Boeing confirmed to the Global Times on Wednesday that it has restarted deliveries of the 737 MAX to Chinese airlines, marking progress for the model in China after some setbacks.
The move came after a roughly two-month pause imposed by Chinese aviation regulators to review additional information about batteries used in cockpit voice recorders in Boeing's planes, reported Bloomberg.
It is a "natural move" after Chinese authorities finished the review of the aircraft's equipment, Qi Qi, a Chinese civil aviation expert, told the Global Times. For domestic airlines, accepting the aircraft is conducive to current fleet size's renewal and it can ease the shortage of narrow-body aircraft capacity in the medium and long term.
Deliveries of Boeing passenger aircraft to China have been intermittent since China suspended most orders and deliveries in 2019 following two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX in other countries.
In January of this year, one Boeing 737 MAX flying from Seattle arrived at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in South China's Guangdong Province, which was regarded as the ending of the nearly five-year freeze.
However, in May, Bloomberg reported that Boeing had stopped delivering airplanes to customers in China, due to requests by the Civil Aviation Administration of China for additional information related to batteries used in cockpit voice recorders.
Market analysts noted that the restart of 737 MAX deliveries to China will boost market confidence for Boeing, which is mired in a deep safety crisis and financial difficulties.
It is a "boost " for Boeing, for the redelivery of this model in important global markets will help boost its performance in the capital market, Qi said.
Boeing has been in the spotlight since earlier this year, when a door blew out during a flight overseas. The company has faced supply chain difficulties and slow assembly issues.
Its total first-half orders stood at 156, down 70 percent year-on-year. Boeing's shares are down 28.5 percent this year.
The latest progress in the China's market has been regarded as a glimmer of good news for the company.
Boeing on Tuesday updated its market outlook, raising estimated demand for civilian aircraft in the next 20 years from 42,595 in 2023 to nearly 44,000, and China will lead all markets, being the largest single country market.
Boeing China President Liu Qing told the media in May that Boeing had begun to resume deliveries of new aircraft to Chinese carriers, including the 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner, and said that recent "progress is very good and very smooth."
The move came amid a visit by a delegation of the board of directors of the US-China Business Council, which included executives from the council and some US firms like Boeing. The three-day trip to Beijing ended on Tuesday.
"We appreciate the opportunity to engage with Chinese leaders to promote commercial relations and advocate our priorities for the benefit of our companies and employees," the council's board chair and FedEx Corp President Raj Subramaniam was quoted as saying in a press release. "We support the two governments' efforts to regularly discuss and seek to manage bilateral and global challenges."
China on Monday cut the market-based benchmark lending rate and a key short-term rate in a bid to bolster the real economy.
The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) came in at 3.35 percent Monday, down from the previous reading of 3.45 percent, according to the National Interbank Funding Center.
The over-five-year LPR, on which many lenders base their mortgage rates, was lowered by 10 basis points to 3.85 percent.
In addition, the People's Bank of China (PBC), the central bank, on Monday lowered the interest rate on seven-day reverse repos from 1.8 percent to 1.7 percent.
The move aims to strengthen counter-cyclical adjustments to better support the real economy, the PBC said in an online statement.
A reverse repo is a process in which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.
The central bank's move came as the just concluded third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China stressed that China must remain firmly committed to accomplishing this year's economic and social development goals.
Experts expressed confidence that China remains able to achieve its annual GDP growth target of around 5 percent in 2024.
After China reported 5 percent GDP growth for the first half of 2024, some international organizations and multinational banks such as IMF and Singapore-based DBS maintained their forecast for China's economic growth this year, underscoring that global confidence in stable growth in China's economy has remained unchanged.
The Group of Seven (G7) appears to be using so-called economic coercion accusations to put pressure on China, but this strategy only exposes its own hypocrisy and double standards. The fact that the bloc itself is the real one engaging in economic coercion is evident in its own statement.
G7 trade ministers said in a statement on Wednesday that they would use their "trade tools" if needed to "tackle non-market policies and practices, as well as harmful non-market excess capacity and other market distortions resulting from them," Reuters reported.
Reading this statement makes us shudder at the thought of returning to the days of imperial colonial plunder.
