as administrator. The timing coincides with an improvement in Elon Musk’s relationship with Donald Trump, suggesting that donations to Democrats did not have as much to do with Isaacman’s truncated career as the Elon-Trump feud did. But even as NASA’s power vacuum nears its end, the agency faces even worse problems. The White House budgets for 2026 included a 24.3% cut to the space agency’s overall funding, including a 47% cut to the scientific budget. The lack of approval of budgets has also, ironically, had a catastrophic impact for the agency: 15,000 NASA employees (85% of the staff) were suspended without pay due to the government’s “shutdown.” The shutdown has delayed all kinds of developments, including the lunar program and the Mars sample recovery mission, in which NASA is in direct competition with China. Meanwhile, China. NASA’s comings and goings have allowed the Chinese space agency to close the gap. After becoming the first country in the world to bring back samples of the far side of the Moon with the Chang’e-6 missionChina is on track to become the first nation to bring samples from Mars with the Tianwen-3 mission. The great irony is that, with NASA’s lost year, it is also beginning to be very feasible that a Chinese astronaut will set foot on the Moon before the next American moon landing occurs, which the White House wanted to avoid with its scientific budget cuts and its improvised leadership changes. The “sorpasso” is no longer a distant prediction. US inaction in 2025 has helped put China on that trajectory. Image | Polaris, SpaceX In Xataka | Obsessed with beating China, NASA has just done the unthinkable with its Artemis II lunar mission: advance it

China’s plan to fill the streets with electric and autonomous cars in 15 years is now official

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With the European Union launching into the electric car, with the intention of definitively abandoning the combustion engine and manufacturers trying to stop this possibility, China has presented its new automobile roadmap. The institution in charge has been China Society of Automotive Engineers (CSAE) who have revealed the Energy-Saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap 3.0. Or, in other words, its roadmap for the automotive industry between now and 2040. The “new energy” car, that is, electric and plug-in hybrid, will be the cornerstone of a strategy that focuses on a reduction in polluting emissions but also on intensive automation of mobility. In said document, they assure ChinaDaily2,000 experts have been involved and it has taken 18 months to carry it out. “New energy” and autonomous cars The key points of the new Chinese roadmap in relation to its automobile market are summarized in CarNewsChinawho have exhaustively compiled the main pillars of a strategy that has gained in complexity. And this is based on the 1+5+26 concept: 1 roadmap or general strategy to establish global objectives 5 technological groups that group the technologies to be applied 26 specialized research topics to delve deeper into each area Among the key points of the new Chinese strategy, the following stand out: goals: It is expected that in 2028, polluting emissions produced by the automobile industry will reach their maximum. From there, the goal is to reduce them by 60% in 2040. It is expected that by 2040, 85% of cars will be “new energy”, the name China uses to call plug-in hybrids and electric cars. Of those, around 80% are expected to be fully electric. In 2040, it is expected that a third of cars sold will continue to use combustion engines, either as hybrids, plug-in hybrids or extended-range electric vehicles. From 2035 all passenger vehicles will be, at a minimum, hybrids. As a result, new energy vehicles are expected to lead sales from 2030 onwards. Gradual penetration of cars with technology level 4 autonomous driving (current robotaxis) and appearance of level 5 cars (same way of operating but in any type of circumstance, without restrictions due to lighting or weather circumstances). In the presentation Zhang Jinhuapresident of CSAE, has pointed out that one of the big differences between this roadmap and the previous ones (they already presented similar documents in 2016 and 2020) is that this time the program has focused on put more emphasis on production strategies that must be put in place to promote these technologies when. In previous documents, he assures, they would have focused on the technology itself and not so much on the industry. This has its consequences therefore in all areas of the industry. First, because manufacturers must adapt their production models to reduce polluting emissions when manufacturing vehicles, but also because, they say, a more robust connected network integrated into the cloud will be created to servicing autonomous vehiclesimproving their safety and independence when driving on their own. This is essential to achieve the great objective: “zero accidents, zero victims and high efficiency.” Regarding emissions targets, a classification system and methodology will be created to improve efficiency during production. The final goal is not only that in 2040 manufacturing will emit 60% less pollution than in 2028. Manufacturers are expected to save costs by working with data interconnection to analyze the most efficient system, even for the supply of parts or the sale of items. The program also focuses on the solid state batteries. This type of energy accumulators promise to position themselves as the element that allows the electric car to be consolidated at all levels, with promises of ranges of a thousand kilometers and greater safety for the batteries. For make China the leader in the sectorit is wanted that in 2030 the solid state batteries They are already part of the reality of their industry, although on a small scale. The great productive leap is not expected until 2035. So far, CSAE has presented two other roadmaps that have been gaining weight within the Chinese State. To understand how the situation has changed in less than ten years, 500 experts participated in the first program, a quarter of those who made up this latest presentation. In 2016 The program focused on the 1+7 strategy, with an overall roadmap and seven technologies in which China wanted to be a leader: energy-saving vehicles, “new energy” vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, smart connected vehicles, battery technology for electric cars, technologies related to vehicle weight, and automotive manufacturing technology. In 2020the program was expanded with the well-known 1+9. Then, that same roadmap was expanded with two new objectives, the development of combustion engines and the intention to make the Chinese automotive industry cleaner. 1,000 experts already participated in that redesign. Now the new project review some of the previous objectivesremaining as specified at the top of the article. What is certain is that in China they have been meeting the goals they had set. For example, in the 2020 roadmap they anticipated sales of 20% for “new energy” cars in 2025. However, this figure is almost 50% at the end of September 2025. Photo | Xataka In Xataka | Speed ​​has moved to China: BYD and Xioami are breaking all the records that Europe once dreamed of

