Greatest PRC win of the past year

It’s the 6th gens. They laid the groundwork for everything else (DeepSeek Moment, post May 7th, 9.3 ).

They were simple, large, and noticeable enough for the layperson to become an involuntary China/PLA watcher.

It would have been a good year without them, but nothing close to the year that has been.

Deepseek and it's not particularly close imo.

Deepseek.

Though from a strictly mil perspective the two 6th gens (technically last year) and the successful EM launches from Fujian must be among the greatest events ever. Both established China on the cutting edge.

I chose Deepseek because it was an ultimate middle finger to the 8-year trade and tech war. It basically pissed on the idea that China could be held back by restrictions imposed by other countries.

Blockade on chips? Fuck you. We'll forge ahead with better software until the hardware catches up.

And it is less expensive to train and free to use. Which blows a whale-sized hole in the Western AI bubble.

This is the most consequential development in 2025 bar none because it impacts the most -- not only in China but across the globe.

DeepSeek was number two, where China proved it could equal America.

Sixth-generations were number one, where China proved it had surpassed America.

GJ-X reveal and first flight. I think its more significant than even the 6th gens. The 6th gens only cements China's dominance in the 1/2 IC. GJ-X takes the fight to the enemy homeland. It would of course be extremely useful in counter air as well.

2nd place I would give to the YJ-19. Completely out of the blue and instantly 10X the lethality of every Chinese SSK and SSN.

I believe the ultimate W was forcing Trump to "TACO". Other achievements, whether in military, technology, or commerce, have essentially served as bargaining chips in this broader U.S.- China rivalry. Yet, no matter how many chips are put on the table, the true measure of comprehensive success ultimately comes down to a contest of determination between the leaderships. For 2025, a series of powerful leverages leads to victory at this stage.

Man, this year of 2025 was such a great year for China.

Apart from all of the listings above, there was also Black Myth Wukong, Marvel Rivals, to some extent Where winds meet, and dominantly, Nezha 2, being the centerpiece for games and movies respectively. To be hero X also aired, and Lord of the Mysteries exceeded expectations to cater for the global audiences into chinese animation. Hell, Trash taste even made a whole episode dedicating to their opinion about china, when they are usually japanese-based. There was that trend of travel vloggers posting videos of 'debunking the truth of china' and getting massive views and support, plus popular streamers travelling to China as well, especially Ishowspeed to the younger generation shown of a culturally and technologically advanced China. Huawei's trifold set the benchmark for the next innovation for mobile devices, and Vivo, Oppo doing the heavy hitters in the camera space. CK's asian expansion pack, as well.

The Made in china 2025 has made almost all of its objectives.

Social media as a whole from what I've seen is so much more pro-china than 2024, it's just so jarring and sudden yet so worth in the making; just to highlight how much soft power China has gained in simply this past year.

I am so thankful that 2025 is the year in particular I decided to take a gap year, since throughout the entire time, I am just witnessing China getting W after W after W, and I got a front row seat to concentrate all my attention to their progress.

Biden was more anti China then Trump Biden put so many black list and sanctions on China for trading with Russia he also call XI a dictator from 2020 to 2024 there was so much anti china on the web all of a sudden 2025 come around there so many pro China now USAID gone.

I voted for the DeepSeek Moment. Because based on available wisdom coming from the West, producing a world class AI would have been impossible for China. The Chinese have been locked out of the latest hardware, and their AI development talents were not known in the West.

Unlike Qwen, DeepSeek just came out of the blue. And not only that, they came up with an AI that could compete with Open AI, which was considered the best at that time. Moreover, DeepSeek was created with only a tiny fraction of Open Ali's budget.

The DeepSeek developers have made a breakthrough in optimizing the software part of AI, making it possible to create DeepSeek with China's limited access to hardware and on a much smaller budget. And the cherry on the icing is, DeepSeek is much more open sourced than Open AI.

So to me, DeepSeek is the most significant win for China in 2025. Not only did it announce China's big entry into the AI race, it also rewrites the idea of how to build AI. The Western model of just throwing more hardware and money at AI have been disproven. It's the triumph of human technical ingenuity over big finance.

Trump and the associated trade war fallout

Advances in technology and equipment, whether sixth gens or the September 3 parade, are fundamentally the result of China’s own efforts and remain within China’s control.

By contrast, Trump’s decisions were a gift handed to the PRC, and they will have profound, long lasting consequences.