New data reveals that China now leads the world in large-scale AI model development, with domestic companies creating 1,509 of the 3,755 total models released globally to date - representing over 40 percent of the world's total.
The figures were announced at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance held in Shanghai from Saturday to Monday, where China's rapid advances in artificial intelligence took center stage.
The conference exhibition floor featured more than 40 competing domestic models, including a newly upgraded general-purpose system scalable from three billion to 750 billion parameters.
"This is a multimodal large-scale model that employs dynamic hierarchical distillation and data zone governance, enabling the model to achieve both comprehensiveness and scale. It reduces training costs by 70 percent while improving inference efficiency by 30 percent," said Xiang Xin, an exhibitor.
China's advanced role in AI development extends beyond quantity to technological breakthroughs, including the world's first large model with "native memory" capabilities.
"It enables continuous personalization of each model - the more personalized it becomes, the more tailored and precisely attuned the service will be to every individual's unique needs," said Liu Fanping, another exhibitor.
Since the beginning of this year, China has accelerated the iteration speed of its foundational large-scale models. These models are being rapidly implemented across industries such as electronics, raw materials, and consumer goods, with applications spanning R and D design, pilot verification, production manufacturing, and operational management. The large-scale model industry has established a complete architecture encompassing the foundational layer, model layer, and application layer, creating an integrated cycle that connects basic research, technological innovation, and commercial implementation.
"Since 2024, China's large-scale models have made remarkable progress - whether in core capabilities of large language models, reasoning skills, or multimodal models' comprehension and generation abilities. The advancements have been significant, and the iteration pace has been exceptionally rapid," said Yu Xiaohui, president of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
Supporting this model development boom, China now hosts over 5,100 AI companies among 35,000 worldwide, including 71 domestic unicorns.
China tops global AI model count with 1,509 homegrown systems
A program produced by China Global Television Network (CGTN) aired on Saturday presented the unerasable evidence of crimes committed by Yoshijiro Umezu, a top leader in Japan's wartime military during the invasion of China, exposing the history that must never be forgotten.
Umezu was a notorious name deeply involved in Japan's war of aggression against China. As Chief of the Army General Staff, he was closely linked to atrocities like the brutal policy of "Three Alls" - kill all, burn all, and loot all - and the inhuman experiments of Unit 731.
Umezu was dispatched to China in March 1934. His role spanned the entire course of Japan's aggression, from the invasion of northeast China to the collapse of the Pacific War.
In May 1935, Umezu presented then-acting chairman of the Beiping Military Council, He Yingqin, with an outrageous demand to expel Chinese forces from North China. He then redeployed Japanese troops south from northeast China, coercing He into signing the He–Umezu Agreement, effectively opening the door for Japan's full-scale military expansion into North China.
In 1938, Umezu became commander of the Japanese First Army. He enforced the savage "Three Alls" policy, inflicting immense suffering on the Chinese people.
Statistics show that during the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, as many as 7 million civilians in North China were killed under the "Three Alls" policy. Umezu became known among the Chinese as the "Demon of the Three Alls."
One of the most heinous units Japan deployed in China was Unit 731. When it was first established, the unit had no official designation. It was Umezu, then commander of the Kwantung Army, who granted it its code number and helped expand its operations. That's why he is widely regarded as the man behind Unit 731.
At least tens of thousands of Chinese, Soviet and Korean civilians, and Allied prisoners of war were used as live subjects in human experiments, dying in extreme pain and cruelty. This chapter of history remains an indelible scar on the conscience of human civilization.
"The Japanese biological warfare units expanded with the direct involvement of the Japanese government, the military high command, the Kwantung Army, and the medical community. This fully demonstrates that Japan's biological warfare was a premeditated, organized, and state-led crime, carried out from the top down," said Jin Chengmin, director of the Exhibition Hall of Crime Evidence of Japanese Army Unit 731.
As a loyal executor of Japan's expansionist militarist strategy, Umezu did not limit his crimes to China. In 1941, having previously taken part in the Russo-Japanese War, Umezu organized large-scale military exercises targeting the Soviet Union as a hypothetical enemy. He continued to train Kwantung Army forces and sent large numbers of elite troops to the Pacific Theater.
On the morning of September 2, 1945, the ceremony formally marking Japan's unconditional surrender was held on the deck of the USS Missouri.
After the ceremony and the final victory in the world's anti-fascist war, Umezu was put on trial at the Tokyo Tribunal, among the highest-ranking military officers. He was convicted as a Class-A war criminal and sentenced to life imprisonment in November 1948.
Although he escaped execution, justice was not denied forever. On January 8, 1949, Umezu died of rectal cancer in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo without ever admitting guilt.
After his death, Umezu's spirit tablet was enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine, alongside 14 Class-A war criminals. For years, despite strong opposition from Asian countries and criticism from the international community, some Japanese right-wing politicians have repeatedly visited the shrine.
This is far more than a so-called act of mourning. It is a blatant challenge to historical verdicts, a deep insult to the victims of aggression, and a dangerous attempt to rehabilitate militarist crimes.
"History and reality both prove that returning to militarism is a dead end. Completely breaking with militarism and sincerely pursuing peaceful development is a crucial precondition for Japan to gain the trust and understanding of the international community, especially its Asian neighbors, and is also the correct choice in the interests of the Japanese people," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a recent press briefing in Beijing.
CGTN program exposes undeniable history of Yoshijiro Umezu’s war crimes in China
