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Geely Galaxy’s Northern Europe Expedition: Proving the Global Strength of China’s New Energy Vehicles in Extreme Cold

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Tendenzblick

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February 19, 2026

Geely Galaxy’s Northern Europe Expedition: Proving the Global Strength of China’s New Energy Vehicles in Extreme Cold

In 2025, China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) market reached a historic milestone as the penetration rate of NEVs surpassed 50%. Amid the rapid rise of domestic brands, the industry’s head effect has become increasingly pronounced. Among the standout players is Geely Galaxy, which entered the “Million Galaxy” era with annual sales exceeding 1.23 million units, becoming one of the fastest new energy brands in the industry to reach the one-million annual sales mark. This momentum continued into 2026. In January, despite broader market pressure, Geely Galaxy achieved monthly sales of 82,000 units, helping Geely Auto reach total sales of 270,200 vehicles and secure the top position in China’s automotive market at the start of the year.

While sales growth has been strong, Geely Galaxy has continued to place equal emphasis on product validation and technological development. From late January to mid-February 2026, the brand launched a large-scale winter testing expedition in Northern Europe, conducting an extreme cold endurance test covering more than 1,000 kilometers within the Arctic Circle. A total of 25 vehicles representing 11 models, including the Galaxy V900, M9, E5, Xingjian 7 EM-i, Xingyao 8, A7, Xingyao 6 and Xingyuan, participated in the expedition, covering multiple powertrain technologies such as pure electric, hybrid and methanol-based power systems.

On February 9, as the testing convoy reached the Arctic interior under conditions of polar night and severe cold, Geely Galaxy completed a milestone challenge: a more than 1,000-kilometer cross-border winter test from Sweden to Norway without recharging or refueling, ultimately reaching the Arctic Ocean. Several hybrid models, including the V900, M9, Xingjian 7 EM-i, Xingyao 8, A7 and Xingyao 6, successfully completed the journey without energy replenishment. This marked the first time a Chinese new energy vehicle brand had carried out a cross-continental winter expedition to the Arctic Ocean.

In addition to the long-distance endurance test, Geely Galaxy vehicles also conducted specialized verification at the Colmis testing ground in northern Sweden, near the Arctic Circle. The site is located in an extremely cold region where winter temperatures can drop to as low as −40°C and where thick natural snow and high-quality ice surfaces can last for up to 150 days each year. These conditions make it one of the most recognized winter testing environments in the global automotive industry. Compared with conventional winter testing environments in China, Northern Europe presents even more demanding conditions. Extremely low temperatures are combined with consistently high humidity levels, often exceeding 90 percent, creating an environment that places greater demands on vehicle sealing, anti-fog capability, thermal management efficiency and the environmental perception abilities of intelligent driving sensors. In addition, the prolonged polar night brings extended periods of low-light conditions, posing further challenges for vehicle perception and safety systems.

During the winter tests, Geely Galaxy carried out systematic validation based on real-world extreme-cold usage scenarios. The tests focused on areas such as winter ADAS performance, adaptability to high-humidity and low-temperature environments, traction and load performance on icy roads, and overall thermal management efficiency. Engineers also evaluated vehicle stability on low-friction surfaces, overall sealing reliability and durability under freeze-thaw cycles. Through these high-intensity tests, the vehicles’ reliability and performance under severe winter conditions were thoroughly assessed.

Behind these results lies a series of targeted technological optimizations. To address traction challenges on snow and ice, engineers conducted in-depth calibration of the torque management systems in all-wheel-drive models, enabling millisecond-level torque distribution and improving stability on slippery surfaces. The vehicles’ thermal management and defrosting systems were also optimized to ensure clear visibility and efficient cabin heating in extremely cold and humid conditions, while compliance solutions for upcoming Euro 7 emission standards were tested in advance. At the same time, engineers addressed typical cold-weather issues such as frozen door handles and fogging cameras through dedicated design improvements. In terms of powertrain innovation, methanol-powered vehicles successfully achieved ultra-low-temperature cold starts during the tests, overcoming a long-standing challenge associated with extreme cold engine ignition.

The Northern European winter expedition also highlights Geely Galaxy’s broader “global R&D and global validation” capability. The company has established a comprehensive testing network covering a wide range of environmental conditions, including extreme cold, high heat, humidity and high altitude. Major facilities include the Hangzhou Bay Comprehensive Test Center, the Hainan humid-heat testing base, the Heihe cold-weather testing base, the Turpan high-temperature testing base, the European testing center and the Yunnan high-altitude testing base. Together these facilities form a global development cycle integrating research, validation and iterative improvement. Through this network, Geely’s testing activities now span five major testing regions, more than 70 countries and over 100,000 testing scenarios, recreating around 90 percent of real-world driving environments. Each year the company tests more than 8,000 vehicles and accumulates over 100 million kilometers of testing mileage. Looking ahead, Geely plans to establish 16 testing bases worldwide to further strengthen its all-weather, all-terrain and full-scenario development capabilities.

The significance of these efforts also reflects broader trends within China’s rapidly expanding new energy vehicle industry. In 2025, China’s NEV production and sales both exceeded 16 million units, while Chinese new energy passenger vehicles accounted for 68.4 percent of the global market, rising to 71.9 percent in the fourth quarter. As the industry moves from rapid expansion toward a new phase focused on quality and reliability, regulatory requirements are also becoming stricter. In 2026, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology introduced updated regulations for automotive production and product approval, elevating reliability testing from an internal company standard to a mandatory regulatory requirement. Under the new rules, new energy vehicles must complete at least 15,000 kilometers of reliability testing before approval. Geely Galaxy’s intensive winter testing in Northern Europe represents an active response to these evolving standards and demonstrates the brand’s commitment to pushing the industry from volume leadership toward standard leadership.

For Geely Galaxy, the Arctic expedition is not only a demonstration of technological capability but also an important step in its global expansion strategy. Europe remains one of the most technologically demanding automotive markets in the world, and the extreme conditions of Northern Europe can expose potential issues that might remain hidden in conventional testing environments. Challenges such as frozen door locks, fogging sensors and reduced perception capability in low-light conditions are far more likely to appear in such climates. By conducting localized validation under these conditions, Geely Galaxy ensures that its vehicles are designed from the outset to meet global regulations and real-world usage scenarios in different markets.

Source: sohu, the paper, shenxuanche, sina, autohome, xueqiu

How Chinese Companies Won Against Israeli Anti-Dumping Measures Amid Global Trade Uncertainty

POLITIK

Tendenzblick

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February 17, 2026

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How Chinese Companies Won Against Israeli Anti-Dumping Measures Amid Global Trade Uncertainty

In recent years, Chinese enterprises going global have faced profound changes. In today’s highly uncertain trade environment, companies must not only navigate market fluctuations but also operate under rising compliance standards, pressures to “de-risk” supply chains, and increasing localization requirements.

Meanwhile, the focus of international trade friction has shifted. Increasingly, the challenges come from anti-dumping and countervailing investigations, where a single ruling can transform a market from “accessible” to “closed.” Behind these shifts lies a broader turn in the global economic landscape.

Since the advent of the so-called “Trump 2.0” era, the United States has deeply instrumentalized tariffs and industrial policy, creating external volatility through cycles of negotiation, pressure, and escalation, thereby reducing the predictability of global trade.

At the same time, many economies, under the pressures of industrial competition and domestic demand, have strengthened trade defense mechanisms, combining import reviews, trade remedy measures, and subsidy investigations.

This has accelerated a global shift from “efficiency-first” to “security- and industry-first” trade logic. Against this backdrop, China’s cost advantages are increasingly interpreted as “distortion,” “dumping,” or “subsidy,” making the ability to build strong evidentiary chains and procedural defenses a decisive factor in international trade outcomes.

