Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal appeared to take a veiled swipe at China while pitching India as a trusted investment destination in Japan. Without naming China, Goyal said successful entrepreneurs in India do not have to worry about "disappearing one day" and reappearing elsewhere, remarks widely seen as a reference to Alibaba founder Jack Ma. The minister urged Japanese firms to expand investments in India, highlighting policy stability, entrepreneurship and economic opportunities.

Piyush Goyal's Jack Ma jibe? Minister takes veiled swipe at China in Japan

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal appeared to take a veiled swipe at China while courting Japanese investors in Tokyo, using the case of Alibaba founder Jack Ma to highlight India's business environment. Goyal said entrepreneurs in India do not have to worry about "disappearing one day" and later emerging as professors at a Japanese university—a remark widely interpreted as a reference to Ma, who vanished from public view for months after criticizing Chinese regulators in 2020. Goyal used the example to pitch India as a stable destination where entrepreneurship is celebrated, intellectual property is protected and data security is respected.


Piyush Goyal alludes to Jack Ma's 'disappearance' while pitching to Japanese investor 

India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing for the 25th round of Special Representative talks on the boundary question. The discussions focused on maintaining peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), strengthening confidence-building measures and advancing the gradual normalization of bilateral ties.


NSA Ajit Doval holds key talks with China's Wang Yi

NSA Ajit Doval meets China's foreign minister Wang Yi

China has warned Washington that it will safeguard its interests after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the widening of the sanctions campaign against Iran, and warned that nations financially partnering with Iran will be isolated. China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that China was opposed to "illegal unilateral sanctions" and would take "all necessary measures" to safeguard its rights.&nbsp;“China has made clear on many occasions its firm opposition to illicit unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law or the authorisation of the UN Security Council,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. “The pressing task is to facilitate de-escalation of the situation and return to dialogue and negotiation as soon as possible.”&nbsp;Beijing has warned that these sanctions will "further intensify tensions” and that China’s cooperation with Iran should not be disrupted.“Economic warfare and maximum pressure will not help resolve the issue. They will only further intensify tensions and conflicts, create spillover risks,” said China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian during a regular press briefing. “China’s cooperation with Iran has always been conducted within the framework of international law and should not be disrupted or undermined.”Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/piyush-goyal-jack-ma-china-remark-japan-investors-1787653168954">Piyush Goyal takes veiled dig at China, invokes Jack Ma while pitching India to Japanese investors</a><h2>US Treasury Secretary has warned countries against maintaining ties with Iran&nbsp;</h2>US Treasury Secretary called these new measures "the single greatest financial offensive ever" and warned of dire consequences for countries with economic ties to Iran. He warned that banks and businesses will share in Iran's isolation if they refuse to cut ties with Iran.&nbsp;“Every country has a defined timeline to shut down activities we have identified. If they do not take action, we will do so unilaterally through Treasury authorities,” said Bessent. Though he did not specifically name those countries, he hinted that Trump would be phoning world leaders "with specific requests to cease their interactions with the regime". The major nations that were going to be impacted are China, India, Egypt, UAE and Iraq, according to Daniel Tannebaum, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. China is the largest trading partner of Iran, and the success of the US economic sanctions campaign will be toothless without China.<h2>Iran said it is “fully prepared”</h2>Iran's Finance Minister Ali Madanizadeh told the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran News Network that Tehran is “fully prepared for the sanctions”, and said that they have been long expecting this. He added that Iran has a long "two-year plan" for this.“We know how to play this game. This time, they should not think our response will be purely defensive and that we will only defend ourselves. They should also expect us to go on the offensive,” said &nbsp;Ali Madanizadeh.&nbsp;

China warned Washington against unilateral sanctions on Iran as the US widened its sanctions campaign. Tehran said it was fully prepared to respond.

China has warned Washington that it will safeguard its interests after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the widening of the sanctions campaign against Iran, and warned that nations financially partnering with Iran will be isolated. China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that China was opposed to "illegal unilateral sanctions" and would take "all necessary measures" to safeguard its rights. “China has made clear on many occasions its firm opposition to illicit unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law or the authorisation of the UN Security Council,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. “The pressing task is to facilitate de-escalation of the situation and return to dialogue and negotiation as soon as possible.” Beijing has warned that these sanctions will "further intensify tensions” and that China’s cooperation with Iran should not be disrupted. “Economic warfare and maximum pressure will not help resolve the issue. They will only further intensify tensions and conflicts, create spillover risks,” said China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian during a regular press briefing. “China’s cooperation with Iran has always been conducted within the framework of international law and should not be disrupted or undermined.” Also Read: Piyush Goyal takes veiled dig at China, invokes Jack Ma while pitching India to Japanese investors US Treasury Secretary has warned countries against maintaining ties with Iran US Treasury Secretary called these new measures "the single greatest financial offensive ever" and warned of dire consequences for countries with economic ties to Iran. He warned that banks and businesses will share in Iran's isolation if they refuse to cut ties with Iran. “Every country has a defined timeline to shut down activities we have identified. If they do not take action, we will do so unilaterally through Treasury authorities,” said Bessent. Though he did not specifically name those countries, he hinted that Trump would be phoning world leaders "with specific requests to cease their interactions with the regime". The major nations that were going to be impacted are China, India, Egypt, UAE and Iraq, according to Daniel Tannebaum, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. China is the largest trading partner of Iran, and the success of the US economic sanctions campaign will be toothless without China. Iran said it is “fully prepared” Iran's Finance Minister Ali Madanizadeh told the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran News Network that Tehran is “fully prepared for the sanctions”, and said that they have been long expecting this. He added that Iran has a long "two-year plan" for this. “We know how to play this game. This time, they should not think our response will be purely defensive and that we will only defend ourselves. They should also expect us to go on the offensive,” said Ali Madanizadeh.

China warned Washington against unilateral sanctions on Iran as the US widened its sanctions campaign. Tehran said it was fully prepared to respond.

China warns US as Iran sanctions widen; Tehran says it is 'fully prepared'

China's once-booming wine market is facing a sharp downturn. The country recorded the largest contraction among major global wine markets, with imports of bottled wine from the European Union falling 16.6% in the first half of 2026. Industry experts point to slowing consumer demand, economic uncertainty and changing drinking habits among younger Chinese consumers, who are increasingly choosing alternatives to wine. The decline is sending shockwaves through global wine exporters that once viewed China as their most promising growth market.


