Quiz: What’s driving EV owners mad?

11 December 2025 at 06:00

One in five new cars sold globally is now electric. So what’s it actually like to own one? Are EV drivers constantly hunting for chargers and sweating over battery percentages,...

China is setting the pace in the EV race, and the West can’t keep up

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

19 November 2025 at 06:00

While the West deliberates, China accelerates. In the year leading up to October 2025, three bestselling Chinese electric-vehicle brands — BYD, Wuling, and Geely — received approvals for 83 new...

China wants electric cars to feed power back to the grid

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

12 November 2025 at 06:00

The world’s largest electric-vehicle maker is betting on a technology that has failed to take off in tens of other countries over the past decade. The Chinese government is rolling...

China’s most infamous ghost town is now training ground for driverless trucks

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

3 October 2025 at 05:00

A Chinese city that failed to attract people has become a sandbox for machines. Ordos, a coal-rich northern Chinese city that never took off after prices crashed in 2012, has...

TO GO WITH AFP STORY 'China-economy-society-property,FEATURE' by Allison JacksonA driver approaches an intersection in Kangbashi, a district on the outskirts of Ordos, in China's Inner Mongolia on April 20, 2011. Kangbashi district offers residents "new modern" living, with tree-lined streets, shiny apartment buildings, vast parklands, restaurants and even a motor racing track. But seven years after construction workers broke ground on the arid plateau, most of the apartments appear empty and the wide streets are almost deserted -- earning Kangbashi the tag of "ghost city". AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

The cold truth about EVs: Freezing weather slashes battery mileage

Rest of World

By: Arsalan Bukhari and Kinling Lo

11 September 2025 at 05:00

Bashir Ahmad sold his wife’s gold jewelry to buy an electric three-wheeler that would revolutionize his apple business in Kashmir. Until winter arrived and killed it. On a freezing morning,...

A boy pushes an e-rickshaw in a snowbound area of Rafiabad, Jammu and Kashmir, India, on January 19, 2025. (Photo by Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Chinese EV makers are cashing in on Western luxury knockoffs

Rest of World

By: Ananya Bhattacharya and Kinling Lo

28 August 2025 at 05:00

Chinese automakers are imitating not to flatter but to profit. Companies such as Chery, Xiaomi, and Zeekr appear to be drawing heavily from premium Western car designs, banking on familiar...

China falls back on gasoline to drive its global EV conquest

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

14 August 2025 at 05:00

China’s electric-vehicle revolution just engaged reverse gear. The world’s largest EV producer is flooding international markets with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that run both on batteries and gasoline. Chinese hybrid...

Struggling Chinese EV brands go global to flee brutal price war at home

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

11 July 2025 at 05:00

Once a rising star among China’s electric vehicle startups, Neta Auto is facing backlash in its largest overseas market as its parent company enters bankruptcy restructuring — fueling concerns that...

A Neta EV drives through Bangkok, December 2, 2024.

Silicon Valley led the quest for driverless cars. But Chinese robotaxis are catching up fast

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

9 June 2025 at 05:00

Chinese and American companies have long led the costly endeavor of developing autonomous ride-hailing services. Now, robotaxi firms are taking the competition global. The Alphabet-owned Waymo, which launched the world’s...

A “safety driver” sits in Baidu’s Apollo robotaxi at the Apollo Park in Beijing, China.

China is gaining ground in the global race to develop AI agents

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

2 June 2025 at 05:00

Chinese companies are gaining ground in the global race to develop the next generation of artificial intelligence — not just chatbots, but autonomous agents designed to handle complex tasks with...

Chinese startups once downplayed their origin. Now some celebrate it.

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

15 May 2025 at 05:00

As Jessy Wu prepared to launch her Beijing-based artificial intelligence startup overseas last year, she grappled with a question familiar to many Chinese tech founders: Should her company hide its...

The trade war is delaying the future of humanoid robot workers

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

8 May 2025 at 05:00

As viral clips of robots doing flips, kung-fu, and running a marathon rack up views online, U.S. and Chinese firms are locked in a more high-stakes race: deploying humanoid robots...

An employee works on a desk near displays of humanoid robot parts, at the office of developer Ex-Robots in Dalian, Liaoning province, China June 6, 2024. REUTERS/Florence Lo

China’s chipmakers are catching up to Nvidia and TSMC. Here’s how they compare

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

28 April 2025 at 05:00

Washington’s latest export restrictions on Nvidia’s H20 chips are likely to accelerate China’s shift toward domestic alternatives, as homegrown firms strive to close the gap with global rivals. Years of...

Processor Unit, Chip War. The Chip Crisis, The World's Big Problem. China Flag.

DeepSeek and chip bans have supercharged AI innovation in China

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo and Tiffany Ap

14 April 2025 at 05:00

The rise of DeepSeek has reenergized China’s artificial intelligence industry, drawing billions of dollars in state funding and a bigger push toward self-sufficiency. Its success has also sparked a race...

China’s AI frenzy: DeepSeek is already everywhere — cars, phones, even hospitals

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

13 March 2025 at 12:33

Since DeepSeek’s launch, a swathe of Chinese companies — from automakers to appliance firms — have joined the frenzy to incorporate the homegrown artificial intelligence model into their products and...

The offices of DeepSeek in Beijing, 2025.

How a Chinese giant is disrupting Saudi Arabia’s food delivery

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo

10 March 2025 at 05:00

Keeta, the international arm of China’s biggest food delivery app, Meituan, has become the third-largest food delivery platform in Saudi Arabia just four months after its overseas debut. Its aggressive,...

The secret sauce of Chinese social media apps

Rest of World

By: Tiffany Ap and Kinling Lo

24 January 2025 at 06:00

In the days leading up to the January 19 deadline for TikTok, users in the U.S. scrambled to find alternatives. But instead of YouTube, X, or Instagram, the so-called TikTok...

Chinese owned apps that specialize in social commerce like Lemon8, Xiaohongshu and TikTok have dominated American attention.

U.S. TikTokers flock to Xiaohongshu, baffling and bonding with Chinese users

Rest of World

By: Kinling Lo and Viola Zhou

14 January 2025 at 17:02

American high school student Venus Rios sparked a flurry of chatter when she posted this week on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, writing in Chinese characters. “Hi Chinese netizens! I...

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