China State Media Urges End to Crude AI Subsidy Race

This is a notable signal from within China's policy apparatus, not an outside critique: state media questioning the return on AI subsidies suggests the internal cost-benefit debate is shifting from how much to spend toward how to spend it. The push for regional coordination matters because fragmented incentives have shaped where compute, talent and projects have clustered. The open question is whether commentary translates into actual budget and approval discipline, and whether coordinated policy tightens or simply redirects the flow of capital into the sector.