分类： technology

China’s commercial space sector is poised for a revolutionary leap as private aerospace company Beijing InterstellOr Human Spaceflight Technology reveals ambitious plans to offer civilian space travel experiences. The announcement comes amid a wave of favorable government policies designed to boost the nation’s commercial space industry.

At a recent business presentation in Chengdu, company founder and CEO Lei Shiqing detailed the development of the CYZ-1 manned spaceship, engineered to provide paying passengers with what she described as a “safe, comfortable and affordable” suborbital flight experience. The spacecraft represents a significant milestone in China’s growing private space sector.

The technical specifications reveal a sophisticated design: the 8-metric-ton spacecraft features a 4-meter diameter with 21 cubic meters of interior space, comprising two primary components—a crew module accommodating six passengers and a standalone escape capsule for emergency scenarios. The vessel will be propelled by a small carrier rocket that separates at approximately 70 kilometers altitude.

Following separation, the craft will continue its ascent through momentum, crossing the internationally recognized Kármán line at 100 kilometers—the conventional boundary of space—with capacity to reach altitudes up to 200 kilometers without achieving orbital velocity. Passengers will experience approximately three minutes of weightlessness during the 20-minute journey before the spacecraft initiates atmospheric reentry.

The landing sequence employs multiple giant parachutes to ensure a soft touchdown, completing what InterstellOr promises will be an extraordinary adventure for space enthusiasts.

Chief designer Zhang Minjie, formerly of the China Academy of Space Technology, emphasized the incorporation of innovative technologies in escape, reentry, and landing systems. “Our focus on reusability significantly reduces operational costs while maintaining stringent safety standards,” Zhang stated. “We will conduct extensive ground testing to verify all systems before manned missions.”

The company’s roadmap includes two unmanned test flights scheduled before late 2028, with the inaugural crewed mission to follow shortly thereafter. Remarkably, over 20 seats on initial flights have already been reserved by Chinese business leaders, a prominent actor, and a distinguished scientist at approximately $430,000 per ticket.

Looking beyond suborbital tourism, InterstellOr has announced development of the CYZ-2 model capable of reaching low-Earth orbit, with maiden voyage projected around 2032. Recent successful tests of the landing-buffering system have yielded satisfactory results, with post-examination analysis confirming system reliability and structural integrity.

This venture signals China’s accelerating entry into the commercial space tourism market, potentially creating new opportunities for civilian space experiences while demonstrating technological advancements in reusable spacecraft design.

In a significant shift within the artificial intelligence landscape, major U.S. technology firms are increasingly integrating Chinese-developed AI models into their core operations, challenging the long-standing dominance of American AI laboratories. Pinterest, the visual discovery platform with hundreds of millions of monthly users, has emerged as a prominent case study in this technological transformation.

The San Francisco-based company has been experimenting with Chinese AI architectures, including the DeepSeek R-1 model launched in January 2025, to enhance its recommendation systems and shopping assistant capabilities. According to CEO Bill Ready, this strategic implementation has effectively transformed Pinterest into an AI-powered commerce platform, with the ‘DeepSeek moment’ representing a pivotal breakthrough in open-source AI development.

Technical leadership at Pinterest reveals compelling advantages driving this adoption. Chief Technology Officer Matt Madrigal reported that open-source techniques employed from Chinese models demonstrate 30% greater accuracy than leading off-the-shelf alternatives while reducing operational costs by up to ninety percent compared to proprietary systems from U.S. developers like OpenAI.

This trend extends well beyond Pinterest’s operations. Across the Fortune 500 landscape, Chinese AI models are gaining substantial traction. Airbnb has incorporated Alibaba’s Qwen model extensively to power its AI customer service infrastructure, with CEO Brian Chesky citing superior performance, speed, and cost-effectiveness as decisive factors.

