Day: April 21, 2025

The number of newly established private companies in China grew by 7.1 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier, in what is being seen as a sign of resilience as the private sector bears the brunt of the fallout from the US-China trade war. Advertisement Nearly 1.98 million private firms were registered in the first three months of the year – a growth pace higher than the average in the past three years, China’s top market regulator announced on Monday. This reflects the “strong resilience” of China’s…

Chinese and French scientists have developed an extremely detailed blueprint of the crab-eating macaque’s claustrum, an elusive brain region believed to play a role in consciousness. Advertisement The detailed map of connections between nerve cells in the macaque claustrum and the rest of the brain could help us understand how this region and its different cell types play a role in cognitive functions, such as memory integration and abstract thinking. The team also revealed significant differences in the structure and cell types of macaque and rodent claustrums, which could provide…

US trade officials finalised tariff levels on solar cells and panels from Southeast Asia, a key step towards wrapping up a year-old trade case brought by American manufacturers that accuse their overseas rivals of flooding the market with unfairly cheap goods. Advertisement The decision comes after the Commerce Department last year imposed preliminary anti-dumping and anti-subsidy countervailing duties on solar equipment from Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. The case was brought by Korea’s Hanwha Qcells, Arizona-based First Solar Inc, and several smaller producers seeking to protect billions of dollars in…

Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics has opened a new factory in Hangzhou as it races to meet soaring demand amid China’s craze for the human-shaped machines. Advertisement The factory, launched earlier this year, spans over 10,000 square metres, and it is expected to support the company’s expansion over the next three to five years, according to the company. “We won’t expand production blindly,” Unitree’s marketing director Huang Jiawei told the South China Morning Post in a recent interview. “Instead, we’ll enhance capacity by increasing working hours and efficiency.” The…

An organisation representing China’s biggest carmakers has urged its members to enhance driving safety and avoid exaggerating the capabilities of their self-navigating systems, following a fatal crash involving Xiaomi’s SU7 electric vehicle (EV) last month. Advertisement Carmakers should improve product safety designs and develop effective warning systems to alert drivers, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on Monday in a joint statement with the China Society of Automotive Engineers. The groups outlined several initiatives to guide carmakers in standardising the promotion and application of driver-assistance systems. The country’s…

As the United States continues to tighten restrictions on chip exports to China in a bid to curb the country’s access to advanced semiconductors, Chinese researchers have gone into overdrive. Advertisement In recent years, Chinese universities have been leading the world in research on chip design and fabrication. And they are producing much of the basic research that could influence next-generation semiconductor technology – and position China ahead of the pack. From 2018 to 2023, nine of the top 10 biggest producers of English-language research on chips were Chinese institutions,…