AI agent OpenClaw becomes hot topic at China's "two sessions"

China

AI agent OpenClaw becomes hot topic at China's "two sessions"

2026-03-11 16:24 Last Updated At：03-12 12:11

"Raising lobster" has sparked heated discussions in China's AI community and become hot topics at the country's ongoing "two sessions" this year.

The term "raising lobster" originated from the open-source AI agent OpenClaw, which uses a red lobster as its icon.

It has become a buzzword adopted by Chinese users to describe the process of setting up and training this smart assistant.

OpenClaw, created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger, is designed to allow large-language models to operate computers autonomously, controlling files, executing commands and interacting through messaging applications.

"In fact, such an AI agent has liberated us first and foremost. This liberation represents a significant technological advancement. I used to say that technology changes our way of working, but that still refers to a revolution in tools. When I see Openclaw, I could not predict whether it would ultimately endure. But when I know more about this model, my first impression is that it doesn't merely change our way of working, it transforms the very nature of work itself. That's a fundamental difference," said Wang Jian, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Many Chinese tech companies have since jumped on the trend, unleashing their own "lobsters." Tencent hatched QClaw, Minimax introduced MaxClaw, Moonshot AI unveiled KimiClaw, and Alibaba joined the feast with CoPaw.

Experts said the emergence of these AI agents enables ordinary people without coding backgrounds to develop usable apps in a short time.

"Now, more people have access to such AI tools and actively use them to genuinely enhance labor productivity across various fields. They can accomplish tasks that were previously impossible due to insufficient individual effort or resource investment," said Liu Qingfeng, a deputy to National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

But as enthusiasm grows, security concerns are becoming increasingly prominent, experts said.

In this February, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a warning that some OpenClaw-powered deployments carry high security risks when in default or improper configuration, making them highly susceptible to cyberattacks, information leakage, and other security issues.

Fuel price hikes in Cambodia make life harder for local people

Price hikes in Cambodia resulting from the global energy crisis have made local people's life more difficult.

Among Southeast Asian countries, Cambodia is the most severely affected by the fuel crisis triggered by the war in Iran.

It has neither domestic commercial oil production capability nor oil refinery, and even under normal conditions it has less than a month's supply of petrol, diesel, jet fuel, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

The vast majority of the country's tuk-tuks which run on LPG have faced soaring prices.

"The fares for the ride-hailing apps we work with don't increase. They don't adjust in line with the rising gas prices. It's very hard to make a living. Even affording three meals a day is difficult, it's sometimes not enough," said Nov Hout, an LPG tuk-tuk driver.

Hout said some drivers have already switched to electric vehicles to save LPG costs.

Meanwhile, the sharp rise in the LPG price has compelled many Cambodians to abandon modern cooking methods and revert to traditional practices.

"We have to use firewood for cooking for the time being. It's just not as convenient as cooking with gas, but we must save money because gas is so expensive," said Chea Yon, a resident on Cambodia's Silk Island.

Cambodia relies heavily on road transportation, and rising fuel costs are driving up the price of all sorts of goods.

Farmers are not only feeling the pinch of rising fertilizer costs, but also pressures from fuel costs.

"We need to use a machine to pump water for irrigation, which requires a lot of fuel. The other day when we dug up ginger, we didn't make a profit at all. In fact, we lost money because fuel prices are so high," said Ra Hong, a farmer in Phnom Penh.