China's wine market loses its taste as young consumers drink less

In a milestone joint military exercise, China’s advanced J-16 strike fighter engaged in complex combat drills with Egypt’s French-built Rafale jets. The exercise highlights deepening defense cooperation, joint tactical interoperability, and the exchange of advanced combat aviation insights between the Chinese and Egyptian armed forces.

Chinese J-16 fighter jet faces off against Rafale

Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's possible visit to India for the BRICS Summit in September, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing for a key two-day visit. He will hold talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the border issue.

Indian NSA in Beijing: Border talks in China ahead of Xi's possible India visit

The United States is reportedly preparing a fresh round of tariff increases on Chinese imports, with reports suggesting duties could rise by an additional 7.5%. The move comes amid ongoing trade tensions between the world's two largest economies and could have significant implications for global supply chains, manufacturing, inflation and international markets. Beijing has repeatedly opposed additional trade restrictions, while Washington argues that tougher measures are needed to protect domestic industries and address long-standing economic concerns. As investors and businesses assess the potential impact, the latest development could mark another chapter in the evolving U.S.-China economic rivalry.

US-China tariff tensions: Trump planning 7.5% hike on China?

China's once-promising wine market is losing momentum, with consumers cutting back on imported bottles and trading down to cheaper options.

China's wine market loses its appetite

Export controls on advanced chips rest on an assumption that is rarely stated: that the companies selling the hardware are the ones enforcing the rules.&nbsp;An indictment filed in Taiwan on August 24 tests that assumption directly.&nbsp;The Charges&nbsp;The Keelung District Prosecutors' Office has indicted nine people over the alleged illegal resale to buyers in China of Supermicro AI servers fitted with Nvidia's B300 graphics processors, a class of hardware barred from export to Chinese customers.&nbsp;The accused include a distribution manager surnamed Chang at Nvidia's Taiwan office, two sales managers surnamed Lin and Wang at the Taiwan branch of Supermicro Computer, and the chief executive of Albatron Technology, a Supermicro distributor.&nbsp;Eight of the nine face charges of breach of trust and document forgery. Three of those also face embezzlement charges.&nbsp;These are allegations. None has been tested at trial, and everyone charged is entitled to the presumption of innocence.&nbsp;The Route&nbsp;The detail that makes the case significant is the logistics, because it is the most complete public account so far of how restricted American hardware is alleged to move through Taiwan's distribution chain to Chinese end users.&nbsp;Prosecutors say 74 servers containing the restricted chips reached China. Fifty were routed through Indonesia. Eight went via Japan. The remainder were shipped directly to the mainland.&nbsp;A further 56 servers were intercepted by customs at Taiwan's border before they left.&nbsp;Routing through a third country is the oldest technique in export evasion and the hardest to stop, because the paperwork at each leg can be individually unremarkable. A shipment to Indonesia is a shipment to Indonesia. What makes it a violation is where it goes next, and that is not visible on the document the exporter signs — which is why document forgery sits among the charges.&nbsp;Why The Employer Detail Matters&nbsp;The alleged participants were not outside brokers who acquired hardware on a grey market. According to the indictment they held positions inside the distribution chain itself — at the chipmaker's local office, at the server manufacturer's local branch, and at an authorised distributor.&nbsp;That is the part with implications beyond this case.&nbsp;American export controls are enforced substantially through the companies subject to them. Firms are required to know their customers, verify end users, and refuse sales that would breach the rules. The regime depends on that internal compliance functioning, because customs authorities cannot inspect the ultimate destination of every server that leaves Taiwan.&nbsp;If diversion can be organised by people holding the roles designed to prevent it, the control is only as strong as the individual staff administering it at each link. That is a materially weaker proposition than the policy assumes.&nbsp;It Is Not An Isolated Case&nbsp;The indictment lands five months after the United States Justice Department charged Super Micro co-founder Yih-Shyan Liaw, known as Wally Liaw, and two others in a parallel diversion scheme prosecutors valued at $2.5 billion.&nbsp;Two separate proceedings, in two jurisdictions, both concerning restricted hardware reaching China through the same manufacturer's distribution network, suggest a pattern rather than an aberration.&nbsp;The Awkward Timing&nbsp;This arrives in the same month that Washington's legal export channel to China has been running at a fraction of capacity.&nbsp;Nvidia's H200 chips were approved for sale to around ten cleared Chinese buyers under a framework that routes them through United States territory for screening and returns 25 per cent of the revenue to the Treasury. ByteDance and Tencent have each taken roughly 10,000 units against licences permitting 75,000 — about 13 per cent of what they are allowed to buy.&nbsp;So the legal route is underused while the illegal one is being prosecuted. Those two facts are not contradictory, and read together they say something specific: the demand is concentrated on the hardware that remains restricted, not on the hardware Washington has agreed to release.&nbsp;The B300 is a generation ahead of the H200. That is what was allegedly being smuggled, and no framework exists to sell it legally.&nbsp;What Follows&nbsp;The practical consequence for Nvidia and Supermicro is compliance cost. Both will face pressure to demonstrate that internal controls at regional offices and authorised distributors can withstand exactly this kind of failure, and both are likely to face questions from American regulators about supervision of their own staff.&nbsp;The broader consequence is for the policy. There is a live legislative effort in Washington to close a separate gap — the Remote Access Security Act, which would treat renting compute remotely as an export event, and which passed the House in January.&nbsp;That bill addresses chips that never move. This indictment concerns chips that did. A control regime being extended to cover remote access, while physical diversion is allegedly being organised from inside the distribution chain, is a regime with more perimeter than it can currently police.

Keelung prosecutors indicted nine over the alleged resale to China of Supermicro servers carrying restricted Nvidia B300 chips. They say 74 servers were smuggled, 50 via Indonesia, and 56 more were stopped at the border.

