Visitors look at robots on display at robotics company Unitree's first retail store in Beijing in January 9, 2026. (Photo by Adek BERRY / AFP via Getty Images)

Shanghai-based AI startup MiniMax's CEO Yan Junjie (R), a former executive at the Chinese leading AI software company SenseTime which was blacklisted by the US Commerce Department in 2021, attends the company's listing ceremony at the Hong Kong stock exchange on January 9, 2026. Shares in Chinese AI startup MiniMax soared as much as 78 percent as it went public in Hong Kong, raising 619 million USD in a sign that strong investor demand is rewarding the country's rapidly developing sector. (Photo by Tommy WANG / AFP via Getty Images)

Shanghai-based AI startup MiniMax's CEO Yan Junjie (R) and Co-founder and COO Yun Yeyi (L) attend the firm's listing ceremony at the Hong Kong stock exchange on January 9, 2026. Shares in Chinese AI startup MiniMax soared as much as 78 percent as it went public in Hong Kong, raising 619 million USD in a sign that strong investor demand is rewarding the country's rapidly developing sector. (Photo by Tommy WANG / AFP via Getty Images)

Companies' executives from Chinese AI startup MiniMax, medical products manufacture Suzhou Ribo Life Science, and non-ferrous metal processor Yunnan Jinxun Resources, attend the initial public offering (IPO) launch at the Hong Kong stock exchange on January 9, 2026. Shares in Chinese AI startup MiniMax soared as much as 78 percent as it went public in Hong Kong, raising 619 million USD in a sign that strong investor demand is rewarding the country's rapidly developing sector. (Photo by Tommy WANG / AFP via Getty Images)

Shanghai-based AI startup MiniMax's CEO Yan Junjie (C), a former executive at the Chinese leading AI software company SenseTime which was blacklisted by the US Commerce Department in 2021, attends the company's listing ceremony at the Hong Kong stock exchange on January 9, 2026. Shares in Chinese AI startup MiniMax soared as much as 78 percent as it went public in Hong Kong, raising 619 million USD in a sign that strong investor demand is rewarding the country's rapidly developing sector. (Photo by Tommy WANG / AFP via Getty Images)

Shanghai-based AI startup MiniMax's CEO Yan Junjie, a former executive at the Chinese leading AI software company SenseTime which was blacklisted by the US Commerce Department in 2021, attends the company's listing ceremony at the Hong Kong stock exchange on January 9, 2026. Shares in Chinese AI startup MiniMax soared as much as 78 percent as it went public in Hong Kong, raising 619 million USD in a sign that strong investor demand is rewarding the country's rapidly developing sector. (Photo by Tommy WANG / AFP via Getty Images)

Shanghai-based AI startup MiniMax's CEO Yan Junjie (R) and Co-founder and COO Yun Yeyi (L) attend the firm's listing ceremony at the Hong Kong stock exchange on January 9, 2026. Shares in Chinese AI startup MiniMax soared as much as 78 percent as it went public in Hong Kong, raising 619 million USD in a sign that strong investor demand is rewarding the country's rapidly developing sector. (Photo by Tommy WANG / AFP via Getty Images)

(FILES) This pool photo taken on July 17, 2025 and released on July 18 by Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) shows computers, smartphones and other equipment seized during a raid on a scam centre in Kandal province. China is moving against the cyberscam tycoons making fortunes in Southeast Asia, driven by mounting public pressure and Beijing's desire to keep control of judicial processes, analysts say. In 2025, a series of crackdowns largely driven by Beijing -- which wields significant economic and diplomatic influence in the region -- saw thousands of workers released from scam centres in Myanmar and Cambodia and repatriated to their home countries, many of them to China. Now Beijing has turned its focus to the bosses at the apex of the criminal pyramids, netting its biggest player so far with the arrest and extradition of Chen Zhi from Cambodia in January 2026. (Photo by POOL / AFP via Getty Images)