The statement makes no mention of China, but it's clear to everyone that China is the target. It is also clear to all who is really distorting the market and weaponizing economic issues.
In the statement, the G7 trade ministers called on countries to refrain from using economic coercion, and they condemned any attempt to weaponize economic dependencies. Nevertheless, this call has been seen as ironic by many, because some G7 member countries are precisely engaging in economic coercion and political blackmail by politicizing economic issues and disrupting normal economic and trade relations.
They remain "committed to effectively using our trade tools, and, as appropriate, develop new tools," according to the statement.
Considering their actions, the double standards and hypocritical rhetoric of G7 member countries will only serve to highlight their true nature as thieves crying "catch the thief," as they are the ones that are actually using economic issues as weapons to maintain their dominant positions in the global economy and further their own political and economic interests.
If G7 member countries are truly committed to maintaining the fairness and transparency of international trade, how can they not see the US abusing its economic hegemony to pressure other countries through trade sanctions, tariff barriers, high-tech sanctions and other means to force them to accept its political and economic blackmail?
Examples of the G7's use of economic coercion can be easily found in its imposition of sanctions on other countries in the past.
For example, Washington's crackdown against the cotton industry of China's Xinjiang region on the grounds of so-called "forced labor" not only constitutes unwarranted interference in China's internal affairs, but is also a politically motivated tactic aimed at exerting economic pressure. Through imposing restrictions on the import of Xinjiang cotton, the US is actively seeking to undermine China's standing in the global supply chain, a move that flagrantly disregards the principles of free trade.
Last week, under a preliminary agreement driven by "security considerations," the German government and telecom carriers in the country agreed in principle on steps to take out components made by Chinese companies from the nation's 5G wireless network over the next five years. This overstretching of the security concept in normal business operations harms Chinese companies' legitimate rights and damages mutual trust between China and Germany.
Last month, Japan unveiled trade restrictions against firms in China, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan over alleged support for Russia.
These unreasonable sanctions and government decisions are actually typical examples of politicizing economic issues, which have far-reaching negative effects on global economic and trade stability.
While upholding the banner of free trade, the G7 countries take disruptive actions toward global supply chains for political reasons, heightening market uncertainty.
The G7 countries' trade protectionism and economic sanctions against China indirectly affect developing nations and emerging markets, which heavily rely on the China market for exports and development opportunities. China is an integral player in the global economy, and its growth benefits itself and also drives worldwide economic progress.
In this sense, the G7's attempt to pressure China over its political agenda undermines global supply chains and the global trading system, while jeopardizing the stability and progress of the global economic recovery.
Several Chinese leading telecom operators have significantly increased the volume of Chinese-made CPUs in their centralized procurement lists, reflecting increased support for the domestic industry.
China Telecom said it plans to purchase 156,000 servers in total, of which the ''G series'' servers would total 105,300 units, accounting for 67.5 percent of the procurement, according to news outlet guancha.cn on Thursday.
Market watchers said the ''G series'' refers to servers specifically equipped with domestic CPUs.
In comparison, four years ago, China Telecom listed domestic CPU servers for procurement for the first time, with domestic CPU servers accounting for only 19.9 percent, while Intel CPUs accounted for as high as 79.4 percent.
China Mobile is also stepping up its support for domestically made chips.
The document showed that China Mobile published 10 ''G-series'' projects out of 13 server procurement tenders.
In 2020, Chinese-made CPUs accounted for about 21 percent of the company's PC server procurement, with today's ratio closer to 43.5 percent,
China Unicom has also seen surging demand for Chinese-made chips since 2020, particularly in Chinese CPUs like Kunpeng 920, Hygon 7165, and Hygon 7185.
Chinese experts contributed the rise of domestically made chips to the diversified development of domestic CPUs, such as in the latest round of centralized procurement by China Telecom, there are not only X86 architectures from foreign manufacturers but also domestic CPU architectures such as ARM, C86, LoongArch, Yongfeng, and SW.
"Chinese-made CPU chips have seen big improvements in the performance and cost-effectiveness, which meet the need of telecom operators," Chen Jing, a vice president of the Technology and Strategy Research Institute, told the Global Times on Thursday.