Export controls on advanced chips rest on an assumption that is rarely stated: that the companies selling the hardware are the ones enforcing the rules. An indictment filed in Taiwan on August 24 tests that assumption directly. The Charges The Keelung District Prosecutors' Office has indicted nine people over the alleged illegal resale to buyers in China of Supermicro AI servers fitted with Nvidia's B300 graphics processors, a class of hardware barred from export to Chinese customers. The accused include a distribution manager surnamed Chang at Nvidia's Taiwan office, two sales managers surnamed Lin and Wang at the Taiwan branch of Supermicro Computer, and the chief executive of Albatron Technology, a Supermicro distributor. Eight of the nine face charges of breach of trust and document forgery. Three of those also face embezzlement charges. These are allegations. None has been tested at trial, and everyone charged is entitled to the presumption of innocence. The Route The detail that makes the case significant is the logistics, because it is the most complete public account so far of how restricted American hardware is alleged to move through Taiwan's distribution chain to Chinese end users. Prosecutors say 74 servers containing the restricted chips reached China. Fifty were routed through Indonesia. Eight went via Japan. The remainder were shipped directly to the mainland. A further 56 servers were intercepted by customs at Taiwan's border before they left. Routing through a third country is the oldest technique in export evasion and the hardest to stop, because the paperwork at each leg can be individually unremarkable. A shipment to Indonesia is a shipment to Indonesia. What makes it a violation is where it goes next, and that is not visible on the document the exporter signs — which is why document forgery sits among the charges. Why The Employer Detail Matters The alleged participants were not outside brokers who acquired hardware on a grey market. According to the indictment they held positions inside the distribution chain itself — at the chipmaker's local office, at the server manufacturer's local branch, and at an authorised distributor. That is the part with implications beyond this case. American export controls are enforced substantially through the companies subject to them. Firms are required to know their customers, verify end users, and refuse sales that would breach the rules. The regime depends on that internal compliance functioning, because customs authorities cannot inspect the ultimate destination of every server that leaves Taiwan. If diversion can be organised by people holding the roles designed to prevent it, the control is only as strong as the individual staff administering it at each link. That is a materially weaker proposition than the policy assumes. It Is Not An Isolated Case The indictment lands five months after the United States Justice Department charged Super Micro co-founder Yih-Shyan Liaw, known as Wally Liaw, and two others in a parallel diversion scheme prosecutors valued at $2.5 billion. Two separate proceedings, in two jurisdictions, both concerning restricted hardware reaching China through the same manufacturer's distribution network, suggest a pattern rather than an aberration. The Awkward Timing This arrives in the same month that Washington's legal export channel to China has been running at a fraction of capacity. Nvidia's H200 chips were approved for sale to around ten cleared Chinese buyers under a framework that routes them through United States territory for screening and returns 25 per cent of the revenue to the Treasury. ByteDance and Tencent have each taken roughly 10,000 units against licences permitting 75,000 — about 13 per cent of what they are allowed to buy. So the legal route is underused while the illegal one is being prosecuted. Those two facts are not contradictory, and read together they say something specific: the demand is concentrated on the hardware that remains restricted, not on the hardware Washington has agreed to release. The B300 is a generation ahead of the H200. That is what was allegedly being smuggled, and no framework exists to sell it legally. What Follows The practical consequence for Nvidia and Supermicro is compliance cost. Both will face pressure to demonstrate that internal controls at regional offices and authorised distributors can withstand exactly this kind of failure, and both are likely to face questions from American regulators about supervision of their own staff. The broader consequence is for the policy. There is a live legislative effort in Washington to close a separate gap — the Remote Access Security Act, which would treat renting compute remotely as an export event, and which passed the House in January. That bill addresses chips that never move. This indictment concerns chips that did. A control regime being extended to cover remote access, while physical diversion is allegedly being organised from inside the distribution chain, is a regime with more perimeter than it can currently police.

Keelung prosecutors have indicted nine people over the alleged illegal resale to China of Supermicro servers carrying Nvidia's restricted B300 chips. The accused include a distribution manager at Nvidia's Taiwan office and two sales managers at Supermicro's Taiwan branch. Prosecutors say 74 servers were smuggled, 50 of them routed through Indonesia, and 56 more were intercepted at the border.

Taiwan has indicted an Nvidia manager over servers routed to China through Indonesia

Xiaomi announced three of its own chips this week. The design work is Chinese. The manufacturing is not, and that is the whole story of China's semiconductor position in one product launch.&nbsp;What Was Announced&nbsp;The Xring O3, unveiled on August 24, is built on TSMC's N3P three-nanometre node — 24 billion transistors on a die of 133 square millimetres, with LPDDR6 memory support. Xiaomi says it has entered mass production.&nbsp;Two more were confirmed alongside it. The Xring O100 is a six-nanometre neural processing unit intended to run MiMo, Xiaomi's own large language model, directly on consumer devices. The Xring D100 is a three-nanometre chip for autonomous driving. Both have completed development and are scheduled for deployment next year.&nbsp;TSMC has been contracted to manufacture all three.&nbsp;The Investment&nbsp;Xiaomi has now put more than 20 billion yuan — roughly $3 billion — into the Xring programme. Its semiconductor design unit has grown to more than 3,000 people, up from 2,500 a year ago.&nbsp;That is a serious commitment by the standards of any phone maker. Only a handful of companies design their own flagship silicon at all: Apple, Samsung, Google to a degree, Huawei. Xiaomi has spent three years and $3 billion to join a very short list.&nbsp;The Number That Complicates It&nbsp;The O3 is aimed at an upcoming foldable phone, with production in the region of 200,000 to 300,000 units.&nbsp;That is not a mass-market chip programme. Apple ships more iPhones in a morning. At those volumes the per-unit economics are dreadful, and the O3 cannot be understood as a commercial product in the ordinary sense.&nbsp;It is better read as a capability demonstration — proof that Xiaomi can design a competitive flagship processor, aimed at reducing its dependence on Qualcomm over time and at competing with Huawei in the premium foldable segment where Chinese brands are fighting hardest.&nbsp;Designing Is Not Making&nbsp;The part that matters strategically is the one Xiaomi cannot solve with money.&nbsp;A three-nanometre chip requires extreme ultraviolet lithography. Those machines are made by one company, ASML in the Netherlands, and export controls prevent their sale to Chinese foundries. SMIC, China's most advanced domestic manufacturer, has produced seven-nanometre parts using older equipment and multi-patterning, at yields and costs that make the approach difficult to scale.&nbsp;So a Chinese company designing a leading-edge chip has one realistic route to production: TSMC, in Taiwan, using equipment China cannot buy.&nbsp;Every Xring chip announced this week depends on that arrangement continuing.&nbsp;The Exposure&nbsp;This is worth stating plainly because it cuts against how these announcements are usually reported.&nbsp;A Chinese national champion investing $3 billion to design its own silicon reads as a self-sufficiency story. It is closer to the opposite. Xiaomi has moved the dependency from buying finished chips from Qualcomm to buying manufacturing capacity from a Taiwanese firm operating under American export rules — a supply chain with more political exposure, not less, however much design capability sits behind it.&nbsp;The same week made that exposure concrete elsewhere. Taiwanese prosecutors indicted nine people over restricted Nvidia server hardware allegedly routed to China through Indonesia and Japan, including employees at the Taiwan offices of the companies involved. And Nvidia's H200s, cleared for legal sale to approved Chinese buyers, are moving at around 13 per cent of licensed volume.&nbsp;Every one of those stories runs through the same chokepoint.&nbsp;What Would Actually Change It&nbsp;Domestic fabrication at leading-edge nodes is the only thing that would, and nothing announced this week moves toward it.&nbsp;China is investing enormously in that problem, and it is not obviously unsolvable — lithography is engineering rather than physics, and the country has closed harder gaps before. But it is a decade-scale undertaking, and the O3 shipping on TSMC N3P in 2026 is evidence of where the gap currently stands rather than of it narrowing.&nbsp;The honest summary of Xiaomi's announcement is that China can now design chips as good as almost anyone's, and still cannot make them.