After China’s stick, the US already has a new partner to obtain rare earths

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President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have signed a critical minerals deal with the potential to create projects worth up to $8.5 billion, according to says the NYT. The pact responds directly to the recent restrictions that China has imposed on its exports of rare eartha movement that Trump rated as “sinister and hostile.” Why it is important. Critical minerals and rare earths are essential materials for manufacturing everything from semiconductors to engines, brakes and military fighters. China currently dominates global supply of these resources, which makes any restriction on their part a direct threat to Western production chains. And therefore, diversifying the sources of these types of elements has become a strategic priority for both the Trump administration and the previous Biden administration. Agreement with Australia. According to the summary provided by the White House, the agreement contemplate that the United States and Australia jointly invest $3 billion in critical minerals projects over the next six months. For its part, Australia is committed to investing billions in American defense companies. The US Department of Defense will also participate in the construction of a new refinery in Australia capable of extracting 100 tons of gallium metal per year. “In about a year, we will have so many critical minerals and rare earths that we won’t know what to do with them,” claimed Trump optimistically during the meeting with Albanese. The Australian Prime Minister, for his part, stressed that this agreement on critical minerals takes the economic and security relationship between both countries “to the next level.” Plan of action. Albanese’s office has made clear that the agreement functions as an “action plan” that “does not constitute or create legally binding obligations.” This contrasts with the public statements of both leaders, who seemed very enthusiastic on camera about the agreement, according to point the middle. The Australian ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, already had advanced in August that Australia was “ready and able to help” diversify US supply chains, recalling that manufacturing a single Virginia-class submarine requires approximately 4.5 short tons of critical minerals and rare earth elements. This agreement also confirms Trump’s support for the AUKUS pactthe trilateral defense alliance between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia announced in 2021 under the Biden administration. Trump, who had undergone a thorough review of AUKUS since July, said plans to deliver US-made submarines to Canberra were “moving forward very quickly.” However, he acknowledged that the project had progressed “too slowly” so far. US Navy Secretary John Phelan declared that the goal is to “improve the original AUKUS framework for all three parties and clarify some of the ambiguity that was in the previous agreement.” China’s door is not closed yet. With this move, the United States is closer to having access to these critical minerals from different parts of the world, reducing its dependence on China. In recent months, the US government has committed 75 million dollars to invest in Ukraine’s mineral reserves and has backed railway projects in Angola that will facilitate access to minerals in central Africa. Despite tensions with Beijing, Trump stated on Monday that he believes it is possible to reach a trade deal with China during his upcoming trip to Asia this month, where he is expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Cover image | Paul-Alain Hunt and Brandon Mowinkel In Xataka | China was the great polluter of the planet: now it is emerging as the first “electrostate” in history

China’s plan to make its military ruthless if electronic warfare shuts down technology: use its brains