However, Chinese experts said that centralized procurement does not mean that they are closing the door on foreign players. As long as the products of foreign chip giants such as Intel, AMD and Nvidia meet relevant requirements, they will also have the opportunity to win any bid, they said.
When chairing a symposium on foreign investment work, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng called for action to further attract and utilize foreign investment, according to Xinhua News Agency report on July 1.
He urged the further relaxation of market access and turning the country's advantages of an ultra-large market into real advantages in attracting capital.
The vice premier said efforts should be made to continue building a market-oriented, law-based and international business environment, support domestic and foreign enterprises on an equal basis to participate in large-scale equipment upgrading, government procurement and bidding, and smooth channels for foreign enterprises to reflect and resolve their demands, while promptly responding to foreign enterprises' concerns, Xinhua said.
For some time, a few foreign media outlets have been seizing upon the development that individual foreign financial institutions are adjusting their business in China to trumpet the narrative of "foreign financial institutions leaving China." It is important to note that the presence of foreign financial institutions is dynamic in China, some entities entering and others exiting this market.
China's continuous commitment to accelerating high-quality opening-up of its financial sector will increasingly earn recognition from a flurry of foreign financial institutions.
Some foreign financial institutions are relocating business from China due to their global strategic adjustments and the change of their localization strategies.
If foreign financial institutions cannot timely and reasonably arrange their business operations, they may face operational issues. For example, one of the main reasons for the US fund company Vanguard Group to exit from China is the neglect of its localization strategy.
In fact, with the acceleration of China's financial industry opening-up, the scale of business for foreign financial institutions in China is rapidly expanding. By the end of 2023, the number of locally incorporated foreign banks in China had reached 41, with 116 branches and 132 representative offices, and their total assets have exceeded 3.8 trillion yuan ($524 billion).
While some foreign financial institutions have made strategic adjustment to their businesses in China, more foreign financial institutions have chosen to accelerate their expansion in this market. Since 2024, quite a few foreign institutions have applied to enter the Chinese market or establish new institutions.
China continues to expand the breadth and depth of financial opening, enhancing the confidence of foreign financial institutions. At last year's Central Financial Work Conference, it was proposed to steadily expand institutional opening-up in the financial sector and facilitate cross-border investment and financing, so as to attract more foreign financial institutions and long-term capital to invest and operate in China.
Also, the General Office of the State Council in March issued an action plan to steadily promote high-level opening-up and make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment.
In addition to lifting the restrictions on the proportion of foreign ownership in financial institutions, China has also significantly lowered the threshold for market access of foreign investment, further promoting high-quality financial sector opening-up.
The trend of foreign financial institutions coming to China to expand their business shows that in the future, the main focus of foreign financial institutions in China's new business platform will be to provide more comprehensive financial services to global clients.
With the high-quality development of the Chinese economy and the accumulation of Chinese residents' wealth, the demand from Chinese investors for global asset allocation continues to grow. This is a huge market that any financial institution cannot ignore.
More importantly, China's financial opening-up is rapidly gaining pace, aided by the ever-improving financial technology. China's ability to attract global financial resources is also improving. Foreign financial institutions in China are able to provide more comprehensive and efficient financial services for global investors.
China will continue to promote high-quality opening-up of its financial sector, continuously optimizing the business environment for foreign financial institutions, and sharing development opportunities with foreign institutions and global investors. The opportunities in China are just abundant.
Conditions have now been satisfied for Rio Tinto to invest in the development of the Simandou high-grade ore deposit in Guinea, including the completion of the necessary regulatory approvals from both the Guinean and Chinese sides, the Anglo-Australian mining company said in a press release on Tuesday, marking another step toward production at the world's largest undeveloped iron ore mine.
The project is seen as strategically crucial for industry players, particularly Chinese companies, as it will enable China to diversify its supply sources instead of overly depending on any single iron ore supplier. It will also help to enhance China's industrial bargaining power on the global stage, which currently remains weak despite its significant role as a key buyer in the global market.
Following the recent approval by the board of Simfer – with Aluminum Corp of China and Rio Tinto Group being the joint shareholders – Simfer can now invest in and fund its share of co-developed rail and port infrastructure in partnership with Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS), which is backed by Singaporean and Chinese companies, as well as with China Baowu Group (Baowu) and the Guinean government, according to the company.
