China Tech Talk
A podcast discussing various Chinese tech developments in new energy, AI, semiconductor, robotics, and military fields. The host shares insights and analysis on China's technology landscape. Follow the host on Substack or X for more content.
Episodes
My episode with Ben Norton
This week, I welcomed Ben Norton onto my show. I have been following Ben for a while on his youtube channel and X account.When I was in Beijing over the summer, I found out from some mutual contacts that Ben is in fact studying in Tsinghua University. I got in touch with him and we just couldn’t find a time to meet up. Fortunately, I was able to get Ben on my show this past week and it was great d
Episode with Snek on Bond & rest of finance market
This week, I welcomed back my friend Snek on the show to talk about something that will inevitably effect the entire global economy, but especially the tech sector, which is the bond meltdown and rising oil prices across the board.I think we are at the point for many geopolitical reasons, foreign central banks are no longer price insensitive buyers of US Treasuries and this is part of what’s leadi
Quick Take 3: My early thoughts on time in China
I did a very early morning quick take on my trip to China. I’m sure there will be more on this since so much stuff happened while I was there. But I really wanted to just the message that China is becoming a really livable place and people are moving there for the quality of life. I met several people in Beijing this time who moved there from America from different reasons. It was interesting to h
My Episode with Lei on Tau Scaling and Reusable rocket
I had a chance to go over Tau Scaling and reusable rocket with Lei. As Lei is the person who shares my point of view the closest on Tau Scaling and Huawei’s efforts on this front, we really spent a lot of time explaining why what Huawei did in their design and production is quite special.Even if transistor cell itself can continue to scale smaller, that does not apply to memory cell sizes or analo
China Tech Talk @ Tsinghua AI school
I am currently in Beijing and have the pleasure of getting together with some friends in Tsinghua University in the AI school. I was welcomed by Alex and Qian Yu. We sat down talked a lot about the academia, AI research in China, getting talent to come to China and future of AI both in LLM and embodied AI.It’s quite the interesting experience to come here and see Zai in one corner, Unigroup buildi
My appearance on Taipology to talk about China's AI progress
I was fortunate to be invited by Angelica Oung last week to talk about China’s AI progress in light of Kimi K3, DUVi lithography new, CXMT IPO and the KOSPI market crash.Things have changed a little bit since the podcast, but CXMT remains very important, K3 remains the top Chinese model and lithography is still a big story. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other sub
Quick take 2: Deepseek V4 Flash
My quick thoughts on DSV4-Flash: Huge improvement over the original. It took 3 to 4 months, but we essentially got something close to GLM-5.2 in software engineering tasks.I did some testing today on VS Code using cline plugin. DSv4-Flash is essentially free, so I’m going to keep it as a backup to GLM & Kimi’s latest models, since those coding plans are going to get used up quickly.Going forward,
My Quick Take on Kimi K3 and GLM-5.2
I’m staring a new series of what I call quick takes. These will be shorter (15-20 minutes) than scheduled podcast. They will be recorded whenever something interesting comes up in the tech world and I don’t want to wait to talk to someone about it.So the first thing I did here is Kimi K3 and GLM-5.2 and what this tells us about China’s AI development. I think the overall story I want to put out th
Talking about Kimi K3/WAIC on Carl Zha podcast
This week, I had a chance to go on Carl Zha’s livestream to talk about the launch of Kimi K3 and what we saw at WAIC. Unfortunately, I had to leave early due to family obligations, but I think most of the issues I wanted to cover was already talked about. I’m actually a little surprised of the audio quality in there. I think next time, I have to go with something other than iPhone when I do this.I
Episode with Electric Felix
This week, I invited Electric Felix on my show to talk more about EVs. I first encountered him on X/Twitter and then followed his journey on EVs in Europe as well as his trips in China and what he experienced there in Yunnan and charging stations. It was great talking to him and getting a sense of where Europe’s EV infrastructure and demand look like at the moment. I was in Spain and Italy earlier
My talk with Carl Zha on Long March 10B launch and recovery
I had the pleasure recently to go on Carl’s live stream to talk about the recent LM-10B launch and recovery. Why this was significant and why China picked its design of recovering in offshore pad. We also talked a little bit about the strategic implication of having low cost launches and what else China needs to do to continue to make advancement in space missions like building up LEO constellatio
My discussion with Carl Zha on China's AI progress and GLM/Zai