Amid this challenging context, a two-year-long Israeli anti-dumping investigation into Chinese aluminum extrusions concluded with a full victory for China in January 2026. During the preliminary phase, extremely high anti-dumping duties were considered, but after persistent legal argumentation and evidence submission, Israeli authorities ultimately decided not to impose any duties, resulting in an industry-wide no-measures outcome.

The case illustrates the deeper dynamics in trade remedy practice surrounding methodology, evidentiary rules, and the limits of public interest, and offers a clear roadmap for Chinese enterprises navigating high-volatility, high-barrier markets.

Anti-dumping investigations fundamentally compare export prices with a “normal value” to calculate dumping margins and determine applicable duties. Under market economy conditions, the normal value is usually determined either based on domestic sales in the exporting country or constructed from the enterprise’s own production costs, including reasonable overhead and profit.

However, in practice involving Chinese exporters, a controversial method known as the “surrogate country” approach has long been applied. In such cases, foreign authorities often exclude or ignore verifiable Chinese cost data, instead using third-country data as a basis. Objectively, this inflates the normal value and systematically disadvantages Chinese companies. In the Israeli aluminum extrusions case, this became the central point of contention.

In the preliminary ruling, Israeli authorities deemed the Chinese aluminum extrusion industry “seriously distorted” and selected Turkey as the surrogate country, resulting in an average duty of 110%, with a maximum of 146%. Full enforcement would have effectively closed the Israeli market and imposed massive liabilities on shipments already in transit.

In response, Chinese lawyers represented the Chinese aluminum extrusion industry, working closely with government agencies and industry associations to coordinate over ten companies in responding to questionnaires, fact verification, legal submissions, and procedural communication, ensuring consistent information and coherent advocacy across the sector.

Through multiple written submissions and hearings, Chinese lawyers demonstrated that the surrogate country methodology violated both WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement rules and Israeli domestic law, lacked transparency and verifiability, and relied on cost parameters significantly higher than actual Chinese production costs, failing to reflect market-based calculations.

During the defense process, Chinese lawyers emphasized the market-oriented nature of Chinese cost data while integrating public interest and substantive rules into their arguments. Israeli domestic production capacity for aluminum extrusions is limited and cannot meet market demand, whereas China’s comprehensive and flexible industry system can supply the necessary products, particularly critical given supply disruptions due to regional conflict.

Additionally, high anti-dumping duties would ultimately be borne by importers and end consumers, increasing construction costs and inflation while harming public welfare. On causation and injury, Chinese lawyers highlighted that difficulties faced by Israeli enterprises stemmed primarily from war and macroeconomic fluctuations rather than Chinese imports, showing that preliminary high duty rates were inconsistent with public interest.

In the final ruling, Israeli authorities acknowledged that Turkey’s data was not viable and instead used Chinese enterprise data to construct the normal value. Average duty rates for cooperating companies fell to 37%. Following this, through continued coordination with the Ministry of Commerce and China’s embassy in Israel, and sustained participation in procedural hearings and written submissions, the Israeli Ministry of Finance officially decided not to impose anti-dumping measures, resulting in a no-measures outcome. The Ministry’s report noted that imposing duties would have added approximately 600 million new shekels in economic burden, increased construction costs, and negatively affected housing and infrastructure reconstruction, confirming the decision to cancel duties.

This case highlights several key lessons for enterprises facing trade remedies in today’s complex international environment. First, public interest provisions serve as a crucial safety valve, especially in sectors related to essential goods or infrastructure. Second, maintaining control over data and methodology is critical; ensuring that a company’s own cost data is recognized is fundamental to reducing duty rates. Third, injury and causation assessments must be carefully delineated to prevent authorities from attributing macroeconomic, war-related, or business-management impacts to dumping. Most importantly, enterprises must respond proactively, rather than avoid participation, and establish a coordinated mechanism across enterprise, government, and industry associations, integrating data support, policy communication, legal advocacy, and diplomatic channels.

Overall, trade remedy systems have evolved from technical calculation tools into arenas of institutional boundary negotiation, policy choice, and public interest considerations. In today’s unprecedented global shifts, rules do not automatically favor any party, but rigorous, continuous efforts ensure they respond.

Source: WTO, cnal, zqb, diple, jingtian, regtechtimes, shidai

China Merchants Bank Unveils a Fully Self-Developed Large Model Ecosystem to Transform Operations and Service Excellence

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February 15, 2026

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China Merchants Bank Unveils a Fully Self-Developed Large Model Ecosystem to Transform Operations and Service Excellence

As digital transformation enters deeper waters, holistic intelligence has become an industry-wide consensus. As a pioneer, China Merchants Bank has taken the lead in independently developing a full-stack large model technology system, offering the industry a practical paradigm and reusable methodology for evolving from “point intelligence” to “system intelligence.”

The bank has built a fully self-controlled large model stack spanning infrastructure, models, and applications, achieving tangible progress across each layer. At the infrastructure level, a series of foundational innovations have driven industry-leading performance in core computing utilization and single-card token throughput.

Built entirely through in-house research and development, the platform delivers leadership in functionality, performance, and cost efficiency. It features a financial-grade heterogeneous computing cloud foundation, a low-latency, high-efficiency inference platform based on heterogeneous cards, and a cluster-based training platform supporting agentic reinforcement learning.

Proprietary training and inference frameworks have improved end-to-end inference performance by more than 50 percent. The bank has also contributed 40 key features to major open-source projects and earned maintainer status in two leading open-source communities, underscoring its role in advancing the broader technology ecosystem. From a cost perspective, token processing expenses are approximately 70 percent of those charged by mainstream public cloud providers.

On the model layer, China Merchants Bank has developed a structured model matrix that balances quality, efficiency, and security. It has deployed more than 40 cutting-edge open-source foundation models across multiple modalities and parameter scales, optimizing operators to enhance inference performance and resolving heterogeneous computing adaptation challenges for models such as DeepSeek and Qwen.

At the same time, the bank has extensively reengineered model architectures to create more than 60 specialized domain models covering customer service, client management, middle- and back-office operations, and research and development. These tailored models significantly improve accuracy and operational performance in financial scenarios.

At the application level, the bank has established one of the most comprehensive and deeply integrated business-technology collaboration systems in the industry. Through planning optimization, token consumption has been reduced by 55 percent; context compression has tripled the number of conversational turns; and parallel tool execution has shortened processing time by 13 percent.

More than 12,000 users are covered by the platform, with business staff accounting for over 40 percent, reflecting a broad-based adoption beyond technical teams. Supported by a data-model-evaluation toolchain, application development cycles have been compressed to as little as eight days, enabling rapid iteration and value realization.

This full-stack capability has translated technological strength into frontline business value. To date, more than 800 application scenarios have been deployed across retail banking, corporate banking, risk management, operations, office administration, and R&D. These applications span knowledge Q&A, report processing, risk and compliance review, document verification, and software development, comprehensively improving employee productivity, lowering operational thresholds, and enhancing customer experience.

In software development, the bank has launched its proprietary DevAgent, an intelligent R&D agent built on a multi-round “perception–planning–execution–feedback–evolution” ReAct framework. By understanding natural language instructions, sensing the developer’s coding environment, and retrieving enterprise knowledge, DevAgent delivers task-level development capabilities, including cross-file and large code block generation. It now completes tens of thousands of development tasks each month, significantly accelerating product iteration and improving engineering efficiency.