More than 600 kilometers of new multi-use trans-Guinean railway together with port facilities will allow the export of up to 120 million tons per year of mined iron ore by Simfer and WCS from their respective Simandou mining concessions in the southeast of the country, Rio Tinto said, noting that together, “this will be the largest greenfield integrated mine and infrastructure investment in Africa.”
Simandou's subsoils contain the world's largest untapped reserves of high-grade iron ore, estimated at over 2 billion tons.
First production from the Simfer mine is expected in 2025, ramping up over 30 months to an annualized capacity of 60 million tons per year, according to Rio Tino.
Simfer's capital funding requirement for the Simandou project as a whole is estimated to be approximately $11.6 billion, of which Rio Tinto's share is approximately $6.2 billion.
The project was temporarily halted by the government of Guinea in July 2022 due to various factors, including infrastructure issues. However, through collaborative efforts from various parties, the Simandou iron ore project resumed in March 2023.
Tuesday’s announcement by Rio Tinto came roughly a month after WCS and Baowu officially completed the equity transfer for the Simandou project, according to the official WeChat account of Winning International Group.
On May 30, the Guinean government approved Baowu's investment in the Simandou iron ore project and issued a presidential decree to that effect.
On June 19, WCS and Baowu completed the establishment of joint venture boards for the mining, railway, and port projects, along with appointing directors and executives and finalizing equity transfers. Baowu also made its initial investment, officially becoming a shareholder in the Simandou project.
"If the discovery seemed like the opening scene of a murder mystery, it is one that Japan prefers to leave unsolved," the New York Times once commented on the startling and frightening discovery in Tokyo in 1989 of more than 100 human skull suspected of being linked to the Imperial Japanese Army's infamous Unit 731.
Thirty-five years have passed, but whence the skulls came from remains a mystery that Japanese authorities still appear reluctant to solve.
But more and more evidence is pointing to Unit 731, which is notorious for engaging in lethal human experimentation and biological weapons manufacturing during the Chinese people's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), a Japanese non-governmental organization established the year after the skulls were found revealed to the Global Times in an exclusive interview.
Dark history
The discovery of the remains can be traced back 35 years. On July 22, 1989, a large number of human bones were discovered at a construction site at the National Institute of Health and Infectious Diseases (now the National Institute of Infectious Diseases) in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. At thet time, the police identified that several of the remains had been buried for over 20 years.
The site where the bones were found was the former location of the Japanese army medical school. After the September 18 Incident that marked the start of Japan's invasion of China in 1931, army doctor Shiro Ishii established a research laboratory within the school's Epidemic Prevention Department. Soon after, the Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department of the Imperial Japanese Army, also known as Unit 731, was established and based in Harbin, Northeast China, which was then called Manchuria, for the development of biological weapons. The Japanese army medical school served as the headquarters of the unit.
As the burial site was located north of the original epidemic prevention laboratory, the Shinjuku district government said that the bones may belong to "the victims of live human experiments conducted by Unit 731 in Manchuria."
Residents of Shinjuku requested that Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare confirm the identities of the deceased, but their request was denied. The ministry then asked Shinjuku to cremate and bury the remains, but Shinjuku refused. Suspicions of medical crimes during wartime arose, prompting Shinjuku to promise an investigation.
In 1991, anthropologist Hajime Sakura, a retired director of the National Science Museum, agreed to examine the bones, revealing evidence of artificial processing and various injuries.
According to investigation and identification released in 1992, traces were discovered of artificial processing such as drilling, sawing, and cutting on multiple skulls, some of which resemble trepanation procedures for neurosurgery or mastoidectomy. Traces of incisions, puncture wounds, and gunshot wounds were also found. Additionally, there were severed limbs bones, some of which appear to have been fixed with formalin, and others that seem to have been dried specimens of exposed bones.
Sakura clearly stated in a press conference that "these bones are related to the war."
However, over the past few decades, Japanese authorities have obstructed all parties from uncovering the truth, or blatantly lied in an attempt to cover up the truth.
New evidence
Now by deciphering the records of recently disclosed military medical school personnel, the Japanese non-government organization - the Association Demanding Investigation of Human Bones Discovered from the Site of the Army Medical College - aims to reveal the connection between the human remains and Unit 731.
