China’s senior state planners are creating a five-year plan to energize domestic consumption and address the imbalance between “strong supply and weak demand,” according to a 20 January press briefing by officials of the country’s National Development and Reform Commission.
Solid state batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) have been in development for years. Now they’re about to hit the road, according to Chery, a major Chinese automaker.
Bosch and other European car parts manufacturers have announced layoffs of more than 100,000 workers over the past 24 months as demand for the continent’s cars has slumped and China has taken a growing share of their market.
In 2025, China nearly doubled its investment in its long-running Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that funds infrastructure projects in developing nations. The program’s annual budget shot from $122.6 billion in 2024 to $213.5 billion last year.
Through the creation of low-priced open-source models subsidized lavishly by Beijing,
China is spreading its AI presence and technologies to more users faster than Western developers are, Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a Financial Times interview.
From now on, Chinese AI developers adding chips, data centers, or other related hardware must source at least half of those products from Chinese providers, according to a new rule from Beijing.
China will export 3.7 million electric vehicles this year, a better than 50-percent gain over 2025’s total, UBS analysts are forecasting. BYD, the country’s leading privately owned electric vehicle (EV) maker, will be the chief beneficiary, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
China, one of the world’s largest buyers of crude oil, watched with concern as the U.S. seized control of Venezuela’s oil industry because Beijing relies on cheap oil from Washington-sanctioned countries, which raised concerns that it could start getting choked in the market if the U.S. also attacks Iran.
For the first time, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has added domestic AI chipmakers, including majors Cambricon and Huawei, to its official list of approved suppliers for the country’s businesses and public agencies.
China’s AI chipmakers are struggling to match the power of U.S.-made hardware. However, the West lacks the power of China’s electrical grid – a key factor in the AI race.