Xiaomi unveiled the Xring O3, a 3nm processor with 24 billion transistors, plus a neural chip and an autonomous-driving chip. It has invested over 20 billion yuan and grown its chip unit past 3,000 people. TSMC manufactures all three.

Xiaomi announced three of its own chips this week. The design work is Chinese. The manufacturing is not, and that is the whole story of China's semiconductor position in one product launch. What Was Announced The Xring O3, unveiled on August 24, is built on TSMC's N3P three-nanometre node — 24 billion transistors on a die of 133 square millimetres, with LPDDR6 memory support. Xiaomi says it has entered mass production. Two more were confirmed alongside it. The Xring O100 is a six-nanometre neural processing unit intended to run MiMo, Xiaomi's own large language model, directly on consumer devices. The Xring D100 is a three-nanometre chip for autonomous driving. Both have completed development and are scheduled for deployment next year. TSMC has been contracted to manufacture all three. The Investment Xiaomi has now put more than 20 billion yuan — roughly $3 billion — into the Xring programme. Its semiconductor design unit has grown to more than 3,000 people, up from 2,500 a year ago. That is a serious commitment by the standards of any phone maker. Only a handful of companies design their own flagship silicon at all: Apple, Samsung, Google to a degree, Huawei. Xiaomi has spent three years and $3 billion to join a very short list. The Number That Complicates It The O3 is aimed at an upcoming foldable phone, with production in the region of 200,000 to 300,000 units. That is not a mass-market chip programme. Apple ships more iPhones in a morning. At those volumes the per-unit economics are dreadful, and the O3 cannot be understood as a commercial product in the ordinary sense. It is better read as a capability demonstration — proof that Xiaomi can design a competitive flagship processor, aimed at reducing its dependence on Qualcomm over time and at competing with Huawei in the premium foldable segment where Chinese brands are fighting hardest. Designing Is Not Making The part that matters strategically is the one Xiaomi cannot solve with money. A three-nanometre chip requires extreme ultraviolet lithography. Those machines are made by one company, ASML in the Netherlands, and export controls prevent their sale to Chinese foundries. SMIC, China's most advanced domestic manufacturer, has produced seven-nanometre parts using older equipment and multi-patterning, at yields and costs that make the approach difficult to scale. So a Chinese company designing a leading-edge chip has one realistic route to production: TSMC, in Taiwan, using equipment China cannot buy. Every Xring chip announced this week depends on that arrangement continuing. The Exposure This is worth stating plainly because it cuts against how these announcements are usually reported. A Chinese national champion investing $3 billion to design its own silicon reads as a self-sufficiency story. It is closer to the opposite. Xiaomi has moved the dependency from buying finished chips from Qualcomm to buying manufacturing capacity from a Taiwanese firm operating under American export rules — a supply chain with more political exposure, not less, however much design capability sits behind it. The same week made that exposure concrete elsewhere. Taiwanese prosecutors indicted nine people over restricted Nvidia server hardware allegedly routed to China through Indonesia and Japan, including employees at the Taiwan offices of the companies involved. And Nvidia's H200s, cleared for legal sale to approved Chinese buyers, are moving at around 13 per cent of licensed volume. Every one of those stories runs through the same chokepoint. What Would Actually Change It Domestic fabrication at leading-edge nodes is the only thing that would, and nothing announced this week moves toward it. China is investing enormously in that problem, and it is not obviously unsolvable — lithography is engineering rather than physics, and the country has closed harder gaps before. But it is a decade-scale undertaking, and the O3 shipping on TSMC N3P in 2026 is evidence of where the gap currently stands rather than of it narrowing. The honest summary of Xiaomi's announcement is that China can now design chips as good as almost anyone's, and still cannot make them.

Xiaomi unveiled the Xring O3 on August 24, a 3-nanometre processor with 24 billion transistors on a 133 square millimetre die, alongside a neural chip and an autonomous-driving chip. It has put more than 20 billion yuan into the programme and grown its chip unit past 3,000 people. Every one of the chips is manufactured by TSMC in Taiwan.

Xiaomi has spent $3 billion designing its own chips! It still has to build them in Taiwan