"The discovered human bones have long been suspected of being related to Unit 731, and with the disclosure of the new material, those suspicions have only grown stronger," Yasusi Torii, a member of the association, said in an e-email sent to the Global Times last week.
"The new material" Torii refereed to are the testimonies and survey responses of individuals associated with a former Japanese army medical school from 30 years ago but were disclosed by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare just recently.
According to the non-government organization, these records contain firsthand experiences that were not included in the ministry's previous report.
"By deciphering the disclosed records of those affiliated with the Japanese army medical school, we aim to shed light on the relationship between the human remains and Unit 731," the association said in a statement announcing an event on July 20 to mark the 35th anniversary of the discovery of the skulls.
According to the exclusive reply to the Global Times by Kazuyuki Kawamura, representative of the non-government organization, the investigation report from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, quotes one person affiliated with the school as saying, "In the summer of Showa 15 (1940), I remember receiving a formalin-preserved human head in a drum can from Harbin."
However, based on the disclosed material, the actual statement was "In the summer of Showa XX, a formalin-preserved human head in a drum can was delivered from Harbin, and we were forced to participate in the extraction. I remember I was vomiting."
It was revealed that the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare had omitted the respondents' experiences. From this description, it is reasonable to assume that it was sent from Unit 731 in Harbin, Kawamura told the Global Times.
"We plan to present reports like this at the meeting scheduled for July 20," Kawamura noted.
Never give up
Since its founding, the Japanese association has steadfastly dedicated itself to uncovering the truth.
"We are determined to investigate the truth behind the human bones discovered in Shinjuku and, if possible, identify the remains and return them to the families of the deceased," Kawamura said.
In fact, evidence of Unit 731's bacteriological warfare and numerous victims and their families have been discovered in various locations such as the Heilongjiang, Zhejiang, and Hunan provinces in China. If the identities of the remains unearthed in Shinjuku are confirmed, they will serve as concrete evidence of war crimes committed by Japan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Jeremiah Manele and Prime Minister of the Republic of Vanuatu Charlot Salwai in Beijing on Friday.
During the meeting with Manele, Xi said that China is ready to enhance strategic communication with the Solomon Islands to firmly support each other in safeguarding core interests and addressing major concerns, enhance the synergy between the Belt and Road cooperation and the development strategy of the Solomon Islands.
China's friendly cooperation with the Solomon Islands and other Pacific Island countries is a sincere effort to assist these island nations in achieving development, falls within the framework of South-South cooperation, and is part of the common development of the Global South, without targeting any third party or seeking any selfish gain, he said. When meeting with Salwai, Xi said China will continue to provide economic and technical assistance to Vanuatu without attaching any political conditions, to help it achieve development and prosperity.
Xi emphasized that China is committed to equality among all countries, big or small, and adheres to the principle of combining justice with interests while prioritizing justice. China does not seek major-power competition or geopolitical spheres of influence. It does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries or force them to take sides.
The visits of the two leaders from the Pacific Island countries (PICs) not only deepened the relations between China and the two PICs, but also paved the way for enhanced cooperation that will benefit both sides in various aspects, as well as contributing to regional peace and stability. Unlike some Western countries, China's cooperation with the PICs is based on mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, without targeting any third party or attaching any political conditions, analysts said.
The visits of the leaders of the two PICs demonstrate that China's cooperation with them will be more comprehensive, with the goal of enhanced exchanges to promote mutual development and regional stability and prosperity, Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Friday.
"China has been fostering strong and mutually beneficial cooperation relations with the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and China's assistance to the area, including infrastructure, has made a significant contribution to promoting the economic development of these nations," said Yu Lei, a professor at the Department of International Politics and Economics at Shandong University.
Yu noted that in the wake of the pandemic, the PICs are tasked with expediting economic recovery and growth, while also addressing local employment needs and fostering a conducive environment for economic progress by enhancing local infrastructure development, Yu told the Global Times on Friday.
China is a very important provider of infrastructure and public goods in the Pacific Island region, which has been recognized and praised by the PICs, as they hope to promote the development of local infrastructure through mutually beneficial cooperation with China, Yu said.
