Last week, a massive high-tech trade fair in central China buzzed with Russian officials, business leaders, and media. Yet, the only American presence came from Elon Musk, whose disembodied voice echoed through a Tesla video promoting ‘humanoid robots.’
The Tesla booth was just one among hundreds at this dazzling, occasionally quirky, tech extravaganza. Attendees marveled at boxing robots, toilet-cleaning robots, and emotional support robots for seniors. The expo also showcased automated police vans, a self-driving yacht, and over a hundred Chinese electric vehicle brands locked in fierce competition for market dominance.
Dominating Tesla’s section at Hangzhou’s fourth Global Digital Trade Expo was its Cybertruck, a formidable, tank-like vehicle. Curiously, it’s not approved for sale in China. While other Tesla models are available, their sales have dropped dramatically. This decline is due to intense competition from Chinese brands, which often boast superior technology and significantly lower prices, despite only a few managing to turn a profit.
An image showed two robots in a boxing ring with their gloves up, as people around the ring took pictures. The caption stated: ‘Robots boxing at the Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, China, on Friday.’
A Tesla Cybertruck stood prominently at the expo booth.
Spanning an area larger than 21 football fields, this immense exhibition of Chinese-made gadgets and innovations underscored a remarkable transformation. China’s manufacturing sector, once reliant on inexpensive labor, has evolved into an economic powerhouse. It’s now increasingly fueled by groundbreaking innovation and a firm grasp of advanced technologies, areas where the United States once held a clear lead.
Yet, amidst rising global trade tensions and widespread concern over a deluge of Chinese exports in both wealthy and developing nations, the expo also brought forth pressing questions: Is there enough demand for all these products? And, crucially, can the companies producing them actually turn a profit?
The digital expo’s opening ceremony last Thursday saw senior Chinese officials and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko advocate for greater global cooperation. Their calls subtly criticized the Trump administration’s inconsistent attempts to restrict China’s access to cutting-edge AI chips and impede its emergence as a high-tech superpower.
Wang Hao, the Communist Party boss of Zhejiang Province (where Hangzhou is the capital), noted that the digital economy now comprises over 50% of the province’s total output. Zhejiang was historically an agricultural region, known for its tea and silkworms. He stated that China aims to ‘collaborate with all parties to explore the vast opportunities of digital trade and forge a new era of mutually beneficial cooperation.’
However, for former President Trump, ‘cooperation’ has a different meaning. As he expressed in April, China has ‘ripped us off and left us for dead.’
A salesman promoting urinal-cleaning robots at the expo argued that this perspective overlooked potential shared benefits. He posited, ‘Nobody likes cleaning toilets, so why not let Chinese robots handle the dirty work?’
His company, Hangzhou Star Species Robotics, has primarily served the domestic market, deploying robots to sanitize public restrooms in Chinese railway stations and other venues. He expressed ambitions to expand into international markets.
An automated robot demonstrating its toilet-cleaning abilities at the expo.
Though President Trump was not explicitly named, expo organizers were keen to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of American attempts to isolate China. They proudly announced that 11,000 international buyers had registered, a 64% increase from the previous year, underscoring the event’s growing global appeal.
A Foreign Ministry-organized tour for foreign journalists through Chinese high-tech companies in the Yangtze River Delta conveyed a consistent message: despite the Trump administration’s attempts to impede China’s progress and any economic challenges it faces, the nation’s AI, robotics, and other digital industries continue to advance rapidly.
Kong Fuan, the Communist Party secretary at Shanghai’s Hongqiao Overseas Development Service Center, a government body focused on drawing foreign investment and talent while assisting Chinese firms in ‘going global,’ asserted: ‘If you encounter obstacles, there’s always an alternative route.’
Mr. Kong highlighted that while the United States has made it harder and pricier for companies to recruit international staff, China ‘always welcomes talent from across the globe.’
China is rolling out a new visa category specifically designed to streamline the process for top STEM university graduates seeking to study or conduct business in the country.
