China Tech Talk

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  My Quick Take on Kimi K3 and GLM-5.2 23.07.2026 21Min.

  I’m staring a new series of what I call quick takes. These will be shorter (15-20 minutes) than scheduled podcast. They will be recorded whenever something interesting comes up in the tech world and I don’t want to wait to talk to someone about it.So the first thing I did here is Kimi K3 and GLM-5.2 and what this tells us about China’s AI development. I think the overall story I want to put out there is the self improvement part of it and also models likely expanding over time and improved training data and flywheel with the Chinese labs.By this point next year, we could very well (imo) see 5T+ parameter models coming out of China. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Talking about Kimi K3/WAIC on Carl Zha podcast 22.07.2026 52Min.

  This week, I had a chance to go on Carl Zha’s livestream to talk about the launch of Kimi K3 and what we saw at WAIC. Unfortunately, I had to leave early due to family obligations, but I think most of the issues I wanted to cover was already talked about. I’m actually a little surprised of the audio quality in there. I think next time, I have to go with something other than iPhone when I do this.I just want again to point out something that I think is very under reported out there. Chinese models are getting larger and they will keep getting larger. Biren Tech reported this week that Chinese models will get to 5T+ range next year and it looks like we will reach 10T the year after as larger super node becomes available that can pool together all the high bandwidth memory and do efficient inference of these large MoE models. All of the major Chinese AI players like Moonshot, Zai, DeepSeek, Qwen and Minimax are going into new and larger sized models this year. Larger models require more compute to train, more data and more longer term optimization for inference. All of this has been made easier by the increased automation these firms can use to improve and speed up their own model development and training time. We are now seeing these very fast iterative improvement from Kimi and GLM in recent times. These are the new standards. The public is no longer happy with a new big improvement every 3 to 4 months. This needs to be every 1 to 2 months and eventually every month by the end of this year. Teams will need to have both flagship LLM and smaller and cheaper distilled models. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode with Electric Felix 21.07.2026 1Std. 1Min.

  This week, I invited Electric Felix on my show to talk more about EVs. I first encountered him on X/Twitter and then followed his journey on EVs in Europe as well as his trips in China and what he experienced there in Yunnan and charging stations. It was great talking to him and getting a sense of where Europe’s EV infrastructure and demand look like at the moment. I was in Spain and Italy earlier this year and the latter is still very hydrocarbon centric. We ended the talk with how the current trade dispute with Chinese EV industry in Europe gaining market share might get worked out. I think we will probably end up just seeing more localized production over time. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  My talk with Carl Zha on Long March 10B launch and recovery 21.07.2026 1Std. 34Min.

  I had the pleasure recently to go on Carl’s live stream to talk about the recent LM-10B launch and recovery. Why this was significant and why China picked its design of recovering in offshore pad. We also talked a little bit about the strategic implication of having low cost launches and what else China needs to do to continue to make advancement in space missions like building up LEO constellations and also do Moon landing and building lunar colony. We also had some fun talking about SpaceX/Elon part of this.Finally, I did Q&A from the audience. A lot of AI related questions, especially with AGI stuff. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  My discussion with Carl Zha on China's AI progress and GLM/Zai 07.07.2026 1Std. 45Min.

  I’ve been wanting to do an episode on GLM-5.2 & Zhipu for a while, but didn’t get a chance to do so. Last week, I did a live stream on Carl Zha’s channel and here is my piece on it.I’ve had very good experience with GLM-5.2 so far and will probably move up a level in coding plan if their next release makes a similar level of jump. I’ve also had good experience with Kimi 2.6 & 2.7. Although in terms of Software engineering, GLM-5.2 is clearly better from my personal experience.I would just recommend everyone to get off Opus and Claude Code. Try the cheaper GLM through ZCode or Kimi through Kimi Code. Or you can get both. Sometimes, one model would be better and other times, the other one will be better. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode 30 with Andy Collingwood 04.07.2026 1Std. 16Min.