The relations between China and the PICs serve as a model for building more mutually beneficial relations among the Global South, and the deep-level cooperation and exchanges will be of great significance to safeguarding the sovereignty and development interests of respective countries and achieving more widespread regional prosperity, Li said.
However, some Western countries have been distorting China's relations and the win-win practical cooperation with the PICs. For example, VOA said on Monday that the two prime ministers' visits came as China is "increasingly competing for influence in the region" with Australia, the US and others. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation also reported on July 4 that some are "questioning the motivations behind China's large infrastructure aid projects in the Pacific region."
Chinese experts refuted such claims, emphasizing that China's support for the PICs is based on local needs, and that China consistently upholds the principles of mutual respect and win-win cooperation.
The cooperation between China and the PICs is focused on mutual benefit and not aimed at any third party, Yu said, adding that the PICs also believe in their right to make independent decisions. Given that they hope to learn from China's successful experiences in poverty alleviation, employment enhancement, and improving living standards, the PICs possess a strong desire and expectation to deepen economic cooperation and other areas with China, Yu noted.
Echoing his words, Zhou Fangyin, a professor at the Guangdong Research Institute for International Strategies, told the Global Times that cooperation between China and PICs in terms of economy and infrastructure is universal and comprehensive, and based on mutually beneficial relations. In stark contrast, the approaches of the US are driven by geopolitical competition, often leading to potential interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
China's approach to international cooperation stands out for its respect for the right of PICs to independently choose their partners for cooperation, whereas the US-led West will inevitably face resistance and opposition from the PICs for not respecting their sovereignty as well as their right to choose their own development path, analysts said.
The US youth exchange delegation started their journey in Shanghai after visiting other Chinese cities such as Beijing and Fuzhou. They are participating in various activities, including experiencing the unique culture of each city, to strengthen communication and friendship with locals.
The "Shared Journey of Friendship" US Youth Exchange Delegation consists of around 190 teachers and students from 14 schools in seven states across the US. They have visited Beijing, Shijiazhuang, North China’s Hebei Province, Fuzhou, East China’s Fujian Province, and Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, interacting with local Chinese students, and feeling the modern pulse of the country. They then continued their journey in Shanghai.
On Thursday, some of them visited a high-tech company called VeriSilicon in Pudong New Area of Shanghai to explore high-tech innovations such as VR. In the afternoon, they had interactive activities with Chinese students at the High School affiliated with Fudan University. The welcome ceremony began with a performance of Wind of Provence by the Chinese student brass band, followed by group activities to help everyone get acquainted.
The activities at the Chinese high school included technology experiments, Chinese sports, and fun games. Students from both countries worked together on robotics programs, constructing house models, creating calligraphy works, and making soy milk. They also experienced Chinese martial arts and participated in fun sports.
During an interactive session, some students from China and the US were grouped together to build a model house. They worked together to construct the model and learn from each other's different perspectives and ideas. Kayley Gallagher told the Global Times on Thursday that it was her first time building an architectural structure like this. “I think we really did a great job. I’m very happy with the product we produced. It’s pretty cool,” Gallagher said.
“We want to show our guests from the US the culture of China, and provide them with Chinese hospitality when they visit. We also hope to experience different cultures,” Ma Jingyu, a student from the High School affiliated with Fudan University and also one of the members in the group that built the house model, told the Global Times on Thursday. The theme of this program is building dreams together, and deepening friendship, said Ma. Through the interactive activities, many participants have formed new friendships with each other and exchanged contact information, such as e-mail addresses, to stay in touch and continue building their relationships. Sakina Cotton from the US youth exchange delegation said that they had a lot of fun today and made new Chinese friends here.
After traveling to several cities in China, Cotton said that she has noticed the different cultures that are specific to each city, especially the dialects. "That was interesting, and the types of food that people eat, the pieces of history, and architecture that are still preserved are different. "
US tech firm OpenAI has restricted access to its artificial intelligence (AI) models through its application programming interface (API) service in China since Tuesday.
The Global Times interviewed several Chinese AI developers and users, who generally agreed that the ban was not anticipated to have a significant impact on the domestic industry as OpenAI's products were not officially available in China anyway. In fact, some believed that this restriction will motivate Chinese developers to redouble their efforts to compete in the AI development and application sector.
