While the world has been hunting for clues about the mysterious DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, I hopped on a plane down to Guangdong to visit the village where he grew up. Liang returned to Mililing 米历岭村 for the Lunar New Year celebration with his family this week.

It's been over six months since DeepSeek launched R1, and the world is still waiting for its successor model from China's AI darling. In the meantime, many developers have shifted to Alibaba's Qwen3 series, which adapted many of R1's core ideas but made it easier and cheaper to.

I took a break from reporting on tech and returned to my beloved side beat as China Caffeine correspondent. Luckin Coffee's US launch has attracted an unprecedented amount of press attention since the FT first reported that it would launch there. Luckin Coffee has welcomed the.

RT @TonyTassell: “Luckin prefers to describe itself as a technology company that happens to sell coffee “ - @EleanorOlcott on why Luckin Co….

RT @Dimi: Check out our latest @nvidia #scoop 👇

RT @tianyuf: Not to dismiss the very real economic pain *a lot* of people in China are facing, but for many middle class urbanites the pess….

A GLP-1 salesperson in China told me that the weight-loss companies are struggling to convince big-bellied Chinese men, who are prime candidates for the drug, that they need to slim down their midriff. They are proud of their Beijing bikinis.

RT @kevinsxu: Feels like a good moment to reshare my long profile of Lip-Bu Tan written a few weeks ago. Let's not let ignorance reign sup….

🎯🎯🎯🎯.

Beijing wants to consolidate the semiconductor industry. But that doesn’t mean it can. At the start of the year, the NDRC convened a group of chip equipment manufacturers to discuss the possibility of a mega-merger that consolidates fragmented technologies into one state-backed.

RT @rwang07: One thing I think people misunderstand the consolidation of China's semi is, it is true that there is a general sense that 1)….

RT @KangHexin: Great story from @EleanorOlcott on what sound like some pretty fundamental problems with Beijing's drive to consolidate Chin….

RT @TheCinesthetic:

RT @JChengWSJ: FT: Nvidia AI chips worth $1bn smuggled to China after Trump export controls—Roaring black market for US semiconductors oper….

Inside the “seafood market” for smuggled Nvidia silicon in China. Despite the US efforts to crack down on export control loopholes, Chinese buyers are still finding ways to buy cutting edge AI chips in bulk. @zijing_wu with relentless reporting uncovering part of a shadowy.

RT @kyleichan: The origin story of China’s synthetic diamond industry is such a gem. I really enjoyed this feature by @EleanorOlcott & co.….

RT @stephenfoley: McKinsey bars China practice from generative AI work amid geopolitical tensions. Scoop by @EleanorOlcott, @TomHale_ & @el….

RT @JohnReedwrites: Cc: India Inc.China is going big into the business of lab-grown diamonds, my colleague @EleanorOlcott reports.

Today, most synthetic diamonds are grown in China using the “high pressure, high temperature method”. However, increasingly, manufacturers are using the “chemical vapour deposition method” for larger gems, which builds diamonds layer by layer in a microwave chamber. Graphic

Zhengzhou makes your iPhone. Now the central Chinese city is churning out cheap lab-grown diamonds for your engagement ring. The prices for synthetic diamonds have plummeted, falling by nearly 90% over the past five years. It is cheaper than ever to buy sparkling stones that.

Answering questions for an hour outside on summer afternoon in Beijing. He does have stamina.