Sep 24, 2026
President Trump said artificial intelligence will be a topic of discussion when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but indicated both leaders wanted to avoid new restrictions on AI development. Trump rejected international AI controls and has proposed renaming AI to 'super intelligence.'
Alibaba Group Holding introduced what it calls China's most powerful AI chip, the Zhenwu M890, which triples the performance of its predecessor. The company also announced plans to train an AI model with up to 10 trillion parameters, driving shares up roughly 5%.
Z.ai's coding assistant ZCode was discovered silently packaging and uploading developers' local workspace data to external cloud servers without authorization. A researcher found a 313MB encrypted archive that had attempted to upload 564 times to Alibaba's cloud storage.
China's Foreign Ministry and state media rejected warnings from U.S. AI executives about development risks, calling them 'fearmongering' and accusing the U.S. of using safety concerns as a 'Cold War playbook' to maintain technological advantage.
China's top intelligence official delivered one of Beijing's most detailed warnings about AI, saying rapid advances could threaten political stability and critical infrastructure. The warning comes as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei calls for slowing AI development.
Anthropic disclosed that groups in Yemen attempted to use its Claude AI to develop guided missiles, while China, Iran, and UAE-directed actors used the platform for surveillance, cyber operations, and influence campaigns.
AI company Anthropic released a threat intelligence report detailing how it disrupted multiple attempts to misuse its Claude AI models for weapons design, cyber-espionage, surveillance, and propaganda operations. The company identified actors in Yemen working on missile projects, Iranian groups spreading propaganda and spying on dissidents, and Chinese entities conducting surveillance campaigns.
DeepSeek has engaged CITIC Securities as an underwriter to prepare for an initial public offering on Shanghai's STAR Market, signaling the AI startup is advancing its domestic listing plans. The Hangzhou-based firm aims to begin the IPO process this year.
Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's first chief executive after the 1997 handover from Britain to China, died at age 89. The former shipping tycoon led the territory through the Asian financial crisis and early pro-democracy protests during the transition to Chinese rule.
China announced plans to deploy AI computing clusters with 100,000 accelerator cards and quadruple its intelligent computing capacity by 2030. The country is constructing major data centers in remote locations like Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, far from its largest urban centers.
IQE CEO Jutta Meier identified access to indium phosphide substrates as an emerging key risk for the semiconductor industry, as Chinese export controls create uncertainty over supply of materials critical for advanced chips.
SenseTime is achieving profitability by focusing on enterprise applications rather than model size, while international traders increasingly turn to Chinese equity derivatives as an alternative to crowded AI trades in Korea and Japan.
Prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong pleaded guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces under Beijing's national security law, his second prosecution under the legislation. The 29-year-old, who rose to prominence during the 2014 Umbrella Movement, faces the prospect of many more years in prison and could potentially spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Chinese AI firm Z.AI posted 400% revenue growth in the first half but missed sales estimates and continued to report losses, reflecting the costly battle among Chinese AI companies including Moonshot and Alibaba as they compete domestically and pressure Silicon Valley firms globally.
Elon Musk's X service reported finding evidence of a China-backed persuasion campaign attempting to turn Americans against AI data center construction, though a researcher found many flagged accounts had no followers or engagement.
ChangXin Memory Technologies announced it has begun mass production of LPDDR6 memory chips, beating Western competitors to market with the technology debuting in Xiaomi's upcoming folding smartphone. The milestone comes as CXMT reports nearly tenfold revenue growth amid AI-driven memory demand.
Security researchers report that Chinese hackers are ramping up attacks after integrating DeepSeek and other open-source AI models into their operations, demonstrating how basic AI tools can be weaponized for offensive cyber operations.
Alibaba Group Holding completed a HK$80 billion ($10.2 billion) share placement in Hong Kong, marking the city's largest follow-on offering. The Chinese tech giant will use all proceeds to invest in AI infrastructure and capabilities, though shares plunged as much as 10% following the announcement.
