Innovation

China’s smartphone giants have made great strides over the past decade or so, catching up with companies such as Apple in terms of sales as well as research and development. However, there is still a long way to go for China’s smartphone ecosystems to crack the global market.

While countries the world over are grappling with ways of regulating emergent AI technology, China has issued a raft of regulations, including a set of “Measures” released in August, which made explicit provisions for the research and development and services of generative AI. What insights can other countries glean? Academic James Pang examines the issue.

China’s innovative drug developers are increasingly partnering with foreign companies to pitch their products overseas due to tighter profit margins in the domestic market. But this route, while lucrative, can also be precarious.

China’s Huawei suddenly launched a new smartphone, equipped with a 7-nm chip said to be made in China and with network speeds reaching 5G levels, shocking the US political circles. What far-reaching impacts will China's breakthrough in chip technology have? How will Washington respond? Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Edwin Ong takes us through the recent developments and what it means for the US’s strategy against China’s tech advancements.

Humanoid robots have become the latest trend in the tech industry, with US and Chinese tech firms trying to beat each other to the punch in releasing their robots. While China is still lagging behind in software, the hardware gap between China and the US and Japan is expected to shrink.

Whether China can prove naysayers wrong and keep up its good national fortunes depends on solving old problems associated with restarting the mechanisms of the Soviet Union model, and tackling new problems arising from successful development.

The US’s latest round of investment restrictions on China hits the country where it hurts — access to innovation ecosystems. Will China develop its own ecosystems fast enough? Researcher Ding Ke weighs in on the issue.

As the world is getting used to generative AI tools from the West, China is struggling to get its generative AI industry started. The high-profile acquisition of AI firm Light Years Beyond by Meituan started with much fanfare but prospects of it spearheading China’s AI rise are petering out. There is no doubt that the West holds the AI lead for now, but how long will it take for China to get running and catch up?

While Chinese e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu have been doing well in achieving fast and high growth in the US market, they face commercial and regulatory challenges too and would need to undertake several risk mitigation strategies.