Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are the highlights of this edition:
- China will provide almost full duty-free access 53 African countries, trade imbalances under scrutiny
- Fully unmanned container ship has completed autonomous landing, a smart port milestone
- The quantum network has expanded to 3700 km, wafer-level chips enable scaling
- China leads global R&D growth with a CAGR of 13.1 %, the innovation map is being rewritten
Main News
Humanoid robots dominated the Spring Festival Gala 2026
The CCTV Spring Festival 2026 gala, the most-watched TV event of the year in China, featured humanoid robots from Unitree Robotics, Galbot, Noetix and MagicLab, marking a decisive step towards integrating robots into mainstream entertainment. Unitree deployed more than a dozen G1 robots to perform synchronised martial arts with children, including „drunken boxing“ sequences and weapon work, reportedly paying US$13.7 million (100 million yuan) in sponsorship. Noetix featured the humanoid „Bumi“ for US$1,400 (9,998 yuan) in a family comedy skit, while MagicLab robots performed in the musical „We Are Made in China.“ The international broadcast of CGTN Super Night separately featured robots AgiBot and „Adam“ by PND Botics after AgiBot declined domestic participation and instead held its own event, AGIBOT NIGHT 2026, on February 14.
ByteDance's AI Doubao powered the Spring Festival 2026 Gala and recorded a record 1.9 billion AI interactions during Chinese New Year's Eve on February 17, 2026. The „Toutiao New Year“ activity generated more than 50 million New Year profile pictures and 100 million personalized cards. The computing load peaked at 9:46 p.m., when the large Toutiao model reached a throughput of 63.3 billion tokens per minute, with stability provided by the Huoshan Engine through flexible allocation of computing resources. The Seedance 2.0 video generation model was deeply integrated into the visuals of the performance - recreating the brush strokes of the ink painting in „Riding the Wind Song“ and creating individual floral effects for each performer in „Celebrating the Flower Goddess“ using an approach combining AI-generated images and real scene augmentation.
Alibaba's AI assistant Qwen recorded five billion „Qwen, help me“ voice commands during the 11-day Spring Festival campaign (6-17 February 2026)“ from more than 130 million users, showing deep integration into holiday consumption. AI processed orders for bubble tea, New Year's merchandise, movie tickets, airline tickets and hotels through Alipay. After launching the second phase of the campaign on February 14, AI movie ticket orders increased 372-fold, and even 782-fold in tier three and four cities. The film „Silent Awakening“ by director Zhang Yimou became the most common choice. Ticket orders increased 22 times and transport bookings more than seven times, with nearly half of the orders coming from district cities. Significantly, 4 million users over the age of 60 started using AI ordering - the „one-sentence order“ feature overcame age and regional barriers, signalling the mass adoption of voice AI commerce even in less developed markets.
China introduces duty-free access for almost all products from Africa
China has adopted the China-Africa Economic Development Partnership Agreement (CADEPA), which will provide duty-free access to almost all products from 53 African countries from 1 May 2026. The exception is Eswatini due to the diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. The trade volume between China and Africa reached $222 billion between January and August 2025, representing a year-on-year growth of 15 %. However, a significant imbalance remains: Chinese exports to Africa increased by 24.7 % to US$140.79 billion, while African imports to China increased by only 2.3 % to US$81.25 billion, creating a trade deficit of nearly US$60 billion. The agreement is designed to address this disparity and builds on the infrastructure investments of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Anta opens first directly operated store in the US in Beverly Hills
Chinese sportswear giant Anta opened its first directly managed flagship store in North America on February 13, 2026 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. The 3,000-square-foot store represents a strategic shift from distribution partnerships to a „Brand + Retail“ direct sales model. Designed with an „Eastern aesthetic and global expression,“ the store showcases Anta's key product lines, including the Kai series and Hela lifestyle collection, and functions as a „Sports Lifestyle Hub“ with running clubs, basketball events and technology workshops. The opening was accompanied by the announcement of a lifetime collaboration with NBA player Klay Thompson, whose signature collection will debut there, and the grand opening was attended by global ambassador Kyrie Irving with a New Year's edition of Kai 3. The flagship store signals Anta's ambition to transform itself from a homegrown Chinese brand into a global competitor in the sportswear market with a controlled retail network in key markets.
Tablet shipments in China to grow by 13.1 % in 2025 thanks to subsidies
Tablet shipments in China in 2025 grew by 13.1 % year-on-year to 33.8 million units thanks to the device refresh cycle and national subsidy programs, IDC said. Shipments rose 7.2 % in the fourth quarter, with the effect of incentives starting to fade due to tightening regional support. The consumer segment led the growth with a 14.4 % year-on-year increase in shipments and a clear trend of equipment upgrades, while the commercial market declined by 1.6 % due to budget constraints. Huawei Technologies dominated the full-year market with 29.2 % (down 3.1 %), followed by Apple with 24.5 % (down 2 %) and Xiaomi with 13.1 1 % (up 0.4 %). In Q4, Apple briefly returned to the top spot with 26.7 %, while Huawei dropped to 24.9 % and Lenovo rose to 13.1 % (an increase of 4.9 %). Analysts highlight the need to accelerate AI integration and device upgrades according to specific usage scenarios in an environment of increasing cost uncertainty.
Tomáš Kučera & Yereth Jansen
China-insights.com/gnews.cz - GH
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