The joint China–Europe SMILE mission entered science operations in September 2026, offering a rare example of deep scientific cooperation surviving a period of political and technological rivalry.

China’s state firms plan roughly $298 billion across power, water, computing, communications, pipelines and logistics—fixed systems designed to support the next phase of industrial development.

Han Zheng’s UN speech linked development, sovereignty and global governance. Read through a Marxist lens, the argument is about who controls the institutions that shape the world economy.

The Washington summit produced limited agreements but revealed a deeper shift: both governments now possess enough industrial and supply-chain leverage to make uncontrolled escalation costly.