Airbus Deploys UBTech Robots 🤖 TCL Controls Sony Bravia 📺 Qwen Hits 1B Downloads 🧠

2025-01-26 | subscribe | homepage

Welcome back to China Insights Weekly. Here are some of the key highlights for this week’s edition:

• Cross-border digital yuan usage surges, transactions jump 25× since 2022

• Green plastics investment shifts to China, Europe loses flagship project

• Electric heavy trucks pass 50% penetration, charging plugs top 20 million

• Nuclear-powered chemical plant breaks new ground, heat and power combined

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🚀 Headlines

China-led cross-border digital currency platform sees surge (link)

Transactions on China's digital currency platform, known as e-CNY, have surged to over USD 55 billion, marking a significant increase of approximately 2,500% since early 2022. The platform, tested by central banks in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, has processed more than 4,000 cross-border transactions. The e-CNY is now estimated to account for about 95% of the total transactions on the platform. This growth indicates a push towards alternatives to dollar-dependent global payment systems and a gradual expansion of the yuan's internationalization through digital infrastructure. The People's Bank of China has processed over 3.4 billion transactions worth about USD 2.4 trillion, representing an over 800% leap from the previous year.

China’s TCL takes control of Sony Group’s global home entertainment business (link)

Sony Group is transferring control of its home entertainment business, including the Bravia television brand, to TCL Electronics, a leading Chinese electronics conglomerate. Sony will sell a 51% stake in this division to TCL, and both companies plan to establish a joint venture set to begin operations in April 2027. This venture will produce TVs that will carry both the Sony and Bravia names but utilize TCL's display technology. The move follows a trend of Japanese companies reducing their presence in the low-margin consumer electronics market. TCL's shares surged over 16% in Hong Kong following the announcement, marking the largest intraday gain since April 2025, while Sony's stock dipped 0.9% in Tokyo. This strategic shift allows Sony to focus on expanding its intellectual property assets, such as anime, films, music, and sports broadcasts.

Alibaba’s Qwen open-source models surpass 1 billion downloads, ranking first globally (link)

Alibaba's Qwen open-source large language model family has surpassed 1 billion total downloads and 200,000 derivative models on Hugging Face, the world's largest AI open-source platform. This achievement has positioned Qwen as the most downloaded open-source large model globally, outpacing Meta's Llama series. The number of derivative models built on Qwen has exceeded 200,000, making it the first open-source foundation model to reach this scale worldwide. With an average of approximately 1.1 million downloads per day, Qwen's influence and adoption are growing among global developer and research communities, highlighting its significant impact.

Vioneo drops Euro 1.5 billion green plastics factory plans in EU and opts for China (link)

Vioneo, a subsidiary of Danish shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk, has abandoned plans to construct a €1.5 billion green plastics factory in Antwerp, opting instead to build the project in China. The decision was confirmed after Belgian business daily De Tijd reported on the matter. Vioneo aims to produce fossil-free plastics and believes that constructing in China will make this more affordable, reduce CO2 emissions, and expedite market access. China offers better access to green methanol, a key raw material, which would lower costs and speed up the route to market. The Antwerp project was to be Vioneo's first large-scale factory, producing up to 300,000 tonnes of green plastics annually, supplying sectors like healthcare and the car industry. The cancellation is a setback for Antwerp's sustainability goals.

China's new energy heavy-duty truck penetration pases 50% for 1st time, EV charging plugs surpass 20 million (link, link)

In December 2025, China achieved a milestone with new energy heavy-duty truck sales reaching a record 45,300 units, accounting for 53.89% of total heavy-duty truck sales of 84,000 units. This marked the first time the penetration rate of new energy heavy-duty trucks in China exceeded 50%, jumping over 17% from November's figure. The surge is attributed to front-loaded demand due to the impending expiration of trade-in subsidies and anticipated new energy vehicle purchase tax costs in 2026. Despite this, the annual penetration rate for 2025 was pushed to 28.9%, more than doubling the previous year's 13.61%. Shanghai led registrations with 34,100 units, followed by Shenzhen and Guangzhou. The economic advantages of new energy trucks, such as saving about RMB 1.2 million over a ten-year operational cycle compared to fuel-powered vehicles, are cited as a fundamental reason for consumer willingness to pay for them.

By the end of 2025, China's total number of electric vehicle (EV) charging plugs reached over 20 million, marking a 49.7% increase from the previous year. This includes 4.717 million public charging plugs, which saw a 31.9% year-on-year increase, and 15.375 million private charging connectors, up 56.2%. The total rated power of public chargers reached 22 million kW, with an average power of about 46.53 kW. The growth is driven by the rapid increase in EVs and AI data centers, with China's electricity consumption surpassing 10 trillion kWh for the first time in 2025, a 5.0% year-on-year increase. New energy vehicle (NEV) manufacturing saw electricity consumption growth exceeding 20% in 2025. China's total vehicle sales reached 34.4 million units, with NEVs accounting for 16.49 million units sold, contributing 47.9% of China's total vehicle sales for 2025.