China's 25T Boom: Why Global Tech Elite Are Heading North

China's total foreign trade value has smashed through RMB 25 trillion in the first half of this year, according to the latest data from the General Administration of Customs. That figure comes to roughly HKD 27 trillion, or USD3.7 trillion, a historic high for the country. Behind the headline number lies an industry competition drawing top talent from the world's leading universities, one that points to where the next wave of growth will come from.

China's H1 trade hits a record RMB 25 trillion, showing strong resilience.

On July 14, the General Administration of Customs reported that June's total import-export value reached RMB 4.78 trillion, up 24.2% year-on-year. Exports alone hit RMB 2.82 trillion, growing 20.8% and far outpacing the market's forecast of 19%.

For the first half of the year, total import-export value reached RMB 25.47 trillion, up 16.9% year-on-year and RMB 3.68 trillion more than the same period last year. The first time the figure has topped RMB 25 trillion for this period, and it extends 17 consecutive months of growth.

In US dollar terms, June's total export value reached USD 412.39 billion, or roughly HKD 3.22 trillion, up 27% and again beating the market's 19% forecast. Wang Jun, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Customs, said directly at the press conference that despite a complex and volatile external environment, "China's innovation momentum remains strong, its economic actors remain vibrant, and its level of openness remains high." The foundation of foreign trade, he added, remains solid.

China's trade with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative reached RMB 12.97 trillion in the first half of the year, up 14.8% year-on-year. That accounts for over half of total foreign trade value, and it reflects a foreign trade landscape accelerating away from dependence on traditional European and American markets.

Computing hardware import-export grew by over 50% in the first half of the year, according to Customs data. That signals AI-related industries are becoming a new engine for foreign trade.

AI powers trade: Computing hardware imports surge over 50% in H1.

Meanwhile, China's total import-export value with the United States stood at RMB 2 trillion, down 3.6% year-on-year. China-US trade's share of the total continues to narrow, showing that China's foreign trade dependence on any single market has significantly decreased.

Where Does This New Engine Come From?

The answer may lie in a competition held in Haidian, Beijing, on July 12. The finals of the inaugural "Moonshot Programme, Physical AI Hackathon" took place at the Zhongguancun International Technology Exchange Center.

Young devs race to build AI prototypes at the first Moonshot Physical AI Hackathon.

Over the previous two days, more than 200 young developers from top universities, research institutions, and tech companies worldwide gathered in Haidian. Organized into 50 elite teams, they spent two days and nights in extreme development, rapidly turning ideas that existed only in their minds into working, tangible prototypes.

Organizer-provided data shows that many contestants came from top institutions including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University, Wuhan University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, MIT, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, and Stanford University. Current students made up 53.6% of participants, while AI and software engineers accounted for 15.6%. Startup team members or entrepreneurs made up 14.3%, and hardware or robotics developers accounted for 7.6%.

On the technical side, 41.9% of contestants possessed full-stack capabilities. Most could independently complete an end-to-end closed loop, taking a project from model to demo and from software to hardware.

"Embodied intelligence" is viewed as the next global tech frontier following the internet and mobile internet. This track was previously dominated by Silicon Valley's capital advantages. The fact that students from the world's top universities are now heading north is, in itself, a signal that the tide is turning.

Embodied AI: The next tech frontier drawing top global talent.

The winning team, LoopMaster, comprised four members from Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Changsha. They had only known each other online before forming an ad hoc team for the competition.

Team leader Li Pengdong is a tech blogger and former robotics company engineer. Algorithm lead Zou Yanwen is a PhD student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Interaction designer Xie Jun is a second-year master's student at Northeastern University, and product designer Xu Xinhao previously worked as a designer at an automotive company.

Meeting in person for the first time, the four collaborated over just two days to build a self-evolving retail robot named "Massi." The robot stole the show on-site, dressed in a jersey matching that of football star Messi.

Teams rapidly built and deployed multi-algorithm retail robots.

Xie Jun revealed that the robot integrates vision, grasping, and large-model operation algorithms. It requires only a simple demonstration to automatically optimize its selling behavior, with an estimated potential to cut sales costs for supermarkets and small vendors by around 40%.

Zhao Mingguo, researcher in Tsinghua University's Department of Automation and Director of its Robotics Control Laboratory, encouraged the contestants on-site. "What you've built here today," he said, "may be worth more than three years of experiments in many laboratories."

