China Watch

How to Stop China from Freeriding on American AI– warontherocks.com

pgnewser August 4, 2026 0

How to Stop China from Freeriding on American AI– warontherocks.com
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The release of the Chinese open-weight AI model Kimi K3 has compressed a year’s worth of unresolved AI policy debate into a single news cycle. On July 21, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened sanctions against Chinese labs found to have built their models on “theft,” reporting that the government is “finding watermarks of our U.S. large language models on many of the Chinese models.” The following day, White House science advisor Michael Kratsios clarified that the Chinese AI lab behind K3, Moonshot AI, had built a sophisticated platform to copy Anthropic’s Fable model while evading detection.

Industry has been vocal about its own views, with Nvidia’s Jensen Huang declaring that American companies should “absolutely” use Chinese models that outcompete American counterparts on price. In the Washington Post, investor Bill Gurley argued that treating open models as a danger to be licensed and contained runs afoul of the free-market principles that have long powered American innovation.

U.S. ban on foreign-made humanoid robots targets China over security risks– www.cbc.ca

pgnewser July 30, 2026 0

U.S. ban on foreign-made humanoid robots targets China over security risks– www.cbc.ca
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The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is banning imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots and power inverters, citing national security risks, in a move that targets China.

Beijing quickly accused the U.S. of protectionism.

The measures are likely to test relations with Beijing ahead of a planned U.S. visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in September. China dominates the global market for humanoid robots with an estimated market share of roughly 85 per cent.

The FCC’s ban also includes new imports of quadruped robots, often referred to as four-legged robot dogs. The agency said imports of advanced robots pose cybersecurity and other national security risks. Offshore production of such equipment also leaves U.S. supply chains vulnerable to disruptions.

The ban on power inverters, which are used to convert direct current (DC) electricity into alternating current (AC) electricity and are used in renewable energy systems, data centres and household appliances, could have sweeping ramifications.

Graphics card prices jump by up to 20% in China as shops stockpile Nvidia and AMD GPUs– www.techspot.com

pgnewser July 30, 2026 0

Graphics card prices jump by up to 20% in China as shops stockpile Nvidia and AMD GPUs– www.techspot.com
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Ripple effect: Just when it seemed like graphics card prices couldn’t get much worse, the memory crisis has delivered another unpleasant surprise. Nvidia and AMD GPU prices have surged in China, with some models rising by as much as 20% in a single week and premium cards now selling for almost 60% above their official MSRPs.

Distributor lists from MSI and Colorful reveal the increases. MSI raised the RTX 5080 Shadow 3X OC and Ventus from 9,999 yuan ($1,477) to 11,999 yuan ($1,773), a 20% jump in seven days. Its RTX 5070 Ti Shadow 3X OC rose 19.5%, while the RTX 5090D V2 increased 13%. What’s worse is that these cards were already well above their suggested prices before the latest adjustment.

Comparing the new figures with Nvidia’s Chinese MSRPs makes the situation look even worse. MSI’s RTX 5070 Ti Gaming Trio OC is now 54% above the base MSRP, while the RTX 5080 Gaming Trio models are around 57% higher. Colorful’s RTX 5080 Vulcan W OC is priced at 13,199 yuan ($1,949), 59% above MSRP, and its RTX 5070 Ti Vulcan W OC carries a similar 58.7% premium.

The increases aren’t just limited to Nvidia. A market snapshot showed Radeon cards climbing across Chinese retailers, with some RX 9000 models seeing double-digit increases. AMD reportedly warned Asus, XFX, Sapphire, and other partners earlier this month that its GPU-and-memory bundles would become 10% more expensive.

The culprit is, of course, the continuing rise in GDDR6 and GDDR7 costs, combined with more expensive PCBs, coolers, and packaging. Nvidia supplies board partners with GPU and memory kits, so higher VRAM costs are passed directly to manufacturers. Reports claim the latest adjustment adds around 600 yuan ($89) to 8GB cards, 900 yuan ($133) to 12GB models, and 1,200 yuan ($177) to 16GB products.

China Hits U.S., Europe With New Rare Earths Export Controls– legalinsurrection.com

pgnewser July 30, 2026 0

China Hits U.S., Europe With New Rare Earths Export Controls– legalinsurrection.com
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Early this year, the Trump administration unveiled a new minerals stockpile initiative called “Project Vault,” which prioritizes the development of mines and processing operations for more than 50 minerals deemed critical.

