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A PLA Rocket Force unit held a realistic night exercise to test the autonomous combat capabilities of dispersed launch teams under drone surveillance and simulated harassment. The drill emphasised rapid concealment, quick emplacement, integrated logistics and simulated launches to improve resilience and complicate adversary targeting.

Pianzaihuang’s controlling shareholder will buy CNY 300–500m of A‑shares after the stock plunged 67% from its 2021 high. The company is reporting its first sustained revenue and profit declines in years, with cash flow collapsing and inventories ballooning, signaling a structural slowdown in the appetite for its premium products.

Robam has proposed a RMB100 million investment in YouTe Zhichu, a commercial smart‑cooking robot company, aiming to pivot away from slowing range‑hood and gas‑stove sales. The move targets institutional kitchens and leverages YouTe's patent portfolio, but success hinges on sustained R&D, integration challenges and wider macro headwinds in China's appliance market.

Muxi Co. forecasts 2025 revenue of 1.6–1.7 billion yuan, more than doubling year‑on‑year, while predicting a narrowed net loss of 650–798 million yuan versus a 1.409 billion yuan loss in the prior year. The company attributes improvement to stronger GPU sales, AI integration with industry customers, and lower share‑based compensation.

Shanghai announced that its aggregate smart‑compute capacity has surpassed 120,000 petaFLOPS and outlined an agenda to build a self‑reliant compute ecosystem linking domestic chips, models and cloud services. Officials and industry groups also floated an integrated space–ground architecture that would treat LEO satellites as programmable compute clusters to achieve global, low‑latency coverage for selected applications.

An open‑source AI agent, Moltbot, has gone viral for its ability to run locally and call major language models, prompting a two‑day surge in Cloudflare’s stock as investors bet edge infrastructure will benefit from agent‑driven traffic. The boost raises questions about whether increased traffic will convert into revenue, and spotlights security, governance and competitive risks for the AI ecosystem.

Richard Liu organised a high‑profile delivery of New Year goods to his home village in Suqian led by JD’s sixth‑generation autonomous “Independent Wolf” vehicles. The event doubled as both a charitable distribution and a live demonstration of JD’s rural last‑mile logistics capabilities, underscoring the commercial and political stakes of scaling autonomous delivery in challenging rural environments.

Jinlang Technology and Tongguang Cable publicly denied involvement in supplying components for space-based photovoltaic systems, pushing back on market rumours. Their statements highlight the technical, commercial and regulatory gaps between terrestrial solar manufacturing and the nascent industry of space photovoltaics.

China’s foreign ministry publicly rejected Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi’s suggestion that Tokyo and Washington could act together in the event of a Taiwan Strait crisis, saying Japan has "no right" to interfere. Beijing invoked post‑war treaties and historical grievances to frame Tokyo’s remarks as irresponsible and a threat to regional stability.

A passenger cargo ferry sank off southern Philippines on 26 January, with at least 317 rescued, 18 confirmed dead and dozens missing. The disaster highlights chronic maritime safety shortcomings—poor maintenance, severe weather, and weak enforcement—that regularly imperil travel between the country’s islands.

Two pandas from Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, returned to China on January 27 under existing agreements. Beijing used the occasion to invite Japanese visitors to see pandas in China, underscoring the animals’ role as instruments of cultural diplomacy amid broader bilateral tensions.

Personal voyage diaries kept by sailors aboard the PLAN destroyer Baotou provide a window into the Chinese navy’s operational learning, technical integration and morale-building during long deployments. The entries illuminate both the quotidian work of mastering new systems and the strategic aim of projecting steady, professional maritime presence.

The Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group has entered the U.S. Central Command area, signalling heightened U.S. military readiness near Iran while Tehran declares maximum alert and vows retaliation. Washington retains multiple strike options but faces significant strategic risks — including regional escalation, threats to Gulf bases and energy-market shocks — making calibrated action and diplomacy the likeliest near-term path.

Li Xiang told Li Auto staff that the firm will evolve from an electric‑vehicle maker into an "embodied intelligence" company, pursuing base models, inference chips, an OS and humanoid robots. The strategic shift reflects investor pressure for higher‑margin AI products, recruitment of robotics talent, and significant technical and regulatory hurdles ahead.

Azerbaijan has arrested three men accused of plotting an attack on a foreign embassy in Baku at the direction of IS‑K. The detainees, born in 2000 and 2005, face charges of preparing terrorist activities as investigations continue and the targeted embassy remains unnamed.

A government committee found systemic defects in Israel's military procurement processes after reviewing German submarine and corvette deals, renewing past bribery allegations linked to Thyssenkrupp and an associate of Prime Minister Netanyahu. The report also criticised Israel's chaotic handling of Germany's sale of submarines to Egypt and recommended formal procedures requiring expert input on arms decisions.

QCraft CEO Yu Qian says 2026 will mark the start of a decade‑long expansion in autonomous driving, with city NOA expected on mass‑market cars priced around ¥100,000. The company has passed one million vehicle deployments and argues that end‑to‑end learning, VLA and world models plus massive data loops will drive safety and scale, while pragmatic sensor choices and local adaptation will shape competition.

SK Hynix is exploring the creation of an AI investment arm in the United States to centralise group-level AI investments and speed strategic decisions. The plan would place the company closer to cloud customers, AI start‑ups and investors, and could shift SK Hynix toward higher‑value participation in the AI infrastructure ecosystem.

Yunnan province and CATL signed a strategic cooperation agreement to develop battery manufacturing, zero‑carbon industrial parks and transport electrification, with CATL promising to convert local mineral resources into higher‑value products. The deal advances provincial industrial upgrading and CATL’s upstream integration strategy, but its benefits depend on effective execution and environmental oversight.

A Xiaomi store employee’s attempt to demonstrate a phone’s drop resistance ended with the device’s screen cracking, and the clip sparked online mockery and questions about who should pay for repairs. The incident underscores how live retail demonstrations can backfire, creating reputational and liability headaches for manufacturers and retailers.