FOCUS ON HOT SPOTS
British media: Zhejiang University - China's latest "Hero"
Published:
2025-06-16
The Reference News website reported on June 16 that The Times website of the UK published a report titled "From Dancing Robots to DeepSeek, This University Helps China Win in the Technology Race" on June 13. The report is compiled as follows:
With the growth of economic and geopolitical strength, China likes to look for heroes, whether they are model Communist Party members, successful businessmen or Olympic gold medalists. The latest "hero" is a university.
Twenty years ago, Zhejiang University would not have appeared in any ranking of the world's top universities. Even now, when it ranks among the world's top universities, most people outside China might still ask, "Where is it?"
But this year, the situation has changed. This is attributed to a group of young tech entrepreneurs, such as Liu Chang and Sean Pan (Pan Jianyi).
Liu Chang is a senior student at Zhejiang University and has just finished the final exam. He is founding his fourth company.
Sean Pan is a bit older: 29 years old. Although no longer a student, he still has an office jointly provided by Zhejiang University and the local government. Here, he and another alumnus of Zhejiang University run a company that analyzes data for artificial intelligence companies.
Sean Pan said, "Zhejiang has a profound tradition of entrepreneurship." For a long time, Zhejiang has been renowned as a gathering place for small manufacturing enterprises (usually family businesses), and its towns dominate the international production of various products ranging from light switches to ties. Driven by local science graduates, the transition to technology has become a natural thing.
China is no longer mainly home to low-cost manufacturing, and its emerging industrial enterprises can rival those of Western technology companies. China also dominates the global market for green technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines.
China sees the opportunity to surpass Europe and compete directly with the United States in the next stage of the global technological revolution, including artificial intelligence.
Rongding Consulting, which provides consulting services to the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said in a report last month: "Chinese companies have made significant progress in narrowing the gap with foreign enterprises and moving towards the technological frontier. Several industries have shown signs of catching up or even leading."
Earlier this year, the most famous "Six Little Dragons" in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, drew public attention in a series of news reports.
The first one is DeepQuest, founded by Liang Wenfeng, a graduate of Zhejiang University. The company has released a new low-cost artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek, which has caused a shockwave worldwide.
Then, the Spring Festival Gala broadcast astonishing scenes: dances performed by brightly dressed humanoid robots. These robots come from another enterprise in Hangzhou - Unitree Technology Company. Its founder, Wang Xingxing, graduated from the neighboring Zhejiang Sci-Tech University.
In addition to these two companies, there is also Yunshuo Technology Company, which was founded by alumni of Zhejiang University. The company manufactures robot dogs and combines them with artificial intelligence, selling them around the world for monitoring pipelines and cables, policing and earthquake rescue.
Game Science Company produces video games, including "Black Myth: Wukong", which was a huge hit internationally last year.
Qunhe Technology Company was founded by another graduate from Zhejiang University and develops spatial design and visualization programs based on artificial intelligence.
Article 6 "Xiaolong" is an exception. It also reflects some of the methods the city has adopted to gather start-ups. Han Bicheng, the founder of Qiangnao Technology Company, established his own company in the United States after obtaining a doctoral degree from Harvard University. The company develops brain-computer interfaces for cutting-edge medical research. It was officials from Hangzhou who visited him and persuaded him to open another base in China.
Sean Pan described how the relationship between universities and the government operates. His office was provided for university graduates. The Hangzhou Municipal Government rented it to him at an extremely low rent for two years, and then the rent gradually increased.
When this newspaper's reporter interviewed Liu Chang, the student entrepreneur was researching his latest project - an application for improving lifestyle - in the university's own entrepreneurship laboratory.
As the report of Rongding Consulting Company states, in the field of robotics and other areas targeted by "Made in China 2025", "the early disadvantages have been rapidly caught up with".