A member of the Bitcoin Red Team told Decrypt that Chinese AI models are used far more than American models for security research because U.S. models frequently block cybersecurity-related queries, making Bitcoin software increasingly vulnerable as AI advances.
Chinese AI company DeepSeek released an experimental multimodal model claiming performance close to Anthropic's Opus-4.8, while simultaneously announcing it will charge off-peak API rates for all weekend usage starting August 23.
Chinese semiconductor and AI companies are implementing unusually broad employee stock ownership programs to retain engineers amid an intensifying talent war, with some firms covering over 85% of their workforce. The push comes as domestic tech companies capitalize on homegrown talent from university labs that are helping China compete with Western AI leaders.
China's major technology and telecommunications companies are heavily investing in AI infrastructure, with Alibaba reporting a 75% drop in quarterly profit due to increased AI capital expenditure, while state-owned telecoms focus on billable AI tokens as a key growth strategy amid accelerating AI adoption across the country.
The United States has formally designated Myanmar scholar and U.S. citizen Min Zin as wrongfully detained following his arrest by Chinese authorities in June. The designation makes securing his release a top State Department priority.
China has expanded its central bank digital currency network from 10 banks at the start of 2026 to 30 lenders, with 8 new banks added this week. The expansion represents Beijing's accelerated push to scale adoption of the e-CNY and embed it more deeply into the financial system.
The People's Bank of China has authorized eight additional commercial banks to operate digital yuan services, bringing the total number of e-CNY operating institutions to 30. The expansion includes Ping An Bank, Hengfeng Bank, and China Zheshang Bank as Beijing accelerates adoption of its central bank digital currency for everyday and cross-border transactions.
Chinese President Xi Jinping praised the Communist Party's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and called for an "indomitable fighting spirit" during a ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of former leader Jiang Zemin's birth. The event, held at the Great Hall of the People, emphasized party unity and political continuity.
Z.ai (Zhipu AI) released GLM-5.3, a 743-billion-parameter open-weights AI model that the company claims is the most capable coding model available. The model reportedly discovered 2,436 vulnerabilities across 269 projects, including a serious flaw in the Cursor code editor and 1,097 critical bugs in Linux, WebKit, and FreeBSD.
Chinese AI company DeepSeek released Harness v0.1, an open-source software framework designed to enable developers to build AI agents, positioning it as a rival to tools like Claude Code. The launch coincides with the official release of DeepSeek-V4-Pro on API with updated pricing.
Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC) captured 14% of global NAND flash shipments in Q2 2026, entering the top three suppliers for the first time and displacing Kioxia. The rise was driven by surging AI server demand, with enterprise SSDs accounting for 48% of total NAND shipments, nearly double the 26% share from a year earlier.
Typhoon Dolphin made two landfalls in eastern China on Sunday evening after Beijing issued its highest storm alert, forcing the cancellation of over 1,000 flights and suspension of rail services. The event highlighted China's growing use of AI weather forecasting systems alongside traditional meteorological methods.
The PBOC published its 2026-2030 five-year plan listing the digital yuan (e-CNY) as a core task, committing to 'steadily develop' the central bank digital currency over the next five years. China has recently allowed commercial banks to pay interest on e-CNY balances.
Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue told CNBC that Chinese developers now account for 41% of AI model downloads on the platform, the largest share globally, as China gains ground in open-source AI development. The announcement comes amid a broader debate about U.S.-China AI competition and prompted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to call for reduced U.S. regulatory barriers on open-source AI.
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has restarted its second funding round targeting 50 billion yuan ($8 billion) at a pre-money valuation of 500 billion yuan ($74 billion), while simultaneously announcing significant price hikes for its services amid surging global demand.
Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings announced the international availability of its flagship Hy3 large language model on August 5, 2026, just one month after the model's official July 6 release, making it accessible globally through its WorkBuddy, cloud, and developer platforms.