In retail banking, an AI-powered investment research assistant provides relationship managers with quantitative analysis and intelligent product screening. Tasks that once required analyzing more than 1,000 indicators and hours of manual report consolidation can now be completed within minutes, dramatically improving responsiveness and professionalism in client service. In wholesale banking, a digital assistant supports data queries, analytics, and list retrieval for branch and head office staff, reducing high-frequency data retrieval time from minutes to seconds.

Beyond internal efficiency gains, the bank has embedded AI deeply into customer-facing services. Upholding its commitment to inclusive finance, China Merchants Bank integrates technological innovation throughout the service lifecycle. Its mobile app offers real-time multilingual translation, enabling foreign residents in China to switch key interfaces and product information instantly into different languages.

For Chinese enterprises expanding overseas, AI-powered document processing and risk control models have compressed traditional account opening and due diligence timelines to roughly one-third of their previous duration, enhancing both efficiency and cross-border risk management.

In inclusive finance, the bank has introduced voice-enabled services that allow customers to complete transactions with a single spoken instruction. Multimodal technology converts complex wealth management graphics into audio prompts, enabling visually impaired users to independently conduct financial operations. An AI-powered telephone assistant now supports more than 300 business scenarios through voice interaction, improving accessibility for elderly customers and dialect speakers.

China Merchants Bank’s experience validates the feasibility of diverse technological pathways and provides the financial industry with a mature, reliable, and scalable engineering methodology for large model implementation.

Looking ahead, the bank will continue to anchor its strategy in technological innovation, expanding both the breadth and depth of its services. On a foundation of security and compliance, it aims to build more adaptive, human-centered, and sustainable financial experiences, growing together with customers, partners, and society in an increasingly intelligent era.

Source: the economic observer, sz gov cn, cmb china, eeo

2026 Year of the Horse Celebrations: Spring Festival Traditions in Shanxi

KULTUR

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February 13, 2026

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2026 Year of the Horse Celebrations: Spring Festival Traditions in Shanxi

Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, is the most important festival for the Chinese people, marking a time for praying for blessings, warding off misfortune, and welcoming the new year.

In the ancient land of Shanxi, the customs surrounding the celebration are particularly long-standing and rich. In the lunar calendar, the first day of the first month is called New Year. Traditionally, after the Laba Festival, people in Taiyuan start preparing for the New Year, with the atmosphere growing more festive each day.

On the twenty-third day, the Kitchen God is honored, and the twenty-fourth marks a thorough house cleaning day. From this point, preparations reach a peak. Taiyuan locals used to follow the saying: “25th, grind tofu; 26th, finish work; 27th, go to the market; 28th, paste decorations; 29th, buy liquors; 30th, make dumplings.” Every day is full of tasks until the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, when the outdoor cleaning is finished, new clothes are prepared, dumplings are made, and offerings such as incense and lamps for welcoming deities are arranged.

On New Year’s Eve, families stay up all night, a practice called “Ao Sui.” At the rooster crow, incense is burned, lamps are lit, offerings are placed, fireworks are set off, deities welcomed, and ancestors worshipped, followed by family greetings. Children kowtow to elders, who in turn give red envelopes for good luck. Traditionally, breakfast is finished before sunrise, and people set out to visit relatives and friends, exchanging greetings like “Happy New Year,” “Wishing you wealth,” or “A year of happiness.”

Merchants pay special respect to the God of Wealth during the New Year. Before the late Qing dynasty, worship was held on the fifteenth day of the third lunar month and the twenty-second day of the seventh month. After the Republican era, it became customary to offer incense and food at the God of Wealth altar only during the New Year before visiting business associates.

The fifth day, “Po Wu,” was traditionally a day to stay home; the sixth was suitable for travel and marked the reopening of businesses. The seventh day, “Renri,” celebrated human beings’ birthdays, with favorable weather believed to ensure prosperity. On the eighth day, stars are worshipped at dusk, with seven lamps lit to honor the Big Dipper and bring good fortune. The tenth day, “Shi Bu Dong,” commemorates the day mice are said to marry. From the thirteenth to the sixteenth, the Lantern Festival brings bright lights and lively folk performances. The twentieth is “Xiao Tian Cang,” and the twenty-fifth “Lao Tian Cang,” when market officials are worshipped, and firecrackers are set off. Only after the Tian Cang festival does the New Year excitement fully wind down.

The Shanxi “Wang Huo” tradition during the New Year symbolizes the renewal of fire at the turning of the year. Historical records from the Ming dynasty by Lu Shen describe households setting up large furnaces with stones and coal, burning through the night in a practice called “Bu Tian,” recalling the legendary repairs of the sky by Nüwa. Shanxi’s abundant coal resources shaped the tradition, with different regions preparing fire differently: in northern Shanxi, large coal blocks form the fire tower; central and southern Shanxi use wood, cypress branches, and straw; southeastern Shanxi shapes mud sculptures filled with coal, often in forms like zodiac animals or lions. In rural areas, fire towers are lit on New Year’s Eve, doors are decorated with cypress, and children eat boiled pumpkin, symbolizing a fresh start. Offerings of millet are made to ancestors, and the fifth day marks yard cleaning.

From hanging prayer bells on Mianshan Mountain to visiting the Great Pagoda Tree in Hongtong, from worshipping at Jiezhou Guandi Temple to witnessing the carp leap over the Yellow River dragon gate, each ritual embodies hopes for the new year and reflects Shanxi’s rich cultural heritage.

Mianshan, famous as the retreat of Jie Zitui and birthplace of the Cold Food Festival, is a sacred site for blessing. During the New Year, people hang prayer bells along the cliffs, the wind causing them to chime, carrying wishes for the year ahead.

The Great Pagoda Tree in Hongtong, immortalized in the folk song “Ask me where my ancestors are, in Hongtong under the Great Pagoda Tree,” draws descendants from all over to seek their roots.

Jiezhou Guandi Temple, the largest and best-preserved temple dedicated to Guan Yu, sees throngs of worshippers during the New Year, praying for safety, prosperity, and success, while Guan Yu’s spirit of loyalty and courage inspires generations.

In Gao Ping City, the Yan Emperor Mausoleum hosts grand ancestor-worship ceremonies on New Year’s Day, drawing tens of thousands of visitors who follow ancient rites of drumming, offerings, and bows to honor the cultural progenitor Yan Emperor, wishing for a year of favorable weather, family well-being, and national prosperity. As a global site for ancestral veneration, the Yan Emperor Mausoleum has organized cross-strait folk worship ceremonies for over a decade, enhancing international recognition and boosting local cultural tourism.

Shanxi’s New Year customs, with their deep cultural roots, diverse forms, and vibrant atmosphere, allow all who partake to experience the enduring traditions and hopes of a new year.

Source: sn news, sxgp gov, chinesefolklore, jinsui, gmw, sxwbs

Bangladesh Faces Steep Hurdles on Path to Progress

THINKVIEWS

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February 11, 2026

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Bangladesh Faces Steep Hurdles on Path to Progress

Bangladesh’s journey since its independence in 1971 has been one of remarkable resilience and gradual transformation. Born into adversity, the country faced shattered infrastructure, political turmoil, and severe natural disasters that left its economy fragile and its population struggling.

Yet, against these daunting odds, Bangladesh has carved a path toward modernization, leveraging external support, labor mobility, and export-led growth to steadily advance. Its story today offers insight not only into its own ambitions but also into the challenges and opportunities faced by small, developing nations in a complex global landscape.

From the outset, Bangladesh contended with formidable domestic constraints. Situated on the fertile but flood-prone plains of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta, the country is home to 1.7 billion people packed into a relatively small area, making it one of the most densely populated nations on Earth. Its natural resources, though not insignificant, are limited: the country possesses modest reserves of natural gas, coal, and oil, but these are insufficient to fuel large-scale industrialization or energy security.

