Behind DeepSeek lies a dazzling Chinese university

It models itself on Stanford, and is in the tech hotspot of Hangzhou

A huge statue of Mao Zedong still stands near the entrance to Zhejiang University, surveying the transformation of the eastern city of Hangzhou, 175km (110 miles) south-west of Shanghai. Such statues look anachronistic wherever they linger across China, but especially so here, and especially after the events of the past few months.

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “A new Silicon Valley”

From the February 22nd 2025 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

China’s world-beating solar industry is in turmoil

The Gulf war won’t save it

China’s diplomatic successes are broad but shallow

It asks little of its foreign “partners”, and gives little back

What China can learn from Japan about escaping deflation

The right kind of Japanification

How China quietly helps Russia in Ukraine

Its firms send drones, nitrocellulose for rockets and more

Vladimir Putin’s turn with Xi Jinping

Hosting back-to-back visits by Putin and Trump, China shows its power

What did Trump and Xi actually achieve?

Divergent accounts suggest little progress on trade, Taiwan, Iran and AI