BizChina

In early February 2025, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR, China's top market regulator) announced an antitrust investigation into Google, marking the latest escalation in the U.S.-China trade and technology rivalry. The probe, initiated amid retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, underscores China’s strategic use of regulatory tools to counterbalance geopolitical pressures. This report synthesizes media coverage of the probe, Google’s historical tensions with China, and the broader implications for global tech competition.

The shipments of artificial intelligence-powered smartphones across the globe are expected to rise by 73.1 percent year-on-year in 2025, according to a report from global market consultancy IDC.

The triple-digit growth in 2024 will be followed by four consecutive years of double-digit growth as handset manufacturers look to incorporate generative AI features across their device offerings, the consultancy said.

Chinese commercial space launch company Beijing Tianbing Technology, also known as Space Pioneer, issued a public apology on Tuesday after a test of the first stage engines of its Tianlong-3 rocket failed in Henan province, causing explosions in a mountainous area that disturbed residents.

Tianlong-3, a two-stage kerosene-liquid oxygen rocket comparable to SpaceX's Falcon 9, experienced the failure during a test of its nine first-stage engines in the city of Gongyi on Sunday.

At 3:43 pm, the engines were fired according to plan, and the engine thrust reached 820 metric tons.

Chinese tech heavyweight Baidu Inc has unveiled the latest version of its large language model, Ernie 4.0 Turbo, which will be available to the public via web interfaces and mobile apps.

The newly launched model offers faster responses and superior performance, elevating the capabilities of its previous version Ernie 4.0, according to the company. Developers can integrate the technology through Baidu's Qianfan LLM platform.