  This week, I welcome Andy from Multipolarity podcast onto my show. I’ve been listening to his show for a while and always enjoyed him and Phillip Pilkington’s discussion on geopolitics, European politics and the increasing multiploar world that we live in.We talked about everything for quite a while. I was really interesting in how someone with multipolar view from Europe would look at the Russian/Ukraine conflict as well as the Iran conflict. I think you will find that we had a lot of common view point. It seems like European leaders are waiting for Trump to fall apart and lose elections so that the democrats can get back in power and fix everything. I’m not sure that’s a good approach, but there is definitely the European pitch of “If you continue to support us with Ukraine, we will help you squeeze China”.As two people that think this world has profoundly changed to multipolar, we both think this is not an approach that works well with the current power dynamics globally. In fact, a dramatically weakened US from Iran conflict would not only hurt Trump, but hurt the position of the collective West.And we also finished up agreeing on something I’ve personally been thinking about. What happens to UK as it goes on this decline? Do we have Scottish independence or a unification of Ireland. These are actually real problems that few people seem to be talking about publicly. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode with China Driven/Will Sundin 27.06.2026 54Min.

  When I started really getting into Chinese EVs in 2022/2023, there really wasn’t that much material in English about what was going on in China's EV industry. When I did search on YouTube, I would often find content by Wheelsboy, Elliott Richards and my guys today China Driven/Will Sundin.I remember watching some of the earlier content by Will and just seeing his driving experience on various NIO and Li Auto models. This was before Li Auto was really known by anyone outside of China. You could see back then just how good the L1 and L9 were and why people in China were buying them instead of BMW.So, I managed to get hold of Will this week and bring him on the show to talk about how he moved to China, got into doing videos of Chinese EVs, his experience with NIO, Li Auto and experiences with China’s EV sector as a whole. We ended the show talking about his experiences from the recent Beijing Auto Show and also what vehicles Will would buy. It was a really great chat with Will and I would love to have him back on the show in the future. Please follow him on his Youtube channel and X/Twitter. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode 28: Marcel Münch 16.06.2026 1Std. 9Min.

  I had the pleasure this week to welcome Marcel on my show. I would recommend everyone to follow Marcel on X as well as on his website and YouTube channel. A really good guy and we had a great discussion. I first followed and noticed Marcel because of his commentaries on China’s EV industry and especially NIO. However, he actually talks about more than that on both X and our episode. I think he is very well tuned into China’s tech industry as well as life in Shenzhen. He even mentioned to me that his work involves helping German companies navigate challenges in the China market as well as understanding Chinese companies entering European market + opportunities from all of this.I was pleasantly surprised that he mentioned Tuya as the under the radar company that he thought very highly of. I actually only found out about them a few months ago as I was getting really into embodied AI supply chain in China.So, I recommend everyone to check it out and let me know what you think. And I recommend everyone to visit Shenzhen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  My episode on AI Proem with Grace Shao 09.06.2026 50Min.

  I had the pleasure to join Grace on this episode of AI Proem. We covered a lot of topics here. A lot of stuff on AI, semiconductors and robotics, but obviously also all the other techs that I talk about.I didn’t break ground on anything new, but I did voice my opinion regarding China’s housing market slowdown at the end and how I think people are completely misreading the story. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  My Radio War Nerd Episode 02.06.2026 1Std. 25Min.

  I had the pleasure of joining RWN on his podcast to talk about China and PLA and WestPac conflict. I thank Mark and John for welcoming me on their show and giving me the opportunities to just explain how we got here and why we saw a lot of the alarms from the DC crowd and US security establishment. I talked about game changing political events like the South China Sea Island expansions and the Pelosi visit. A lot of the moves by DC actually didn’t work out well like the THAAD deployment in South Korea. Why you cannot compare attacking Iran to attacking Taiwan. Blockading Taiwan is an entirely different paradigm vs blockading a country with as large surface area as Iran. I also talked about things like the first strike and why that is important, but also dangerous in terms of escalation of conflict. I also talked about the importance of satellites in modern warfare.Also since was right before Trump’s visit, we actually did talk about Thucydides Trap but not in those war exactly. How do you resolve issues between reigning hegemon and upcoming power? I think these are all hard questions that need to be resolved.Please feel free to ask any questions you may have regarding to this interview. I’m glad to answer them. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode 27: Talk with Paul Triolo 24.05.2026 1Std. 24Min.

