Alice Han

They tend to be better at other languages.

And so if you're a global company where you care about a Chinese-Asian speaking market, that could also be quite an important distinction.

Well, I think DeepSeek is still a leader.

They still have a lot of the high-level AI talent, and that counts a lot when you think about the AI competition domestically and globally.

I do know for a fact, although I'm not sure if I should say this, that DeepSeek is working a lot with local governments, with government bodies in China to integrate AI into local public governance.

And I think this is coming at a time where, you know, Ed will be watching with bated breath in the next two weeks or so, because the 15th five-year plan is going to come out.

And it's very, very clear now that AI plus is going to be a huge cornerstone of the policy for the next five years.

So AI in every realm, including in public governance and public service and utilities.

So DeepSeek is still a player, but I think the latest models coming out of Alibaba, even Kimmy, show us that in China, at least, the AI race is hyper-competitive.

It's not just a duopoly, or even centered around three players, which is increasingly what's happening, it seems, in the U.S.

There's many different players, and I think they can capture different parts of the market.

I believe China may be more meritocratic today than America is.

Given this system, given the way in which education and scholastic intelligence are lionized, I would say that China today is probably more meritocratic than the U.S.

Welcome to China Decode, I'm Alice Han.

In today's episode of China Decode, we're discussing digging inside China's genius pipeline, Trump accusing China of secret nuclear testing, plus the revival of China's underground club scene and Bad Bunny topping the charts in China.

That's all coming up, but first, let's do a quick check-in with how the Chinese markets are starting the week.

On Monday, the Shanghai A-share index and the Hang Seng H-share index closed up 1.4% and 1.8% respectively, as investors shipped back to risk-on mode after last week's sell-off.

Potmart, the company behind the Labubu, rallied about 6% on news of strong growth expectations and expansion overseas.

And tech giants Alibaba and Tencent both closed up over 2%.

How are you feeling, James?