China's state broadcaster aired footage of the People's Liberation Army Air Force's intelligent strike-planning system, which uses artificial intelligence to coordinate simultaneous strikes by more than 100 tactical units with split-second precision after passing final live-fire tests.
The White House is excluding open-weight AI models from its voluntary framework to test advanced AI capabilities, even as Chinese developers dominate this category and industry leaders debate whether open models from China pose security risks or benefits. The policy shift comes amid growing concerns that China is winning the AI race through open-source releases.
China has updated its integrated-circuit layout design protection regulations, introducing stricter registration requirements and allowing punitive damages up to five times actual losses for serious infringement. The revised rules, signed by Premier Li Qiang, take effect October 15, 2026, marking the first major overhaul since 2001.
ByteDance released Seedance 2.5 generating 30-second video clips with native audio, while MiniMax launched H3 producing 15-second 2K clips with stereo audio. The near-simultaneous releases underscore China's aggressive advances in AI video generation.
Chinese social media platform RedNote (Xiaohongshu) is planning to build a major data centre facility in Inner Mongolia autonomous region valued at US $2.2 billion, reflecting China's broader push to expand AI infrastructure capabilities.
Chinese state media released footage showing a Type 052D destroyer launching a YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship missile for the first time, signaling wider deployment of the advanced weapon across China's most numerous destroyer class. The missile is estimated to reach speeds of Mach 6-10 with extended range capabilities.
Beijing-based AI startup Moonshot AI has secured $3.5 billion in funding at a $35 billion valuation, far exceeding its initial $1-2 billion target. The round follows the company's release of its K3 model, which approached the performance of frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed the Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites in China as a World Heritage Site during the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee in Busan, South Korea on July 25, 2026. Tencent announced digital initiatives using AI and gaming technology to help preserve and promote the ancient porcelain tradition.
A 6-year-old girl died after receiving experimental gene-editing therapy for a non-life-threatening neurodevelopmental condition in Shanghai, with her death kept secret until uncovered by an investigation by Science and Retraction Watch. The family reportedly paid over $800,000 for the treatment.
MetaX Integrated Circuits, a Shanghai-based GPU chip designer valued at $48 billion, has confidentially filed for a secondary listing in Hong Kong, targeting an IPO by end of 2026. The company completed its Shanghai IPO in December 2025 and has seen its share price surge 685% since then.
Insilico Medicine CEO Alex Zhavoronkov told Reuters that the company typically reaches a developmental drug candidate in 13 months, with a record of nine months, by combining AI with its research operations in China. Reuters reported that China has become a major hub for next-generation medicine development, aided by lower research costs and streamlined regulation.
For the first time, two Chinese nationals have been awarded the Fields Medal, mathematics' highest honor. Hong Wang and Yu Deng were recognized for solving century-old problems, marking a milestone in China's scientific advancement.
Chinese President Xi Jinping used a major technology conference in Shanghai to advocate for international cooperation on AI development and governance, arguing that artificial intelligence should not be dominated by a single country. The speech came as US President Trump accused China of exploiting American election data.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged international collaboration on artificial intelligence development and governance at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, arguing AI should be a 'symphony of global cooperation' rather than dominated by any single nation. The conference featured a China-led AI alliance backed by 29 countries and included announcements of AI research and training initiatives for developing nations.
China implemented new regulations on July 15, 2026, prohibiting AI chatbots from fostering emotional dependency or replacing real relationships, forcing ByteDance's Doubao and Alibaba's Qwen to shut down their personalized AI companion features used by hundreds of millions of users.
An opinion article in China's Supreme People's Procuratorate newspaper outlined a framework for prosecuting crypto money laundering, including presuming criminal intent when mixers or privacy coins are used.
A deadly fire broke out at a shoe factory in Jinjiang, Fujian province, killing 28 people in one of China's deadliest industrial blazes in recent years. President Xi Jinping has ordered a full investigation and rescue effort.
