The next time you see an AI breakthrough that blows your mind, hold your applause for a second—check the creator’s name. Chances are, it’s either a Li, Wang, or Zhang, or someone with a pinyin name that’d make Google Translate sweat. From AlphaGo to ChatGPT, the AI arms race might look like a geopolitical tug-of-war, but dig deeper and you’ll find it’s really a showdown between two wildly different education systems. On one side: China’s army of “gaokao grinders” forged by tiger moms wielding math Olympiad textbooks.

‌Introduction: The "D-Day" of AI‌
On March 6, 2025, Chinese AI team Monica detonated a "technological nuke"—the world’s first general-purpose AI agent, ‌Manus‌—instantly flooding social media. Unlike conventional chatbots, Manus independently plans and executes complex tasks, from screening resumes to stock analysis and even property hunting, letting users reap the rewards while doing nothing. With invite codes scalped up to ¥50,000 ($73,000), netizens hailed it as "the true productivity revolution."‌