A headless white machine called Tiangong Ultra ran 100 metres in 9.39 seconds this week. Usain Bolt's world record, set in 2009, is 9.58.&nbsp;Two robots from Honor's Lightning platform also finished under Bolt's mark. The following day, Tiangong Ultra ran 400 metres in 38.15 seconds — nearly five seconds inside the human record.&nbsp;In other events at the same games, robots struggled to pick up beans.&nbsp;Both halves of that are the story.&nbsp;What Happened&nbsp;The second World Humanoid Robot Games ran from August 22 to 26 at Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval, the venue built for the 2022 Winter Olympics and known as the Ice Ribbon. More than 2,000 humanoid robots competed.&nbsp;Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, won its heat with the 9.39-second run. The time was reported by CCTV, the state broadcaster.&nbsp;One detail from the sprint is more significant than the time. A robot arrived at its own running posture — arms held near the face, hips driving forward — through reinforcement learning. No engineer designed that gait. The machine found it by trying.&nbsp;The Comparison Is Not What It Looks Like&nbsp;Before the record framing runs away with itself, it is worth being precise about what was and was not achieved.&nbsp;A humanoid robot sprinting on a track is not doing what a sprinter does. It is not constrained by reaction time at the blocks in the way a human is, it is not limited by biological muscle recovery or oxygen, and the competition conditions, timing methodology and permitted assistance are not those of a World Athletics event. The comparison is a headline device, and the organisers know it.&nbsp;The times also come via a state broadcaster covering a domestic showcase, which is not a reason to disbelieve them but is a reason to note the source rather than treat the figure as independently ratified.&nbsp;What is genuinely notable is narrower and more interesting: bipedal locomotion at speed, on a machine that taught itself the gait, is a hard control problem that was not solved at this level three years ago.&nbsp;Moravec's Paradox, Live&nbsp;The bean-handling failures are not comic relief. They are the central finding.&nbsp;Robotics has a decades-old observation named after Hans Moravec: the things humans find hard, machines find easy, and the things humans find effortless, machines find nearly impossible. Chess fell to computers before laundry. Sprinting is a dynamics problem with a clear objective function and a simulator that can run it a billion times. Picking up a bean is a problem of contact, friction, deformation and touch, where the feedback is subtle and the failure modes are endless.&nbsp;This is why humanoid robots have been demonstrating impressive gymnastics for years while doing almost no useful work. The gap is not power or speed. It is hands.&nbsp;A robot that outruns Bolt and cannot reliably grip a small object is not close to replacing a warehouse worker, and the sprint record does not indicate otherwise. It indicates that one narrow class of problem has been solved well.&nbsp;The Money Says Something Different&nbsp;The industry is being funded as though the manipulation problem is nearly solved.&nbsp;XPeng's robotics business has raised more than $900 million in its first external round, at a valuation above $6.3 billion. IDG Capital and Gaorong Ventures led it, with Tencent and Alibaba participating strategically. The company is targeting production of its IRON humanoid before the end of 2026.&nbsp;That is a serious amount of capital for a product category with no established commercial application, from investors who are not naive about Chinese manufacturing.&nbsp;The bet is that manipulation follows locomotion — that the same reinforcement learning methods which produced a self-taught sprint will, given enough simulation and enough data, produce reliable hands. That is a plausible bet. It is not yet an evidenced one, and the beans are the evidence for the other side.&nbsp;Why China Is Where This Is Happening&nbsp;The concentration is not accidental.&nbsp;China dominates humanoid robot production, and the United States banned imports of new Chinese humanoids in July, closing that market to the manufacturers that shipped most of the world's units. The result is a protected domestic market on one side and a large excluded producer base on the other, both racing.&nbsp;A games event with 2,000 machines in an Olympic venue is industrial policy conducted as spectacle. It generates the data, the engineering competition and the public narrative simultaneously, and it does so in a country that can also build the things at volume.&nbsp;What To Watch Instead Of The Sprint Times&nbsp;The meaningful benchmark for humanoid robotics is not speed. It is whether a machine can perform an unstructured manipulation task, in an environment it has not seen, at a reliability rate high enough to be worth paying for.&nbsp;Nobody has demonstrated that. The sprint records show the field has become very good at the part that was always going to be easier.&nbsp;Tiangong Ultra ran faster than the fastest human who has ever lived. It is still, in the way that matters commercially, less useful than a person who can pick things up.

Tiangong Ultra ran 100 metres in 9.39 seconds at Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games, against Bolt's 9.58. The same machines failed at fine manipulation — the problem robotics has never solved.

A headless white machine called Tiangong Ultra ran 100 metres in 9.39 seconds this week. Usain Bolt's world record, set in 2009, is 9.58. Two robots from Honor's Lightning platform also finished under Bolt's mark. The following day, Tiangong Ultra ran 400 metres in 38.15 seconds — nearly five seconds inside the human record. In other events at the same games, robots struggled to pick up beans. Both halves of that are the story. What Happened The second World Humanoid Robot Games ran from August 22 to 26 at Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval, the venue built for the 2022 Winter Olympics and known as the Ice Ribbon. More than 2,000 humanoid robots competed. Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, won its heat with the 9.39-second run. The time was reported by CCTV, the state broadcaster. One detail from the sprint is more significant than the time. A robot arrived at its own running posture — arms held near the face, hips driving forward — through reinforcement learning. No engineer designed that gait. The machine found it by trying. The Comparison Is Not What It Looks Like Before the record framing runs away with itself, it is worth being precise about what was and was not achieved. A humanoid robot sprinting on a track is not doing what a sprinter does. It is not constrained by reaction time at the blocks in the way a human is, it is not limited by biological muscle recovery or oxygen, and the competition conditions, timing methodology and permitted assistance are not those of a World Athletics event. The comparison is a headline device, and the organisers know it. The times also come via a state broadcaster covering a domestic showcase, which is not a reason to disbelieve them but is a reason to note the source rather than treat the figure as independently ratified. What is genuinely notable is narrower and more interesting: bipedal locomotion at speed, on a machine that taught itself the gait, is a hard control problem that was not solved at this level three years ago. Moravec's Paradox, Live The bean-handling failures are not comic relief. They are the central finding. Robotics has a decades-old observation named after Hans Moravec: the things humans find hard, machines find easy, and the things humans find effortless, machines find nearly impossible. Chess fell to computers before laundry. Sprinting is a dynamics problem with a clear objective function and a simulator that can run it a billion times. Picking up a bean is a problem of contact, friction, deformation and touch, where the feedback is subtle and the failure modes are endless. This is why humanoid robots have been demonstrating impressive gymnastics for years while doing almost no useful work. The gap is not power or speed. It is hands. A robot that outruns Bolt and cannot reliably grip a small object is not close to replacing a warehouse worker, and the sprint record does not indicate otherwise. It indicates that one narrow class of problem has been solved well. The Money Says Something Different The industry is being funded as though the manipulation problem is nearly solved. XPeng's robotics business has raised more than $900 million in its first external round, at a valuation above $6.3 billion. IDG Capital and Gaorong Ventures led it, with Tencent and Alibaba participating strategically. The company is targeting production of its IRON humanoid before the end of 2026. That is a serious amount of capital for a product category with no established commercial application, from investors who are not naive about Chinese manufacturing. The bet is that manipulation follows locomotion — that the same reinforcement learning methods which produced a self-taught sprint will, given enough simulation and enough data, produce reliable hands. That is a plausible bet. It is not yet an evidenced one, and the beans are the evidence for the other side. Why China Is Where This Is Happening The concentration is not accidental. China dominates humanoid robot production, and the United States banned imports of new Chinese humanoids in July, closing that market to the manufacturers that shipped most of the world's units. The result is a protected domestic market on one side and a large excluded producer base on the other, both racing. A games event with 2,000 machines in an Olympic venue is industrial policy conducted as spectacle. It generates the data, the engineering competition and the public narrative simultaneously, and it does so in a country that can also build the things at volume. What To Watch Instead Of The Sprint Times The meaningful benchmark for humanoid robotics is not speed. It is whether a machine can perform an unstructured manipulation task, in an environment it has not seen, at a reliability rate high enough to be worth paying for. Nobody has demonstrated that. The sprint records show the field has become very good at the part that was always going to be easier. Tiangong Ultra ran faster than the fastest human who has ever lived. It is still, in the way that matters commercially, less useful than a person who can pick things up.

