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Dongyan Zheng

Editor covering China's business and technology, focused on AI, electric vehicles, autonomous driving, and robotics, tracking industry developments, innovation, and market dynamics.

T3 Chuxing's HK IPO Tests Whether Robotaxi Hype Can Outrun Thin Margins

China's third-largest ride-hailing platform is heading to Hong Kong's stock exchange carrying a profit margin thinner than a single cent per ride — and a Robotaxi narrative that analysts say cannot bridge the gap between today's structural vulnerabilities and tomorrow's autonomous-

China’s AI Office War: How Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance Are Squeezing Model Startups

China's AI office productivity sector has entered a decisive consolidation phase, and the collateral damage is falling squarely on the country's most celebrated model startups—DeepSeek, Moonshot AI's Kimi, and Zhipu AI— none of which own a single enterprise workflow entry point. Tencent'

ByteDance Weighs 5T AI Model as Founder Warns Against Distillation Shortcuts

ByteDance is considering training a large language model exceeding 5 trillion parameters, a move that would represent a bold strategic bet to leapfrog domestic rivals in China's increasingly competitive AI race, according to an exclusive report by a leading Chinese tech publication. According to LatePost's report

ChinaBiz Briefing | DeepSeek Reprices AI, CXMT Rebuffs Apple, China Robots Go Global

China's technology sector delivered five high-signal stories on August 6 that collectively point to a single structural shift: the balance of power in critical technology supply chains is being redrawn, and Chinese companies are increasingly setting the terms. From AI pricing to semiconductor supply to humanoid robotics,

Luckin’s 36,000-Store Machine Shows Cracks After Three Quarters of Declines

Luckin Coffee delivered its strongest top-line quarter in two years, yet the numbers beneath the headline tell a more complicated story: a chain growing faster than its own economics can absorb. The Beijing-based coffee giant reported Q2 2026 total net revenue of RMB 15.886 billion (US$2.

DeepSeek Signals Major API Price Reset as Demand Tsunami Forces Monetization Reckoning

China's most disruptive AI lab abandons its ultra-low-cost positioning, with 8 trillion daily tokens and a $6.9 billion fundraising round rewriting the economics of its business model DeepSeek is preparing a sweeping, "significantly large" API price increase—its most aggressive monetization move since

China's Humanoid Robot Industry: From Factory Floor to Global Market

What Is Happening in China's Humanoid Robot Sector? China's humanoid robot industry has crossed a structural threshold. The question is no longer whether these machines can walk, wave, or perform rehearsed demonstrations — it is how many can be manufactured, at what cost, and how far they

Li Auto’s Live Teardown Gamble: Three Months of Sales Declines Expose Cracks in Its EV Strategy

Li Auto is dismantling vehicles on camera to prove its worth — a dramatic signal that China's once-fastest-growing premium EV brand is fighting to reclaim consumer confidence as its sales advantage erodes and its full-year target slips further out of reach. On August 4, 2026, Li

CXMT Rejects Apple's Discount Demand, Signaling a Chip Supply Shift

Apple's attempt to use ChangXin Memory Technology as a price-leverage tool against Samsung and SK Hynix has backfired — the Chinese DRAM maker refused to undercut Korean rivals, exposing how the AI-driven memory supercycle has stripped the iPhone maker of its legendary supply-chain dominance. The rejection,

Meituan's RMB 400M Bet on Unitree Delivers 10x Return as Robot Maker Launches IPO

Meituan's early-stage wager on humanoid robotics is crystallizing into one of China's most lucrative venture positions of 2026, with a RMB 400 million (US$55.6 million) stake in Unitree Robotics now carrying a paper value exceeding RMB 4 billion (US$555.6 million) — and