Geography Archives: China

The following text is based on a talk given by Gary Wilson at the “Deep Seek and the Challenge to U.S. Technological Hegemony” webinar on Feb. 16, hosted by the Friends of Socialist China and the International Manifesto Group.

In a globalized world the innovation ability of a country can be measured by the number of global patents it files.

DeepSeek-R1 is shaking Silicon Valley. Founder Liang Wenfeng: “We’re done following. It’s time to lead.”

China’s GDP growth of 5.0% in 2024 meant it successfully hit its GDP goal of “about 5.0%” for the year. More significantly for China’s strategic economic development, Figure 1 shows that it means its economic growth continues to be ahead of the target discussed at the time of the adoption of the 14th Five Year Plan of doubling GDP between 2020 and 2035.

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company, released an AI model called R1 that is comparable in ability to the best models from companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta, but was trained at a radically lower cost and using less than state-of-the art GPU chips.

The buzz around Xiaohongshu and then DeepSeek has had an unusually high volume of westerners speaking positively about China for the last couple of weeks, which of course means we’re also seeing many westerners falling all over themselves to say “Well actually China is actually quite bad actually” in response.

China’s DeepSeek AI has just dropped a bombshell in the tech world.

China’s technological progress is far more vulnerable to a more “friendly” US. rather than a more “hostile” one.

When the platform came back online, U.S. users were greeted with a message crediting its return to Trump: “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”

On Jan. 17, the Supreme Court launched a sweeping, unanimous assault on the First Amendment.

China alleges that the U.S. approach to Taiwan is guided by “cold war zero sum mentality” which violates its own declared commitments to the “one-China policy” and agreements of non-interference in internal matters.

As China grows and prospers many in the U.S. want us to believe that China will follow the same path that the U.S. itself pursued–global military aggression, the overthrow of numerous governments around the world and persecution of minorities at home. (A repost from February 2023.)

Equipment such as radiators and engines were sent to the Caribbean island to promote energy transition.

Both the U.S. and Philippines have refused to withdraw the U.S. Typhon missile system deployed in April near Chinese borders despite earlier claiming it to be a temporary move.

The sentiment that the West is an unreliable trade partner in now common in Russia. In an interview with GUANCHA.CN, Russian consumer market expert Dmitry Reva noted that Western corps left the Russian market after the war broke out, leaving a vacuum. Following this, China-Russian trade has enhanced, with prospects for deeper cooperation in agriculture, Far East development, and other fields.

The West is accusing China of “overcapacity” to blame it for its own industrial demise.

Next time you travel to Lhasa, be sure to visit the Museum of Modern Art. Climb the often narrow and steep stairs of the White and Red Potala Palace, light a candle made from yak butter in front of one of the thousands of painted Buddhas of the Jokhang. They are to Lhasa what Versailles and Notre Dame are to Paris.

It’s so fitting that just after the 75th anniversary of China’s revolution on Oct. 1, a milestone in China’s efforts to deal with greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) has emerged in the narrative surrounding global warming.

‘Say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy’ if dollar replaced; President-elect Donald Trump warns BRICS.

As outgoing Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin embarks on his twelfth tour of the Indo-Pacific, the U.S.’s New Cold War on China shows no signs of slowing down, even under a second Trump presidency.