Stories from China

China's domestically produced C919 aircraft has secured a new order valued at 30 billion yuan. This development marks a significant milestone for the country's aviation manufacturing sector as it seeks to expand its presence in the global market. The order supports China's broader strategic goal of fostering future industries like bio-manufacturing and quantum technology.

China's fixed asset investment in the primary industry grew by 15.9% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026. The State Council Information Office held a press conference on April 23 to introduce measures for strengthening intellectual property protection in 2025. Measures include revising patent examination guidelines and improving patent examination standards for artificial intelligence. China's property insurance sector recorded 532 billion yuan in premium income during the first quarter of 2026, a 2.9% increase year-on-year. China's industrial crude oil and natural gas production increased by 1.3% and 3.0% respectively in the first quarter of 2026. Industrial coal production saw a year-on-year increase of 0.1%. Power sector safety production is reported as stable following the completion of power security tasks for the Spring Festival and the Two Sessions.

Beijing is increasing its crackdown on tax evasion by extending enforcement measures into consumption taxes. Authorities are framing these actions as a necessary fiscal lifeline to bolster national revenue. This move signals a more aggressive approach to domestic fiscal management. The State Affairs General Administration Inspection Bureau is investigating food influencer Bai Bing for income discrepancies. Authorities suspect Bai converted personal service income into individual business income to exploit tax incentives through falsified costs and expenses. The investigation includes several large-value service invoices worth millions of yuan. The probe aims to address the practice of underpaying personal income tax. A prominent Chinese social media influencer has admitted to using luxury goods invoices to misrepresent company income.

DeepSeek has released its V4 model, positioning it as a highly powerful open-source alternative to proprietary systems. The launch serves as a direct challenge to established closed-model providers like OpenAI and Anthropic. This development marks a significant milestone in the competitive landscape of large language model accessibility.

New polling data indicates that support for China has increased by 6 percentage points in the Middle East region due to ongoing instability. Lü noted that the Iran war has already impacted Chinese exports. The source expressed uncertainty regarding when this decline will end. China reported an increase in industrial profits during the first three months of the year. This growth was driven by developments in the artificial intelligence and semiconductor industries. Specifically, profits for optoelectronic component manufacturers rose 336.8% year-on-year. Profits for photoelectric equipment and display equipment manufacturers increased by 43% and 36.3% respectively. The growth in these sectors is attributed to global capital investment in AI and data centers. China's mainland economy grew by 5% in the first quarter of the year.

The Chinese Embassy in the United States issued a statement rejecting allegations that Chinese entities are stealing American AI intellectual property. Beijing characterized the accusations as a deliberate attack on the development of the Chinese AI industry. This follows reports regarding US concerns over the distillation of American AI models to train smaller, cheaper models. A speaker stated that China has no interest in threatening itself, dismissing the notion of a 'China threat' as baseless. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian denied US allegations concerning Panama ports during a routine press conference. Six nations in the Americas issued a joint statement expressing concern regarding recent Chinese actions affecting a vessel flying the Panama flag. China's defense ministry denied recent reports alleging the transfer of military equipment to Iran.

DeepSeek has released its V4 series of large language models, claiming performance parity with GPT-5.2 and Gemini 3.0 Pro on reasoning benchmarks. The V4 Pro model is positioned as a high-efficiency alternative, priced at $0.74 per million input tokens. This release aims to challenge the dominance of major US-based AI providers by offering comparable reasoning capabilities at a significantly lower cost. The V4-Pro model features 1.6 trillion parameters and claims performance comparable to GPT-5.4 and Claude Opus 4.6 at lower costs. Chinese company DeepSeek is offering developers a 74% discount on its newly unveiled AI model, DeepSeek V4 Pro, until May 5. The company previously launched a preview of its open-source V4 model as a cost-effective alternative to Western competitors like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. AI consultant Raj Froshoff discussed user expectations for the new model.

China has implemented stricter regulations targeting government officials whose family members reside outside of the country. This move aims to increase oversight and control over the personal lives and potential loyalties of the bureaucracy. Chinese Vice Premier He Li Feng held a video call with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and Trade Representative Jameson Greer on Thursday. The officials discussed implementing consensus reached during a previous meeting in Busan. The conversation focused on addressing economic and trade concerns and expanding pragmatic cooperation. According to Xinhua, the exchanges were described as candid, in-depth, and constructive.

Chinese AI firm DeepSeek has released a new artificial intelligence model that claims parity with industry leaders OpenAI and Google. The launch marks a significant step in the competitive landscape of global generative AI development. The release comes as international attention shifts toward China's growing technological capabilities in the machine learning sector. This latest iteration follows previous versions that were reportedly trained using NVIDIA hardware. The release comes amid ongoing technological competition between China and the United States.

China has implemented new export restrictions targeting European Union companies in response to arms sales involving Taiwan. China, the world's largest exporter of solar panels, is considering restrictions on solar manufacturing equipment destined for the United States. The move could impact foreign relations between the two nations. This supply falls short of the global requirement of 50,000 tons per year. The reduction follows a previous instance where China restricted exports to Japan following a collision between Chinese fishermen and the Japanese Coast Guard. The supply shortage has prompted calls to revive domestic production in the United States. Global demand for these materials is estimated at 50,000 tons annually. This supply gap is being cited as a driver for the revival of U.S.-based MaliCorp. This supply gap is expected to drive prices higher, according to the source.