To China, DeepSeek is more than an app—it's a strategic turning point

During this year’s Lunar New Year celebrations, a remote village in China’s Guangdong province became an unexpected center of attention. Crowds of visitors flocked to the hometown of DeepSeek’s founder, Liang Wenfeng, eager to glimpse the modest house where one of China’s most influential AI pioneers had grown up. Once an unremarkable rural enclave, the village was now decorated with banners reading, "Welcome home, Wenfeng—your hometown is proud of you!"The celebrat