Hugging Face, the premier platform for AI model distribution, provides further evidence of this market shift. Product lead Jeff Boudier noted that Chinese models consistently dominate the platform’s trending rankings, with some weeks featuring four out of the top five training models originating from Chinese laboratories. In September, Alibaba’s Qwen surpassed Meta’s Llama to become the most downloaded large language model family on the platform.

The competitive landscape has evolved rapidly since Meta’s release of its open-source Llama models in 2023, which initially established industry standards for bespoke applications. However, the underwhelming reception of Llama 4 and Meta’s subsequent collaboration with Alibaba, Google, and OpenAI for training new models signals a fundamental restructuring of AI development alliances.

According to a recent Stanford University analysis, Chinese AI models have not only caught up but potentially surpassed their global counterparts in both capability metrics and user adoption rates. This development coincides with increased pressure on U.S. firms like OpenAI to prioritize revenue generation and profitability, potentially creating strategic openings for Chinese technological advancement in the open-source domain.

Former UK deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg observed the paradoxical nature of this competition, noting that China appears to be democratizing AI technology more effectively than Western democracies despite their different governance models. The Stanford report further suggests that substantial government support has contributed significantly to China’s open-source AI achievements, while U.S. companies face increasing commercial pressures that may influence their development priorities.

A landmark international research initiative titled “Building Global Consensus on AI Guardrails” was formally inaugurated in Beijing on Friday, bringing together prominent scholars from China, the United States, and other nations. The project addresses the urgent need for coordinated global action to establish safeguards for responsible artificial intelligence development and deployment.

Professor Jia Qingguo, Director of the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding at Peking University, emphasized the critical nature of this endeavor in a video address. “Given our existing understanding of AI risks, the stakes are very high,” he stated. “We must address the challenges and risks AI poses to avoid ending up in a disaster unparalleled in history. Since AI is a global phenomenon, effective risk management presents significant challenges that demand international cooperation.”

The ambitious project will develop a comprehensive policy and implementation blueprint that maps existing AI governance frameworks worldwide. Its primary objectives include identifying areas of convergence and divergence across different regulatory approaches and proposing concrete mechanisms to build global consensus on implementing responsible AI safeguards.

Professor Wang Dong, Executive Director of the same institute, highlighted the current fragmentation in global AI governance. He noted persistent divisions among nations regarding risk assessment methodologies, technological boundaries, and governance implementation pathways. This research initiative aims to bridge these gaps through scholarly collaboration and evidence-based policy recommendations, creating a foundation for more harmonized international AI governance standards that balance innovation with ethical considerations and risk mitigation.

Chinese authorities have unveiled comprehensive classification measures for online content potentially affecting minors’ physical and mental health, marking a significant advancement in digital protection frameworks. The Cyberspace Administration of China announced these measures on Friday, developed through interagency collaboration involving cyberspace, publishing, film, education, industrial technology, public security, cultural tourism, and broadcasting authorities.

The regulatory framework, scheduled for implementation on March 1, establishes four distinct categories of online information based on their potential impact on young users’ wellbeing. This systematic classification approach addresses both established concerns—such as unauthorized use of minors’ images—and emerging technological challenges including algorithmic recommendation systems and generative artificial intelligence applications.

Under the new provisions, internet platforms and content creators must implement proactive prevention mechanisms and countermeasures against harmful content. The measures align with China’s existing Regulations on the Protection of Minors Online, creating a cohesive legal ecosystem for youth digital safety.

The Cyberspace Administration emphasized its ongoing commitment to purifying the online environment, stating it will intensify supervision of platform responsibilities and content governance. This initiative aims to foster a cleaner, healthier digital space specifically tailored for young internet users while accommodating rapid technological evolution in the digital landscape.

Beijing has positioned itself at the forefront of commercial aerospace innovation with the official promotion of its groundbreaking ‘Rocket Street’ project during a high-profile industry conference held Friday at E-Town. The event, themed ‘Harnessing Forces to Develop the Aerospace Industry,’ brought together government officials, research institutions, leading enterprises, and financial representatives to chart the sector’s technological transformation.