I’ve been wanting to do an episode on GLM-5.2 & Zhipu for a while, but didn’t get a chance to do so. Last week, I did a live stream on Carl Zha’s channel and here is my piece on it.I’ve had very good experience with GLM-5.2 so far and will probably move up a level in coding plan if their next release makes a similar level of jump. I’ve also had good experience with Kimi 2.6 & 2.7. Although in term
Episode 30 with Andy Collingwood
This week, I welcome Andy from Multipolarity podcast onto my show. I’ve been listening to his show for a while and always enjoyed him and Phillip Pilkington’s discussion on geopolitics, European politics and the increasing multiploar world that we live in.We talked about everything for quite a while. I was really interesting in how someone with multipolar view from Europe would look at the Russian
Episode with China Driven/Will Sundin
When I started really getting into Chinese EVs in 2022/2023, there really wasn’t that much material in English about what was going on in China's EV industry. When I did search on YouTube, I would often find content by Wheelsboy, Elliott Richards and my guys today China Driven/Will Sundin.I remember watching some of the earlier content by Will and just seeing his driving experience on various NIO
Episode 28: Marcel Münch
I had the pleasure this week to welcome Marcel on my show. I would recommend everyone to follow Marcel on X as well as on his website and YouTube channel. A really good guy and we had a great discussion. I first followed and noticed Marcel because of his commentaries on China’s EV industry and especially NIO. However, he actually talks about more than that on both X and our episode. I think he is
My episode on AI Proem with Grace Shao
I had the pleasure to join Grace on this episode of AI Proem. We covered a lot of topics here. A lot of stuff on AI, semiconductors and robotics, but obviously also all the other techs that I talk about.I didn’t break ground on anything new, but I did voice my opinion regarding China’s housing market slowdown at the end and how I think people are completely misreading the story. This is a public e
My Radio War Nerd Episode
I had the pleasure of joining RWN on his podcast to talk about China and PLA and WestPac conflict. I thank Mark and John for welcoming me on their show and giving me the opportunities to just explain how we got here and why we saw a lot of the alarms from the DC crowd and US security establishment. I talked about game changing political events like the South China Sea Island expansions and the Pel
Episode 27: Talk with Paul Triolo
Today, I had the pleasure of speaking to Paul Triolo on a host of things. We actually have been talking to each other for a while offline, but I finally got a chance to speak to him in a person today and it was great. And as you will hear in this podcast, we are nowhere close to being finished. I will definitely have Paul back on the show to talk about semiconductor industry in the future.I think
Episode 26: Z.ai interview
This week, I had the chance to interview Lou from Z.ai. It was really a great conversation to talk to her about the work that they are doing there and how they look at developing newer models and her view toward AGI.I get the feeling of just incredible hard work that Zhipu is going through as part of their effort to produce the best models and products out there. You can see that with GLM-5.1, whi
CrossOver Episode with Kyle Chan
This week, I had the pleasure of doing a crossover episode with Kyle Chan who X profile can be found here. We discussed a wide range of topic related to all aspect of AI. We really had a fun time discussing the full scope of China’s supply chain vs other countries. If we look at things holistically, China is definitely building the same supply chain advantage in AI as it has in other industries.I
Episode 25: Embodied AI ecosystem
This week, I welcomed back Qian Yu on the show to talk about China’s AI (especially embodied AI) ecosystem.If you would like to know how Chinese entrepreneurs can start new AI robotics/embodied AI product, this would be a good episode to listen to. We also talked about World Model vs VLA, educational institutions involved in AI industry and some of the projects that we have seen recently like the
Episode 24: Iran conflict's affect on global supply chain
This week, I welcomed back Dan Collins to talk about something that has come to the forefront since the start of the Iran conflict. We are really in a historically unprecedented disruption when it comes to supply chain and energy. What does it mean when this many “molecule” or “atom” get taken off the global market. What will that do to global prices of everything and shortages of things like food
Episode 23: Initial look at Iran conflict
This week, I welcomed back my friend Snek onto the show to talk about what we are seeing so far in the Iran conflict.We tried to look at it from the view of how the conflict started, how it’s progressing and where it is going. We covered what Iran is likely getting from Russia & China in the form of intelligence and supply chain. We looked at the possible land invasion plans that’s been rumored.Si
