China's Week, Sunday, March 8

3-hour space laser; US out of Moon race?; First hexagonal diamond; Stable, high-density plasma; Chinese billionaires lead again; Bride price capped at ¥60K; Chinese-Jewish relations.

Science & Technology

China will carry out two crewed spaceflight missions and one cargo resupply mission in 2026 towards its goal of a first crewed Moon landing before 2030.

US withdraws from moon race? NASA won’t send humans to moon on Artemis III. Return to the moon will come later, as agency grapples with delays and glitches.

Why are Chinese AI models #1? MiniMax M2.5 scores 80.2%, Claude scores 80.8%, but MiniMax costs $0.30/M tokens while Claude costs $5/M, 17x more.

A factory converted 4M tons of coal into oil in 2025, the first time it reached its designed output of 4 million tonnes since going operational in 2017.

Space laser sustains 3 hours of high-speed data transmission between Earth and satellites 25,000 miles above Earth, critical to future deep-space networks.

China creates 3272°F heat-resistant ceramics for hypersonic jets and nuclear reactors, better than tungsten.

Researchers synthesize hexagonal diamond — an unusual variant of the mineral that could be even harder than the cubic form – a material has been sought for decades.

China boosts science budget 10%. Is it listening to everything Elon Musk says?

China’s stable, high-density plasma redefining systemic Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI), the critical metric that underpins sustainable economic growth.

The 2025 WJCI includes 1,906 Chinese science journals, 50 more than in 2020—with their average position seventh globally.

Economics & Trade

The oil intensity of the US economy is much higher than China’s, Russia’s, and EU’s, which makes price shocks and economic damage comparatively WORSE for the US.

Spiking oil prices boost solar, battery, wind exports, offsetting costs for China

because spiking oil prices stimulate solar sales. It is a structural hedge.

Hormuz? China spent 20 years preparing for that:
• world’s largest strategic oil reserves,
• diversified long-term contracts with Russia, Gulf states, and Africa,
• overland pipelines through Myanmar and Central Asia,
• the largest LNG fleet expansion,
• and domestic refining capacity nobody else can match.

Deep Dive: The GCC-Russia battle for Chinese energy markets.

China’s Frontier Biotech signs $1 billion siRNA therapy deal with UK’s GSK; Pfizer signs $495 million Sciwind’s weight-loss drug deal.

China ramps up chip tool push, sets 70% target by 2027.

Guangdong leads China in tourists, revenue during Chinese New Year with 86.5 million tourist visits generating $12.4 billion, both records.

If China builds a few hundred thousand humanoid robots and those robots help them build a million more, that's not linear scaling, that's full industrial capture.

Biotech outlicensing tops $52 billion YTD. Sino Biopharmaceutical’s partnership with France’s Sanofi and Antengene’s agreement with Belgium’s UCB.

Power equipment exports rose 26% to $37 billion in 2025, fueled by grid upgrades across emerging markets, renewables and data centers.

Society & Environment

Hong Kong’s 7 million people support five universities in the global top 100. Royal Holloway, founded 150 years ago, once in the Global 100, is not even top 400. City University of Hong Kong was founded 30 years ago and it’s #63.

China is world’s billionaire capital again. Global billionaire population hits record, led by Elon Musk, as China adds 287 and AI emerges as a top wealth generator.

A 20% rise in Tsinghua graduates joining the manufacturing and energy sectors in 2025, indicating renewed interest in traditional industrial sectors.

Diet transformed in 20 years. Grain intake down from 145kg to 78kg, demand for meat, fruit, and fish surged, with soybean’s 80% import reliance.

Proposal to Cap Bride Price at 60,000 Yuan Spark Discussion after NPC deputy Li Yanfeng proposed employment incentives to families that choose lower bride prices.

China ramps up electric ships to decarbonise waterways, leverage EV prowess, meet carbon goals, with 1,000 EV and AV-fuel vessels operating on domestic waterways.

Governance

Beijing awards first UAV air taxi airworthiness certification. This is from a trial manufacturing batch of its flying cars in Guangzhou.

Pumped hydro features in China’s 5 year plan and, unlike batteries, gets a numerical target: 100 GW of capacity by 2030, up from 5GW today.

World’s largest compressed air energy storage online, with 600 MW of total installed capacity and 2,400 MWh of storage and 71% conversion efficiency.

Micro credit program shifts from poverty alleviation to long‑term income support for still-vulnerable rural households, rebranded “supportive micro credit”.

Fiscal Funding Hits Record High, surpasses 30T¥. Transfer payments to local governments, 10.4T¥; Science & technology, 1.3T¥, up 7.1%..

China’s anti-corruption drive in academia is vital to its science and tech ambitions. Scientists urge more effective mechanisms to curb abuses of power.

China releases national standards for humanoid robotics and embodied AI.

China Mandates 15-minute Breaks Between School Classes amid concerns that existing breaks were not long enough for students’ health.

Diplomacy & Geopolitics

Unjammable and Unstoppable: The BeiDou-3 Revolution in the Skies of Israel.

In Iran, China Is the strategic winner, says Victor Gao, “China does not want to see a pro-Western regime in Iran — that would be a threat to their interests.”

The Iran war is directly benefiting Russia and China, which consolidate their export dominance and can out-wait and outlast all competitors.

Cuba’s imports of Chinese solar panels grew 34% YoY, faster than anywhere else in the world.

PM Carney: Xi spent the first 10 minutes discussing our personal interaction which I interpret it as, “Don’t lecture me in public, bring issues to me directly.”

If Trump can declare a blockade of the independent country of Venezuela based upon no legal justification, China can certainly claim that it has an equal right to do so with Taiwan.

Chinese-Jewish relations began in the 19th century, when Sephardic Jewish merchants from Baghdad, led by families like the Sassoons and Kadoories, established vast commercial empires in Shanghai and Hong Kong. They built synagogues, schools, and hospitals. However, there was a dark side to the Sassoons’ economic influence in China.

The myth of Chinese overcapacity is just Western solipsism. The Global South needs China’s exports to resolve US-caused Lucas paradox¹.

Defense

ONI says the PLAN will add 6 SSGNs, 3 smaller SSNs, and 2 SSBNs by 4Q 2027. That’s ELEVEN nuclear powered boats in less than 2 years.

The U.S. is taking THAAD systems meant to protect South Korea from China to the Middle East.

1,000 Mighty Dragons: The Chilling Math Of China’s J-20 Stealth Fighter 2030 Fleet Is A Problem For The U.S. Air Force.

USA defenseless in the Western Pacific. Iran War as America’s Singapore Moment, with the burning US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain as its HMS Repulse?

China’s military relationship with Iran dates to the 1980s, when Beijing supplied Tehran with fighter aircraft, a thousand tanks, and hundreds of missiles during the Iran-Iraq War, later...

The Chinese political class is increasingly aware that organized Jewry are the real sovereigns in American foreign policy circles. Chinese officials and state media figures say the USA has been “severely kidnapped” by Jewish political forces.

The relationship between GDP and military power exists only if a nation can turn wealth into weapons. How could the US fight China while also relying on it for so many of the necessary material inputs?

1. The Lucas paradox is the observation that capital does not flow from rich country to poor as predicted by classical economics. In theory, as capital experiences diminishing returns in rich economies, it will flow to poorer economies which still have low-hanging fruit.

In practice, however, rich countries have hoovered up capital from developing economies, leaving much of the world starved for investment.