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China Plays a Leading Role in UN’s Adoption of First Global Regulation for Automated Driving Systems

The United Nations World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations approved the world’s first Global Technical Regulation (GTR) for Automated Driving Systems (ADS) during its 199th session in Geneva from June 22–26. Jointly developed by China, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Japan, the regulation establishes a common international safety framework for the deployment of automated driving technologies.

The regulation introduces the principle that an automated driving system should achieve a safety level at least equivalent to that of a competent and attentive human driver. It also establishes minimum safety requirements for key functions, including dynamic driving task (DDT) performance, minimum risk maneuvers (MRM), and human-machine interaction, underscoring a “safety first” regulatory approach.

Chinese authorities emphasized the country’s significant role in developing the regulation. Since 2019, China has served as vice chair of the UN Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles and co-chair of the Automated Driving Systems working group. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Chinese organizations led the drafting of several core provisions and submitted dozens of technical proposals covering dynamic driving tasks, human-machine interaction, and testing and validation methodologies.

Source: People’s Daily, July 3, 2026
http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2026/0703/c1004-40752892.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

China’s Robot Rental Market Expands as Commercial Adoption Accelerates

China’s robot rental market is expanding rapidly, emerging as a new business model that connects embodied AI technologies with commercial users. Industry officials say China’s humanoid robotics sector entered a new phase of scaled growth in the first quarter of 2026, driven by advances in production capacity, deliveries, and commercialization.

Robot rental services are gaining traction nationwide. In Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, a technology experience center offers 46 rentable devices, including humanoid robots, robotic dogs, robotic arms, and chess-playing robots, and has hosted nearly 1,000 rental and performance events since the beginning of 2026. A robotics rental center in Jinan, Shandong Province, reported that each robot is rented for an average of 10 to 15 days per month, generating approximately RMB 50,000 (US$7,000) in monthly rental revenue. Similar rental centers have also opened in Beijing, Guangzhou, and other cities.

According to iiMedia Research, China’s robot rental market is projected to exceed RMB 10 billion (US$1.4 billion) in 2026, representing a tenfold increase from 2025. Industry participants say demand is shifting from seasonal events and promotional activities toward more stable commercial applications. One rental platform reported that entertainment accounts for 27 percent of orders, while commercial marketing, service operations, education and tourism, and light manufacturing together make up the majority. Industry participants also cite standardization, insurance, and workforce development as key challenges to further expansion.

Source: People’s Daily, June 15, 2026
http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2026/0615/c1004-40740490.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Information/Technology

AI Reshapes Classroom Dynamics in Chinese Universities

Chinese universities are grappling with the growing impact of generative AI on classroom teaching, as educators report declining student engagement and the erosion of the traditional teacher-centered model. A recent Wenhui Daily article highlighted an online post by a university instructor declaring that “the classroom is dead,” arguing that conventional lectures have become increasingly ineffective as students turn to AI tools instead of classroom instruction.

At the 2026 Sohu Technology Forum, Peking University professor emeritus Qiao Xiaochun said AI has fundamentally altered the teaching environment. He argued that students can instantly verify or challenge instructors’ lectures using AI, while many believe classroom content is already available through AI tools, reducing their motivation to attend class or participate actively. Qiao also described an “AI arms race” in coursework, with students using AI to generate assignments, universities deploying AI to detect AI-generated content, and students then using AI to remove signs of AI assistance.

According to a 2026 MyCOS survey, 77 percent of Chinese university students reported using generative AI frequently, up from 64 percent in 2024. At the same forum, Tianjin University Vice President Li Bin said higher education is evolving from a traditional teacher-student model to a “teacher-student-AI” model.

Source: Sohu, May 27, 2026
https://m.sohu.com/a/1028433695_121294?scm=thor.488_14-200000.0.0-0-0-0-0

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

People’s Daily: China’s Indigenous “Lingsheng” Supercomputer Tops Global TOP500 Rankings

At the International Supercomputing Conference in Germany, the latest TOP500 ranking named China’s Lingsheng the world’s fastest supercomputer, achieving a sustained double-precision performance of 2.198 exaflops (EFlops). It is the first supercomputer to surpass 2 EFlops of sustained performance and marks China’s return to the top of the global supercomputing rankings for the first time since Sunway TaihuLight led the list in 2017.

People’s Daily portrays Lingsheng’s achievement as the culmination of nearly a decade of accelerated domestic innovation spurred by U.S. export controls on advanced computing technologies. The system is reportedly built entirely on indigenous technologies, including a domestically developed high-performance CPU, high-bandwidth on-chip memory, high-speed interconnects, advanced storage, liquid cooling, and a full-stack software ecosystem. According to the article, this end-to-end domestic architecture enables China to develop advanced computing capabilities independently of foreign suppliers.

A key feature highlighted by People’s Daily is Lingsheng’s departure from the dominant CPU-GPU heterogeneous architecture employed by leading U.S. exascale systems. Instead, it adopts an all-CPU architecture with integrated AI acceleration units embedded directly into the processor, eliminating the data-transfer overhead between CPUs and GPUs. The article presents this design as a new technological paradigm that demonstrates China’s “changing lanes to overtake” approach to bypass Western dominant competitors.

Source: People’s Daily, June 29, 2026
http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2026/0629/c1004-40749501.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

China Claims Leadership in Global AI Model Usage

People’s Daily republished an article citing data from OpenRouter, a global AI model API aggregation platform, claiming that China has become the world’s largest market for AI model usage. According to the report, AI models processed 46.7 trillion tokens globally during the week of June 15–21, marking the ninth consecutive week of growth. China accounted for 18.81 trillion tokens—more than any other country—for the eighth straight week, while the United States ranked second with 5.76 trillion tokens.