At the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, a headless machine called Tiangong Ultra ran 100 metres in 9.39 seconds according to state broadcaster CCTV, against Usain Bolt's 9.58-second record. Two robots from Honor's Lightning platform also finished under it. The same competition showed the machines failing at tasks requiring fine manipulation — the oldest and least solved problem in robotics.

Two Chinese robots ran 100 metres faster than Usain Bolt! Then they lost to a bowl of beans

A humanoid robot crashed into the judges’ table after struggling to lift a weight at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. The incident became one of the viral moments from the competition, which is showcasing more than 2,000 humanoid robots across a range of sporting and real-world challenges.

Robots set new records at World Humanoid Robot Games 

Amid U.S. unveiling its major economic sanctions on Iran, China expressed its displeasure and called for a return to talks. While Trump claimed that Iran is 'completely collapsing', Tehran has threatened to shut down all oil exports from West Asia.

US-Iran war: China 'Trumps' Trump on Iran Sanctions, Calls for Return to Talks

Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's possible visit to India for the BRICS Summit in September, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing for a key two-day visit. He will hold talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the border issue.


Ajit Doval to hold border talks in China ahead of Xi's possible India visit

In a few minutes from now, the so-called economic D-Day for Iran will kick in, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent set to unveil major economic sanctions on Iran. Trump claims that Iran is “completely collapsing”. But Tehran has asserted that this tactic will fail and threatened to shut down all oil exports from West Asia.Without detailing specific measures, Bessent has signalled that the US would also target nations that practise appeasement by engaging with Iran’s economy and financial system.China, though, drew the red line. Opposing the imposition of fresh sanctions against Iran, Beijing argued that they would escalate tensions and called upon all parties to exercise restraint and return to talks.Now, why is China’s stance so crucial?According to reports, Beijing helped push Tehran to the negotiating table for a ceasefire in April. Being Iran’s largest trading partner, which purchases roughly 90 per cent of its crude oil, China has high stakes in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.Another key question arises: Can Trump bypass China’s opposition and go ahead with the economic sanctions? Since his visit to Beijing in May, the US President has been keen on China buying American soybeans, oil as well as Boeing jets. For America, China’s supply of critical minerals is also vital, as they are essential components in the production of weapons, which have been depleted by the war.Going against Beijing at this juncture might put all this at risk. It is also worth noting that Xi is set to meet Trump at the White House in September.Ahead of America’s announcement, mediation efforts continue.Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir arrived in Tehran, where he met Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni. According to Reuters, Trump spoke to Munir last week, with the US seeking Pakistan’s influence to bring Iran back to talks.Tensions persisted in West Asia, though. For instance, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for firing a ballistic missile at a Saudi Arabia-flagged tanker in the Red Sea. This led to a fire breaking out on the vessel. The Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia last month.On its part, Iran blacklisted 45 tankers for breaking its rules while crossing the Strait of Hormuz and warned other vessels not to transit this strategic waterway without its permission. It stressed that these vessels could be fined and have their cargo confiscated as well. Additionally, Iran threatened other countries against joining new US efforts to squeeze Tehran’s economy.Meanwhile, Iran clarified that it was yet to receive a formal invitation to join the Makkah Defence Pact signed by Pakistan, Türkiye and Saudi Arabia. However, Tehran did not rule out negotiations with these countries for the overall security of the region.America’s fresh threat of economic sanctions also comes at a time when the Iranian rial has fallen to a historic low, crossing two million rials against the US dollar. This has raised fresh concerns about inflation, purchasing power and the Iranian government’s ability to stabilise the economy.Food has become very expensive, with the price of rice up by 60 per cent since the war began.Now, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also acknowledged the issues arising from the current impasse. He linked the MOU with the US to Iran’s economic prospects, saying that his country was not able to attract investment at present.People on the streets of Iran also expressed their anguish over the current state of affairs.With both the US and Iran unwilling to budge from their positions, West Asia continues to remain on edge.

Iran faces fresh US sanctions as Washington threatens economic pressure and China urges restraint, while Tehran warns of retaliation and tensions persist over the Strait of Hormuz.

In a few minutes from now, the so-called economic D-Day for Iran will kick in, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent set to unveil major economic sanctions on Iran. Trump claims that Iran is “completely collapsing”. But Tehran has asserted that this tactic will fail and threatened to shut down all oil exports from West Asia. Without detailing specific measures, Bessent has signalled that the US would also target nations that practise appeasement by engaging with Iran’s economy and financial system. China, though, drew the red line. Opposing the imposition of fresh sanctions against Iran, Beijing argued that they would escalate tensions and called upon all parties to exercise restraint and return to talks. Now, why is China’s stance so crucial? According to reports, Beijing helped push Tehran to the negotiating table for a ceasefire in April. Being Iran’s largest trading partner, which purchases roughly 90 per cent of its crude oil, China has high stakes in reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Another key question arises: Can Trump bypass China’s opposition and go ahead with the economic sanctions? Since his visit to Beijing in May, the US President has been keen on China buying American soybeans, oil as well as Boeing jets. For America, China’s supply of critical minerals is also vital, as they are essential components in the production of weapons, which have been depleted by the war. Going against Beijing at this juncture might put all this at risk. It is also worth noting that Xi is set to meet Trump at the White House in September. Ahead of America’s announcement, mediation efforts continue. Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir arrived in Tehran, where he met Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni. According to Reuters, Trump spoke to Munir last week, with the US seeking Pakistan’s influence to bring Iran back to talks. Tensions persisted in West Asia, though. For instance, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for firing a ballistic missile at a Saudi Arabia-flagged tanker in the Red Sea. This led to a fire breaking out on the vessel. The Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia last month. On its part, Iran blacklisted 45 tankers for breaking its rules while crossing the Strait of Hormuz and warned other vessels not to transit this strategic waterway without its permission. It stressed that these vessels could be fined and have their cargo confiscated as well. Additionally, Iran threatened other countries against joining new US efforts to squeeze Tehran’s economy. Meanwhile, Iran clarified that it was yet to receive a formal invitation to join the Makkah Defence Pact signed by Pakistan, Türkiye and Saudi Arabia. However, Tehran did not rule out negotiations with these countries for the overall security of the region. America’s fresh threat of economic sanctions also comes at a time when the Iranian rial has fallen to a historic low, crossing two million rials against the US dollar. This has raised fresh concerns about inflation, purchasing power and the Iranian government’s ability to stabilise the economy. Food has become very expensive, with the price of rice up by 60 per cent since the war began. Now, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also acknowledged the issues arising from the current impasse. He linked the MOU with the US to Iran’s economic prospects, saying that his country was not able to attract investment at present. People on the streets of Iran also expressed their anguish over the current state of affairs. With both the US and Iran unwilling to budge from their positions, West Asia continues to remain on edge.