The conference showcased significant developmental milestones, including the announcement of nine major production-capacity projects, six satellite programs, and the establishment of six specialized industrial platforms under the Rocket Street initiative. These revelations coincided with the presentation of strategic opportunities anticipated during China’s 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

Ma Chao, Deputy Director of the Robotics and Intelligent Manufacturing Industry Bureau at the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, emphasized the conference’s role in expanding industrial development space and strengthening sector support through shared platforms. ‘This gathering significantly boosts new productivity and reinforces confidence in our industry’s development trajectory,’ Ma stated.

Corporate participants expressed strong appreciation for E-Town’s comprehensive ecosystem, which includes targeted policies, robust industrial infrastructure, and enhanced synergistic capabilities. Xia Dongkun, Executive Vice-President of Galactic Energy—a prominent commercial aerospace firm with research and development facilities in the area—noted: ‘The district provides precisely calibrated policies covering talent acquisition, investment facilitation, and insurance solutions. The shared platforms substantially improve industrial coordination, operational efficiency, and financial capacity.’

In a notable development, Galaxy Space co-founder Liu Chang revealed plans to establish a massive satellite manufacturing facility in Beijing with an annual production capacity of 500 satellites. This installation would represent China’s largest mass-production center for low Earth orbit satellites, incorporating advanced technologies including intelligent driving systems and embodied intelligent robots.

The 145,000-square-meter Rocket Street complex has completed final inspections and is now transitioning to operational status, cementing its position as the nation’s premier commercial space research and production base.

After prolonged legislative uncertainty, TikTok has finalized a comprehensive agreement ensuring its continued operations in the United States through a newly established U.S. joint venture. The resolution comes following intense bipartisan pressure from Congress and the White House, which had mandated the platform’s separation from Chinese parent company ByteDance by January 2025 or face complete prohibition.

The breakthrough arrangement involves major investment firms Oracle, Silver Lake, and Emirati conglomerate MGX as key stakeholders in the newly formed TikTok U.S. entity. While the agreement prevents an immediate shutdown that would have affected approximately 200 million American users, it introduces significant operational changes—most notably the complete retraining of TikTok’s proprietary content recommendation algorithm using exclusively U.S. user data.

This algorithmic transformation represents the most substantial modification to the platform’s core functionality. According to industry analysts, the retrained system will produce “distinctly American” content feeds, potentially altering the cultural dynamics that made TikTok a global phenomenon. While international content will remain accessible, its visibility and ranking within user feeds will undergo noticeable changes.

The agreement maintains technical connections to ByteDance through algorithmic licensing arrangements, raising questions about whether the restructured ownership adequately addresses originally cited national security concerns. Legislative measures had specifically prohibited “any cooperation with respect to the operation of a content recommendation algorithm” between ByteDance and American entities.

User experience modifications extend beyond algorithmic changes. Updated Terms of Service explicitly address AI-generated content requirements, mandating that users label such material appropriately. Additionally, users under age 13 will be restricted to a limited “Under 13 Experience” with enhanced privacy protections.

The political dimensions of the agreement have drawn scrutiny, particularly given Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison’s substantial personal investment and historical connections to the Trump administration. Ellison, whose personal fortune exceeds $390 billion, recently facilitated Skydance’s $8 billion Paramount merger and maintains influential relationships within political circles.

Small business owners and content creators expressed cautious optimism about the resolution. Skip Chapman, whose natural deodorant company derives 80% of sales through TikTok Shop, noted relief from the prolonged uncertainty but concerns about potential de-prioritization of e-commerce features. Restaurant owner Vanessa Barreat, with over 100,000 TikTok followers, adopted a “wait-and-see” perspective, acknowledging the platform’s transformative impact for previously marginalized voices.

Industry analysts warn that significant alterations to TikTok’s signature user experience could trigger migration to competing platforms, particularly if content moderation appears politically biased or fails to address misinformation effectively. The ultimate success of the arrangement hinges on maintaining the delicate balance between national security priorities, commercial viability, and cultural relevance that defined TikTok’s unprecedented global ascent.

