Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday visited the New Development Bank (NDB) in Shanghai and met with Dilma Rousseff, president of the multilateral development bank founded by the BRICS countries.
Rousseff led the bank's four vice presidents and other employees to welcome Xi when he arrived.
Xi congratulated Rousseff on her reelection as president of the NDB, and noted that the bank is the world's first multilateral development institution established and led by emerging markets and developing countries.
Xi called the bank "a pioneering initiative for the unity and self-improvement of the Global South," and said that it conforms to the historical trend of reforming and improving global governance.
He noted that the bank has grown into an emerging driving force within the international financial system and become a model of Global South cooperation.
He stressed that broader BRICS cooperation has entered a stage of high-quality development, and that the bank is set to embark on its second golden decade of high-quality development.
Xi called on the bank to consider the development needs of the Global South, and to provide more high-quality, low-cost and sustainable infrastructure financing.
The bank needs to improve its management and operations, implement more technology and green finance projects, and help developing countries bridge the digital divide and accelerate green and low-carbon transformation, Xi said.
In discussions on the reform of international financial architecture, the bank should amplify the voice of the Global South, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the Global South, and support the countries of the Global South in their pursuit of modernization, he said.
He noted that as the bank's host country, China will always support the operations and development of the NDB. China is willing to strengthen project cooperation with the bank and focus on green, innovative and sustainable development to achieve more results, he added.
China is also willing to share its development experience through the bank with other member countries, and stands ready to provide more international public goods, Xi said.
Xi pointed out that the Global South has collectively risen to become an important force in maintaining world peace, promoting common development, and improving global governance.
Noting that regardless of changes in the international situation, the overall direction of human development and progress will not change, Xi said China will firmly uphold its legitimate rights and interests as well as the common interests of the international community.
Rousseff thanked China for its longstanding and strong support for the development of the NDB.
She underlined that in today's turbulent world, the Chinese government firmly upholds the interests of the Global South, strongly supports multilateralism, resolutely defends international fairness and justice, and promotes the building of a community with a shared future for mankind,
Noting that unilateralism and protectionism are encroaching on the authority of international law and hurting stability of global supply chains, she reaffirmed the bank's dedication to multilateralism and supporting the developing countries and emerging markets.
Xi visits New Development Bank in Shanghai
Honor's humanoid robot, Lightning, which swept the 2026 Beijing E-Town Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon on Sunday, is a natural extension of years of accumulation in consumer electronics technology, said its developers.
A leading smart device provider in China, Honor independently developed the model, which dominated the podium at the event as it was used by all three teams whose autonomous navigating robots ran the fastest times.
At the Honor factory in Pingshan District in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province, where robotics engineers developed Lightning. They said the robot's body design incorporates a simulation system that, through artificial intelligence algorithms, can iterate nearly 30,000 design schemes of varying sizes over three months. Complete and mature systems are also in place for battery, communication, and reliability verification.
"We built a simulation lab from scratch. For the robots, we digitize the entire design and put it into a computer. We have our own material library, which can meet the force, thermal, and chemical property demands for each component, under different environments and speeds. We've accumulated about 1000 kinds of materials. For example, if there's a risk with the robot's neck, we just need to change the material code from 001 to 002. Now, through our simulations, we only need one day to perform parallel calculations on 10 different designs, before creating a mold and verifying it in the lab," said Li Zheng, a senior engineer at Honor.
An autonomous robot capable of completing a half-marathon involves a complete industry chain, with core components including high-precision sensors, LiDAR, motors, operating systems, and control algorithms. The development of robotic marathoners have driven an increasing number of component enterprises to get involved.
Manifold, a tech firm established by newly-graduated PhDs, has developed a 3D spatial memory module, which can model an environment in real time and transform it into images that robots can understand. They said several robots running the half-marathon this year adopted their solution.
"Our device can operate within a one-kilometer tunnel with an error margin of only tens of centimeters. For robots, especially in the absence of GPS, this allows them to accurately determine their location. The underlying technology is a multi-sensor fusion technology that we developed in-house," said Qin Youming, CEO and founder of Manifold.
The Beijing Humanoid Robotics Innovation Center set up a training camp for the marathon event. Many university students came a month ahead of the event to develop and debug their technologies and algorithms based on open-source robot bodies, databases, and training platforms.
"These high-quality databases and highly open-source control algorithms are actually very helpful to us. We no longer need to build the house from the ground up, but can skip the most basic part," said Sun Jingyu, a student from Shandong University.
"Through this racing event, I believe we can make our robots more reliable and stable, while also supporting high-dynamic, high-load movements. This is crucial for robots' future application in both industrial, commercial and domestic scenarios," said Guo Yijie, head of the innovative humanoid department and the Marathon project of Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center.
Engineers share development story behind Beijing humanoid half-marathon champion model