The Industrial Scale Behind the Competition

The real data worth watching is the industrial scale behind the competition. According to the Zhongguancun Science City Management Committee, Haidian has attracted 331 companies related to embodied intelligence robotics so far. That includes 25 humanoid robot manufacturers, 3 listed companies, 7 unicorn enterprises, and 21 "little giant" enterprises specializing in niche technology sectors.

Together, these companies form a complete industrial chain centered on the "brain, cerebellum, and body." In other words, from algorithmic models to mechanical components, Haidian district alone now possesses self-sufficient, full-chain production capability. This is precisely the industrial foundation behind the "over 50% growth in computing hardware import-export" seen in the trade figures.

At the competition venue, organizers directly provided robotic arms from Galbot, dexterous hands from LinkerBot, and humanoid robots from Galaxea General for contestants to use free of charge. That spared participants the need to bring their own costly equipment, significantly lowering the barrier for integrated software-hardware development and validation.

Representatives from well-known investment institutions such as Tsinghua Holdings' Shuimu Fund and Blue Lake Capital took notes as they watched, scouting for investment targets. One investor described their role as not just there to judge, but to scout projects.

Wang Xiang, former President of Xiaomi Group and founding partner of Moonshot, described the organizers' role as building a bridge to help laboratory projects cross the gap to commercialization. Award-winning projects will get priority to move into Haidian's Embodied Intelligence Innovation Industrial Park after the competition, connecting with Dongsheng Science Park and top-tier capital to form a complete closed loop from talent and technology to capital.

As early as February 2025, the Zhongguancun (Haidian) Embodied Intelligence Innovation Industrial Park was officially inaugurated. It became the nation's first specialized industrial park named after "embodied intelligence."

Bordering top universities such as Tsinghua and Peking University to its west, the park has established the shortest possible conversion pathway from "laboratory breakthrough" to "pilot iteration" to "industrial implementation." To date, it has attracted nearly 50 tech companies, covering the full industrial chain from intelligent algorithms and core components to complete robotic units and application scenarios.

On one hand, there is the RMB 25 trillion trade report card announced by Customs. On the other, there is the frontline scene of students from the world's top universities heading north to compete.

Put together, these two pictures trace a clear trajectory of China's economic transformation. As traditional export engines continue to power ahead, hard-tech industries like embodied intelligence are quietly taking shape, becoming the new driving force for the next round of growth.

While Silicon Valley continues to grapple with headaches over large AI models and chip supply chains, China has already brought talent, capital, and industrial chains together onto the same track. This momentum, moving from laboratory to factory and from campus to market, may well be the real confidence underpinning the trade figures.

Mao Paishou

** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **

When the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, energy costs in Germany, a country heavily reliant on Russian natural gas, spun instantly out of control. Electricity prices at one point surged sevenfold, forcing ordinary people to dream up all manner of clever tricks to save on their power bills. One of those tricks has become a distinctive sight on German streets: the "balcony solar" system.

To cut power bills, Germans turned balconies into power plants.

"Balkonkraftwerk": Miracles On Balconies

This simple generating setup costs just a few hundred euros, yet more than 1.33 million units have been installed across Germany in three years. The German government has even amended the law, granting tenants with no rooftop of their own priority installation rights.

What Germans call the "Balkonkraftwerk", or "balcony power plant", is actually just one or two solar panels hung outside the railing, an inverter the size of a shoebox, and a plug that goes into a household socket. The current then flows back into the home: the inverter sets its output voltage slightly higher than the 230V household supply, so solar power feeds in reverse into the wiring. A small storage battery can be added to keep the power coming at night.

The "Balkonkraftwerk": railing-hung panels, a shoebox-sized inverter, one plug.

The principle is not complicated. It works rather like a water supply system. Pipes maintain a steady pressure; turn on the tap and the pressure difference pushes the water out. The grid works the same way. China's standard household voltage is 220V and Germany's is 230V. The inverter in a balcony photovoltaic module simply nudges its output voltage slightly above the socket voltage, pushing solar power back in.

Once the current enters the socket, it is consumed on the spot, "drunk up" by the appliances at home. Less electricity is drawn from the grid, and the meter turns more slowly. If no appliances are running, then in areas where bidirectional metering is permitted, the surplus power flows out of the home along the mains line and back into the grid.

A Few Hundred Euros, Real Money Back

A "balcony power plant" sells for roughly 200 to 500 euros, depending on output. The best-selling 800W model goes for about 350 euros. A solar-plus-storage package with a battery costs between 800 and 1,500 euros.

A granny who lives in Stuttgart finds a 300W system enough to cover her basic needs: lighting, the router and electric fans. She now checks the next day's sunshine forecast every evening. If the sun will be out, she schedules a bike charge or runs the dishwasher. "Save whatever you can," she says.