This move comes on top of Trump’s pursuit of new alliances to challenge China’s control over these essential resources. Additionally, the administration has been expediting mine openings, supporting new smelting operations, and exploring deep-sea options for these resources.

These developments are likely not making Chinese officials happy. Subsequently, it should not come as a surprise that China has now imposed new export controls on rare earths bound for this country.

China added MP Materials (MP.N) and USA Rare Earth (USAR.O) as well as eight other ​U.S. entities it said are linked to the U.S. military to its export ‌control list in retaliation for Washington placing several Chinese companies under restrictions this month.

Aveox, a motor manufacturer for mission-critical applications, was also among those placed on the list, which halts Chinese dual-use exports to the companies.

Pentagon-backed ​MP Materials, which operates the only active rare earth mine in the U.S., and ​USA Rare Earth are both involved in the mine-to-magnet supply chain.

USA Rare ⁠Earth said it did not have any comment on the matter. MP Materials and Aveox were ​not available for comment outside of business hours.

Xi’s Purges Continue

pgnewser July 28, 2026 0

Another heavyweight CCP member found himself purged from power by Chairman Xi. Former Politburo member Ma Xingrui was the latest high-profile leader removed under Xi’s anti-corruption operation. The move shows Xi has still not consolidated power after the attempted coup from within last year.

China expels Ma Xingrui in fresh politburo purge as Xi Jinping tightens grip amid mounting internal challenges – organiser.org
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The expulsion of former Politburo member Ma Xingrui from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has become the latest chapter in President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign, but the significan…

China Explores Elevating Cognitive Effects into Its Vision of Warfare– warontherocks.com

pgnewser July 28, 2026 0

China Explores Elevating Cognitive Effects into Its Vision of Warfare– warontherocks.com
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In March 2025, China’s military researchers published a concept describing how to rapidly capture and subdue the city of Taipei. Distributed in restricted military channels, this approach argues Beijing can achieve victory “by blocking the city’s ability to receive external assistance, restricting its ability to enable operations, breaking its operational system, collapsing cognitive cohesion, and eliminating its ability to recover.” Its objective is to break the Taiwan people’s will to fight.

While this concept is not yet doctrine, it is an important and rarely seen example of how China’s military strategy and research inform the way it plans to fight a war over Taiwan. The authors’ framework operationalizes China’s new military strategy of “national total war,” referring to whole-of-nation mobilization, and “cognitive domain operations,” referring to influencing the mental space where people and organizations make decisions. Details on both remain sparse, particularly in the context of how they may support the Chinese military’s primary mission of capturing Taiwan.

“All-domain megacity incapacitation warfare” (大型城市全域失能战) describes in remarkable detail how China’s military might capture Taipei by integrating military firepower with cognitive effects. An article from the March 2025 edition of Military Art, China’s leading internal journal on military theory, proposes this idea. The Central Military Commission oversees and approves this journal, and its official circulation is limited to restricted military channels. Because the journal is closely held within China’s military, the article’s authors have liberty to speak in specifics and without varnish as they inject their concept into China’s internal debate on how to plan a war on Taiwan.

Japan raises safety concern over Chinese destroyer’s live-fire drills– abcnews.com

pgnewser July 22, 2026 0

Japan raises safety concern over Chinese destroyer’s live-fire drills– abcnews.com
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TOKYO — Japan expressed concern after a Chinese navy destroyer conducted live-fire drills off a remote Japanese island in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday during its joint exercise with Russia, officials said Tuesday.

The Chinese Luyang III-class guided-missile destroyer conducted a live-fire exercise off Japan’s southernmost island of Okinotori, hours after the Japanese navy spotted it operating alongside two other Chinese warships and a Russian frigate, the Japanese Joint Staff said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters Tuesday that his government conveyed concerns that the live-fire drills posed a potential safety threat to nearby vessels. He noted that ships near the area received a notice from the Chinese warships just before the drills started.

“We will continue to watch China-Russia operations around Japan with concern, while doing utmost for the warning and surveillance of the Japanese airspace and territorial waters,” Kihara said.

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, in a speech Monday in Britain, said the action underscored “the deepening military cooperation between China and Russia,” as he also noted China’s ballistic missile launch from a submarine earlier this month, and at least 10 joint flights conducted by Chinese and Russian bombers around Japan.