What implications does this ban have for Chinese AI developers on a more granular level? And what is the actual gap between China and the US in terms of AI development? How should the two AI giants lead the world in AI developing and governance?
The other boot drops
API refers to interface that allows external access, which means that third-party developers can integrate ChatGPT's capabilities into their applications, building their own AI software. In March 2023, OpenAI announced the opening of the API, allowing third-party developers to integrate ChatGPT into their applications and services through an API.
The Global Times perused the OpenAI website on Tuesday and found that the company had published a list of 188 countries and regions where its API service is officially available, excluding the Chinese mainland, China's Hong Kong, or Macao regions.
"Accessing or offering access to our services outside of the countries and territories listed below may result in your account being blocked or suspended," OpenAI said on its website.
According to media reports, there were two main channels for developers to access OpenAI's products in China: By connecting to OpenAI's official API service or by connecting to Microsoft's Azure services.
Azure is reportedly the only legal way to access OpenAI products and services in China. In a report by US-based news portal PYMNTS.com on Monday, a Microsoft spokesperson was quoted as saying that Microsoft will maintain its Azure OpenAI Service offerings in China, and will continue to provide access to eligible customers in the country via models deployed in regions outside of China.
OpenAI's suspension may be a result of several factors, according to analysts.
First, legal compliance must have been taken into account as of June 21, as just a few days before OpenAI made the move, the US Department of the Treasury issued draft rules to ban or require notification of certain investments in AI and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security.
At the same time, China has also been enhancing the implementation of laws and regulations on cybersecurity and data security law. Requirements for cross-border data transmission and processing have been raised, making OpenAI faces more complex compliance procedures and high costs in the Chinese market.
In addition, the need to train GPT-5 and a shortage of computing power may also be part of the reason as some industry insiders told the media that they had been receiving shorter responses from ChatGPT recently.
Meanwhile, the move is also believed to help OpenAI to crack down on companies that "package" OpenAI technology as their own product, driving out companies without core technology and competitive strength from the market.
Chinese industry insiders pointed out that most Chinese companies will suffer little from this time's service suspension. They will either transfer to domestic large models, or purchase OpenAI's services via Microsoft or other providers outside China. In the long run, this move may be good to China's independent development of large models and self-reliance.
Chinese domestic large model developers have been ready to take customers from OpenAI. Companies like Moonshot, Zhipu AI, Baidu, Alibaba, Zero One Wanwu, and other large model manufacturers, took immediate action to release their "relocation plan" for OpenAI API users.
At the exhibition during the World AI Conference (WAIC) held between June 4 and June 7 in Shanghai, the Global Times noted that various large model manufacturers in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong are now providing relocation services
Chinese large model manufacturers are also ready to "go global." A fund manager in Beijing told stcn.com that domestic large model developers are striving to catch up with the US. If these developers have plans to explore overseas markets, they can set up branches in countries and regions where OpenAI is legally available. The true gap
But OpenAI's move did sound an alarm for Chinese large model developers to reflect on the gap between them and their US competitors.
Take generative AI, one of the most widely used and the most widely known field of today's AI development, as an example.
Both the US and China are leaders in the generative AI field. But the US does better in cutting-edge and underlying technology while China has certain advantages in industrial application and service design, Ni Kaomeng, initiator of the China AIGC (AI-generated content) Industrial Alliance, a nationwide civil group of China's AIGC industry insiders, told the Global Times.
Generative AI refers to AI systems that are capable of creating new content, such as images, text, or music, based on patterns and data they have been trained on.
At the just-concluded WAIC, the Global Times saw many Chinese enterprises showcasing their newly developed generative-AI tools, such as various interesting text-to-video applications.
Some leading domestic developers told the Global Times that their products have reached, if not exceeded, the level of Sora, currently the world's most famous cutting-edge text-to-video model by OpenAI.
Kling, for instance, is "the world's first text-to-video model with Sora-level abilities that has been made available to the public," its R&D team from Chinese tech company Kuaishou told the Global Times. "Sora, by contrast, remains inaccessible to ordinary users."