Episode 22: Collaboration with China Research Collective - Embodied AI discussion
I have joined a project called the China Research Collective to look into providing English language translations of how China thinks about different topics of modern economy. This week, I invited Qian Yu on the show to discuss it and to talk about the first topic we are looking at together: Embodied AI.It is very good to have him on the show, because he is in Tsinghua University right now and hav
Episode 21
This week, I invited my discord friend “Sagar” on the show to talk about his experience in moving back to China from his finance sector job in America. It is always interesting to broach this topic, because many of us who grew up in the West now see living standard higher in major cities in China than where we live.I thought it was important for someone who made the move to give everyone an idea o
Special Episode on Type 09V
This is an emergency episode of my podcast and I invited Bora back to the show to talk about Type 09V submarine.In my mind, this is possibly the most consequential PLA program of the next decade. Well, this program and the Type 09VI submarine that will likely come along also. This submarine by itself will change the balance of naval warfare globally once it enters service in large quantity in the
Episode 20: Discussion with Glenn Luk on China's investment priorities over past 30 years
I welcomed back Glenn to talk about something that he knows far better than me. How has China prioritized investment in different industries over the reform period since opening up.China started off by getting investment and investing its own money in export factories to get wealthy through exporting to global market. After the great financial crisis hit, China shifted toward growing its economy a
Episode 19: Discussion with Bora at start of 2026
This week, I welcomed back my friend Bora to talk about where things are at currently. The hot topic of this week is Trump’s capture of Maduro and his operation in Venezuela. We discussed about Greenland also and MAGA’s desire to take it. We also talked about Iran and the Russia/Ukraine conflict.There is a lot of stuff going on geopolitically. But since this is a China based podcast, we also talke
Episode 18: Open Source AI with Tiezhen Wang
This week, I’m really excited to welcome Tiezhen/Tom Wang from Huggingface on my show. You can find him here on X.We talked about his background working at Google before he joined HF. Although, we did not get a chance to go really deep into running AI on robotics, but we did discuss the constraints facing AI on edge devices. Basically, 7B parameter model is close to the largest models we can reaso
Special Christmas Episode
As we hit the Christmas season of 2025, I have a special episode out to first talk about the 6 future industries that China said it will be focusing on over the 15th Five Year Plan period.The industries are Quantum Computing, Bio-Manufacturing, Hydrogen & Nuclear Fusion, Brain Computer Interconnect (BCI), Embodied AI and 6G Telecom. Embodied AI is something I really care about and talked about qui
Episode 17: Dan Collins and his experience in China
This week, I welcomed my friend Dan on the show. You can find him on x https://x.com/DanCollins2011. He worked extensively in China’s auto industry and actually lived in Shanghai area until a few years again. I welcomed him on my show to talk about his experience in China and now in America with the semiconductor industry.Just like episode 16, I feel the conversation about traditional engineering
Episode 16: China's progress in traditional engineering
This week, I asked my friend Mr. W to come on the show to talk about China’s progress in traditional industry like chemical and mechanical industry. We also spent a lot of time talking about China’s changes in engineering code and how that has catapulted the quality of their product since 2014.The traditional engineering and hard science industries have much longer development time cycle than more
Episode 15: Rick Joe on Fujian Carrier and 9/3 parade
This week, I invited Rick Joe onto my podcast to talk about the commissioning of the CV-18 Fujian carrier. Rick talked about the previous carriers and the steps that PLAN took to get to its first catapult equipped super carrier. We also discussed about how PLAN is likely to use CV-18 initially. Be patient guys. It took 9 years for CV-16 to achieve FOC status after joining service in 2012. It will
Episode 14: China's Rare earth move and tech breakthroughs
This week, I decided to summarize the thread I have worked on for a while now since the announcement of China’s Rare earth export controls. I spent the first portion of the episode talking about why they did and why it’s effective. I spent the rest of the episode going through the thread I have on twitter/x to talk about the tech breakthroughs that they’ve had in the past year that allowed them to
Episode 13: Angelica Oung on Nuclear Energy and Cross Straits Relationship
