Day: April 22, 2026

Alibaba Group Holding has struck its first external partnership for its flagship consumer artificial intelligence app, linking it with China Eastern Airlines in a move that pushes its agentic capabilities beyond the company’s own ecosystem and into real-world services. The company said the fresh collaboration allowed users of the Qwen app to manage the full flight booking process – from search and ticket purchase to seat selection and check-in – within a single natural-language chat interface. It also acted as a proactive intelligent companion, anticipating user needs and suggesting options,…

Shortly after the doors opened each day at the ongoing Canton Fair, every corner of the robotics and drone halls quickly filled to capacity, while the new energy pavilion remained densely packed with overseas buyers. Foreign buyers moved slowly between booths, live streaming their encounters with new tech products to social media, queuing to try out the latest devices and in some cases, purchasing samples on the spot at the event, which started last Wednesday. Advertisement The scenes reflect a broader shift for China’s largest trade exhibition, where the nation’s…

China has reported a staggering amount of domestic artificial intelligence power, pointing to what some experts say could be a “dark pool” of compute thousands of times larger than its public reports suggest. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China has achieved 1,882 exaflops – short for exa floating-point operations per second – which translates to 1,882 quintillion, or billion billion, calculations per second. The figure is more than 6,000 times higher than the country’s computing power as reflected in the Top500 list, one of the…

All eyes are on the Strait of Hormuz as the world waits for a new round of US-Iran peace deal talks to ease the global energy crisis, while the extended ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump remains up in the air. These are the main takeaways from what happened overnight. Peace talks? It remains unclear when the two sides will return to the negotiating table. Advertisement Trump on Wednesday said there was “no time frame” for when the war on Iran might come to an end. During an interview…

The US visa system rolls out the “red carpet” for spies and aids China’s alleged efforts to steal American innovation, senators charged at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, as Washington and Beijing intensify competition for dominance in artificial intelligence and advanced technologies. Through its permissive legal channels, the US is “inviting, welcoming, come on in with the red carpet rolled out” people who steal military and commercial secrets, Republican Senator Ashley Moody of Florida told the Senate Judiciary Committee, adding that it keeps “her up at night.” “We’re doing this…

Few people have heard of Huangyan, a booming industrial district of Taizhou, a city in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. Yet without it, many cars would likely be heavier, more expensive and less energy efficient, while everyday household goods would probably cost more. The town specialises in plastic components and moulding equipment – unassuming products that rarely make the news, but sit at the heart of modern manufacturing. For years, Huangyan’s producers have dominated this supply chain, leaving households and multinationals reliant on them. Advertisement In a world awash with plastic,…

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sought to quell fears in Senate testimony on Wednesday that American technology was aiding China’s military, but drew scepticism given the US president’s willingness to sell advanced semiconductors. Lutnick asserted before the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee that US President Donald Trump was striking a “delicate balance” on the technology transfer issue given his cordial personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, claiming that China has not bought any advanced chips “as of today”. “There is a delicate balance in the relationship with China. President Trump…

The United States is concerned that several African countries revoked overflight clearances for Taiwan’s leader at China’s behest, the US State Department said on Wednesday, calling the incident an abuse of the international civil aviation system. Taiwan this week said the Seychelles, Mauritius ‌and Madagascar unilaterally revoked flight permits for leader William Lai Ching-te’s aircraft to cross airspace they manage on a planned trip to eSwatini, one of Taiwan’s allies. It is the first instance of a Taiwanese leader having to cancel an entire foreign trip due to denial of…