An engineer at the AgiBot factory in Shanghai, China, where the 5,000th mass-produced humanoid robot had rolled off the production line. An engineer at the AgiBot factory in Shanghai, China, where the 5,000th mass-produced humanoid robot had rolled off the production line. How close are we to the sci-fi vision of autonomous humanoid robots? C hen Liang, the founder of Guchi Robotics, an automation company headquartered in Shanghai, is a tall, heavy-set man in his mid-40s with square-rimmed glasses. His everyday manner is calm and understated, but when he is in his element - up close with the technology he builds, or in business meetings discussing the imminent replacement of human workers by robots - he wears an exuberant smile that brings to mind an intern on his first day at his dream job. Guchi makes the machines that install wheels, dashboards and windows for many of the top Chinese car brands, including BYD and Nio. He took the name from the Chinese word, "steadfast intelligence", though the fact that it sounded like an Italian luxury brand was not entirely unwelcome. For the better part of two decades, Chen has tried to solve what, to him, is an engineering problem: how to eliminate - or, in his view, liberate - as many workers in car factories as technologically possible. Late last year, I visited him at Guchi headquarters on the western outskirts of Shanghai. Next to the head office are several warehouses where Guchi's engineers tinker with robots to fit the specifications of their customers. Chen, an engineer by training, founded Guchi in 2019 with the aim of tackling the hardest automation task in the car factory: "final assembly", the last leg of production, when all the composite pieces - the dashboard, windows, wheels and seat cushions - come together. At present, his robots can mount wheels, dashboards and windows on to a car without any human intervention, but 80% of the final assembly, he estimates, has yet to be automated. That is what Chen has set his sights on. As in much of the world, AI has become part of everyday life in China . But what most excites Chinese politicians and industrialists are the strides being made in the field of robotics, which, when combined with advances in AI, could revolutionise the world of work.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrive for a reception marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sept. 3, 2025. Moscow and Beijing are driving closer collaboration between authoritarian states and such networks help advance repression globally, according to researchers who used artificial intelligence to drill into the activities. The U.S.-based nonprofit Action for Democracy said in a report Wednesday that its researchers built an index to track seven types of cooperation, including on funding, diplomatic activities, propaganda and tech sharing. It found that China and Russia sit at the center of global authoritarian collaboration" and were jointly involved in around half of all recorded activity. The report's authors said that such cooperation generated compound returns because, for example, surveillance infrastructure exported to one regime becomes a template for the next." In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

'It was like a phone call suddenly connecting' Ai Weiwei. 'It was like a phone call suddenly connecting' Ai Weiwei. 'Was I scared going back to China? He has been jailed, tracked and threatened by China's government. What was it like pay a visit home?

ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent received permission, as well, according to Reuters. The Chinese government has given DeepSeek its approval to purchase NVIDIA's H200 AI chips, according to . ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have also reportedly received permission from Beijing to buy a total of 400,000 H200 GPUs. says Chinese authorities are still finalizing the conditions they're imposing on the companies to be able to proceed with their orders, so it may take a while before they're able to receive their shipments. In addition, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang told reporters that his company has yet to receive orders from the aforementioned firms and that he believed China is still finalizing their licenses. In December 2025, the US government allowed NVIDIA to sell its second-best H200 processors to vetted Chinese companies in addition to its H20 model in exchange for a 25 percent tariff on those sales.

Each of these enormous collections of spacecraft, dubbed CTC-1 and CTC-2, would contain 96,714 satellites spread over 3,660 different orbits. If completed, China's new mega-constellation would dwarf even SpaceX's bold ambition to put 49,000 Starlink satellites in orbit. Together, CTC-1 and CTC-2 would be the largest assembly of satellites ever put in orbit, and would effectively lock competitors out of a region of low-Earth orbit. With Chinese authorities remaining quiet about the satellites' intended use, experts have raised concerns that the constellation may pose a security or defence threat. As reported by China in Space, the Nanjing University of Aeronautics claims that the satellites will focus on: 'Low-altitude electromagnetic space security, integrated security defence systems, electromagnetic space security assessment of airspace, and low-altitude airspace safety supervision services.'

Thailand, Cambodia agree to build on ceasefire in talks in China's Yunnan Thailand and Cambodia plan to rebuild mutual trust and consolidate a ceasefire, Beijing says at the end of two days of talks in southwestern China, despite new accusations from the Thai military that its Cambodian counterparts are violating the truce with drone flights. The foreign ministers of Thailand and Cambodia met with the Chinese foreign minister in Yunnan province on Monday for the scheduled two days of talks aimed at ending weeks of fierce fighting along their border that has killed more than 100 people and displaced more than half a million civilians in both countries. As part of the deal, Thailand has agreed to return 18 captured Cambodian soldiers on Tuesday if the ceasefire, which took effect at noon (05:00 GMT) on Saturday, is fully observed. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said he believed the parties were "moving in a positive direction". "We haven't resolved everything, but I think we are making progress in the right direction, and we have to keep up the momentum," he said.

Defense analyst Seth Jones warns in 'The American Edge' that the U.S. could exhaust long-range missiles within a week of Taiwan conflict with China.

The Commerce Department proposes banning TP-Link router sales over national security concerns about Chinese government access to American networks.

Is the US eyeing its next Latin American target? Why is Trump tearing down parts of the White House? Trump-Xi meeting: What's at stake and who has the upper hand? United States President Donald Trump expects "a lot of problems" will be solved between Washington and Beijing when he meets China's President Xi Jinping in South Korea for a high-stakes meeting on Thursday, amid growing trade tensions between the two. Relations between the two world powers have been strained in recent years, with Washington and Beijing imposing tit-for-tat trade tariffs topping 100 percent against each other this year, the US restricting its exports of semiconductors vital for artificial intelligence (AI) development and Beijing restricting exports of critical rare-earth metals which are vital for the defence industry and also the development of AI, among other issues. On the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Wednesday, Trump said an expected trade deal between China and the US would be good for both countries and "something very exciting for everybody".

Donald Trump has departed for Malaysia, where he's set to attend the ASEAN summit and hold trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Speaking before he left, the US President criticised Canada over its'crooked ad' about tariffs, and said he'd be open to meeting North Korea's Kim Jong Un. 'Can't control' US tariffs: Canada'stands ready' to resume trade talks'Occupation, expulsion and colonisation': Israeli protesters block Gaza aid