On July 9, 2026, China's National Health Commission added injectable semaglutide and 115 other drugs to its National Essential Medicines List — the first update in eight years — expanding the catalog to 794 medicines effective September 1, 2026, while domestic oral GLP-1 candidates from Hengrui and Gan & Lee advanced in clinical trials.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman publicly stated that the United States is "very much in a space race" with China, as both nations compete to land astronauts on the Moon before the end of the decade. Isaacman acknowledged China's rapid advancement and indicated the timeline is now measured in months rather than years.
Chinese tech giant Alibaba has banned its employees from using Anthropic's AI coding assistant Claude Code after an internal security audit identified potential security risks, including concerns about hidden code that could track China-linked users.
Lam Wing-kee, the Hong Kong bookseller who was abducted and detained by mainland Chinese authorities in 2015 and later publicly recounted his ordeal, has died in Taiwan at age 70. Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te expressed deep sadness at his passing.
A small aircraft crashed into Beijing's CITIC Tower, the city's tallest building at 109 stories, causing damage and evacuations. The incident raises questions about how the plane could have flown into the heavily fortified Chinese capital.
A light aircraft crashed into Beijing's tallest building, the 109-story CITIC Tower, on Friday, June 26, 2026, killing the pilot and injuring 13 people on the ground. The plane, reportedly used for pilot training, evaded strict aviation controls before slamming into the skyscraper in a busy downtown district.
China's National Medical Products Administration has approved satricabtagene autoleucel (Satri-cel, CT041, Kaileimei®), marking the first CAR-T cell therapy approved globally for treating solid tumors, specifically for CLDN18.2-positive, HER2-negative advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.
Tencent Holdings has begun testing a new AI assistant for WeChat as part of efforts to catch up with competitors in China's AI race. The integration brings AI capabilities to one of the world's largest messaging platforms with over a billion users.
DeepSeek has completed its first-ever external funding round, raising over 50 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) at a valuation exceeding $50 billion, using an unusual deal structure designed to preserve founder control. The funding marks a significant milestone in China's AI ambitions and positions DeepSeek as China's most valuable AI startup.
China's Ministry of State Security has claimed that foreign espionage agencies are deploying sea creatures fitted with tracking and monitoring devices to gather intelligence on the country's coastal waters and defenses.
Chinese AI lab Moonshot AI launched Kimi K2.7 Code, a one-trillion parameter open-weights coding model priced up to 12x cheaper than GPT-5.5 and Claude Opus 4.8, though it trails those models in performance benchmarks and lacks independent verification.
China is constructing a structure at the disputed Scarborough Shoal near the Philippines, prompting Manila to demand its removal while Beijing banned the Philippine defense chief from entry. The U.S. has deployed naval assets to monitor the situation as Chinese vessels also entered waters near Taiwan-controlled Itu Aba island.
A court in Qingdao, China sentenced a man surnamed Zhang to 10 years and nine months in prison for stealing 107 Bitcoin from victim Feng after memorizing most of the 12-word wallet recovery phrase. The ruling establishes legal precedent by treating Bitcoin as property under Chinese law.
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is close to finalizing approximately $7 billion in funding from investors including Tencent Holdings, CATL, NetEase, and JD.com, in one of China's largest startup financings. The round would value the company at between $52-59 billion.
Shanghai-based AI company MiniMax has unveiled its M3 flagship model designed for coding agents and automated workflows, featuring a one-million-token context window. The launch enters the competitive open-source AI coding space, though the company has stopped short of a full open-source commitment.
President Donald Trump will travel to Beijing this week for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, marking the first visit by a U.S. president to China since 2017. The high-stakes meeting comes amid trade tensions, with China signaling readiness for confrontation while also expressing interest in greater stability in bilateral relations.
Following Beijing's blocking of Meta's acquisition of Manus and signals from China's securities regulator, AI startups including Moonshot AI and StepFun are reportedly ditching offshore structures to register directly in China for future public listings.