Iran faces fresh US sanctions as Washington threatens economic pressure and China urges restraint, while Tehran warns of retaliation and tensions persist over the Strait of Hormuz.

China 'trumps' Trump on Iran sanctions, calls for return to talks | Gravitas

Iran has issued a fresh warning to countries cooperating with sanctions against Tehran, as China and Russia come under increasing pressure from Washington. The United States is treading carefully with Beijing, aware of the wider implications of escalating economic tensions. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet again in Washington in September. The developments come as the Iran crisis, sanctions pressure and U.S.-China rivalry increasingly intersect, creating a complex geopolitical challenge for all sides.


Iran warns sanctions cooperators as Trump and Xi prepare for September summit 

Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing on August 24 for a two-day visit to hold the 25th round of Special Representatives’ talks on the India-China boundary question. Doval is set to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as the two sides continue discussions on resolving outstanding border issues and maintaining stability along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

25th round of border talks to commence as Ajit Doval visits Beijing

Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour marked the traditional Qixi Festival, often called China's Valentine's Day, with a spectacular 2,000-drone light show that illuminated the city skyline.

Hong Kong: luminous spectacle marks China's valentine's day

China and Indonesia have agreed to strengthen military ties and expand cooperation in minerals, energy and technology. The two countries also plan collaboration in areas including artificial intelligence, defence, rail transport, satellites and fisheries, as Jakarta balances its relationships with Beijing and Washington.


Beijing, Jakarta expand defence ties, launch new dialogue

A bizarre animated film called “Niu Lai” has gone from a box-office flop to a surprise hit in China after viewers mocked its eerie and rudimentary 3D animation online. The film earned just 10,000 yuan in its first 10 days but later saw a dramatic surge, reaching 17.1 million yuan at the box office.

Chinese film made at $200 budget turns multi-million-dollar hit 

Former Indian Army Chief General MM Naravane has emphasized the importance of managing long-term differences with Beijing through structured diplomatic channels and dialogue. Speaking at a recent book launch event in New Delhi, Naravane characterized China as India's primary multi-domain competitor, spanning politics, economics, and military spheres.


Naravane urges diplomatic talks to manage differences with China

Japan's Nuclear Potential: Tensions have flared following statements from Chinese officials alleging that Japan currently possesses enough separated plutonium to produce approximately 5,500 nuclear warheads.


China: Japan has plutonium for 5,500 nukes; Japan's nuclear potential in spotlight

China’s property crisis is showing little sign of ending, five years after the collapse of evergrande exposed the enormous debt problems in the country’s real-estate sector. Home prices are still falling, sales remain weak, and the damage is now weighing on China’s wider economy.

China’s property crisis deepens into year five

China’s youth unemployment rate has climbed sharply to 17.9 percent in July, up from 14.9 percent in June. That is a 3-percentage-point jump in just one month, after the rate had fallen for three consecutive months.

China’s youth jobs crisis deepens

One of China's most influential comedians has come under investigation and had his shows cancelled after joking about a Communist Party song.

Guo Degang, China's most famous stand-up comic, is accused of violating public morals after he improvised his own lyrics to a well-known revolutionary song during a performance in Wuhan in late July.

China's most famous comedian under investigation for joke

Bilibili relaunched its international app this week, and disclosed plans for an English-language website and a global creator push. The Chinese platform, long described as China's answer to YouTube, has 376 million monthly active users.&nbsp;It is hiring community managers in Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Istanbul and Tokyo.&nbsp;There is no Indian city on that list, and that absence is the most informative thing about the launch.&nbsp;What Has Actually Launched&nbsp;The revamped international app is live on Google Play, with an iOS version expected to follow and an English-language website described as coming soon.&nbsp;The most consequential change is not the app itself but the sign-up. The international version has dropped identity verification. Overseas users previously had to supply passport or identity documents to register on the main Chinese platform, a requirement that made casual international use effectively impossible.&nbsp;Removing it converts Bilibili from a walled Chinese service that foreigners could visit into a platform anyone can join in under a minute. That is the difference between a curiosity and a competitor.&nbsp;The company is also building AI-powered content moderation, according to a Singapore-based job listing — a necessary step for a platform about to operate across jurisdictions with incompatible rules on speech. Bilibili declined to comment on its plans.&nbsp;Why This Is Not Another TikTok, Exactly&nbsp;The comparison is natural but imprecise, and the imprecision matters.&nbsp;TikTok's international product was built separately from Douyin, its Chinese sibling, specifically for foreign markets. Bilibili is extending its existing platform outward rather than building a new one, which means the content library, the creator base and the culture arriving in these markets are the ones that grew up inside China.&nbsp;The format is different too. Douyin and Kuaishou are short-form. Bilibili is long-form — closer to YouTube than to TikTok in what it actually does, built around extended video, animation, gaming content and a dense community culture that includes on-screen scrolling comments.&nbsp;That makes it a more direct threat to YouTube than TikTok ever was, and a harder product to regulate by analogy. The concerns raised about TikTok concerned recommendation algorithms shaping a short-form feed. A long-form platform raises the older and less settled questions about hosted content, moderation standards and which jurisdiction's rules apply.&nbsp;The Market That Is Missing&nbsp;India is the largest video-consuming market on earth by users, and the largest one where YouTube's position has never been seriously contested.&nbsp;It is also the market that has already answered this question.&nbsp;On June 29, 2020, India banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese-owned applications, days after a clash on the Himalayan border in which twenty Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers were killed. The stated ground was data security. More than 500 Chinese apps have been blocked since.&nbsp;The ban has not softened on the app that mattered. The government has confirmed that the 2020 orders were neither interim nor time-bound, that they remain in force, and that no unblocking order has been issued for TikTok. A handful of other applications, including Xender, TanTan and Shein, have returned. TikTok has not.&nbsp;Bilibili's hiring list reads as an acknowledgement of that. A company assembling regional operations across six continents' worth of cities, which omits the second-largest internet population in the world, has not overlooked it.&nbsp;What India Gave Up And Got Back&nbsp;The Indian ban is often discussed as a loss for Indian creators, and in the short term it was. Roughly 200 million users lost a platform overnight, and the creators among them lost their audiences with it.&nbsp;What followed is the part worth remembering as Bilibili arrives. The vacuum was filled almost immediately by Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, both of which built their short-form products around the gap India's ban created. Domestic attempts largely failed. The beneficiaries were American.&nbsp;That is the trade India made: a Chinese platform removed on security grounds, replaced by American platforms operating under the same commercial logic and subject to their own foreign jurisdiction. It is a real choice with real costs, not a straightforward win, and the Meta trial currently running in a California federal court is a reminder that the replacement platforms carry their own unresolved questions about what they do to young users.&nbsp;The Question Bilibili Raises&nbsp;For every other market on that hiring list, the calculation is live rather than settled.&nbsp;Britain, Japan, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil and the United States are about to host a Chinese long-form video platform with 376 million users, no identity verification at sign-up, moderation being built by AI, and a content culture formed under Chinese rules. The questions that consumed four years of argument about TikTok — where data sits, who can compel access to it, whose speech rules govern moderation — arrive again, with a different product and no established answer.&nbsp;India will watch that argument from outside, having pre-empted it in 2020.&nbsp;Whether that looks like foresight or like an overcorrection depends on what the rest of the world concludes over the next few years. What is not in dispute is that Bilibili has drawn its own map, and India is not on it.

