The Wrap | 7 - 13 Feb 2026
A weekly digest of what mattered in Asia’s tech stack
Editor’s Note: China is pushing AI across the full chain: technology breakthroughs, industrial growth, and wide deployment. The policy language is explicitly about commercial scale, coordination of core resources such as data, computing power and electricity, and stronger governance through standards, rules and ethical guidance. Alongside that, companies are releasing models designed for agent-style work and building multilingual knowledge platforms to support global use.
China’s Premier Calls For A Comprehensive Push In AI Innovation And Application
Chinese Premier Li Qiang has called for a comprehensive push in AI, spanning technological innovation, industrial growth and application, with an explicit focus on “large-scale and commercial applications”.
This should not be read as a routine endorsement of AI. It is a top-level attempt to move the conversation from “who has the best model” to “who can industrialize AI”. Li’s language is full-stack: breakthroughs “across the entire chain”, coordination of key resources from data to computing power and electricity supply, plus a stronger governance layer covering laws, standards and ethics.
Signals To Watch: AI competitiveness starts to hinge on access to stable power and predictable compute, not simply model capability. The advantage shifts from ‘best demo’ to ‘most dependable deployment’.
Chinese AI Startup Zhipu Unveils New Flagship Model
China’s Zhipu AI has released GLM-5, positioning it as a new flagship model for chat, coding and agentic tasks. The company says the open-source model improves coding capability and can handle long-running agent tasks, as China’s domestic AI players accelerate releases amid intensifying competition.
This is not just another model drop. “Agent” capability changes the operating profile of AI: longer sessions, more multi-step work, and higher sustained inference demand. For decision-makers, the shift is towards an agent lens: can the system take a goal, plan the steps, use tools safely, and finish the job without constant human nudging— and can it do so without creating new safety, privacy, or data-handling risks.
Signals To Watch: Agent readiness becomes a gating factor. Watch for stronger positioning around operational safety, data isolation, and compliance reporting.
China’s Baidu Unveils An AI-Driven Challenger to Wikipedia
Baidu has launched BaiduWiki, a multilingual wiki platform aimed at international users as part of its overseas expansion. It supports five languages (English, Spanish, French, Russian and Japanese) and starts with over one million entries, translated using AI. It is positioned as the global version of Baidu Baike, Baidu’s long-running Chinese encyclopedia.
This should not be seen as a simple “Wikipedia rival”. Baidu is tying the wiki to a new global search capability inside Ernie Assistant, aimed at improving searches for international content and travel. It is also folding Baike access into the main Baidu app (via a mini-program) as it retires the standalone Baike app, which signals a broader shift towards AI-led services and distribution through its core platform.
Signals To Watch: Whether Baidu pushes this “global search” layer across more of its ecosystem (AI products and cloud), and whether BaiduWiki becomes a default reference source inside Ernie Assistant rather than a separate destination people visit.
Takeaway
The point of these moves is not “more AI”, but more usable AI. Capability is being pushed through a full chain: what gets built, what gets industrialised, and what gets rolled out in ways that can be sustained.
If you are buying or building, the questions to carry forward are practical ones: what dependencies you are taking on, what you can control when conditions tighten, and whether your AI stack has the governance and trust features needed for everyday use rather than occasional experimentation.
Sources
Reuters: China should support AI advancement with power, computing resources, premier says
SCMP: China’s Zhipu AI launches new major model GLM-5 in challenge to its rivals
Asia Business Outlook: Baidu Introduces AI-Driven Knowledge Platform Globally