  Today, I had the pleasure of speaking to Paul Triolo on a host of things. We actually have been talking to each other for a while offline, but I finally got a chance to speak to him in a person today and it was great. And as you will hear in this podcast, we are nowhere close to being finished. I will definitely have Paul back on the show to talk about semiconductor industry in the future.I think it was great to hear from him on just how this China/USA tech competition started and his experience through all of this as someone who first spent time in China in the late 80s! Ever since, he has always taken a very fair and thoughtful role in being vocal about the importance of China/US ties in the media.But I guess the focus of our talk today was on how the October surprise sanctions came about and the rationales behind these decisions. And I think it’s important for people to remember that while Biden started all these sanctions, the brunt of Chinese retaliations did not hit until 2025 after Trump started his tariff war. The reason is that export control regimes take time to develop. While America is the master of this art, China hasn’t been that involved in tech export controls (especially on supply chain side & extra-territorial) until the wake-up call from Biden sanctions.The vast majority of the DC crowd simply did not ever think there would be consequences to their actions, so there was apparently very little cost-benefit analysis when these decisions were made in the first place.We didn’t really get into the semi industry part of this which will be fun to talk about next time. We did talk a lot about critical minerals and Paul has actually worked with American customers of Chinese Rare Earth magnet customers as well as Indium. We talked about why Coherent visited China with Trump this time.We also talked about why the Chinese Rare Earth retaliations only came around when the trade war started. Simply put, China just had not developed the same type of export control back in 2022. It only ramped up building these export control policies after it suffered from them. So, I think Trump was just unlucky that he was the one that got hit hard by them. Those controls were actually in retaliations for 3 years of US export controls prior to Trump admin. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode 26: Z.ai interview 12.05.2026 1Std.

  This week, I had the chance to interview Lou from Z.ai. It was really a great conversation to talk to her about the work that they are doing there and how they look at developing newer models and her view toward AGI.I get the feeling of just incredible hard work that Zhipu is going through as part of their effort to produce the best models and products out there. You can see that with GLM-5.1, which I can attest to as being very good for programming. It can do a lot of thinking of solve problems. I get the sense that GLM models are now able to do some form of RSI (Recursive Self Improvement) where the models help improve or create new more powerful models.One thing that stand out to me about GLM models is their size. They are in the 750B param range which can still fit as Quantized models and run locally on boxes with really large VRAM. However, they are also large enough that they are competitive with larger models. I think there are probably some sacrifices that you have to make in a 750B param model vs 1.6T or 3T param models.It will be very interesting to see where Z.ai goes from here since they have now received a lot of funding since IPO which gives them a larger war chest to do the work that they need to do. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  CrossOver Episode with Kyle Chan 28.04.2026 1Std. 11Min.

  This week, I had the pleasure of doing a crossover episode with Kyle Chan who X profile can be found here. We discussed a wide range of topic related to all aspect of AI. We really had a fun time discussing the full scope of China’s supply chain vs other countries. If we look at things holistically, China is definitely building the same supply chain advantage in AI as it has in other industries.I would recommend everyone to read and listen to Kyle’s substack. I’m sure I will be doing more stuff with Kyle in the future. There are a lot of interesting topics and trend that we are both seeing. AI is just the start and we can probably discuss EVs, renewables, batteries and other industries and supply chains in the future. You can see Kyle’s podcast of this episode here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode 25: Embodied AI ecosystem 22.04.2026 56Min.

  This week, I welcomed back Qian Yu on the show to talk about China’s AI (especially embodied AI) ecosystem.If you would like to know how Chinese entrepreneurs can start new AI robotics/embodied AI product, this would be a good episode to listen to. We also talked about World Model vs VLA, educational institutions involved in AI industry and some of the projects that we have seen recently like the Honor and Xiaomi humanoid robots.I talked about the difference between reinforcement learning in world model vs LLMs. How can you have recursive self improvement in real world models?And finally, we also talked about the recent Sugon rack innovation. How Chinese players leveraged domestic supply chain to create a high voltage rack that allows superior cooling to existing solutions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode 24: Iran conflict's affect on global supply chain 10.04.2026 53Min.

