The Seven Seconds of a Fish

This meeting is neither about the sudden “thaw” of Sino-US relations, nor is it about one side completely overpowering the other. Rather, it appears to be a mandatory recalibration conducted under heightened pressure.

If you only look at the surface, you see welcome ceremonies, state banquets, the Temple of Heaven, and corporate delegations—it is very spectacular. But if you lay out the timeline, what this meeting truly needs to address are four tougher matters: how to maintain the trade and economic ceasefire left over from the Busan talks last October; how to manage the risks concerning Taiwan; how to mitigate losses stemming from the spillovers of the Iran conflict; and whether, under their respective domestic political pressures, both sides can first stabilize relations and avoid continued decline.

In other words, this Beijing meeting first and foremost aimed at “preventing a loss of control,” with “making deals” being secondary.

The movie box office during this year’s May Day holiday was disappointing; it’s no longer simply a matter of “which film failed to be a massive hit.”

If we only discuss the economic downturn, it can certainly explain some things. People are not as financially comfortable as they used to be, so spending money is more cautious—that is a reality. However, I feel that blaming all the problems on the economy is absolving the industry of its fault. It’s not that audiences suddenly stopped liking movies; rather, their patience has been depleted by round after round combination of high promotion/marketing efforts, strong screening slots, and weak content.

After May 1st, when regular people buy a drone, it feels like they are getting more than just a flying camera.

It is more like a flying terminal equipped with identity tracking, trajectory monitoring, and approval mechanisms. The impact of this change on DJI is not simply selling fewer machines; rather, the entire product definition of consumer drones has been rewritten. What DJI can actually do is limited. At least in heavily regulated areas like Beijing, it can only reclaim its distribution channels and then integrate compliance capabilities into both its products and service workflows.

Initially, I didn’t actually plan on testing it. When I came across the news that OpenAI was releasing ChatGPT Images 2.0 on April 21, 2026, my first reaction was just “another image version update.” However, when I checked the Artificial Analysis leaderboard and saw that GPT Image 2 (high) ranked first for text-to-image generation with an Elo of 1332, I felt a bit compelled to test it anyway.

The results are quite impressive; the Chinese output is excellent, it can handle comics, and character/narrative consistency across multiple continuous images has also improved. However, as I tested it further, I felt that what is truly worth discussing this time isn’t “it draws better,” but rather “it starts making things that were previously taken as default truths seem unreliable.” This subject matter is more complicated than a simple leaderboard ranking.

These past couple of days, I came across Anthropic’s Project Glasswing, which is scheduled for release on April 7, 2026. My first reaction was a bit stunned. It wasn’t because another model scored higher, but because it locked the top-tier capabilities into a small circle, initially reserved for defensive players like AWS, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Linux Foundation.

My own judgment is very direct: This matter is more important than another benchmark record. What frontier AI companies are selling now is no longer just the model itself, but an entire set of access controls—“who gets the capability first, how much capability they get, and what kind of auditing and constraints they have to endure after receiving it.” Models are becoming increasingly like dangerous tools, and the release rhythm is becoming more like issuing licenses.

Seeing Block cut its workforce by 4,000 people out of a group of over 10,000 at the end of February 2026 really shook me. I’ve always worked in financial IT—things like trading pipelines, Hong Kong/US stocks, and system fundamentals. Usually, I’m accustomed to buzzwords like “efficiency improvement,” “automation,” and “cost reduction while increasing efficiency.” But when a fintech company, one so close to money, compliance, and risk control, publicly cites AI as the reason for layoffs, it still hits you hard emotionally.

My current assessment is very direct: the scariest part of AI layoffs isn’t a layoff list in the news one day, but when companies start assuming that “smaller teams can do more work.” This means no backfilling for departures, fewer entry-level positions, and much tighter headcount management. From April 2025 to April 2026, this wind is still blowing in the US; while China hasn’t seen a high-profile, public wave of mass layoffs yet, the quiet squeeze has already begun.

Staying at home most of the time, it was rare to venture out during the Qingming holiday in 2026. I wandered into Wenhui Road in Songjiang University Town, and my first thought wasn’t about the scenery, but about the shops.

Good sales are nothing new; they’ve sprung up everywhere in Shanghai over the years. What really caught me off guard was seeing 零食很忙 (Snack Busy) here. I used to see this brand more often back in my hometown and always thought it was a bit further from Shanghai. Turns out, one street, Wenhui Road, completely shattered that stereotype of mine.

My current assessment is quite clear: the fact that a store like 零食很忙 can open in Songjiang isn’t because Shanghai has suddenly “degraded” to a lower tier. Rather, it’s because Songjiang was never just the peripheral edge of Shanghai as many people imagine. If you treat this area as a suburb, it actually possesses sufficient foot traffic, a sufficiently young customer base, and enough dwell time; if you view it as merely a dormitory town, it is backed by the historical foundation of Songjiang Prefecture, the innovative resources of the university town, and its new positioning as the southwest gateway to Shanghai.

Real estate giants’ top performers – Ever, also failed to hold up, continuous blood transfusions for Sunshine Steel, ultimately couldn’t plug the ever-growing hole. Linkage news: Six major banks completely halt sales of 5-year large savings bonds for five years.

Analyze China’s real estate defaults, compile timelines and key events, Evergrande, Greentown, Vanke, and other unlisted property developers I may not know about.

This overview is based on the latest perspective as of December 2025, covering the complete timeline from the initial crisis to the current period (end of 2025).