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Shenzhen’s RoboScience Unveils Visics: A New Architecture for Embodied AI

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On June 24th, Shenzhen-based embodied-AI startup RoboScience (机器科学) hosted its official launch event in Shenzhen, unveiling Visics: a general-purpose embodied foundation model built around a novel architecture called VLOA (Vision-Language-Object-Action). The company’s founding team carries unusual credentials. CEO Tian Ye (田野) previously served as Apple’s AI Platform technical lead, where he built infrastructure described internally … Read more

The Automaton Dividend

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IF DEMOGRAPHY IS DESTINY, then the recent headlines from Beijing read like a eulogy. China’s population has fallen for two consecutive years, shedding millions of citizens in a statistical retreat that Western observers often mistake for an economic surrender. The logic is seductive in its simplicity: fewer workers mean lower growth, collapsing pensions, and the … Read more

The Wuhan-Paris Axis: 2030, The Kill Switch for American Autos

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Part II of How Stellantis Rewrites the Transatlantic EV Playbook In Part I, we mapped the Wuhan-Paris axis — a dual arbitrage allowing Stellantis to shore up its European defences using Chinese engineering. That was the dress rehearsal. The ultimate prize lies across the Atlantic, where Detroit continues to slumber inside its tariff-protected greenhouse. Stellantis … Read more

Curry’s New Deal

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Stephen Curry just pulled off the most strategically brilliant move of his career—and it didn’t happen on a basketball court. On June 2, 2026, Curry announced a landmark 10-year partnership with Li-Ning, reportedly worth north of $400 million. But calling this a “shoe deal” misses the point entirely. This is an empire-building move that positions … Read more

The Oversupply of AI Talent: How China turned mathematical conditioning into a grassroots industrial workforce

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The Oversupply of AI Talent: How China turned mathematical conditioning into a grassroots industrial workforce Those poor Chinese kids are building the most advanced AI in the world. If you look at the CVs of the researchers and entrepreneurs catching up to Anthropic and ChatGPT at a fraction of the token cost, the old playbook … Read more

Fast Food, Stale Analysis: The Truth Behind Why China’s KFC Tastes Better

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Fast Food, Stale Analysis: The Truth Behind Why China’s KFC Tastes Better It is genuinely amusing to read recent coverage in The Economist detailing the rapid expansion of Western fast-food giants like McDonald’s and KFC into China’s rural towns and lower-tier cities. The prevailing narrative spun by featured financial analysts and market observers is one … Read more

Hong Kong, the unexpected winner of the Iran War

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Hong Kong, the unexpected winner of the Iran War As missiles rain on the Gulf, something else entirely is skyrocketing in a familiar safe harbour. By Jaime Xiao As Iranian and Israeli missiles illuminate the night skies over the Middle East, the ensuing panic in global energy markets has triggered a ferocious, structurally permanent pivot … Read more

Top 10 Chinese Tech News Highlights of the Week (20–26 March 2026)

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Top 10 Chinese Tech News Highlights of the Week (20–26 March 2026) 1. Galaxy General’s Humanoid Robot Engages in Unscripted Tennis Rallies Sector: Humanoid Robots Key Facts: Beijing-based Galaxy General Robot demonstrated its humanoid robot playing real-time, multi-round tennis rallies with a human. Powered by its proprietary “LATENT” algorithm, the robot learns motion logic from … Read more

The Engine Room of a New Empire: How Hong Kong Financed China’s Motoring Revolution

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The Engine Room of a New Empire: How Hong Kong Financed China’s Motoring Revolution Three years ago, during the Chinese New Year, I stood in a remarkably quiet Hong Kong. The city was only just emerging from the long shadow of pandemic isolation. The streets were subdued, the entrepreneurial hum was muted, and the eerie … Read more

The Great Re-Coupling: Germany turns to China for robotics

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If you want to understand the shifting tectonic plates of the global economy, you could read the latest policy white papers out of Washington, or you could simply look at the photograph of Friedrich Merz in Hangzhou. There stood the German Chancellor—a politician whose brand is practically forged from stern Atlanticist rigour and conservative economic … Read more