Alibaba's Qwen3.5 Launch Leads China's AI Push as Xi Jinping Sets 2026 Tech Priorities

Alibaba Group Holding Limited unveiled its Qwen3.5 artificial intelligence model alongside a $649 million subsidy campaign involving Tencent and Baidu to attract users during the Lunar New Year.Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu pledged over $53 billion for infrastructure as firms like ByteDance and Zhipu release competing technologies to challenge the dominance of the USA in the global tech sector.Xi Jinping has identified an "AI-plus strategy" as a primary economic priority for 2026 to address sluggish domestic spending while narrowing the gap with Western rivals like Google DeepMind.