The careers of Z.ai's Tang Jie and Moonshot AI's Yang Zhilin, once teacher and pupil at Tsinghua University, show that China's AI leap is no sudden development (Raffaele Huang/Wall Street Journal)

The careers of Z.ai's Tang Jie and Moonshot AI's Yang Zhilin, former teacher and pupil at Tsinghua University, highlight that China's advancements in AI are not a sudden phenomenon. Their work demonstrates how university labs have fostered computer scientists who leverage ingenuity and imitation to compete with companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, indicating a clear understanding of how to monetize their innovations.