China trends: week of 2026-10-19

Doubao's Liu Xing responds to “More than half of China's computing power is making feel-good dramas”: Only about 10% of ByteDance's total computing power is used to train and run video-generation models

Background: Doubao is ByteDance's artificial intelligence assistant and chatbot.

ByteDance

The technology company behind Douyin and TikTok, which operate as separate products. Reference ↗

Elon Musk Has Spent $366 Million Helping Republicans. He Once Announced He Would Cut Political Spending—Why Is He Spending More Again?

Background: The Republican Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States.

How well was the Zunyi Conference meeting scene in "The Great Long March" filmed?

Background: The Zunyi Conference was a 1935 Chinese Communist Party meeting during the Long March.

What do you think about the widespread use of the Japanese character "の" on the Chinese internet?

Background: The Japanese particle "no" often indicates possession or links nouns, similar to "of" in English.

Semaglutide Faces Mass Lawsuits in the US After Patients Developed an Eye Disease That Can Cause Blindness: Did GLP-1 Really Cause It, and What Other Risks Do These Drugs Carry?

Background: GLP-1 drugs are medicines that mimic a hormone involved in blood sugar regulation and appetite control.

Elon Musk Announces Plans to Give Every U.S. Child One Share of SpaceX Stock Next Year—How Much Would That Be Worth, and What Is His Purpose?

Background: SpaceX is Elon Musk’s space exploration company.

How does this wave of cost-of-living unrest in France differ from the 2018 Yellow Vest movement?

Background: The Yellow Vest movement was a 2018 protest movement in France initially sparked by a proposed fuel-tax increase.

How should one assess a Chinese international student from Nanjing who wore a Rising Sun flag and placed a Japanese military cap on the desk during a history class at Moscow State University?

Background: The Rising Sun Flag is a Japanese military symbol associated with Japan's wartime history.

WeChat’s HarmonyOS version to deliver 41 major releases within two years

HarmonyOS

Huawei's operating-system family for connected devices. Features and app support vary by version and device. Reference ↗

Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solution BU Partners with CATL on Battery Swapping

Huawei

A Chinese technology company that makes telecommunications equipment, devices and computing products. Reference ↗

Hands-On Portainer Deployment on Jikongjian: Docker Socket, Port 9000, Container Management, and Fixed-Address Access

Background: Jikongjian is a Chinese network-attached storage brand.

Shopping for a Home Printer or Projector? Check Out Double 11: Epson Offers 12 Education Discount Gifts

Background: Double 11 is China's annual November 11 shopping festival.

I Feel Like I Finally Understand the Complexities of RAG Technology

Background: Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) combines information retrieval with text generation to improve AI responses.

RAG, Memory, and Context: How Do These Pieces Fit Together?

Background: RAG, or retrieval-augmented generation, lets an AI model use retrieved external information when generating responses.

AI Hotspot Daily (2026-10-19): DeepSeek V4.1-Flash Rolls Out, Chinese 100,000-GPU Supercluster Unveiled, Meta Open-Sources 816B Model

Background: DeepSeek is a Chinese AI company known for large language models. Model announcements and community claims require separate verification.

DeepSeek

A Chinese AI company that develops large language models and offers a chat service and developer API. Reference ↗

Stop Paying for OCR APIs! This Chinese Open-Source Tool Is Free and Runs Offline

Background: OCR, or optical character recognition, converts text in images into machine-readable text.

WeChat responds that some features are not yet available on the HarmonyOS version

HarmonyOS

Huawei's operating-system family for connected devices. Features and app support vary by version and device. Reference ↗

People's Daily Comments on Chinese Student Wearing a Rising Sun Flag

Background: The Rising Sun flag is a Japanese symbol associated with the country’s wartime military history.

Insider recounts details of action taken against 'Japan-worshipping' overseas student

Background: Jingri is a derogatory Chinese label for people perceived as identifying with Japan over China.

Media: Change in A-share market cap leader reflects industrial shifts

Background: A-shares are stocks listed on mainland China's stock exchanges and traded in renminbi.