Agricultural practices historically relied on traditional techniques, leaving rural areas vulnerable to frequent floods, cyclones, and other climate-related shocks. Socioeconomic disparities were stark, with urban centers such as Dhaka and Chittagong bustling with industrial activity while vast rural areas remained underdeveloped, highlighting the deep polarization between urban and rural, modern and traditional sectors.

Regionally, Bangladesh’s position has been both strategic and challenging. Nestled between India and Myanmar and with access to the Bay of Bengal, it occupies a pivotal location for trade and regional connectivity. Yet the South Asian economic order has historically been unbalanced and insular. India dominates the region economically, politically, and militarily, leaving smaller neighbors with limited bargaining power.

Trade among South Asian countries remains remarkably low compared to other regions, with tariffs, infrastructure gaps, and trust deficits further constraining growth. Meanwhile, persistent security challenges, from border disputes to regional conflicts and global power competition, add layers of uncertainty for Bangladesh and its neighbors.

In the face of these challenges, Bangladesh’s early efforts at modernization relied heavily on external support. Foreign aid, technical assistance, and remittances from overseas workers provided critical capital when domestic resources were insufficient. From the 1970s onward, the country received assistance from a range of international partners, including India, the Soviet Union, the United States, and organizations such as the World Bank.

Remittances from Bangladeshi migrant workers, particularly in the Middle East, became a vital economic pillar, surpassing foreign aid in scale by the early 21st century. These funds not only sustained household consumption but also helped finance investments and stabilize the country’s foreign exchange position.

Agricultural development was a primary focus in the early decades. Faced with chronic food shortages, successive governments introduced irrigation projects, improved seed varieties, and expanded rural credit, gradually moving the country toward self-sufficiency in staple crops by the turn of the century. Parallel to this, Bangladesh began nurturing an industrial base, notably through its garment sector.

Capitalizing on its existing textile tradition and a favorable position under global trade agreements, the country developed an export-oriented clothing industry that quickly became its economic lifeline. Policies supporting private investment, technical training, and export facilitation created a manufacturing boom, propelling GDP from just $63 billion in 1972 to over $1,700 billion by 2014, with ready-made garments accounting for nearly 40 percent of exports.

This industrial foundation, coupled with a growing inflow of remittances, helped Bangladesh achieve impressive economic gains over the past decade. Average annual GDP growth has exceeded six percent, poverty rates have declined significantly, and per capita income has surpassed some of its larger neighbors, including India and Pakistan.

By 2019, Bangladesh had overtaken Pakistan to become the second-largest economy in South Asia. Its financial reserves and trade surpluses further underscore the country’s emerging economic stability. Even during global shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy maintained resilience, recording growth of nearly six percent in 2023.

Yet this progress is neither linear nor guaranteed. Bangladesh’s rapid growth has exposed structural vulnerabilities. Its dependence on low-cost, labor-intensive garment manufacturing leaves it exposed to shifts in global demand and trade preferences, particularly as it prepares to graduate from the United Nations’ list of least developed countries by 2026, potentially losing preferential trade access.

Domestic governance challenges, including corruption, political patronage, and uneven enforcement of regulations, pose ongoing risks to stability and investor confidence. Income inequality, urban congestion, and social tensions remain pressing issues, as evidenced by large-scale protests in 2024 that contributed to significant political upheaval.

Recognizing these risks, successive governments have pursued strategies aimed at diversification and resilience. Beyond garments, Bangladesh has fostered growth in pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding, and information technology, targeting higher-value industries to avoid the so-called “middle-income trap.”

Investment in energy infrastructure, including natural gas, renewable sources, and cross-border electricity projects, seeks to address chronic power shortages that have historically constrained industrial expansion. Simultaneously, large-scale infrastructure projects, such as the Padma Bridge linking key regions and integrating transport networks, aim to strengthen domestic connectivity while improving links to neighboring countries and global trade routes.

Diplomacy has played a complementary role in Bangladesh’s development strategy. The country has pursued a nuanced, multi-vector foreign policy, balancing relations with regional powers such as India and China, while engaging with the United States, Japan, and other partners. Initiatives like the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor and regional platforms such as BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) and Bay of Bengal cooperation frameworks have expanded opportunities for trade, investment, and infrastructure development. By leveraging these diplomatic and economic channels, Bangladesh seeks to overcome the structural constraints of its small size and limited resources.

Despite these efforts, challenges remain profound. Rapid urbanization strains housing, transportation, and public services, while climate change continues to threaten millions in coastal and delta regions, creating potential waves of climate migrants. The financial sector grapples with non-performing loans and limited access to credit, particularly for smaller enterprises. Globally, geopolitical tensions, commodity price volatility, and shifting trade regimes create an uncertain backdrop that could quickly impact Bangladesh’s export-dependent economy.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh’s experience offers lessons in the art of managing adversity. Its trajectory illustrates how small, resource-limited countries can harness strategic diplomacy, targeted industrial policies, and remittance-driven capital inflows to overcome systemic weaknesses. By carefully sequencing reforms, investing in human capital, and building regional and global linkages, Bangladesh has transformed from one of the world’s poorest nations into a dynamic, rapidly developing economy. The vision of a Golden Bengal, with aspirations to achieve middle-upper income status by 2031 and developed country status by 2041, is ambitious, but the country’s record demonstrates that with sustained policy focus and adaptability, it is within reach.

Bangladesh’s story is a reminder that development is rarely straightforward, especially for small nations navigating complex regional and global environments. The interplay of geography, climate, political stability, and economic strategy shapes outcomes in ways that require constant attention and innovation.

For readers observing the rise of emerging economies, Bangladesh exemplifies both the possibilities and the precarities inherent in rapid transformation: a nation that has turned adversity into opportunity, yet continues to confront structural vulnerabilities with determination and strategic foresight.

Source: global bangladesh, netrokona university, erd gov bd, the fiancial express, somoy news

China’s First Pilot Project for Green and Low-Carbon Marine Biofuel Blending Launched in Zhoushan

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February 9, 2026

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China’s First Pilot Project for Green and Low-Carbon Marine Biofuel Blending Launched in Zhoushan

In recent years, under the guidance of China’s “dual carbon” goals, carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the development of green and low-carbon energy has accelerated significantly. As an important component of renewable energy, the biodiesel industry is entering a new stage of growth. Against this backdrop, Zhoushan’s key biofuel project is progressing steadily, injecting new momentum into the region’s green energy industry.

The project is a major construction initiative in Zhoushan, with a total planned investment exceeding €246 million. It will be implemented in two phases.

Phase I involves an investment of approximately €98.6 million and covers an area of 9.17 hectares. It includes the construction of two 200,000-ton-per-year biodiesel production units, facilities for blending 1 million tons per year of marine biofuel, as well as office buildings, an R&D and control center, and supporting public utility infrastructure. Phase II will construct a 100,000-ton-per-year bio-jet fuel (component) production unit. Upon full completion, the project will establish an integrated production capacity of 400,000 tons of biodiesel, 100,000 tons of bio-jet fuel, and 1 million tons of blended marine biofuel annually.

As the first green and environmentally friendly biomass fuel project in Zhoushan, it fills the gap in biodiesel feedstock supply for marine fuel oil within the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone. The project will strengthen and extend the local oil and gas industrial chain. Once operational, it will effectively address the insufficient supply of marine biofuel in the Zhoushan area and promote the development of green marine fuel bunkering services.

The project is invested and developed by Ningbo Jiesen Green Energy, a high-growth “gazelle” enterprise specializing in green fuel production in China. The company has accumulated extensive technical expertise in the green fuel sector. Its subsidiary, Zhejiang Tianfu Hongyun Energy, focuses on biodiesel, bio-jet fuel, and marine biofuel products.

