The recently concluded “Two Sessions” – an annual gathering of China’s top political bodies – highlighted the country’s challenge of balancing slowing economic growth with ambitious technological progress. A key takeaway from the Two Sessions is Beijing’s commitment to integrating private tech firms into national policy decisions on innovation. Leading high-tech firms would play an…
To many, the meteoric rise of DeepSeek is a “Sputnik moment.” Despite its modest scale and resources, the Hangzhou-based AI startup has come a long way, surmounting tech barriers, export controls, and trade restrictions. Chinese media and tech insiders have hailed its emergence as a “historic moment” for China’s innovation model. Much of the discussion…
President-elect Donald Trump has criticized the CHIPS and Science Act, describing it as providing billions of dollars to wealthy companies. He argued that a better strategy would be to impose a series of tariff to force companies to produce chips domestically. In addition, he proposed imposing a 60 percent tariff on Chinese products specifically and…
To most Western observers, it would appear that China has driven its technology industry off a cliff. The number of startups fell by 50,000 between the peak in 2018 and 2023, with this year on track to be even lower. The market capitalizations of the biggest tech companies, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., have shrunk…