Young innovators from China gathered in Shanghai this week to showcase their robotic skills at the 2025 World Robot Contest Qualifier.
This qualifier, held as part of the Mobile World Congress Shanghai for the first time, aims to identify outstanding students for the next round of competition.
The theme for this year's competition is "Galaxy Boundless".
During the competition, student participants are tasked with controlling a robot car to move the stars to specific locations, with varying scores assigned to each star. Those who achieve the highest score in 60 seconds win.
"Students need to wing it on the site. They have to analyze and solve problems in a timely manner. For example, he needs to think about what strategies can get higher scores," said Shi Lixian, the organizer of the qualifier.
For many students who have never tried this before, mastering the remote control of the small car proves to be quite challenging.
"At first, I was a bit nervous. And then, I was helped by my classmates and I tried to move the stars instead of the yellow piles, which costs much less time," said Shi Ruohan, a contestant.
"Some kids may talk fast and give good coaching advice while the rest of the team is playing, but they may not be able to finish with a high score when they are on their own. That's why we give kids two chances, and it's a test of their ability to adapt," said Shi Lixian.
Winners of the qualifier will advance to provincial-level competitions and tournaments before reaching the finals.
The 2025 Mobile World Congress, which wrapped up on Friday, attracted 109,000 attendees from 205 countries and regions, alongside more than 2,900 exhibitors, sponsors, and partners, according to the GSMA, the global industry organization behind the annual gathering.
China's young innovators showcase robotic skills at World Robot Contest Qualifier
A video featuring a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII), was released on Thursday in northeast China's Harbin, revealing details of how the unit used meteorological data to conduct horrific bacterial experiments on human beings.
The video was released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, in which former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out a bacterial dispersal experiment.
The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province.
Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition of the exhibition hall, said that Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's field human experiments by measuring wind direction, wind speed, and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results, according to Jin.
Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.
At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground. They sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.
"Unit 731's bacterial weapons were dropped by aircraft from a height of 50 meters in the open air. Therefore, the meteorological squad needed to observe wind direction and speed, which directly affected the precision and accuracy of the bacterial weapons deployment," said Jin.
Nishijima recounted the harrowing experience of the human test subjects.
"They were fully aware that inhaling the substances would certainly lead to death, so they closed their eyes and held their breath to avoid breathing them in. Their resistance prevented the experiment from proceeding. To compel them to comply, they were forced at gunpoint to open their mouths and lift their heads," said Nishijima.
These experiments, disguised as "scientific research," were in fact systematic tests of biological warfare weapons conducted by the Japanese military. The data generated from these inhumane activities became "research findings" shared among the Japanese army medical school, the medical community, and the military at large.
"At that time, the entire Japanese medical community tacitly approved, encouraged, and even participated in the criminal acts of Unit 731. The unit comprised members from Japan's medical and academic sectors who served the Japanese war of aggression against China. Thus, Unit 731 was not just a military unit but represented an organized and systematic criminal enterprise operating from the top down," said Jin.
Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.
At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and Japan's biological weapons killed more than 300,000 people in China.
Video offers details of Japan's germ-warfare crimes in northeast China