Since construction began in July 2024, progress has been smooth. As of August 2025, approximately 49% of the annual investment plan had been completed, intermediate structural acceptance had been finalized, and 85% of civil engineering works had been completed. Trial production is expected in the first quarter of 2026. Once completed, the project will significantly reduce Zhoushan and surrounding areas’ long-term dependence on imported marine biofuels.

Zhoushan’s development of the biofuel industry aligns closely with national policy priorities.

In July 2023, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the Work Plan for Stabilizing Growth in the Light Industry (2023–2024), which emphasized expanding biomass energy applications, implementing energy-saving and carbon-reduction technological upgrades, and promoting green transformation across industries.

On April 2, 2024, the National Energy Administration released a notice announcing pilot programs for the promotion and application of biodiesel. A total of 22 pilot projects were approved nationwide, with two additional pilot programs located in industrial parks, including the Guang’an Economic and Technological Development Zone and the Zhoushan Free Trade Zone. Industry experts widely believe this marks a solid step forward in China’s biodiesel development and provides new impetus for optimizing the national energy structure.

Leveraging Zhoushan Port,the world’s largest port by cargo throughput,the Zhoushan Free Trade Zone has vast potential demand for biodiesel. In 2023, Zhoushan completed China’s first offshore biofuel bunkering for a container vessel and the country’s largest single biofuel bunkering operation, demonstrating strong market prospects.

On February 9, 2026, China’s Ministry of Commerce approved Zhoushan’s pilot program for exporting blended marine biofuel. A regulatory framework for blending supervision was introduced simultaneously. Zhoushan is now preparing for its first pilot transaction, aiming for completion by the end of February. According to fuel suppliers, local blending can reduce costs by approximately USD 80 per ton compared to imports. Beyond direct cost savings, the policy will also enhance coordination across the industrial chain and strengthen overall competitiveness.

Fuel accounts for roughly 30% of vessel operating costs. In the past, some ocean-going vessels sailed to overseas ports for refueling in order to reduce costs. With the implementation of Zhoushan’s blending export policy, domestic marine fuel bunkering costs are expected to decline, enhancing China’s competitiveness in the global green fuel market.

From a broader perspective, biodiesel is becoming a key solution in the global energy transition. Amid mounting ecological challenges and increasing pressure for sustainable development, biodiesel,characterized by wide feedstock availability, renewability, strong combustion performance, and significant emission-reduction effects,has emerged as an important alternative to traditional fossil fuels.

Biodiesel is recognized as a strategic emerging industry in China, encompassing renewable energy, bio-industry, and comprehensive utilization of waste resources. Producing biodiesel from waste oils not only addresses the safe collection and utilization of used cooking oil and other waste grease, but also supplies downstream markets with environmentally friendly renewable energy. In recent years, China has strengthened the collection, storage, transportation, and regulatory systems for waste oils, resulting in more feedstock flowing into the biodiesel industry and driving rapid production growth.

Experts note that promoting biodiesel is an important pathway for the petrochemical sector to achieve carbon reduction targets. Once traditional fossil diesel is refined and distributed, it is difficult to alter its carbon-hydrogen ratio to reduce emissions. However, blending biodiesel provides an effective way to lower carbon intensity without changing existing infrastructure. China’s promotion of ethanol gasoline in the gasoline sector and biodiesel in the diesel sector represents a strategic adjustment of product structure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Notably, China’s biodiesel industry has developed largely under market-driven mechanisms. Despite limited long-term subsidy support, enterprises have grown through technological innovation and market competition, mastering advanced and internationally competitive technologies. The industry has demonstrated strong resilience and growth potential.

Looking ahead, high-quality development of the biodiesel sector will require continued efforts in feedstock security and market expansion.

Upstream, China should strengthen the supply of edible vegetable oils, expand oilseed cultivation areas, enhance seed development and application, and promote soybean and oilseed production capacity improvement programs to increase self-sufficiency. At the same time, leveraging Belt and Road cooperation can help diversify import channels and broaden the range of oil and fat products.

For non-edible feedstocks, efforts should focus on expanding resource sources and improving utilization efficiency. High-yield, fast-growing, and resilient oil-bearing tree species,such as tung tree, Chinese tallow, jatropha, pistacia chinensis, and yellowhorn,can be cultivated in mountainous and hilly areas. Encouraging the use of non-edible plant oils and improving the classification and recycling systems for kitchen waste will further increase feedstock supply. Enterprises should be supported in utilizing used cooking oil, waste grease, and by-products from oil processing for biodiesel production.

On the demand side, active implementation of the 14th Five-Year Bioeconomy Development Plan is essential. Demonstration projects for cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel, and biogas should be promoted in areas with concentrated organic waste resources. By improving biomass collection systems and expanding production scale, the industry can achieve greater efficiency. Pilot programs in suitable regions and demonstration applications for sustainable aviation fuel will help further expand domestic biodiesel consumption.

Overall, the Zhoushan biofuel project represents not only a milestone in regional industrial upgrading, but also a microcosm of China’s broader green energy transition. With continued policy support, expanding market demand, and ongoing technological advancement, the biodiesel industry is poised to play an increasingly vital role in achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.

Source: sohu, cnbiofuel, zjnews, tidenews, sdxw, investchn

Spring Festival Across China: A Colorful Journey Through Traditions and Customs

KULTUR

Tendenzblick

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February 7, 2026

0

Spring Festival Across China: A Colorful Journey Through Traditions and Customs

The Spring Festival, traditionally known as the Chinese New Year, Great Year, is the most important and grand traditional festival of the Chinese nation. The Spring Festival originated from the Shang Dynasty (Yin period) rituals of worshipping gods and ancestors at the turn of the year.

It is one of the oldest, largest, and most lively traditional festivals in China. Traditionally, the festival begins from the eighth day of the twelfth Chinese Calendar month or the twenty-third day of the twelfth Chinese Calendar month and continues until the fifteenth day of the first Chinese Calendar month (Lantern Festival), with New Year’s Eve and the first day of the Chinese Calendar year as its peak. Over time, various regions of China have developed diverse customs and cultural practices during the Spring Festival.

In Northeast China, food customs are particularly notable. In Heilongjiang, dumplings often contain coins or, nowadays, peanuts or nuts, symbolizing good fortune for whoever finds them. On the fifth day of the first Chinese Calendar month, people eat dumplings in a tradition called “breaking the fifth,” symbolizing the removal of bad luck and the warding off of evil. In Jilin, families wear new clothes and hold ancestral worship ceremonies on New Year’s Eve, offering incense and food to ancestors and then gathering for a sumptuous family feast. Midnight is marked by firecrackers, offerings to gods, and children paying respects to elders, who give them red envelopes. In Liaoning, families light “longevity lanterns” on New Year’s Eve, keeping them burning throughout the night until the Lantern Festival, symbolizing health and longevity.

In Northwest China, regional customs are equally lively. In the Xihai Gu area of Ningxia, communities hold large-scale “Shehuo” performances with drums and gongs, creating a festive atmosphere. Ethnic groups in Xinjiang celebrate a spring festival called “Nowruz,” aligned with the vernal equinox, marking the return of spring. In Hami, Uyghur farmers conduct the “sprout-planting ritual,” growing a plate of green sprouts and parading it through the village in song and dance. In Qinghai, people traditionally shaved their heads and cleaned their homes before the New Year, decorated their doors with couplets, and prepared symbolic ornaments. Debts were collected before the New Year but could not be demanded once Spring Festival decorations were up, reflecting a desire for harmony and a fresh start.