Granny's 300W system covers her lights, router and fans.

Her nightly ritual: the sunshine forecast. "Save whatever you can."

Weyland, a young man in the northern city of Kiel, hung two panels with a combined output of 600W on the balcony of his rented apartment. In good weather they cover half of his daily electricity use. The whole system cost under 500 euros, yet saves him more than 90 euros a year, a payback period of about five years. These days he spends his time glued to the app, watching the generation figures roll in.

Kiel renter Weyland's two balcony panels total 600W.

In southern Germany, where the sunshine is better, a standard 800W system generates about 750 to 850 kWh a year. At last year's average price of 0.39 euros per kWh, that puts up to 295 to 334 euros a year back in the user's pocket.

For an ordinary household consuming 3,000 kWh a year, saving is about  25 to 28 percent. A single-person household using around 1,500 kWh could ideally save 50 to 57 percent.

No Roof? No Problem

Europe used to put solar panels on rooftops. But more than half of Germany's population lives in rented housing, the highest share in the EU. That means no roof, no land, nowhere to put panels, and no eligibility for the complicated installation and grid-connection approval process.

No roof, no problem: balcony solar is the tenant's lifesaver.

That was when Chinese manufacturers stepped up, Anker Innovations, EcoFlow and Zendure among them. They launched lightweight, low-cost balcony solar kits that skip the tedious paperwork and are far easier to use.

Panels have been slimmed down from the traditional 20kg to just 3 to 5kg. Hook-style railing clamps fix them in place with a few screws. Some models can simply be lashed on with metal cable ties, and they can be taken down easily when moving.

Voltage has dropped from the 600V to 1,000V high-voltage direct current of rooftop solar to a safe 30V to 60V. The plug goes straight into an ordinary socket, and monitoring is done entirely through an app. Installation and use are virtually "zero-threshold". German young people love it. Chinese manufacturers have turned solar "engineering" into a consumer electronics product for everyone.

Berlin Gives the Green Light

The German government has also given the green light. A legislative amendment in May 2024 allows self-installation without prior approval; simple registration afterwards is enough. Balcony solar is now a "privileged installation", on par with disabled-access facilities and EV charging points. Landlords and owners' committees may not block installations on grounds such as "spoiling the view". A landlord who wants to refuse must prove a safety hazard; if the tenant can fix the hazard, the installation goes ahead anyway. The government also waived the 19 percent VAT, and cities including Berlin and Stuttgart have rolled out dedicated subsidies of up to 500 euros. All income from generation is exempt from personal income tax.

With the government "loosening the reins", balcony solar has grown rapidly. Around 260,000 units were added in 2023. The figure soared to 435,000 in 2024, and another 430,000 or so were registered in 2025. That is 1.1 million units installed at lightning speed in three years. By May this year, cumulative installations had reached 1.33 million, the equivalent of more than a thousand German households signing up every day.

Policy green light: install first, register afterwards.

Other European countries have followed suit. The Netherlands had reached 600,000 cumulative installations by the end of 2025, the highest penetration after Germany, with nearly 5 percent of households equipped. Austria has installed 250,000 units, Italy 200,000 and Belgium 150,000.

Made in China, Invisible at Home

Of the solar panels imported into Europe, 98 percent come from China, and 70 percent of micro-inverters are Chinese-supplied. In balcony energy storage, Chinese companies had already secured the first seven places of the top ten best-seller spots in Europe as early as the third quarter of 2024. Industry forecasts see global installed balcony solar capacity exceeding 50 gigawatts by 2030, with China likely to claim more than 40 percent of it.

Yet in China itself, these products are practically invisible in cities. For one thing, electricity in China is genuinely cheap. For another, China follows a "centralized plus distributed" path.

The northwest builds gigawatt-scale centralized solar bases across deserts and the Gobi on a massive scale, using ultra-high-voltage transmission to solve the geographic mismatch. The east develops distributed solar on factory and detached-house rooftops. Rural rooftops easily run to tens or even hundreds of square meters, accommodating 20kW to 50kW systems. That is dozens of times the generating capacity of balcony solar.

With no domestic demand to speak of, Chinese companies have nonetheless struck overseas demand with pinpoint precision and taken command of the global balcony solar market. The same story has played out with saddle-style window air conditioners, fully automatic lawnmowers, electric-assist bicycles and AI game-tracking cameras. To Western politicians, China's technological rise is a threat. But to ordinary people abroad, Chinese products have made life better, time and again.