Reference News Network, October 6 report: The U.S. "Washington Post" website published an article titled "The U.S. Stumbles, China Leads the Way" on October 3. The following is a translation of the article:
As the United States doubles down on its increasingly bizarre protectionism (threatening to impose 100% tariffs on foreign-made films), China recently announced that it will not seek new special and differential treatment in current and future World Trade Organization negotiations, a major concession that free trade advocates have long pursued. While the U.S. imposes damaging tariffs on poor countries in Africa and Asia, China offers 100% tariff-free treatment for all products from the least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China.
Julian Gavrilov and Jeffrey Prescott recently wrote in the bi-monthly journal "Foreign Affairs" that Beijing has shifted from a passive defense to a more strategic stance. While Washington keeps friends and enemies occupied with its tariffs and insults, China presents itself as a serious and responsible country with predictable and coherent policies.
The most significant arena is technology, where China has already taken a clear lead in several areas. In green technologies such as solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles, Beijing now has a dominant advantage. Beijing provides photovoltaic power stations, battery factories, and electric buses to countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, which can serve as tools of geopolitical leverage. Bloomberg News tracked 13 key technologies and found that China currently leads in five and is rapidly catching up in seven.
But in one area, Washington still believes it has an unbeatable advantage: artificial intelligence. American companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google dominate the fervent race for general artificial intelligence - although this seems more like a concept than a precise goal, and it's unclear what winning this race means.
However, China's approach to artificial intelligence differs clearly from that of the U.S. Instead of chasing general artificial intelligence, Beijing emphasizes the application of AI at its current level. It has managed to embed AI in every corner of the economy and society: logistics, surveillance, smart cities, healthcare, drones, and robots. This strategy ensures that AI brings real economic transformation and returns quickly, improving production efficiency and integrating this new technology into daily life.
China also chose a different application model. Many American companies lock their cutting-edge models behind patent walls, but Chinese companies release open-source AI models that are easy to modify and deploy - most notably DeepSeek (Deep Seek). Ironically, China now embraces open technology platforms, while the U.S. favors closed platforms. This strategy could make Chinese AI the global standard, especially in the developing world, where governments and enterprises in developing countries crave low-cost, customizable tools. The technological interface facing most countries around the world is likely to be Chinese, not American.
China's technology strategy is particularly powerful because of its cross-domain integration. It doesn't just create AI models, but embeds these models into hardware, infrastructure, and cities. Think about robots. Chinese companies are producing humanoid and quadrupedal robots equipped with rich sensor arrays, allowing them to "see" and "think" in real environments. Last year, the number of industrial robots installed in China was almost nine times that of the U.S.
Or take drones and flying cars as examples. China is building what it calls a "low-altitude economy," opening up urban airspace for autonomous aircraft. In Shenzhen, drones are already delivering packages; in Guangzhou, EHang Intelligent's autonomous flying vehicles have started carrying passengers. The integration again shows an advantage: sensors, artificial intelligence, hardware, and regulatory frameworks work in harmony to create transformative technologies.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government has cut funding for basic science and technology, the best U.S. universities are under attack, the government is engaged in a war against Harvard University (which is the top research university in the world by many standards), and the Washington government is facing a shutdown crisis... (Translated by Yang Xinpeng)
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7557948561770414655/
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