In North China, Beijing has many distinctive New Year customs. Residents practice “stepping on the year,” scattering sesame stalks on the ground to symbolize growth and longevity. Visiting temple fairs, such as those at Changdian, Dongyue Temple, and Baiyun Temple, is also popular. In Tianjin, families celebrate “staying up” on New Year’s Eve with a reunion dinner and fireworks. Various local customs exist across Hebei, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia, from throwing hats in Handan to lighting “prosperity fires” in Shanxi or performing traditional Mongolian rites in Inner Mongolia, including wearing new clothes, paying respects to elders, and offering prayers to the sky.

In Central China, customs vary even within provinces. In rural Hubei, New Year’s meals differ by family surname: some families eat early morning, others at noon or late evening. Hunan families begin the day by worshipping heaven, earth, household gods, and elders, then go out to pay New Year visits. Food traditions include dishes like chicken, fish, and meat, often sprinkled with red chili powder to symbolize abundance. Henan families dress in new clothes, light firecrackers, and perform ancestor worship, while children receive red envelopes. In Jiangxi, New Year’s Eve feasts are intentionally left with leftover dishes, symbolizing surplus year after year, with rituals involving serving tea to ancestors before eating.

In East China, Shandong families light red candles to illuminate rooms and place paper window decorations to drive away darkness. In Jiangsu, Suzhou residents place water chestnuts in meals to symbolize “digging up treasures,” and green olives are added to tea for good fortune. Anhui’s New Year’s Eve dinner is rich, and families “stay up” chatting until dawn. Zhejiang people burn sky lanterns and beat drums to celebrate agricultural blessings. In Fujian, residents worship the Jade Emperor and prepare “spring meals” symbolizing abundance. In Shanghai, preparations begin on the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, including sending off the Kitchen God, house cleaning, buying couplets, and preparing food. Families gather on New Year’s Eve for reunion dinners and stay up to welcome the new year.

In South China, Guangdong families give children red envelopes or oranges when paying New Year visits. In Guangxi, the Zhuang people fetch “new water” for the household and perform playful imitations of livestock sounds, followed by festive performances like chicken and ox dances. Hainan residents call the festival “doing the year,” observing vegetarian customs on the first day in some areas as a form of spiritual respect.

In Southwest China, Sichuanese households hang colorful lanterns, perform dragon and lion dances, and hold elaborate celebrations. In Kunming, leftover dishes from New Year’s Eve are cooked into “long dishes” to be eaten until the Lantern Festival, symbolizing continuity and abundance. Sugarcane is displayed at doorways to represent growth and sweetness in the year ahead. In multi-ethnic Guizhou, festivities include folk songs, flute and drum performances, bullfights, and lantern dances. In Tibet, families replace old curtains, decorate with new flags, and prepare a porridge with various items hidden inside symbolizing predictions of fortune, followed by burning a symbolic witch to drive away evil spirits. In Chongqing, reunion dinners center on glutinous rice balls, representing family unity, with particular quantities conveying different blessings, and certain activities are avoided to preserve household fortune.

In Hong Kong, families eat reunion dinners and then visit flower markets, with children eagerly receiving red envelopes called, symbolizing luck and prosperity. In Macau, people stay up, visit flower markets, and give red envelopes, while celebrating the first day of the new year with “opening-year” meals. In Taiwan, families post spring couplets, worship ancestors, and set off fireworks, with New Year’s Eve feasts featuring fish balls, meatballs, chicken, and various cakes and fried snacks, each symbolizing family unity, prosperity, and longevity.

Across China, although customs differ from region to region, the common themes of the Spring Festival are bidding farewell to the old year, worshipping ancestors, family reunion, and praying for a happy, prosperous new year. These rich traditions reflect the long history of Chinese culture and the universal hope for a better life.

Source: the paper, cmg, ts, china times, 2500sz, foshanplus, ccc paris

The Two Temporary Central Committees in the Crucible of China’s Revolution

KULTUR

Tendenzblick

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February 5, 2026

0

The Two Temporary Central Committees in the Crucible of China’s Revolution

Between 1927 and 1936, China’s revolution faced one of its most perilous and turbulent periods. The Kuomintang, having turned violently against the Communist Party, launched waves of repression across the country. Communist organizations were repeatedly destroyed, leaders were arrested or forced into hiding, and the revolutionary cause teetered on the brink of collapse. In this dire context, the Party repeatedly demonstrated its resilience and adaptability, forming temporary central leadership bodies that could continue guiding the revolution despite immense danger. These temporary centrals, though short-lived, were critical in preserving the Party’s cohesion, sustaining resistance, and ensuring that the revolutionary mission endured.

The first temporary central committee emerged after the shocking betrayal of the revolution by Chiang Kai-shek on April 12, 1927, when a violent coup in Shanghai led to mass killings of Communists and revolutionary supporters. Across Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Guangxi, and Guangdong, so-called “purges” claimed countless lives. Amid this chaos, the Party leadership, then headed by Chen Duxiu, struggled to respond effectively. Calls within the Party and from the Communist International grew louder for decisive action to resist both internal errors and external oppression.

On July 12, 1927, the central committee was reorganized into a temporary standing committee, with figures such as Zhang Guotao, Li Weihan, Zhou Enlai, and others assuming leadership. In August, an emergency meeting in Hankou selected the temporary Political Bureau, which immediately began taking bold measures to revive the revolution. Qu Qiubai, Li Weihan, and Su Zhaozheng formed the executive committee, setting the course for urgent action.

Under this leadership, the Party issued strong statements condemning the Kuomintang’s reactionary crimes and withdrew Communist members from compromised governments. But it was on the battlefield that the temporary central left its first enduring mark. In late July, the decision was made to launch the Nanchang Uprising, led by Zhou Enlai, He Long, Ye Ting, Zhu De, and Liu Bocheng.

On August 1, over twenty thousand soldiers rose against the Kuomintang, defeating enemy forces and seizing Nanchang for a brief but symbolic victory. This bold military action, guided by the temporary central, demonstrated that the Party could act decisively even under extreme pressure. Beyond direct confrontation, the temporary central rebuilt underground networks, organized uprisings in multiple provinces, and prepared for the Sixth National Congress in Moscow, which would solidify the Party’s long-term leadership and strategy. Although mistakes were made, particularly in overestimating revolutionary readiness and in the execution of certain uprisings, the first temporary central succeeded in preserving the revolutionary momentum during one of China’s darkest periods.

The second temporary central committee arose under equally challenging circumstances in 1931. After a wave of arrests and betrayals in Shanghai, the central Party leadership was severely weakened. Wang Ming’s departure to Moscow and Bo Gu’s rise to practical leadership, with the approval of the Communist International, marked the establishment of a new temporary Political Bureau in Shanghai. This leadership body soon relocated to the Soviet areas, particularly Ruijin, to continue the Party’s work from a safer base. During its tenure, the second temporary central oversaw the formal establishment of the Chinese Soviet Republic. The first National Congress of the Chinese Soviet Republic in Ruijin adopted a constitution and laws promoting workers’ and peasants’ rights, land reform, and revolutionary governance. These initiatives strengthened the foundations of the revolutionary state, even as rigid policies and doctrinaire Leftist errors led to setbacks in certain regions.

The second temporary central’s mistakes, particularly in overzealous implementation of Leftist policies and underestimation of local conditions, resulted in military setbacks and temporary disruption of anti-Japanese activities in the north. For example, its insistence on creating new Soviet bases and revolutionary strongholds in areas where the Party had limited support or resources led to failures, including the eventual collapse of certain anti-Japanese militias. At the same time, the leadership encouraged resistance against Japanese aggression, issuing declarations, coordinating guerrilla activities, and exposing Chiang Kai-shek’s appeasement policies. These actions not only defended the people but also laid the groundwork for broader national resistance.