This week, I invited Angelica Oung on the show to talk about one of my favorite topics: Nuclear Energy. She is able to give us a very detailed explanation of the nuclear power situation in Taiwan as well as grid situation as a whole. I’m super glad to hear the anti-nuclear stance of the DPP, since I had no idea of its history with that.Also, I was really glad to talk to her about the craziness aro
Episode 12: China's recent move in Gold Market
This week, I welcomed Eric Yeung (@KingKong9888) to talk about what’s been happening recently going on with China and gold. I asked Eric to discuss what is currently happening on the Shanghai Gold Exchange and Shanghai Future Exchange with respect to Gold Vault.What does it mean for SGEi to be opening up vaults around the world? What does it mean for China to be talking to other countries about st
Episode 11: AI competition with Alibaba and Huawei
This week, I welcomed back Glenn Luk as well talked about the recent happenings with respect to Alibaba’s Great Leap Forward in its AI ecosystem, cloud platform and the full stack solution. We talked about over how Alibaba has gotten back into the good graces of Chinese government and did all the hard work of becoming a powerhouse in AI. They are basically the only hyperscaler outside of Google wh
Episode 10 - A view from Brazil
On this episode, I spoke with my friend Nelson, who is a Brazilian journalist currently living in and reporting from Beijing. We talked about how China and Brazil’s relationship has grown in the past 15 years. How Brazil and America’s relationship has been declining, especially under Trump. And we talked about what are the things going forward that will likely to continue to pull the 2 countries t
Episode 8: Han Feizi on China
This week, I’m happy to welcome Han Feizi on my show. He is a writer on Asiatimes and has very interesting and high quality view on China’s economy and its changes over time.Since I recently stayed in Beijing for 3 weeks, it was good to catch up with him just on what I saw and how it matches up with what he sees on the ground.One thing that Han really emphasizes is that China’s economy is actually
Episode 9: Initial thoughts on 9/3 Parade
In this episode, I am joined by Lei and Bora to discuss all the various interesting platforms that we saw in the recent parade. We didn’t talk about the political/geopolitical side of things since that’s really not interesting. We also didn’t talk about nukes, since that’s just a distraction.So, we really focused on which platforms on game changing and we they are important. I think we spent the m
Episode 7: Thoughts from my China Trip
This episode, Lei joins me as we discuss the things that I encountered during my trip to China, where I had a lot of thoughts about the overall economic situation, the current tech scene and development socially since the last time I was there.For me, there were a lot of surprises, especially in the second and third tier cities.A common refrain I hear from parents in their 40s is the concern that
Episode 6: AI Q&A
This week, I decided to do a Q&A of AI related questions I have received on substack, Twitter, discord and forum.Open source models running on domestic AI chip. New way of measuring from Stepfun.I talked about AI robots, AI applications in industries and running AI on different type of chips.I will have more on China and AI once I get back from my China trip. The way that AI is incorporated into C
Episode 5: AI infrastructure
This week, I invited my friend Simon on the show to talk about AI infrastructure. This is a very interesting topic to think about. We talked about the reason for Nvidia’s market dominance and the problems that Intel and AMD have faced in developing their own market place. We talked about the number of chips involved and the challenges in building large data centers. Here is a chart of the Hopper d
Episode 4
I was inspired to make an episode on manufacturing and why it is difficult to do manufacturing in America after I watched this video, I asked Lei to join me to discuss how China has taken over the expertise on manufacturing all the “basic stuff”Of course, China has now developed the ability to manufacture higher end stuff and increasingly designing its own products. But China’s upstream supply cha
Episode 3: China's High Speed Rail
For the third episode, I invite Glenn Luk onto the show to talk China’s vast HSR. He helped us debunk many of the myths regarding China’s HSR economics. We also talked about how HSR helps facilitate travel, improve Quality of Life and increase freight inside China.Here is a look at the current Chinese high speed rail mapAnd its overall railway map. Very well connected and you can imagine that many
Episode 2: Russian/Ukraine conflict
This week, I welcomed Snek onto my podcast to talk about his thoughts on the ongoing Russian/Ukraine conflict. This is an area that I have not followed closely, but Snek is very well versed in. We recorded with lower volume, so raise the volume to hear it clearly.We look at the conflict in 3 areas:* The current state of the conflict.* The usage of drones and AI in this conflict* The industrial asp
Episode 1: Recent conflicts and Chinese tech
I invited Lei on the show for our first episode This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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