Last week, at a colossal high-tech trade fair in central China, the halls buzzed with Russian dignitaries, entrepreneurs, and media representatives. Curiously, the sole American presence was not a person, but the booming, disembodied voice of Elon Musk, heard pitching Tesla’s “humanoid robots” from a video display.
Tesla’s exhibit was just one among hundreds, all showcasing a spectacular array of innovative and often whimsical tech. Attendees marvelled at everything from boxing robots and toilet-cleaning robots to emotional support companions for the elderly, automated police vehicles, and even a self-driving yacht. Over 100 Chinese electric vehicle brands also vied for attention, locked in an increasingly fierce battle for market dominance.
Dominating Tesla’s display at Hangzhou’s fourth Global Digital Trade Expo was its imposing Cybertruck, a vehicle currently barred from sale in China due to regulatory hurdles. While other Tesla models are available, their sales have sharply declined. They’re struggling against Chinese competitors who offer superior technology and significantly lower prices, even as only a fraction of these local brands manage to turn a profit.
This colossal exhibition of Chinese-made gadgets and gizmos spanned an area larger than 21 football fields. It powerfully demonstrated China’s remarkable transformation: its massive manufacturing sector, once reliant on cheap labor, is now an economic powerhouse fueled by innovation and a commanding grasp of advanced technologies, areas once largely controlled by the United States.
However, amidst escalating global trade tensions and widespread concern in both wealthy and developing nations over a surge in Chinese exports, the expo also sparked critical questions: Who will actually purchase all these products? And, crucially, can the companies behind these innovations achieve profitability?
Last Thursday, top Chinese officials, joined by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko, inaugurated the digital expo. Their opening remarks called for increased global cooperation, subtly criticizing the Trump administration’s inconsistent attempts to restrict China’s access to cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips and impede its emergence as a high-tech superpower.
Wang Hao, the Communist Party chief for Zhejiang Province (where Hangzhou is the capital), highlighted that the digital economy now generates over 50 percent of his province’s total output. Zhejiang, historically an agrarian region known for tea and silkworms, exemplifies China’s ambition. He stated that China aims to “collaborate with all partners to explore the vast potential of digital trade and forge a new era of mutually beneficial cooperation.”
President Trump, however, has often viewed such cooperation differently. In April, he famously stated that China “has ripped us off and left us for dead,” reflecting a starkly contrasting perspective.
To a salesman at the expo, promoting urinal-cleaning robots, this viewpoint missed the universal benefits. “Nobody enjoys cleaning toilets,” he argued, questioning what could possibly be wrong with allowing Chinese robots to “handle the dirty work.”
His company, Hangzhou Star Species Robotics, has primarily served the domestic market, providing robots for cleaning public restrooms in Chinese railway stations and other venues. Yet, he expressed strong aspirations to expand into international markets.
Without directly naming President Trump, the expo organizers made it clear they wanted to demonstrate the failure of American efforts to isolate China. They proudly announced that 11,000 international buyers had registered, a 64 percent increase from the previous year, underscoring the event’s growing global influence.
A Foreign Ministry-sponsored tour for foreign journalists through high-tech companies in the Yangtze River Delta reiterated this message. It asserted that despite the Trump administration’s attempts to impede China’s progress and any economic challenges the country might face, its artificial intelligence, robotics, and other digital sectors are advancing relentlessly.
“If a path is blocked, there’s always another route,” declared Kong Fuan, the Communist Party secretary at the Hongqiao Overseas Development Service Center in Shanghai. This government office actively works to draw foreign investment and talent while helping Chinese companies expand globally.
Mr. Kong highlighted China’s welcoming stance, contrasting it with the U.S., which he noted is making it harder and costlier for companies to import foreign labor. “We always extend open arms to talent from across the globe,” he stated.
In a bid to attract top minds, China is rolling out a new visa category specifically designed to streamline travel and business opportunities for STEM graduates from leading global universities who wish to study or work in the country.