Text-to-video is a super sunrise industry globally. There will be a 100-fold increase in the number of AI-generated videos in two years, predicted Song Donghuan, founder of StoryStorm, one of China's earliest AI-generated video communities.
Song said that some of the AI-generated video software or mobile applications popular in overseas markets, such as PixVerse and NeverEnds, are actually products by Chinese companies, "although many people don't know it."
As for Chinese developers, it is no exaggeration to say that Chinese enterprises "account for half of the overseas AI-generated video market," Ni said.
But still, none of these Chinese products can be as epoch-making as Sora.
Sora allows global developers to see the potential of the diffusion transformers. As a product, it can generate stable long videos with good semantic consistency. Video generative products in China have made great progress this year, but few of them can be compared with Sora in terms of long and stable video generation and semantic understanding, Hong Wenyi, a doctoral student at the School of Software, Tsinghua University, told the Global Times during the WAIC.
Luckily, China's diverse application scenarios provide a good environment for the development of AI technology. AI self-driving technology is another typical example apart from generative AI, as mushrooming domestic automobile companies are cooperating with tech firms to constantly introduce new products to the booming market.
Many Chinese auto brands displayed their recently launched self-driving vehicles at this year's WAIC. Many vehicles are found to have been the results of technological collaboration between China and other countries, particularly the US.
One of the exhibited vehicles is equipped with a Chinese self-developed autonomous driving platform and US processor chips, said the exhibitor. "In today's globalized world, it is quite normal that different parts of tech products come from various countries," he told the Global Times.
Generally, China follows the path of the US in terms of the underlying technology of autonomous driving, but China has a vast market, diverse and complex road conditions, and Chinese developers and enterprises are enthusiastic about the field, an industry insider told the Global Times.
"I'm more optimistic with China's AI self-driving development in the long run," he concluded.
Catch up and cooperate
To catch up with the US, Chinese experts and entrepreneurs call for more investment in basic research and talent cultivation.
During the WAIC, iFLYTEK showcased the latest iFLYTEK Starfire V4.0 large model launched at the end of June. According to company, iFlytek Starfire V4.0 is fully benchmarked against GPT-4 Turbo. However, GPT-4 Turbo was released in November 2023, nearly 9 months ago, not to mention that OpenAI introduced GPT-4o in May, further enhancing the model's capabilities.
"We are confident in quickly benchmarking various sizes of large models in the market. But we must admit the gap while recognizing our own advantages. We need to establish a mechanism for continuous development for national computing power construction and data resource aggregation in order to develop further with a more scientific, rational, and long-term mindset," iFlytek chairman Liu Qingfeng told media during the WAIC.
China must have a universal benchmark large model comparable to the US, otherwise the long-term development potential and core competitiveness of China in the era of general AI will be hindered, Liu noted. "With the support of a universal base large model, vertical industry large models, and small models in various application scenarios can all flourish."
In April, Tsinghua University's School of Artificial Intelligence was officially established with Chinese Turing Award winner Andrew Chi-Chih Yao serving as the first dean.
According to Yao, the goal of the school is to train 100 doctoral students annually in the near future.
"China now lacks top talents in AI frontier innovation research. While there are many good universities in China that can cultivate excellent talents, few of the Chinese doctoral students can be compared with their counterparts in top US universities. This makes China have to import foreign-trained university teachers every year, which is not a sustainable situation. In the future, China must be able to cultivate such talents domestically," Yao noted during the WAIC.
Beyond the gap and competition between the US and China - two leading countries in the field of AI to cooperate - there are seemingly more urgent tasks for the two leaders to cooperate to promote AI governance while facing the risks brought about by booming AI technologies.
Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, said during the conference that the problem lies in an infrastructure gap, with 2.5 billion people worldwide still lacking access to the internet. "These are challenges that require global cooperation to address, as they not only hinder global development but also have a significant impact on global governance," Xue said.
"The governance and development of AI have reached a critical 'crossroads,' especially with the unprecedented challenges brought about by generative AI," Xue said during the conference.
"It is quite challenging to balance competition and cooperation between China and the US. However, I believe it is important to at least consider how to create a safe space for technology professionals and experts to collaborate without fear, and freely discuss and solve technical issues. Without this, many of the things we talk about today would be impossible to achieve," Xue said.
