China's Week, June 12

Ancient trees in temple grounds; First photonic ICs; First binary + stochastic logic ICs; Exports up 6.3%; 140 countries use Beidou; "We are reorienting toward deterring aggression by Communist China"

Science & Technology

China’s pharmas contend for global standards. Policy shifts, capital inflows, and returning talent have reshaped the industry’s ambitions and capabilities.

The world’s first 6” thin-film lithium niobate photonic chip wafers rolled out to the fab last week, using domestically developed technology and facilities.

China’s DeepSeek R1 and Qwen 3’s much more permissive AI licenses get more global adoption than America’s Llama and Gemma.

China’s space industry: impressive breadth, deep bench: launched 37 spacecraft from 10 manufacturers on 8 types of rockets from 5 companies in 30 days.

MinoSpace bid $120 million to build 4 optical and 6 SAR satellites, beating Shenzhen Dongfanghong ($110M), Space-One ($105M) and Magic Cube’s $99M.

First AI chips merging binary and stochastic logic begin mass production: faul

t tolerance, power efficiency, microsecond on-chip computing latency.

Finance & Economy

Shanghai’s 178 sports events in 2024 generated $1.6 billion in direct economic returns vs. 163 events in 2019 that generated $0.9 billion.

Exports rose 6.3% and recored trade with Africa: China's foreign trade reached $318 billion in May.

Society & Environment

6 million cross-border trips during the Dragon Boat holiday, up 2.7% YoY, 231,000 foreigner entered visa-free, up 60%. 1.5 billion parcels delivered, up 19% .

ASEAN Visas for 11 countries’ businesspeople, spouses, children allow multiple entries for 5 years and 180 days maximum stay.

280,000 residential compounds for 120 million people renovated since 2019, now renovating 25,000 with 360,000 km of new pipelines, 4M new parking lots.

The consumer price index (CPI) edged down 0.1% in May, YoY.

87% days have good air quality, 3% decrease in PM2.5 concentration YoY . 90% of surface water quality is rated Class I–III.

“The cleanup may take 50 years because there has been a long history of mining here,” says Xu Cheng, director of the Longnan Rare Earths Bureau.

Temples provide refuge for 2,000-year old trees: 61 threatened species, eight found only on temple grounds and the only existing individual of Carpinus putoensis.

Diplomacy & Geopolitics

140 countries have joined BeiDou satellite navigation system, another reflection of China’s geopolitical power.

China banned Taiwan’s Sicuens Co. from doing business with the mainland citing its links to a DPP legislator previously sanctioned for separatist activities.

The Solomon Islands blocked Taiwanese officials from entering the Pacific country, breaking a long running precedent.

Defense

America cannot, in fact, cut China out. China supplies 40% of the semiconductors in DoD weapons. From 2014-2022, U.S. dependence increased 600%.

The PLA’s Information Support Force Engineering University in Wuhan offers 10 undergraduate majors in information and intelligent technology.

China tests a diesel-electric Type 99A main battle tank with reduced acoustic signature, longer range, accelerated torque delivery and greater support for electronic warfare systems and directed energy weapons.

US SecDef Pete Hegseth in Singapore: "We are preparing for war in order to deter war — to achieve peace through strength. We are reorienting toward deterring aggression by Communist China".