Big Take Meet OpenClaw: The AI Craze Sweeping China
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Apr 1, 2026 Catherine Thorbecke, a Tokyo-based Bloomberg Opinion tech columnist who analyzes AI policy and risks, and Luz Ding, a Hong Kong Bloomberg tech reporter tracking Chinese AI trends. They unpack OpenClaw’s agentic capabilities and viral cultural appeal. They discuss rapid adoption fueled by social pressure and government incentives. They examine broad data access, security risks, and regulatory pushback.
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Mass Shenzhen Meetups To Install OpenClaw
- Hundreds of people in Shenzhen gathered outside Tencent to get engineers to install OpenClaw for them.
- The meetup looked like an outdoor hackathon with retirees, school kids, and office workers shoulder to shoulder troubleshooting installs.
OpenClaw Acts Not Just Replies
- OpenClaw is an agentic AI that performs actions on a user's computer rather than only chatting.
- It's open source, built on models from OpenAI and Anthropic, and was quickly adapted and modified by Chinese developers after launch.
Raising Lobsters Became A Cultural Meme
- OpenClaw fandom in China includes lobster hats, plushies, and the phrase yang long xia which means raising lobsters.
- Users 'raise' the AI like a pet by installing it, spending time and money, and teaching it skills.