Both temporary centrals shared key characteristics. They were established at moments of extreme crisis, when the Party’s normal leadership structures were compromised or incapacitated. Both operated under the guidance of the Communist International, with limited autonomy, yet demonstrated flexibility and courage in responding to rapidly changing circumstances. Each made mistakes, particularly in terms of Leftist policies, reflecting the challenges of leadership under pressure and the difficulty of balancing revolutionary ideals with practical realities. Yet both ensured the survival of the Party, coordinated resistance against oppression, and preserved the revolutionary spirit across China’s provinces.

The first temporary central committee showed that even in the immediate aftermath of mass repression, decisive leadership, bold action, and careful organization could sustain revolutionary momentum. Its military actions, underground organizational work, and preparation for the Party Congress preserved both leadership and morale.

The second temporary central committee, while marked by doctrinaire missteps, established governance structures, coordinated broader resistance, and defended revolutionary gains in the Soviet areas, demonstrating resilience and adaptability in the face of political and military pressures. Together, these two temporary centrals exemplify the Chinese Communist Party’s determination, organizational skill, and steadfast commitment to the revolutionary cause. They turned crises into opportunities, safeguarded the Party’s continuity, and laid the foundation for eventual victory.

In retrospect, the history of the two temporary central committees is a story of courage under fire, strategic improvisation, and dedication to the people. They remind us that revolutionary success is never linear; it requires leaders willing to act decisively in times of danger, to learn from mistakes, and to maintain the faith and resilience of the movement. While errors occurred, the temporary centrals’ contributions to the survival and growth of the Communist Party and the ultimate advancement of China’s revolution remain undeniable. In the darkest hours of the revolution, they provided hope, direction, and a living demonstration that the cause of the people could not be extinguished, no matter the obstacles.

Source:dsbc, ifeng, moj gov, china daily, dswxyjy

Why AI Has Yet to Transform Manufacturing and What It Will Take to Close the Gap

THINKVIEWS

Tendenzblick

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February 3, 2026

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Why AI Has Yet to Transform Manufacturing and What It Will Take to Close the Gap

In the past two years, the surging wave of artificial intelligence has left many manufacturing entrepreneurs and executives anxious and uncertain. Most recognize that AI is no longer optional: to ignore it risks being left behind and forfeiting a place in the future industrial landscape.

Yet when companies attempt to embrace AI in earnest, they often discover that beyond a few straightforward applications or the adoption of mature, off-the-shelf technologies, they do not know where to begin. Systematic transformation proves elusive, and even serious efforts frequently fall short of expectations.

A 2025 survey by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that among companies attempting to deploy AI systematically, only about 5 percent achieved meaningful success.

In theory, the vision is compelling: an end-to-end smart factory in which AI replaces or dominates human roles across the manufacturing value chain. From research and development to design, production, marketing and after-sales service, every link would be driven by intelligent systems. The goal is not merely incremental efficiency gains but seamless, predictive and adaptive production—an industrial environment that is fully autonomous and self-optimizing.

Reality, however, lags far behind that ideal. Most manufacturers remain in what might be called a stage of “point intelligence,” where AI assists in isolated tasks rather than orchestrating the system as a whole. In research and development, AI can accelerate certain processes but contributes little to breakthrough innovation.

R&D is fundamentally about creative leaps, while today’s AI, whether rule-based systems, machine learning models or large language models excels at pattern recognition and data analysis rather than original invention. It performs admirably as a research assistant, summarizing academic literature or identifying correlations.

A notable example came in 2023, when researchers at Google DeepMind reported in the journal Nature that their GNOME tool, powered by graph neural networks, had identified more than 528 potential lithium-ion conductors, roughly 25 times the number previously known, offering promising avenues for battery performance improvements. Yet even here, AI plays a supporting role; core innovation still relies on human intuition and judgment.

In design, generative AI has demonstrated striking potential, though its depth of application varies widely. It can rapidly produce text, images and video, dramatically increasing the speed of graphic design work. But when it comes to complex industrial design, such as the overall form of an automobile, AI outputs tend to remain conceptual, unable to fully account for aerodynamic constraints, ergonomics, material strength and cost considerations. Even at companies like Tesla, which are often seen as AI pioneers, engineers must ultimately intervene to finalize vehicle designs. In high-precision domains such as chip and circuit board layout, AI has begun to show value in optimization tasks, including tools developed by Nvidia, but overall penetration remains limited.

On the factory floor, AI has delivered more tangible results in specific nodes such as quality inspection and predictive maintenance. Bosch has disclosed that AI-driven inspection systems on certain production lines achieve accuracy rates of 99.8 percent, surpassing the roughly 95 percent achieved by human inspectors, while reducing inspection time per unit from 20 seconds to about five and cutting costs by roughly half.

Predictive maintenance systems that analyze sensor data to anticipate equipment failures have also generated substantial savings; GE Aviation has reportedly saved hundreds of millions of dollars annually through such technologies. Yet in more complex domains, intelligent production scheduling, dynamic process parameter adjustment, end-to-end workflow optimization and personalized manufacturing, AI’s impact remains limited. A 2025 report by McKinsey & Company found that while 88 percent of companies use AI in some form, only 6 percent report that it has had an enterprise-level impact on earnings before interest and taxes.

Sales and service functions have progressed further, partly because these scenarios tolerate higher error rates. An imperfect automated response can be corrected by a human, and the tasks, language processing and knowledge retrieval, align closely with the strengths of large language models. In supply chain management, AI’s long-term potential is widely acknowledged, but practical implementation is constrained by internal data silos, fragmented communication between companies, complex procurement rules and the inherent uncertainty of global logistics.

Overall, AI in manufacturing remains heavily dependent on traditional machine learning rather than cutting-edge foundation models, and its applications are typically isolated optimizations rather than integrated systems. The gap between ambition and reality stems from the intrinsic complexity of manufacturing, its deep entanglement with the physical world and its unforgiving performance standards, conditions that do not align neatly with the current AI paradigm.

Manufacturing systems are complex along multiple dimensions. Production chains are long and tightly coupled, spanning planning, scheduling, equipment management, environmental controls, logistics, quality assurance and after-sales support. A change in one node can ripple across the entire chain. The knowledge base is equally intricate, encompassing mechanics, materials science, control systems, thermodynamics, chemistry, fluid dynamics and electrical engineering.

Standards and processes are often fragmented across spreadsheets, PDFs, legacy systems and even the tacit knowledge of veteran employees. Industry differences are vast: semiconductor fabrication, steelmaking and food processing share little in terms of reusable expertise, and even companies within the same sector differ in equipment configurations and operational models. These realities demand strong reasoning, planning and generalization capabilities, supported by comprehensive, high-quality data.

The challenge is compounded by the need for deep interaction with the physical world. Unlike advertising or online education, manufacturing requires AI to operate within physical environments governed by rigid laws of physics. While today’s large models excel at semantic understanding and statistical association, they struggle with embodied perception, spatial reasoning and a robust grasp of physical rules.

Advances in embodied intelligence and world models will be necessary before AI can fully meet industrial demands. Moreover, manufacturing data is messy and heterogeneous, flowing from temperature, pressure, vibration and visual sensors, programmable logic controllers and CNC machines, each with distinct formats and protocols. Noise, interference and missing data are common, and strategies trained in simulation often fail in real-world settings due to the persistent sim-to-real gap.

High standards further complicate adoption. Manufacturing systems often require real-time responses within tightly coupled physical control loops; delays can result not in minor inconvenience but in scrapped products, damaged equipment or threats to human safety. Error tolerance is extremely low, particularly in high-end manufacturing. A defect in a jet engine blade could trigger catastrophe; a malfunctioning medical device could cost lives; a flaw in a nuclear component could have disastrous consequences. Large models, which can be slow and prone to hallucination, face formidable reliability challenges in such environments.