Hefei, a city west of Shanghai, has dramatically transformed from a modest area into a thriving high-tech center. Here, the AI company iFlyTek serves as a strong counter-narrative to Mr. Trump’s policies. Since the first Trump administration blacklisted iFlyTek in 2019, citing concerns about its role in alleged human rights violations—a move that barred the company from purchasing American products—iFlyTek has unveiled an impressive array of new innovations, undeterred in its ambitions.
Since then, the company has relocated to a sprawling, strikingly futuristic new office campus.
Their latest innovations include an automated device for grading school exams and an AI chatbot capable of answering questions in multiple languages—Chinese, English, and Russian among them—with responses displayed on screen. When queried about the Ukraine invasion, the chatbot cited Russian security concerns, but also noted 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 AI translation business, clarified that the exam grading machine isn’t designed to replace teachers. Instead, she stated its purpose is to “empower them to dedicate more time to creative, essential tasks,” thereby enhancing their productivity.
Despite intermittent U.S. restrictions on exporting advanced American AI chips—which she acknowledged as “the best for training large language models”—Chen asserted that these measures had not harmed iFlyTek. She confidently added that Chinese company Huawei was supplying more than adequate alternatives.
Since Mr. Trump’s sanctions were imposed, iFlyTek, largely owned by state-backed China Mobile, has seen its share price more than double. Recent U.S.-China trade tensions have barely affected its market valuation, showcasing its resilience.
Reports from last week indicated that China had prohibited its major tech firms from purchasing advanced AI chips from the American giant Nvidia. This move further solidified the narrative that China is determined to pursue technological independence.
Under President Xi Jinping, ensuring this self-sufficiency has become a core tenet of Chinese state policy. In recent years, Mr. Xi has frequently invoked “self-reliance”—“zili gengsheng” in Chinese—a phrase famously used by Mao Zedong to advocate an economically isolating policy that, in the past, led to widespread poverty. This modern iteration, however, aims to bolster China’s technological independence without fully cutting ties.
Xi’s contemporary vision of self-reliance doesn’t seek total isolation for China. Instead, it prioritizes the Party’s control over any foreign elements that might compromise national sovereignty. He emphasized at an April Politburo meeting that, within the realm of high-tech innovation, this translates to developing an “autonomously controllable” ecosystem for both AI hardware and software.
However, there are clear limitations to China’s ability to achieve complete self-reliance. This was evident in the eagerness for international sales shown by many of the high-tech companies promoting their products at the expo.
China has continued to accumulate substantial trade surpluses. Last year, these surpluses contributed up to half of the nation’s economic growth, helping to alleviate the impact of a prolonged downturn in the property market.
Since Mr. Trump assumed office this year, trade between China and the United States has significantly declined, largely due to tariff uncertainties. Nevertheless, China’s total trade surplus is projected to surpass last year’s staggering figure, which approached $1 trillion.
Whether China can truly thrive without the most advanced American AI chips remains a contentious issue. At the Hangzhou expo, Chen Jiaxin, a marketing manager for Unitree Robotics, enthusiastically discussed her company’s advancements in creating human-like robots capable of dancing and boxing. Yet, she conspicuously sidestepped all inquiries regarding the impact of U.S. chip export restrictions and broader trade disputes, stating simply, “It is not convenient to answer.”
Perhaps the most telling example comes from DeepSeek, a relatively small Chinese startup. Last year, it astonished Silicon Valley by introducing a new AI system that, powered by Nvidia chips, rivaled the performance of chatbots developed by industry giants like OpenAI and Google at significantly higher costs.
DeepSeek did have a presence at the Hangzhou digital expo, but its booth remained conspicuously unattended. It displayed only a logo poster, offering no further information. This might suggest a reluctance to address sensitive questions, such as whether its new AI model, slated for release this summer, faced delays due to issues with alternative Chinese-made chips.