The analysis also highlights intensifying competition among China’s leading AI models. DeepSeek V4-Flash reportedly remained the country’s most-used model for the fifth consecutive week, processing 4.94 trillion tokens during the reporting period. Xiaomi’s MiMo-V2.5 rose to second place, followed by MiniMax M3, while Tencent’s Hunyuan 3 Preview slipped to fourth amid increasingly fierce competition among leading providers.

The article attributes China’s sustained growth to two key advantages. First, it argues that China’s vast digital ecosystem—including WeChat, short-video platforms, smart government services, industrial applications, and smart home devices—provides abundant real-world deployment scenarios and continuous streams of user interaction data for AI models. Second, it credits China’s open-source ecosystem and low-cost API pricing with lowering adoption barriers for businesses and developers, helping transform AI into widely accessible digital infrastructure across a broad range of industries.

Source: People’s Daily, June 24, 2026
http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2026/0624/c1004-40746405.html

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

U.S. Pressure Stalls China Mobile’s Chile–Asia Submarine Cable Project

China Mobile’s proposal to build the first submarine fiber-optic cable directly linking South America and Asia has reportedly stalled following U.S. intervention, highlighting the intensifying geopolitical competition over global digital infrastructure. The proposed 20,000-kilometer cable would connect Chile with China, reducing South America’s dependence on U.S.-controlled communications networks at a time when artificial intelligence is driving rapid growth in global data traffic.

According to reports, Chile’s Ministry of Telecommunications initially approved the project in January 2026. Shortly afterward, ministry officials were summoned to the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, and the approval was withdrawn two days later, officially citing “technical errors.” In February, then-Transportation and Telecommunications Minister Juan Carlos Muñoz and two other Chilean officials reportedly had their U.S. diplomatic visas revoked after evaluating China Mobile’s proposal. The U.S. State Department reportedly argued that their actions could jeopardize critical telecommunications infrastructure and regional security.

Former Chilean President Gabriel Boric later said he ordered the project withdrawn after the United States threatened long-term consequences, adding that any decision on the cable should be subject to public debate. Following the inauguration of President José Antonio Kast in March, the U.S. ambassador to Chile declared the China Mobile project effectively “over.”

The case illustrates the growing U.S.-China rivalry over global telecommunications infrastructure. While U.S. technology companies dominate submarine cable networks linking South America to the rest of the world, Chinese firms—including China Telecom, Huawei, ZTE, and Alibaba Cloud—have steadily expanded their presence across Latin America through investments in 5G networks, data centers, cloud services, and other digital infrastructure.

Source: Epoch Times, June 19, 2026
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/26/6/18/n14791883.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Information/Technology

Chinese Firm Markets AI-Powered Cross-Border VPN Detection System for Universities

China maintains one of the world’s most sophisticated internet censorship systems, commonly known as the “Great Firewall.” To access blocked foreign websites and information, many Chinese internet users rely on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and other circumvention tools, a practice commonly referred to as “climbing the wall” (翻墙).

A recently deleted white paper published by the WeChat account “Guoji Beisheng Edu,” affiliated with Guoji Beisheng (Nanjing) Technology Development Co., described a “Cross-Border VPN Detection System” designed to identify and monitor unauthorized VPN usage at Chinese universities. The product is marketed as a tool to help institutions comply with regulatory requirements issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Education aimed at detecting and preventing internet circumvention on campus.

According to the white paper, the system uses packet metadata, traffic classification, machine-learning models, and behavioral analysis to identify suspected VPN traffic in real time. By analyzing network flows, protocols, timestamps, and traffic patterns, the platform generates risk scores and determines whether connections exceed predefined violation thresholds. It also maintains a database of known VPN-related traffic signatures, enabling rapid identification of previously observed circumvention methods.

The platform operates through traffic mirroring from a university’s core network switch, allowing it to analyze encrypted traffic without directly sitting in the data path. It can identify suspected proxy server IP addresses, generate real-time alerts, and create user profiles based on connection timing, ports, proxy usage, and network behavior. The white paper also highlights features such as user profiling, violation tracking, forensic analysis, and risk dashboards.

Although the original article was removed, a copy was preserved by China Digital Times.

Source: China Digital Times, June 18, 2026
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/728351.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Information/Technology

People’s Daily: “Changing Lanes to Overtake” Is Key to China’s Technological Advancement

People’s Daily published a commentary arguing that “changing lanes to overtake” (换道超车)—pursuing alternative technological pathways rather than competing directly with established leaders—has become a key pillar of China’s innovation strategy. The article highlights recent examples, including Huawei’s proposed “Tau (τ) Law,” which seeks to improve semiconductor performance through “time scaling” rather than traditional transistor miniaturization, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ development of the RISC-V-based “Xiangshan” open-source computing system and “Ruyi” operating system to bypass technological and ecosystem barriers associated with dominant instruction-set architectures.

The commentary argues that direct competition with established leaders is often constrained by technological barriers, industry standards, and entrenched market positions. By pursuing differentiated development paths and leveraging its own comparative advantages, China can reduce competitive disadvantages, create new opportunities, and gain greater strategic initiative.

As examples of successful “lane changing,” the article points to Chinese television manufacturers’ shift from OLED technology to Mini LED displays, which improved display quality while lowering costs. It also highlights China’s humanoid robotics industry, which has adopted electric-drive systems and rapid application-based iteration rather than following traditional hydraulic-driven development models. According to the commentary, these cases demonstrate how alternative technological pathways can help China bypass existing barriers, accelerate innovation, and achieve technological catch-up.

Source: People’s Daily, June 9, 2026
http://opinion.people.com.cn/n1/2026/0609/c461529-40736329.html

Briefings | | |   @CS Information/Technology