(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) "From semiconductors and humanoid robots to AI models that are unsettling Silicon Valley - although other areas of China's economy may be facing difficulties, its technology industry is having a brilliant year." The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung commented at the beginning of its article.
The author points out that the United States is actively responding to this technological race through SpaceX, Tesla's humanoid robots, and AI developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic, while discussions about China in Europe are mainly focused on complaints about China's unfair industrial policies and concerns that Chinese electric cars are about to sweep across the European continent: "The focus of the discussion is on associated ethical and legal issues, rather than fundamental technical issues."
The article criticized, "For Europe, this mentality of complaining against China is wrong." The article said: "Europe has almost no power to change China's industrial policy. Building market barriers not only reduces the intensity of competition within Europe, but also cannot cope with the challenges posed by Chinese companies in the global market. This is a defensive and fear-filled posture, eager to return to the comfortable and comfortable dominance of the last century. But what Europe needs is a mentality that embraces competition with China, rather than fearing every Chinese sensor because of fears of espionage."
The author of the article believes that, in principle, Germany’s “co-decision-making” model is fully capable of competing with China’s “super-capitalism”. "The priority is to recommit ourselves to developing exciting German and European technologies that spark global debate and quickly go viral on social media."
Another article in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" titled "Artificial Intelligence is Killing China's Hollywood" set its sights on Hengdian, Zhejiang. There is an industrial restructuring brought about by artificial intelligence, and the traditional live-action shooting and group performance ecology is undergoing a violent impact.
"Ever since AI-generated short plays became popular, we have no work to do. Many crews have disappeared," the article quoted Xiao Lu, who has been an actor in Hengdian for three years, describing the current struggling situation of ordinary actors, photographers and sound recordists in "China's Hollywood". The actor, who only wanted to give his last name, said, "My actor friends are now delivering food." "The situation for actresses is particularly difficult." "Many people have to wait for half a month to get a day's work."
The article reads, "Just a year ago, Hengdian was a prosperous place. At that time, the Chinese people were fascinated by 'micro-short dramas' that connected traditional and modern China and were optimized for digital viewing habits... It is estimated that 700 million Chinese people watch these micro-short dramas, which is equivalent to one in every two citizens. This number is twice the total population of the United States."
The article said that with the vigorous development of the micro-short drama industry since the epidemic, Hengdian gathered more than 4,000 production teams last year. However, things are not what they used to be: "According to an industry association report, 95% of micro-short dramas are currently generated by artificial intelligence. In the first three months of this year alone, there were 122,000 micro-short dramas generated by AI, accounting for the vast majority of the total 128,000." The article quoted an actor as saying, "90% of the actors and crew have now left Hengdian."
The author predicts that as a center for historical film and television dramas that promote patriotism and nationalism, Hengdian will still attract a steady stream of tourists even as the artificial intelligence boom sweeps across the city. The Hengdian Group is also trying to turn this crisis caused by artificial intelligence into an opportunity, turning Hengdian into a place for hosting various events. However, "actors can only find their own way out" - "In Hollywood, protests against AI have broken out. But in Hengdian, this is not the case."
The article reads, "Power is shifting to China's technology giants. According to Chinese financial media Caixin, Beijing-based ByteDance not only dominates the broadcast platform of micro-short dramas, but also controls the entire industry chain."
