Rui Ma, founder of Tech Buzz China and one of the most trusted English-language voices on China’s technology sector, is back to break down everything happening in China’s tech landscape, from DeepSeek to humanoid robots.

Rui runs in-person tech immersion trips to China for investors and executives, giving her a ground-level view of what’s actually being built and deployed – not just what’s being announced. In this episode, she shares her biggest takeaways from recent trips, from what surprised her to what confirmed what she already suspected about China’s AI and hardware trajectory.

She walks us through the humanoid robotics sector – who the leading Chinese companies are, what the realistic near-term use cases look like, and whether Americans will ever be able to buy Chinese-made robots. She unpacks Alibaba’s Taobao and Qwen integration, Tencent’s quieter but consequential AI strategy, DeepSeek’s latest moves, and the OpenClaw explosion. She also gives her read on Nvidia export controls: whether they’re working, and how Chinese companies are adapting.

Rui also weighs in on the X debate about quality of life in lower-tier Chinese cities, assesses the broader US-China AI competition including the talent landscape, and gives her takes on Zhipu and Minimax as publicly traded AI plays. If you want to understand where China tech is headed and what it means for the rest of the world, this is the episode to listen to.