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Dora Zhang

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

China's Commercial Space Industry: A Structural Guide to Rockets, Satellites, and Orbital Computing

Based on two research reports published by UBS Securities Asia Limited on June 17, 2026 — “Profiling 11 Commercial Space Companies in China” and “China Commercial Space 101” — these articles examine the accelerating IPO pipeline of China's commercial space sector, the companies positioning for public markets, and the listed

ChinaBiz Briefing | AI Apps Go Paid, EV Makers Build Chips, US Taps China Battery Tech

China's technology and mobility sectors are converging on a single underlying pressure in June 2026: the cost of ambition. AI platforms are burning compute budgets faster than they can build revenue models. EV startups are rewriting their corporate identities around silicon rather than steel. And Detroit's

710 Million Users, One Hard Question: Can China’s AI Apps Turn Scale Into Profit?

China's top four AI native apps—Doubao, Qianwen, DeepSeek, and Yuanbao—collectively logged 710 million monthly active users in May 2026, yet the industry's defining question has shifted from growth to survival economics: at what point does scale become a liability rather than an asset. The

NIO, Xpeng, Li Auto Abandon Auto Identity to Claim Next Computing Platform

China's three leading EV startups have collectively crossed a strategic Rubicon: their self-developed AI chips are no longer automotive components — they are bids for dominance over the next generation of physical-world computing infrastructure. The inflection point arrived June 15, 2026, when Li Auto unveiled the Mach

Detroit Giants Pivot to Energy Storage, With CATL's Technology Blueprint in Hand

Ford Motor bets on licensed Chinese battery IP while General Motors charts a China-free path — two divergent strategies converging on the same trillion-dollar market. The race to power America's artificial intelligence data centers is pulling Detroit's automakers into an unexpected arena: grid-scale energy

Alipay's AI Pivot Confronts a Deeper Organizational Reckoning

The technology direction may be sound, but Ant Group faces a more formidable challenge than training any language model: dismantling a decade of institutional inertia that has repeatedly sabotaged strategically coherent pivots. In mid-June 2026, a select cohort of invited users began testing a radically redesigned version of Alipay,

China's Payment Giants Race to Own the AI Agent Transaction Layer

China's three largest digital payment ecosystems launched competing AI-native payment frameworks within a single week, signaling a structural shift in how the country's RMB 300 trillion-plus annual payment volume could be routed and monetized in the agent-driven internet era. Ant, UnionPay and JD.

Huawei’s AITO Diversifies Battery Supply Chain, Challenging CATL’s Dominance

Huawei's electric vehicle brand is undertaking a significant supply chain restructuring, broadening its battery sourcing beyond its long-standing exclusive reliance on Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) as it faces mounting cost pressures and slowing sales growth, according to an exclusive report by Chinese tech media outlet 36Kr. According

Leapmotor Breaks EV Delivery Record With 81,569 Units, But the Hard Part Begins

Leapmotor posted 81,569 vehicle deliveries in May 2026 — the highest single-month figure ever recorded by a Chinese new-energy vehicle startup — a milestone that simultaneously validates its value-segment playbook and raises a more consequential question: whether volume alone can construct a durable competitive moat. The number lands

ChinaBiz Briefing | DeepSeek’s Megaround, Li Auto’s Silicon, and Alibaba’s Robot OS

Today’s developments highlight a decisive shift in China’s tech ecosystem toward infrastructural sovereignty and vertical integration. From DeepSeek’s massive capital raise to Li Auto’s in-house silicon and Alibaba’s push to standardize robotics, Chinese firms are moving aggressively to lock down foundational technology layers. Meanwhile,