At VivaTech, the Chinese ambassador to France says Beijing is ready to collaborate with Paris to enhance scientific and technological exchanges
Chinese companies, including Huawei Technologies and Unitree Robotics, are grabbing plenty of attention at one of Europe’s largest technology shows in Paris this week, as Beijing commits to deepen technological ties with France amid an intensifying rivalry with the US.
In a speech at the China Pavilion of the VivaTech trade show on Thursday,
Chinese ambassador to France Deng Li
said the country would continue to promote “open cooperation” and “peaceful development” in global technology, adding that Beijing was ready to collaborate with Paris to enhance scientific and technological exchanges.
The China Pavilion, organised by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, showcased innovative technologies, including a humanoid and a robot dog from
Hangzhou-based start-up Unitree
, which has become a symbol of the nation’s advances in robotics.
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Europe is currently Unitree’s third-largest market, behind China and the US, according to a company staff member. Unitree has sold thousands of its G1 humanoid robot and hundreds of its B2 industrial robot dog globally, he said.
Unitree aimed to deploy its robots, which could be programmed by customers for difficult tasks, in projects that involve “boring, dangerous, dirty work”, said Zhang Min, Unitree’s European market director.
Huawei
, another featured company at the China Pavilion, has a reduced presence at VivaTech this year compared with last year, when it operated its own booth.
The telecommunications equipment giant displayed connectivity and cloud-computing products, as well as consumer devices – mostly smartwatches and earbuds. Huawei’s smartphone business remains constrained in global markets owing to US sanctions that limit the firm’s access to Google services.
Tencent Cloud, a unit of social media and video gaming giant
Tencent Holdings
, made its debut at VivaTech, exhibiting products such as audio and video delivery solutions and its “Super-App-as-a-Service” offering, which enables enterprises to create their own mini-app ecosystems within larger apps.
In February last year, French telecommunications giant Orange’s Middle East and Africa arm partnered with Tencent Cloud to develop mini apps within its super-app Max, with the aim of doubling adoption this year, the two companies said.
The push by Chinese technology firms to expand in Europe comes amid escalating Sino-US trade tensions and a global trade war initiated by US President Donald Trump.
The concept of technological sovereignty was frequently mentioned at VivaTech. Middl.AI, a French start-up offering servers that enable AI devices to compute locally rather than relying on cloud services, promotes its product as entirely proprietary and free from US operating systems and infrastructure.
“Sovereignty is a real issue,” said Middl.AI founder and CEO Norbert Ducrot, who showcased the company’s products at the China Pavilion. “It is really important because today in the world, if the Americans decide to close the factories, close the networks or close the data centres … then what do you do?”
Chinese tech firms are striving to compete with their US counterparts as the trade war threatens to create a divide between Washington and Europe.
“I think it’s important to have alternatives and introduce competition, and ultimately the users and the customers would benefit,” said Dowson Tong, CEO of Tencent Cloud and Smart Industries Group, during a panel discussion.
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
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