Fixed asset investment (FAI) – covering everything from roads to rail, ports to bridges, houses to factories – has long been a key pillar of China’s economic growth. But in June, something unexpected happened: China’s fixed asset investment (FAI) fell into the red, declining 0.1% y/y. Since then, FAI’s decline has accelerated, falling a whopping 12.2% by October. This is
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Even as US-China trade dynamics command the global spotlight, Chinese leaders are focused on “doing [their] own work well.” That goes double when it comes to their push toward tech self-sufficiency and AI development. After weeks of dissecting the trade war drama, it’s nice to be able to turn back to analyzing China’s domestic regulatory environment – aka “the Trivium
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The Trump administration is considering blocking US pharma companies from buying Chinese-developed drug candidates. Per the New York Times: “At the heart of the possible clampdown is a drafted executive order that threatens to cut off the pipeline of Chinese-invented experimental treatments.” “The prospect of the order…has set off furious behind-the-scenes lobbying efforts by two diametrically opposed groups — each
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This note was originally published for subscribers of Trivium Tech Daily on August 27. It has been republished here with additional commentary and minor edits. On August 26, the State Council published a high-level directive on implementing the AI Plus policy initiative. The directive is a big deal: It represents China’s most comprehensive blueprint yet for how it plans to
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Download data set (.xlsx) In the early months of 2025, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek caught global observers off guard by releasing a highly advanced large language model (LLM) that matched top-tier Western offerings in both performance and scale. DeepSeek’s sudden and unexpected rise has highlighted a lack of clear understanding of China's generative AI innovation landscape among investors, policymakers, and
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It’s already March, and yet this is my first weekly wrap of the year. Being honest, I’ve tried to dip my toe back in several times – but with things moving so quickly, it’s often felt too daunting to write a step-back piece on any given week of China-related developments. But key moves on the domestic macro-policy and trade war
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