China’s Week, Sunday February 8, 2026
Laser blowout; Microwave weapon hits Starlink; Awful AI test results; 696 million watch micro-dramas daily; Solar + wind > coal in 2025!
Science & Technology
The shortest wavelength solid state laser, 158.9 nm, has the highest output energy in a desktop size, low cost. Performance equals room-sized gas plasma laser systems.
World-first 20GW, compact microwave weapon fires 60-second bursts, disrupts or damages Starlink satellites.
Alibaba Cloud and the IOC unveil AI-powered tools for the Milano Cortina Winter Games, the first LLM to be embedded in the Olympics’ digital infrastructure.
Pan Jianwei’s team demonstrated that device-independent quantum key distribution still works securely even if the devices were flawed or had been tampered with.
Chinese Scientists’ 500-Task Test Exposes AI’s Human Gap: AI Scientist Yao Shunyu tested AI on 500 never-before-seen tasks—even GPT-5.1 failed to solve 99%.
Economy & Trade
Smart equipment sales rose 28% in 2005, automation hardware up 11.3% and digital equipment 10% YoY. Industrial robots rose 17%, specialized service robots up 42%.
High tech, coal fired Beilun Power Station generates 176 GWh of electricity a day, powers 20 million households, 40,000GWh a year.
Record wave of overseas graduates returns to China, up 12% in 2025, 2.25 times the
2018 level, points to a “sustained trend” in domestic opportunities.
281 days until 10 November 2026, when Chinese regulations will cripple international movement of Chinese rare earths.
Chinese universities opening to international students is an existential problem for US universities relying on international students’ full tuition.
China asks SOEs to halt talks over new projects in Panama, reroute cargo through other ports, inspect Panamanian imports of bananas and coffee.
Russia, China, Discuss Increased Gas Supplies As China Gas Price is One-Third of European Union’s.
German exports to the United States are falling steeply but in 2025, German firms’ investment in China was the highest in four years, up 55% compared to 2024.
3,000 micro-dramas/mo., employing 690,000 people, watched by 696 million subscribers, 60% of China’s internet population. Average daily usage: 1.5–2 hours.
Society & Environment
Farmers in Hunan are opting out of health insurance as premiums rise and coverage falls short.
Hidden Car Door Handles Are Officially Banned.
Xi Jinping urges breakthroughs in ‘industries of the future, emphasized fiscal/tax support, sci-tech finance, talent attraction, and innovation for emerging sectors.
Milestone: solar + wind > coal in 2025. Of 3,890 GW capacity, solar (1,200 GW) and wind (640 GW) exceeded coal use, drove 90% of investment and 50% of GDP growth.
Record EV export growth and clean tech dominance. 2025 EV exports hit $69.6 billion (up 43%), 2.6 million units. China tightens grip on global clean tech markets.Clean energy delivered 37% of all Chinese GDP growth in 2025. This sector went from economic sideshow to the single largest growth engine in three years.
China spent $818 billion on energy transition in 2024, or 4.4% of GDP, vs. $338 billion, or 1.2% spent by the USA.
90% of new investment in China in 2025 went to clean energy. EVs, batteries, and solar generated two-thirds of the sector’s value and over half of all clean tech investment. China holds 75% of global clean energy patents, up from 5% in 2000.
Governance
Maternity Allowance Now Paid Directly, Nationwide so benefits reach mothers directly. Streamlined application procedures shortened processing time to 10 days.
Shanghai advances ‘Oriental IC Port’ and fourth-gen semiconductors. Roadmap includes brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and next-gen compound semiconductors for chip/materials innovation.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether and other virtual currencies were not legal tender and could not be used as currency in the market. Issuing “stablecoins pegged to the renminbi overseas” without regulatory approval is prohibited.
Defense
A smart, ultra-small hypersonic glide missile can be fired from an 80mm (3.4-inch) anti-aircraft gun at Mach 6 and strike fighters 20km (12 miles) away.