DeepSeek’s breakthrough sparks national pride in China
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In China, DeepSeek’s sudden shot to fame with artificial-intelligence models rivaling American ones has inspired a moment of national pride.
In a week where attention on DeepSeek’s low-cost AI models caused a bloodbath on Wall Street and propelled DeepSeek’s app to the top of iPhone download rankings in the U.S., China was celebrating. Emojis of “DeepSeek pride," often with smiling cats or dogs, flooded Chinese social media, adding to the festive Lunar New Year atmosphere.
Chinese state media, as well as tech and business leaders, raved about DeepSeek. “We need to believe that the moon in other countries is not necessarily rounder: Whatever others can do, we can also do it and even do it better," read a profile of DeepSeek, published by the government of Zhejiang province where the company is located.
Local media reported that the small Guangdong province hometown of DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng has become a hot destination for tourists during the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday. In China, the buzz around DeepSeek was a timely confidence boost as the Chinese leadership faces prolonged economic gloom and potentially another trade war with a Trump administration threatening more tariffs.
Feng Ji, co-founder of Game Science, the developer of popular videogame “Black Myth: Wukong," hailed DeepSeek’s advancement as one that can change “a nation’s fortune." “So lucky, so happy! Such a shocking breakthrough came from a pure Chinese company," he wrote on the Chinese social-media platform Weibo. Several state-media outlets, including China Daily, went so far as to repost a clip from “The Daily Show" where host Jon Stewart facetiously asked: “Has Chinese AI put American AI out of a job?" Zhou
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