In a recent speech, TMTPost founder, Chairperson, and CEO Zhao Hejuan discussed five misconceptions about China's catchup in the AI race. She noted that many believe China quickly developed models similar to GPT-3 and GPT-4, suggesting the gap between Chinese companies and their peers is only one to two years. However, Zhao argued that these timeframes are misleading as they correspond to generational innovation timescales, not capability gaps. She also addressed the misconception that China is the largest market for AI patents and talent globally, explaining that while China leads in the quantity of AI-related papers, it lags behind in terms of top-tier papers and citation rates. Additionally, Zhao highlighted the importance of openness and cooperation in building a more inclusive innovation landscape and emphasized the need for China to focus on improving fundamental innovation and long-term capacity building.