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In the training camps of the People’s Liberation Army, the sound of drones and electronic simulators coexists with something unexpected: the echo of an ancient tradition. Between radars, missiles and touch screens, some soldiers practice invisible operations with their fingers in the air, moving imaginary beads on an abacus that no longer exists. It is not a ritual or an eccentricity, but a new military experiment: learning in case one day the machines suffer a blackout. Calculate with your mind. China has rescued an ancient tradition to apply it to modern warfare: mental calculation with abacus. In a context of increasing dependence on artificial intelligence, the People’s Liberation Army has applied logic: train soldiers capable of becoming a kind of “human abacus”, ready to operate when digital systems fail. In fact, in a recent exerciseCaptain Xu Meiduo predicted the trajectory of three targets in seconds after a radar failure simulation, guiding artillery fire with precision. State television has turned his feat into an emblem of self-sufficiency, reminding us that the human mind remains a decisive weapon even in the age of algorithms. From the classroom to the battlefield. The program is inspired by an educational practice still common in Asia: the mental abacus, or AMC, an ancient technique that allows complex calculations by visualizing an imaginary abacus. Used in China for a long time more than eight centuriesthis discipline has shown benefits measurable cognitive– Improves concentration, memory and reasoning speed. What’s more, studies from Harvard and Stanford confirmed a few years ago the trained children with mental abacus surpass in calculation and understanding to those who learn traditional mathematics. Now, the Chinese army transfers that advantage to the military fieldconvinced that mental precision and resistance under pressure can make the difference in combat. Millennial and current. The abacus, created in China ago more than 800 years and used for centuries in trade and imperial administration, it never completely disappeared. Although calculators and computers relegated it to a cultural symbol, in schools in China, Japan or Singapore continues teaching as a method of cognitive development. His mental version, based on imaginary manipulation From accounts, it has been the subject of neurological studies that demonstrate structural changes in the brain. Hence, the Chinese army has seen this plasticity as perfect training for modern warfare, where mental quickness and calmness under stress are as valuable as marksmanship. Tradition and vulnerability. The goal of the program, it seems, it’s double: reinforce the cognitive readiness of soldiers and reduce vulnerability to electronic warfare. In a confrontation where radars, GPS and networks can be nullified, human calculation capacity becomes a strategic backup. If you like, Beijing also seeks to demonstrate that its military strength does not depend solely on of drones or hypersonic missilesbut also of soldiers capable of thinking and deciding for themselves. Facing total automationChina aims for balance: a technologically advanced, but sustained army by trained brains to calculate without machines, in the conviction that, even in the digital age, war remains a human act. Between humans and algorithms. In that sense, the contrast with the United States is revealing. While Washington boasts or promotes highly trained soldiers and trusts in the superiority of its command systems, the Pentagon warns that excessive technological dependence can be an Achilles heel. US officials have pointed out that, when communications are interrupted and artificial intelligence degrades, what decides a battle is human initiative. From that perspective, China seems to have taken note. Your bet on rescue the mind As a war tool it is not intended to replace technology, far from it, but rather to complement it. In a world where machines can fail, true superiority, according to Beijing, may once again lie in the most basic: the human brain. Image | Picryl In Xataka | China has asked Russia for an airborne battalion and training. That can only mean one thing: they are preparing a landing In Xataka | The US studied what would happen if it went to war with China: now it has begun a desperate race to duplicate missiles

China’s biggest problem is not the US. It is a “virus” that advances at an unprecedented speed and threatens to empty its factories

