China: technology profile

AI

The State Council's August 2025 AI Plus guideline targets penetration above 70% by 2027, and above 90% by 2030, for AI agents and new smart devices. AI agents are software that carries out tasks for a user. The 15th Five-Year Plan was approved by the national legislature on March 12, 2026. Its industrial priorities include AI, robotics, semiconductors, quantum technology and nuclear fusion, a Congressional Research Service brief says. It calls for "extraordinary measures" to reduce reliance on foreign science and technology, the brief says.

Stanford's 2026 AI Index found that the performance gap between leading US and Chinese models had effectively closed. It said DeepSeek-R1 briefly matched the top US model in February 2025. It found the top US model led by 2.7% as of March 2026. The report counted $12.4 billion of private AI investment in China in 2025, against $285.9 billion in the United States. It said private figures likely understate China's total because of government guidance funds. It places China ahead in AI publication volume, citations and patent output.

Lawmakers approved an amended Cybersecurity Law in October 2025 with a new article on AI safety and development, effective January 1, 2026, Xinhua reported. A 13-point Global AI Governance Action Plan was published at the World AI Conference in July 2025. During a state visit to Washington in September 2026, Xi Jinping said AI should ultimately remain under human control, NPR reported. The two governments also set up a dialogue on AI risks and benefits, a White House fact sheet says.

Chips and hardware

Semiconductors are among the areas where China still depends on foreign suppliers, the CRS brief notes. The third phase of the state-backed Big Fund was established on May 24, 2024 with registered capital of 344 billion yuan, Reuters reported.

The United States has restricted exports of high-end chips to China since 2022. In January 2026, the week Washington cleared Nvidia's H200 chip for sale, Chinese customs authorities told agents the chip was not permitted to enter, Reuters reported. It cited unnamed sources and said it was unclear whether the step was a formal ban. A US Commerce official told Congress in July 2026 that shipments had begun but were very few, Reuters reported.

Huawei said in September 2026 that it could not produce enough AI computing equipment to meet demand in China. It said it planned to have its Ascend 960DT chip ready in the first quarter of 2027, three quarters earlier than planned.

China controls up to 70% of rare-earth mining and about 90% of rare-earth metal alloy and magnet production, according to AlixPartners estimates cited by Reuters. It agreed to suspend rare-earth export controls announced on October 9, 2025, a November 2025 White House fact sheet says.

Robots and autonomy

Chinese factories installed 295,000 industrial robots in 2024, 54% of the global total, the International Federation of Robotics reported. Domestic suppliers took 57% of the home market, it said. Beijing promotes humanoid robots under the label embodied intelligence. But Reuters reported in September 2026, citing unnamed sources, that regulators were slowing stock listings by humanoid makers after a volatile Shanghai debut for Unitree Robotics. Baidu said in August 2026 that its Apollo Go robotaxi service had reached 28 cities worldwide and more than 240 million fully driverless kilometers.

Space and energy

On February 11, 2026 China flew a low-altitude test of its Long March-10 rocket and an abort test of the Mengzhou crew capsule, Xinhua reported. State newspaper China Daily describes the goal as sending astronauts to the Moon around 2030. The robotic Chang'e-7 mission to the lunar south pole missed its 2026 launch window in August, Ars Technica reported. Officials gave no new date at the time, it said.

Installed solar capacity reached 1,286 gigawatts at the end of July 2026, passing coal's 1,285 gigawatts for the first time, Caixin reported, citing National Energy Administration data. The International Energy Agency says electric vehicles were nearly 55% of China's car sales in 2025. It says China accounted for over 80% of battery cell production. The EAST fusion device sustained a high-confinement plasma for 1,066 seconds in January 2025, the Chinese Academy of Sciences said.

What to watch

• The US-China trade truce, extended in September 2026 by two months, to January 2027, according to NPR.
• How many H200 chips reach China and whether Huawei has the 960DT ready on schedule.
• A new launch date for Chang'e-7.
• The AI Plus guideline's 2027 target.