China's Week, 22 March: 8% Growth This Year? Is Lin Yifu's Vision Becoming Reality?
Chip exports up 70% • Tiny BCI approved • 600MW compressed air storage • First commercial SMR connects to grid • EV truck dominance scares Europe • Iran oil shock accelerates China's renewables sector
China’s on Track for 8% GDP Growth This Year. Why?
The world’s leading developmental economist1, Justin Lin Yifu: “From now until 2035, China should still have 8% growth potential. Even in the face of significant changes that occur once in a century, such as competition with the United States and global warming, I believe that before 2035, we still have 8% growth potential and can achieve an annual growth rate of 5-6%.”
China’s electricity consumption surged 6.1% this year to 1.7 TkWh, which extrapolates to 6.2% GDP growth, far surpassing the official 4.5-5% guidance (these are not goals, btw). Iran oil shock has already accelerated the shift: Global demand for renewables and EVs are surging, permanently reducing global demand for imported oil. China—leading in EVs, batteries, solar, wind, SMRs, storage—will see factories add extra shifts to meet orders, boosting GDP by another 0.9% through higher utilization, jobs, and multipliers. Result: 7.1%+ locked in, with path to 8% as de-oiling intensifies. As is so often the case, the United States of America created this opportunity.
China Tech Breakthroughs: AI, BCI, Moon Discoveries & More
Coin-size Implantable Brain Computer Interface (BCI) gets world-first approval for quadriplegics with cervical spinal cord injuries unable to grasp with their fingers.
Chinese AI developers are racing along axes of progress the USA ignores: efficiency, adoption, and physical integration.
China’s vast manufacturing sector upgrading with AI. Xi says, “Just do it!”.
600 MW/2.4 GWh compressed air storage is world’s largest; 4 hours of continuous power at full output, compresses air into underground caverns.
Mini-fridge built with new rare earth alloy close to absolute zero.
China spots ‘something odd’ on Moon’s far side: tiny carbon nanotubes with walls one atom thick in Moon rock samples.
First commercial SMR to be connected to the power grid this year. It will be the world’s first small modular reactor, a long-anticipated technology.
China Economy Surges: Chip Exports up 70%, Fertilizer Limits, REE Dominance Grows
All Panama-registered ships docking in China get long, multiple, strict inspections. Soon, ships will deregister from Panama, another revenue loss for Panama.
China is the world’s largest fertilizer producer: 57 MT in 2026. But China has dramatically limited outbound shipments to give domestic farmers access.
REE global exports up 8.2% YoY, USA shipments down 23%. Germany, South Korea, the U.S., Vietnam and France were top magnet export destinations.
China’s GDP will grow 6.2% this year, based on 6.1% electricity consumption growth YTD. Demand for renewable energy products may push it higher.
China’s AI LLM weekly usage surpasses global leaders: MiniMax M2.5 remains at the top.
China’s chip (IC) exports up 70% to $42 billion in January–February 2026, while export volume rose 13.7% to 52 billion units.
Robots can entertain audiences at a price organizers will pay, but need a human behind every machine because robots cannot yet do much else.
‘Europe’s EV Trucking Industry Is Scared As Hell’. Zero-emission trucks a 30% of all heavy-duty commercial vehicle sales in China compared to Europe’s 4.2%.
China’s Green Transition: Recycling Wind/Solar, Courageous Reporting, Talent Moves
Longyuan can process and recycle 10,000 tonnes of retired wind and solar equipment annually .
Reading China through its most courageous reporting on domestic violence, Covid memory, thallium pollution, rural pensions, and the criminal justice system.
‘Things I do not like drove me to quit US for Hong Kong,’ says top mathematician Ngo Bao Chau. Fields Medalist has had enough.
China Governance & Policy Insights: PLA Modernization, Why Apple Cut Fees, Nuclear 110 GW Target
The US is making war on Iran to cut off Middle East oil reaching China, so that it can attack its ultimate rival, a weakened China. This is not a conspiracy. It’s US Government public policy:
The PLA modernized at the fastest rate in modern history— across all branches, weapons platforms and systems.
Apple cuts China App Store fees after government pressure. Apple reduced its China App Store fees from 30% to 25% for standard in-app purchases.
US privately issued, dollar-pegged, stablecoins will pay interest. China’s e-CNY bears interest, but it’s a sovereign Central Bank Digital Currency.
When a Chinese legislator’s proposal marked “priority”: policy execution, inter-agency friction, and the function of the country’s top legislature, the NPC.
There Is No “Consumption-Driven” Growth Model; Infrastructure Investment Is Far From Saturated. Growth is misdiagnosed. Fiscal caution holds back the economy.
Power With Ambitious Growth Target - Bloomberg.com
China’s goal: 110 GW of nuclear capacity by 2030, a 76% jump, and enough to supply 313,000,000 Chinese homes.
The pivot: how China turbocharged its industrial policy and remade the global economy: titans of Chinese economics, Justin Lin Yifu and Zhang Weiying, clash.
China Geopolitics Update: Iran Oil Shock, Trump-Xi Summit Risks, End of Oil Age
The Zagros–Hindu Kush–Himalaya chain links the Iranian Plateau to China’s western frontier, making Iran the outermost shield of China’s western security: Iranian Plateau states, not India, historically absorbed and blunted west-to-east pressure from outside powers before it could reach China’s western approaches. Afghan resistance and the Himalayan barrier are proof that even British India could not effectively project land power into China’s western frontier. India, lying outside this highland barrier and dominated by lower terrain, is more vulnerable to invasion and less strategically consequential for China’s security. Today, the Iranian Plateau states are resisting and wearing down “NATO’s eastward expansion” (北约东扩), giving them greater strategic value for China than India.
Marco Rubio: Trump will “unleash Chiang”. Pres. Eisenhower ‘unleashed’ Chiang to harass Chinese shipping to pressure Beijing into ending the war.
Donald Trump said he could delay his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping if Beijing doesn’t help unblock the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump's counselor Peter Navarro said confronting Iran would eliminate a 'terror premium' baked into oil prices in a March 12 Wall Street Journal op-ed.
Brazilian radio telescope coordinator refutes US allegations of military ties to China.
Middle East War marks end of oil age. China’s EVs, batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, reactors, electric motors, UHV power lines – will quickly replace oil exporting countries as the world’s most important supplier of energy security.
China’s advances in electrification put every barrel of oil under market assault. Global initiatives to diversify transportation away from oil will intensify the urgency.
China Defense Advances: Naval Drones, Anti-Drone Patents, Iran as Western Shield
Previously unseen autonomous helicopter aboard a Type 075 amphibious warship, signaling an expansion of China’s naval drone operations.
AI significantly enhances radar systems ability to detect and identify low-altitude drones.
China leads the world in patent applications for anti-drone technology, which rose 27% last year, with China submitting 82 compared with 22 from the US.
How can the US launch its planned 2027 attack on China? Of 600 Tomahawk cruise missiles few remain. The 1000 JASSM missiles expended is one-third of the total JASSM inventory – in 3 three weeks.
Former World Bank chief economist, Dean of Peking University’s Institute of New Structural Economics.