Bilibili, with 376 million monthly users, relaunched its international app and is hiring in Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Istanbul and Tokyo. India, the biggest video market left, is absent — and the reason dates to 2020.

Bilibili relaunched its international app this week, and disclosed plans for an English-language website and a global creator push. The Chinese platform, long described as China's answer to YouTube, has 376 million monthly active users. It is hiring community managers in Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Istanbul and Tokyo. There is no Indian city on that list, and that absence is the most informative thing about the launch. What Has Actually Launched The revamped international app is live on Google Play, with an iOS version expected to follow and an English-language website described as coming soon. The most consequential change is not the app itself but the sign-up. The international version has dropped identity verification. Overseas users previously had to supply passport or identity documents to register on the main Chinese platform, a requirement that made casual international use effectively impossible. Removing it converts Bilibili from a walled Chinese service that foreigners could visit into a platform anyone can join in under a minute. That is the difference between a curiosity and a competitor. The company is also building AI-powered content moderation, according to a Singapore-based job listing — a necessary step for a platform about to operate across jurisdictions with incompatible rules on speech. Bilibili declined to comment on its plans. Why This Is Not Another TikTok, Exactly The comparison is natural but imprecise, and the imprecision matters. TikTok's international product was built separately from Douyin, its Chinese sibling, specifically for foreign markets. Bilibili is extending its existing platform outward rather than building a new one, which means the content library, the creator base and the culture arriving in these markets are the ones that grew up inside China. The format is different too. Douyin and Kuaishou are short-form. Bilibili is long-form — closer to YouTube than to TikTok in what it actually does, built around extended video, animation, gaming content and a dense community culture that includes on-screen scrolling comments. That makes it a more direct threat to YouTube than TikTok ever was, and a harder product to regulate by analogy. The concerns raised about TikTok concerned recommendation algorithms shaping a short-form feed. A long-form platform raises the older and less settled questions about hosted content, moderation standards and which jurisdiction's rules apply. The Market That Is Missing India is the largest video-consuming market on earth by users, and the largest one where YouTube's position has never been seriously contested. It is also the market that has already answered this question. On June 29, 2020, India banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese-owned applications, days after a clash on the Himalayan border in which twenty Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers were killed. The stated ground was data security. More than 500 Chinese apps have been blocked since. The ban has not softened on the app that mattered. The government has confirmed that the 2020 orders were neither interim nor time-bound, that they remain in force, and that no unblocking order has been issued for TikTok. A handful of other applications, including Xender, TanTan and Shein, have returned. TikTok has not. Bilibili's hiring list reads as an acknowledgement of that. A company assembling regional operations across six continents' worth of cities, which omits the second-largest internet population in the world, has not overlooked it. What India Gave Up And Got Back The Indian ban is often discussed as a loss for Indian creators, and in the short term it was. Roughly 200 million users lost a platform overnight, and the creators among them lost their audiences with it. What followed is the part worth remembering as Bilibili arrives. The vacuum was filled almost immediately by Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, both of which built their short-form products around the gap India's ban created. Domestic attempts largely failed. The beneficiaries were American. That is the trade India made: a Chinese platform removed on security grounds, replaced by American platforms operating under the same commercial logic and subject to their own foreign jurisdiction. It is a real choice with real costs, not a straightforward win, and the Meta trial currently running in a California federal court is a reminder that the replacement platforms carry their own unresolved questions about what they do to young users. The Question Bilibili Raises For every other market on that hiring list, the calculation is live rather than settled. Britain, Japan, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil and the United States are about to host a Chinese long-form video platform with 376 million users, no identity verification at sign-up, moderation being built by AI, and a content culture formed under Chinese rules. The questions that consumed four years of argument about TikTok — where data sits, who can compel access to it, whose speech rules govern moderation — arrive again, with a different product and no established answer. India will watch that argument from outside, having pre-empted it in 2020. Whether that looks like foresight or like an overcorrection depends on what the rest of the world concludes over the next few years. What is not in dispute is that Bilibili has drawn its own map, and India is not on it.

Bilibili, the Chinese platform with 376 million monthly users often called China's YouTube, relaunched its international app this week and is building an English-language site. It is recruiting community managers in Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Istanbul and Tokyo. India, the largest video market left on earth, is not on the list — and the reason is six years old.

'Another TikTok?': China's answer to YouTube goes global

China has issued a chilling warning over Japan's nuclear potential, pointing to Tokyo's huge stockpile of separated plutonium. Japan held about 44.4 tonnes of separated plutonium at the end of 2025, according to Japanese figures. Beijing says the stockpile gives Japan the technical ability for a rapid nuclear breakout. But Japan remains a non-nuclear-weapon state under the NPT and says its plutonium is for peaceful civilian use.


China says Japan has plutonium for 5,500 nukes

China sounds nuclear alarm over Japan's 44-tonne plutonium stockpile

The future of robotics is no longer confined to laboratories. At the World Robot Conference in Beijing, more than 300 exhibitors are showcasing cutting-edge machines designed to work, assist, and even make decisions alongside humans. From advanced humanoid robots to agile robot dogs, many of these machines are now being tested in real-world environments across China.


China unveils future robots: Humanoids & robot dogs move into real-world testing

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