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In September, and in front to a data offered by the United Nations that put the future of the Chinese economy in check, Beijing defended itself with an opportunity for the future: the AI. In between, it remained to be seen who was right. Because the main problem of the economy that pull the strings of the planet are pure mathematics applied to a near and most uncertain future. One that indicates that, sooner rather than later, its population will to plummet. Against oneself. The demographic crisis that shakes China today is, to a large extent, the result of a policy that worked too well: the birth control campaign begun in the seventies and crystallized in the policy of only child 1979. What began as a state intervention to contain population growth that was considered unsustainable ended up shaping behaviors, expectations, and family structures for generations. Sterilizations, fines and forced abortions not only birth numbers reducedbut they inhibited the cultural habit of mass reproduction, and when the State began to relax the rules (allowing two children in 2016 and three in 2021) the social response was no longer the same: the fertility rate fell from 1.77 children per woman in 2016 up to 1.12 in 2021and the timid incentive measures have barely reversed the curve. The real cost of breeding. Behind the numbers there are everyday decisions. The economic calculation of starting a family in China is, as in so many other places, considerable: studies estimate that raising a child from birth to the end of their college education can cost on average about $75,000and in cities like Shanghai that figure shoots up to approximately $140,000. These prices, together with long work daysmarket expensive housing and professional expectations, explain why many young people (especially women) they choose not to have children. Surveys and testimonials collected show that for many people motherhood today is equivalent to a professional and personal resignation that they are not willing to assume: “I don’t want to think about sacrificing my life,” summarizes an executive from Hangzhou in the Washington Postand that plea for time and personal autonomy is one of the reasons why symbolic subsidies from the government (for example, some 500 dollars a year for the first three years) are insufficient to reverse the trend. Without weddings and solutions. we have been counting. Demographic decline is accelerated by fall of marriage: in 2024 just 6.1 million of couples registered their union, compared to 13.5 million in 2013, a data that works as predictor of future births when the rate of births outside of marriage is marginal. The State not only offers economic incentives and university courses about “how to flirt”, but has returned to intrusive behavior: officials pressure newlyweds about your plans of pregnancy and control the conversation public about marriage in the media. It is a gesture of urgency that clashes with the autonomy of generation Z, increasingly individualisticfor which getting married and procreating are no longer social mandates but options (among many). That tension between pronatalist policy and cultural change explains why coercive measures of the past do not seem to translate into higher births today. Accelerated aging. While fewer Chinese are born, the older population continues to grow: Life expectancy rises and the population pyramid inverts, which poses a brutal rebalancing in public accounts. Projections indicate that in the coming decades the proportion of elderly will doublewith colossal pressure on pensions, healthcare and long-term care financed by an increasingly narrow contributor base. Demographers warn that this phenomenon can trigger a vicious circle: more resources allocated to the elderly imply less public support for young families, which further reduces fertility. By 2100, according to calculations by international organizations, there will be more people out of working life than within it, a scenario with economic and political implications of systemic scope. The factory of the world shrinks. The problem is not only quantitative but qualitative: the workforce that made China the factory of the planet (born between 1960 and 1980, with a disposition for industrial jobs) has no substitute culture in later generations that they avoid factory work. At the same time, the proportion of Chinese manufacturing in the world total (today located around 30%) will necessarily be reduced if demographics exhaust the labor supply. The official short-term answer is automationbetting on robots and investment in productivity, but substitution does not work the same in all sectors: services, care and certain labor-intensive branches will continue to demand humans. The consequence is that manufacturing companies already they detect competitive pressure in prices and labor costs, and some observers point out that the industrial replacement could move to India, Southeast Asia, Mexico or Eastern Europe, with a multiplier effect on global supply chains. Politics and resistance to foreigners. They remembered in the post that a lever that in other countries would alleviate the labor force deficit (immigration) crashes in China with taboos of cultural homogeneity and political considerations that make the adoption of broad immigration policies difficult. That forces the government’s options and forces it to rely on internal incentives and in robotization. The strain between the economic need for labor and the preference to maintain cultural cohesion places Beijing in a strategic dilemma: either it embraces broader migrations (with all the integration challenges that this would imply) or it accelerates productive reconversion and the displacement of sectors that depend less on the labor factor. State measures. Faced with the abyss, Beijing has been introducing measures: relaxation of family policysubsidies, public campaigns for promote marriage and birth rate, and tax programs limited. But the experts they underline that late policies rarely reorder behaviors already fixed for decades. Louise Loo and other economists they estimate that reducing the workforce could take away about 0.5 points percentages to annual GDP growth in the next decade, a bite significant for an economy that needs to grow to absorb debts and finance its modernization. The challenge is that demographics act over long periods of time: cohorts born today … Read more

US responds to China’s new rare earths rules with 100% tariff threat that screams negotiation

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Just a couple of days ago we knew China’s new rare earth rules with which it completely disrupted the global map of strategic minerals. Taking into account that the Asian giant supplies approximately 70% of strategic minerals to the world, it could be said that China is the global mine of an essential raw material for the technology industry. And that gives it a privileged position to apply a standard of this caliber: any product manufactured outside of China with at least 0.1% of materials of Chinese origin. will require a license for export. That is, it not only controls what leaves China, but also what other countries produce with their materials and technologies, being able to decide what is exported, to whom and for what purpose following national security criteria. After a few hours assimilating the news and speculation of a response from Donald Trump and even his non-attendance at the next event where he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, The United States has announced new 100% tariffs unparalleled. New tariffs, more control and a date that invites negotiation The president of the United States has exploded in Truth Social talking about ‘an extraordinarily aggressive stance on commercial matters‘, of ‘an extremely hostile letter‘and of’a moral shame in dealing with other nations‘referring to China’s new measures on its rare earths, insisting that it affects both the products they manufacture and those they do not. Furthermore, he has asserted that ‘It was evidently a plan drawn up by them years ago.‘. More tariffs. Because Donald Trump has announced in Truth Social that the United States will impose a new 100% tariff on China, which will be added to any other tariffs already in place. Likewise, they will also impose export controls on all critical software. It must be taken into account that practically all products imported from China to the United States already have high tariffs, ranging from 50% on steel and aluminum to only 7.5% on consumer goods, with an effective tariff rate of around 40%, according to expert analysts from Wells Fargo Economics and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. AND has left a key date of entry into force: next November 1, 2025. Between the lines. The date chosen by Trump is not coincidental: it is exactly the same as China’s for the measures on rare earths to be operational. And its message hides several key words that refer to a predisposition to negotiation ‘from the November 1, 2025 (or sooner, depending on the actions or changes China takes)‘. He also insists that he (obviously) speaks on behalf of the United States and not ‘from other countries equally threatened‘ Throwing down a gauntlet to potential allies for their coup d’état. In Xataka | In 1978 Chinese engineers visited two key US companies. Upon his return, an empire began: rare earths In Xataka | An industry in the hands of TSMC and Asian factories: the map of global chip production Cover | Jose Alberto Lizana with AI

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