Closing the gap between aspiration and execution will require both technological breakthroughs and strategic shifts within enterprises. Industrial AI systems must evolve beyond general-purpose language models to become domain-specific “industrial foundation models” that integrate deep sector knowledge. This demands high-quality data for fine-tuning and retrieval-augmented generation, as well as improved reliability through hybrid approaches that combine large models with knowledge graphs and symbolic reasoning. Models must also be optimized for speed and lightweight deployment to meet industrial timing constraints.

Equally important is comprehensive data acquisition across the value chain. AI is fundamentally data-driven; without complete and high-quality data, it cannot deliver meaningful results. Smart factories must develop advanced digital twins—not static replicas of equipment and inventory, but dynamic simulations that embed physical constraints and business logic, enabling real-time scenario analysis and optimization.

Initiatives such as the industrial metaverse concept promoted by Siemens hint at this direction, using digital twins to simulate entire factory ecosystems and anticipate potential failures. Yet before such visions can be realized, companies must integrate data scattered across MES, ERP, WMS and QMS systems, align formats and timestamps and ensure cross-source consistency. They must also generate high-quality labeled datasets; unlike large language models trained on vast self-supervised corpora, industrial models often require expert-annotated data, such as detailed fault diagnoses provided by seasoned engineers.

Ultimately, AI in manufacturing must demonstrate the ability to operate under complex physical, safety, regulatory and commercial constraints, balancing multiple objectives such as delivery times, cost, yield and safety. It must learn continuously from errors, adapt to uncertainty in demand and supply and, ideally, employ reinforcement learning to design experiments that generate new knowledge. Embodied intelligence will be essential, as manufacturing is fundamentally a process of physical transformation; AI must not only perceive but also act in the real world, coordinating across diverse robots and equipment from multiple vendors. All of this must occur under stringent requirements for reliability, safety and determinism.

Achieving these capabilities will require sustained investment and organizational transformation. In the short term, manufacturers can pursue targeted applications, knowledge assistants powered by large models, machine-learning-based defect detection and predictive maintenance, to accumulate experience and build confidence. Over the long term, the strategic priority is the construction of robust data assets.

Companies that control high-quality industrial data will occupy a privileged position in the emerging AI ecosystem. While technology giants may lead in model development, manufacturers that cultivate and leverage proprietary data can secure upstream influence. As AI technologies mature, those with the strongest data foundations will be best positioned to expand from isolated optimizations to fully integrated, end-to-end intelligent factories.

Source: TrendMicro, paper people, xinhua, fened, CSDN

China’s Tech Giants Raise Pay, With AI Roles Offering Up to €164K a Year

Uncategorized

Tendenzblick

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February 2, 2026

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China’s Tech Giants Raise Pay, With AI Roles Offering Up to €164K a Year

By the end of 2025, while many major U.S. and European corporations were announcing sweeping global layoffs, several of China’s largest companies were moving in the opposite direction.

Internet giants including JD.com and ByteDance rolled out large-scale pay increases and bonus plans. Automotive supply-chain leaders such as BYD and CATL also announced salary hikes covering extensive numbers of frontline workers.

At first glance, the timing seemed counterintuitive. China’s internet sector is no longer in its high-growth dividend era. Expansion has slowed, competition has intensified and profitability has come under pressure. Yet rather than signaling a return to the industry’s free-spending past, the new wave of pay increases reflects a strategic recalibration in response to structural change, particularly the rise of artificial intelligence.

JD.com said 92% of its employees received full or above-target year-end bonuses for 2025, with total bonus spending rising more than 70% year on year. Its procurement and sales teams were told their bonus ceilings would be uncapped. ByteDance increased its annual bonus pool by 35% and expanded its salary-adjustment budget by 1.5 times, raising both minimum and maximum compensation bands across job levels.

The trend did not begin this year. As early as September 2024, JD.com launched a “20-month salary” upgrade plan, aiming within two years to implement 20-month annual compensation for its retail and functional divisions. Since 2024, Tencent and Alibaba Group have also introduced a mix of equity incentives, long-term cash rewards and salary restructuring programs.

The announcements inevitably revived memories of the sector’s golden age. Around 2015, as short video, O2O services and platform economies exploded, China’s internet heavyweights were widely described as “wealth-creation factories.” In late 2014, Robin Li, chief executive of Baidu, pledged what was then described as the largest bonus pool in the company’s history. Reports at the time suggested that some employees received bonuses equivalent to dozens of months of salary.

Those days, however, have faded. In recent years, many employees have remarked that simply receiving a bonus at all feels fortunate. As market growth narrowed, companies shifted from “expanding the pie” to competing fiercely for existing market share.

In the third quarter of 2025, JD.com reported record quarterly revenue, yet its net profit attributable to shareholders fell to approximately €680 million, down 54.7% year on year amid intense food-delivery competition. In the automotive sector, price wars weighed on performance. BYD’s third-quarter net profit declined 32.6% year on year, while CATL has in recent years faced the challenge of rising profits without proportional revenue growth.

Against this backdrop, the current pay-rise wave appears less like exuberance and more like strategic positioning.

Artificial intelligence has become the defining battleground. As large language models, multimodal systems and AI infrastructure reshape the competitive landscape, top-tier technical talent has emerged as the scarcest resource.

According to data released by the workplace platform Maimai, thousands of companies are recruiting for AI-related roles, with the ten largest recruiters alone posting more than 10,000 openings. Annual salaries for certain AI product managers, algorithm engineers and growth specialists can exceed €128,000, while some highly specialized roles offer up to approximately €164,000.

Tencent has moved aggressively on both campus and global recruitment. Through its “Qingyun Plan,” Tencent targets elite global technology students, mirroring ByteDance’s Top Seed initiative. The company’s “Qingyun Scholarship” awarded 15 doctoral and master’s students incentives worth about €64,000 each, including roughly €25,600 in cash and €38,500 in cloud computing resources, to support research in large models and AI infrastructure.

Tencent’s R&D spending reached approximately €2.9 billion in the third quarter of 2025, a record high for a single quarter. For the first three quarters of the year, cumulative R&D expenditure totaled nearly €8 billion. The company has also recruited high-profile AI scientists from overseas research institutions, underscoring the urgency of the global talent race.

Meanwhile, Alibaba announced plans to invest more than €48.7 billion over the next three years in cloud and AI hardware infrastructure — exceeding its total investment over the previous decade. ByteDance is reportedly preparing to spend about €20.5 billion on AI in 2026 alone.

The recalibration extends beyond elite engineers. CATL raised base salaries for lower-level employees by roughly €19 to €26 per month. JD.com pledged to invest around €2.8 billion over five years to provide housing support for delivery riders and couriers. For companies with vast operational networks, stabilizing frontline staff is critical to maintaining service quality.

After several years focused on cost-cutting and operational efficiency, China’s corporate heavyweights are pivoting toward what could be described as investment-driven competitiveness. In the past, controlling traffic gateways — search, social media and e-commerce platforms — formed the core moat of internet companies. Today, AI systems are redefining those entry points, shifting the competitive focus from traffic ownership to technological depth.

The latest wave of pay increases is therefore not a return to indiscriminate generosity. It is a calculated bet on the next technological cycle. As growth dividends fade and AI redraws the industrial map, talent — whether in advanced research labs or on the delivery front line — has become the most valuable asset. In this new era, companies are investing heavily not simply to reward employees, but to secure their place in the future.

Source: sina finance, the paper, pai, 21jingji, guancha, cctv