China released its first artificial intelligence (AI) computing open architecture alongside a wealth of sci-tech breakthroughs at the World Smart Industry Expo 2025 which kicked off in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Friday.
The event has brought together more than 600 domestic and international businesses to showcase innovations across various sectors.
This expo features five specialized sections: intelligent connected new energy vehicles, digital cities, smart robots, low-altitude economy, and smart homes, showcasing over 3,000 new products, technologies, and achievements.
Additionally, the expo unveiled China's first AI computing open architecture, introduced an AI super cluster system, and released multiple technical capabilities.
This architecture will effectively break the status quo -- smart manufacturing enterprises operate in isolation and build their own systems from the ground up.
It also announced the start of the construction on an AI computing open architecture joint laboratory under the National Advanced Computing Industry Innovation Center.
"The AI computing open architecture we've released today aims to optimize and streamline this process, uniting partners to achieve shared capabilities, shared interfaces, and shared standards," said Li Bin, an exhibitor.
Transformers are core equipment in power systems.
Traditional methods for inspecting their interiors require draining oil followed by manual entry, involving multiple steps, consuming significant time, and posing dual risks to personnel and equipment.
A robotic fish displayed at the expo can effectively address this challenge.
"The robotic fish features a compact, agile, and long-endurance bionic design, enabling it to navigate freely in transformer oil up to 10 meters deep for inspection and filming tasks. Equipped with a high-definition camera and lighting system, it captures clear images in dimly lit transformer oil and transmits them in real time. Leveraging AI technology, the robotic fish can automatically identify various defects such as carbon marks, electrical discharge, and foreign objects," said Feng Jijun, an exhibitor.
The expo will run through September 8, with 298 key projects expected to be signed.
The four-day expo spans an indoor exhibition venue of 130,000 square meters and an outdoor venue of 40,000 square meters, with this year's focus on the themes "AI+" and "Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicles."
China unveils its first AI computing open architecture at smart industry expo
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