  This week, I welcomed back Dan Collins to talk about something that has come to the forefront since the start of the Iran conflict. We are really in a historically unprecedented disruption when it comes to supply chain and energy. What does it mean when this many “molecule” or “atom” get taken off the global market. What will that do to global prices of everything and shortages of things like food? That will cause huge disruptions everywhere. Near the end, Dan and I spent sometime just talking about where the Iran conflict is going at the moment. Always great to discuss something in traditional engineering and hard sciences with someone that have experience in this area like Dan. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode 23: Initial look at Iran conflict 20.03.2026 1Std. 16Min.

  This week, I welcomed back my friend Snek onto the show to talk about what we are seeing so far in the Iran conflict.We tried to look at it from the view of how the conflict started, how it’s progressing and where it is going. We covered what Iran is likely getting from Russia & China in the form of intelligence and supply chain. We looked at the possible land invasion plans that’s been rumored.Since Snek is very familiar with both this conflict and the Russia/Ukraine conflict, we also talked about the parallels and similarities we saw in the two conflict. Finally, we went into the geopolitics a little bit based on what we think will play out in the region. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode 22: Collaboration with China Research Collective - Embodied AI discussion 10.03.2026 55Min.

  I have joined a project called the China Research Collective to look into providing English language translations of how China thinks about different topics of modern economy. This week, I invited Qian Yu on the show to discuss it and to talk about the first topic we are looking at together: Embodied AI.It is very good to have him on the show, because he is in Tsinghua University right now and have access to many of the people involved in China’s LLM and embodied AI industry. Of course, I have my own experience with China’s embodied AI industry which I’ve talked about before. So, I think this is a good thing to explore as I discussed Galbot investment, Xiaomi’s usage of robots in its factories, the entire supply chain, D-Robotics AI chips and services like Tuya (which help customers find suitable model, hardware module & ODM). It is amazing to have access to this supply chain, which allows prototyping in just 4-6 weeks. That’s something not possible if you are working on these projects in America. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode 21 01.03.2026 1Std. 13Min.

  This week, I invited my discord friend “Sagar” on the show to talk about his experience in moving back to China from his finance sector job in America. It is always interesting to broach this topic, because many of us who grew up in the West now see living standard higher in major cities in China than where we live.I thought it was important for someone who made the move to give everyone an idea of the experience of moving to a tier 1 city like Shanghai and settling down with your friend + looking for a job afterward.Since we both work in finance, we had a discussion also about Shanghai’s finance sector and what it needs to do to create more service sector jobs to accommodate all the young college grads coming into the work force.I apologize for audio this week. Due to the fact that Sagar had issue connecting to my usual recording site (vpn problems), the quality of recording was worse than usual. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Special Episode on Type 09V 14.02.2026 39Min.

  This is an emergency episode of my podcast and I invited Bora back to the show to talk about Type 09V submarine.In my mind, this is possibly the most consequential PLA program of the next decade. Well, this program and the Type 09VI submarine that will likely come along also. This submarine by itself will change the balance of naval warfare globally once it enters service in large quantity in the early 2030s.Think of a modern Chinese version of Seawolf. That’s what Type 09V is.And Type 09VI will also be quite the strategic and geopolitical gamechanger because it will be the first non Western SSBN that can get close to CONUS without being tailed. That was never the case for Russian/Soviet SSBNs.There will be more analysis of Type 09V by myself and others in the future, but I hope this is a good first technical overview online. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com
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  Episode 20: Discussion with Glenn Luk on China's investment priorities over past 30 years 06.02.2026 1Std. 36Min.

  I welcomed back Glenn to talk about something that he knows far better than me. How has China prioritized investment in different industries over the reform period since opening up.China started off by getting investment and investing its own money in export factories to get wealthy through exporting to global market. After the great financial crisis hit, China shifted toward growing its economy and invest in economy through more emphasis on the real estate and infrastructure. This had actually started after liberalization of housing ownership in the late 90s but was really accelerated with many shovel ready projects in second half of 2000s. Eventually, this was shifted to new productive high tech industries as Chinese businesses continue to get more competitive in the global market. Every phase of development made a lot of sense given where China was in terms of development, economic size and demographics.As we head toward the 15th Five Year Plan, we should see continued focus on investment in areas like grid toward more clean energy (State Grid is investing 4B RMB over this period) as it seeks more energy and technological independence. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tphuang.substack.com