Rest of World

China has encouraged the expansion of digital healthcare services to provide care to the country’s 1.4 billion people, and address longstanding challenges such as an urban-rural gap in healthcare and a lagging primary care network. With a strong biotech talent pool and an efficient clinical test system, China’s drug industry is having a breakthrough moment, as well. More clinical trials are being conducted in China than in the U.S., and China now accounts for half of global drug licensing deals, as Western pharmaceutical companies purchase rights to new medicines developed in China. Globally, the rise of China’s prowess in health tech has been met with both awe and suspicion. Ruby Wang, a physician and consultant who has worked in health tech in China and across the world, writes about these tensions in her upcoming book "China Cure: The Rise of a Biotech, AI Medicine, and Global Health Superpower." Wang spoke to Rest of World about China's health innovation and what it means for the world. https://lnkd.in/eHbDM6jB

The U.S. is framing its rivalry with China as one of technical superiority, failing to recognize that public trust and robust consumer protections are necessary for long-term dominance. https://lnkd.in/eq_fH7Ws

What if your credit card rewarded you with AI tokens instead of airline miles? In China, that’s already happening, alongside token plans from telecoms and freebies from restaurants https://lnkd.in/ePjHPpEm

“Why do you always get to define the game — and change the rules?” China is rejecting Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to slow down frontier AI development. What started as Amodei’s proposal to “pace the frontier” and coordinate safety guardrails has triggered a sharp geopolitical reaction from Beijing, Chinese state media, and leading AI engineers: 👉 Cold War Accusations: Chinese officials called the proposal “fear-mongering and confrontation,” arguing that linking AI safety to chip export bans and remote data center crackdowns is an effort to lock in American dominance. 👉 Engineer Pushback: Building under strict chip sanctions, engineers at Chinese labs like MiniMax and DeepSeek argue that calls to pause tech development are fundamentally unfair while Chinese models are still racing to catch up. 👉State Security Concerns: Beijing isn’t ignoring AI risks—it just views them differently. China’s State Security Ministry recently highlighted advanced U.S. models (Claude Mythos and GPT-5.5-Cyber) as major threats to critical national infrastructure. With President Donald Trump scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington on September 24, artificial intelligence guardrails and mutual security risks are set to dominate the diplomatic agenda. https://lnkd.in/ejMRh_3p

What will it take to build an AI economy where workers and communities share in the wealth it creates? Join Rest of World and Chemonics in NYC this Thursday for a conversation on AI, labor, capital, and equitable growth. Space is limited! https://luma.com/g3lr7ilw

The U.S. is framing its rivalry with China as one of technical superiority, failing to recognize that public trust and robust consumer protections are necessary for long-term dominance. https://lnkd.in/e6znS3_k

What does AI adoption look like in everyday life? In China, it might look like asking your AI agent to get you a table at a dumpling shop. Jinguyuan, a Beijing dumpling restaurant, built an AI “skill” that lets personal AI agents check its menu, recommend dishes, and join the queue. Its owner has also built an AI-powered website to track wait times and gives customers AI token credits. The shop gets more media attention than actual AI usage so far, its owner admits. But he sees the experiment as part of a broader enthusiasm for AI in China, where businesses and workers are often eager to adopt new tools even as they worry about their consequences https://lnkd.in/esj5mexW

By backing free AI models, Nvidia could lock in hardware dominance in the UAE, pulling the country closer to the U.S. and challenging Chinese open-source AI. https://lnkd.in/eAGhzBB3

What does AI look like when it becomes part of someone’s actual job? Rest of World followed six people across Asia and Africa using AI to build tools, run businesses, conduct research, and make creative work https://lnkd.in/gz8vsc4K

Mahsa Alimardani of Witness writes about our disinformation environment: New ways to fabricate launch overnight, a storm of criticism ensues, and guardrails arrive only after the harm. https://lnkd.in/eiPt_zYt