A groundbreaking aerospace innovation is emerging from Abu Dhabi as LODD Autonomous introduces ‘Hili,’ a medium-sized unmanned cargo aircraft designed to revolutionize regional logistics operations. This pioneering development specifically targets the often-overlooked ‘middle mile’ segment—the critical transportation phase between major logistics hubs and local distribution centers.

The company has secured significant commercial traction with pre-production agreements for over 200 aircraft from major air operators including Emirates, Etihad Cargo, and several international logistics providers. According to CEO Rashid Al Manai, this demand reflects growing market needs for rapid hub-to-hub connectivity amid booming e-commerce and increasing trade volumes that strain traditional infrastructure-heavy cargo solutions.

Unlike the saturated market of small delivery drones, LODD’s innovation focuses on medium-capacity operations capable of transporting hundreds of kilograms across hundreds of kilometers. The aircraft’s vertical take-off and landing capability eliminates dependency on traditional runway infrastructure, allowing operations directly from logistics facilities.

A key technological advancement is the hybrid propulsion system combining electric motors with a combustion engine that continuously recharges batteries during flight, effectively eliminating post-landing charging downtime. This engineering solution, developed by aerospace engineer Fatema Al Marzooqi and her team, enables sustained operational efficiency.

The development timeline itself represents a remarkable achievement in aerospace innovation, progressing from conceptualization to functional prototype within just 19 months. Current testing focuses on perfecting vertical take-off and landing maneuvers before transitioning to fixed-wing flight, with experimental operations planned for later this year.

While proudly developed within the UAE, the project has attracted international interest from cargo operators across Europe, Africa, and the United Kingdom, signaling global recognition of autonomous cargo solutions that reduce ground infrastructure investment requirements. The technology addresses both operational efficiency and the global shortage of cargo pilots through its ground-based supervision model where a single operator can monitor multiple aircraft simultaneously.

A groundbreaking materials science discovery by Chinese researchers has unveiled unprecedented possibilities for revolutionary data storage technology that could transform artificial intelligence hardware. Scientists from the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have successfully identified and manipulated previously unknown atomic-scale structures within fluorite ferroelectric crystals—materials extensively used in microelectronics since the 2010s.

The research team, after eight years of dedicated investigation, challenged conventional scientific understanding by demonstrating that what were traditionally considered two-dimensional domain walls within these crystals are actually one-dimensional linear structures measuring mere atoms in width. These ultratiny ‘linear walls,’ approximately one hundred-thousandth the diameter of a human hair, represent a fundamental reimagining of how information can be stored at the atomic level.

Crucially, the researchers discovered that these nanometer-scale lines maintain remarkable stability through interactions with naturally occurring oxygen defects within the crystal lattice. These atomic imperfections function as microscopic anchors, preventing the structures from dissipating due to electrical forces—a critical requirement for practical data storage applications.

Using advanced electron microscopy techniques, the team achieved unprecedented atomic-scale observation and control over these linear structures. By applying localized electric fields, they demonstrated the ability to create, reposition, and erase these atomic features on demand, establishing the theoretical framework for future storage devices.

According to Dr. Zhong Hai, the study’s lead author and associate professor at Ludong University, this discovery could enable storage densities approximately 600 times greater than current technologies. This translates to potentially storing 20 terabytes of information within a single square centimeter—equivalent to fitting 10,000 high-definition movies in an area no larger than a postage stamp.

The implications for artificial intelligence development are particularly significant, as these structures could enable the creation of AI chips with dramatically enhanced processing capabilities, reduced energy consumption, and substantially higher component density. However, researchers emphasize that practical implementation remains several years away, requiring solutions to engineering challenges including electrode design for localized field control.

Published in the prestigious journal Science, this fundamental research opens new pathways in materials science while potentially laying the groundwork for a new generation of ultra-efficient computing hardware.