Hefei, a city west of Shanghai, has dramatically transformed from a neglected area into a thriving high-tech hub. Here, iFlyTek, an AI company, powerfully challenges Trump’s China policies. Since the first Trump administration blacklisted it in 2019—among 28 Chinese companies cited for alleged human rights violations—iFlyTek has unveiled a host of new products. This U.S. restriction, which prevented iFlyTek from acquiring American goods, did nothing to curb its ambitious growth.
The company has since relocated to an expansive and notably futuristic new office campus.
The modern headquarters of iFlyTek in Hefei, China.
Among its latest innovations are a device for grading school exams and an AI chatbot capable of responding to questions in six languages, including Chinese, English, and Russian, with answers displayed on a screen. When questioned about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the chatbot mentioned Russian security concerns, but also stated that President Vladimir Putin had disseminated false propaganda and used the conflict to distract from Russia’s ‘stagnating economy.’
Cheng Chen, General Manager of iFlyTek’s consumer business group overseeing AI translation, clarified that the exam machine—which enables teachers to grade papers without manual review—is designed not to replace educators, but to ’empower them to focus their time on more creative, essential tasks.’
She maintained that the on-and-off U.S. restrictions on exporting advanced American AI chips—which she described as ‘the best for training large language models’—had not harmed iFlyTek. She further noted that Chinese firm Huawei was supplying satisfactory alternatives.
With state-owned China Mobile as its largest shareholder, iFlyTek’s share price has more than doubled since the imposition of Trump-era sanctions. Recent trade tensions between the U.S. and China have had minimal effect on its market valuation.
Last week’s reports that China had prohibited its leading technology firms from purchasing advanced AI chips from American giant Nvidia further solidified the narrative that China is capable of independent technological advancement.
Achieving technological independence has become a central pillar of Chinese state policy under President Xi Jinping. In recent years, Mr. Xi has frequently invoked ‘self-reliance’—’zili gengsheng’—a phrase originally used by Mao Zedong to advocate for an economically isolating policy that impoverished the nation.
However, Mr. Xi’s interpretation of self-reliance isn’t about isolation. Instead, it aims to guarantee the Party’s control over any foreign influence that might jeopardize national sovereignty. At an April Politburo meeting, the president emphasized that in high-tech innovation, this translates to developing an ‘autonomously controllable’ ecosystem for AI hardware and software.
A massive display of Chinese-made gadgets and innovations at the Hangzhou expo, highlighting China’s technological prowess.
Despite these ambitions, there are clear limitations to China’s ability to operate entirely independently. The strong desire for international sales, evident among many high-tech companies at the expo, confirms this.
China has consistently amassed significant trade surpluses. Last year, these surpluses contributed up to half of the nation’s economic growth, helping to alleviate the impact of a prolonged property market downturn.
Since Mr. Trump assumed office this year, trade between China and the United States has sharply declined, primarily due to tariff uncertainties. Nevertheless, China’s total trade surplus is projected to surpass last year’s staggering nearly $1 trillion difference between its imports and exports.
The true extent of China’s independence from advanced American AI chips remains a subject of debate. At the Hangzhou expo, Chen Jiaxin, a marketing manager for Unitree Robotics, enthusiastically discussed her company’s progress in creating lifelike dancing and boxing robots. However, she consistently sidestepped inquiries regarding the impact of U.S. chip export restrictions and broader trade disputes, stating, ‘It is not convenient to answer.’
Perhaps the most insightful answer could come from DeepSeek, a modest Chinese startup. Last year, DeepSeek astonished Silicon Valley by launching a new AI system that, powered by Nvidia chips, rivaled the performance of chatbots developed by industry giants like OpenAI and Google, but at a significantly lower cost.
DeepSeek maintained a booth at the Hangzhou digital expo. Yet, perhaps hesitant to address sensitive questions—such as whether its new AI model launch this summer was postponed due to issues with Chinese-made substitute chips—the booth remained unstaffed, displaying only a logo poster without further details.