China accelerates not felled towards the “Merge”

Very far from Western spotlights, China is advancing rapidly in the field of brain-computer interfaces (BCI), with a strategy not to be distant by the United States in the race for “Merge”. This ambition is based on a triptych that Beijing has mastered for decades in other strategic sectors: state coordination, massive funding and vertical integration between research, industry and defense. The question of neural sovereignty is particularly sensitive in a country where the State already has extensive access to personal data and where technological monitoring is institutionalized.

THE China Brain Projectlaunched in 2016, illustrates this approach, designed both as a basic research program and as an industrial engine, it aims to develop technologies ranging from the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases to the advanced human-machine interface. The work extends from animal models to clinical trials, with a given priority to military and medical applications, even if Beijing does not hide that this research must also strengthen the economic competitiveness and the strategic potential of China against Washington.

In recent years, several discreet announcements have marked the rise of the Chinese ecosystem. In 2024, the start-up Neucyber Neurotechincubated by the Chinese Institute for Brain Research (CIBR)presented an invasive implant capable of having a robotic arm controlled by a monkey, a demonstration modeled on the experiments of Neuralink. A few months later, Chinese researchers announced the success of the first human clinical trials of a national BCI implant, placing China as the second country in the world to cross this course after the United States. The device Beinao-1today tested on patients with ALS, already reflects brain signals in simple words, proof that clinical integration is underway.

Another innovation, teams from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a adaptive bidirectional system Capable of increasing the precision of neural communication per hundred, opening the way to more stable and faster interfaces. At the same time, a surgical robot Dedicated to the establishment of flexible electrodes was designed to accelerate the industrialization phase, a crucial step to democratize the use of these implants.

The Chinese model differs radically from that of the United States. Where Silicon Valley favors competition between start-ups funded by venture capital, Beijing orchestrates a coordinated national strategywhere scientific and industrial priorities are defined at the highest level. The validation cycles are shorter, the regulations aligned with political objectives, and access to immediate public funding for projects deemed strategic. This centralization reduces economic uncertainty and allows rapid deployment, but asks ethical questions, in particular on the protection of neural data in a state where the border between civil and military is tenuous.

In the race for “Merge”, China is moving forward, anxious to project an image of medical prudence and scientific responsibility, while discreetly accelerating the integration of its solutions into broader programs. But behind this measured facade, Beijing methodically builds the foundations of neural sovereignty which could redefine the global balance of technological powers.