Illustration: Liu Rui/GT A recent Bloomberg report has drawn attention by citing unnamed "people familiar with the matter" to claim that "China has suspended issuing new licenses for autonomous vehicles," implying that the country's fast-growing autonomous-driving industry faces a gloomy outlook. In reality, this report is completely unfounded. The cited regulatory tightening stemmed from China's work meeting focused on the "regulated and orderly road testing and demonstration application of intelligent connected vehicles" on April 14. The meeting urged local authorities to conduct comprehensive self-assessments in light of recent safety events, strengthen safety oversight across the entire process, and enhance emergency response capabilities to ensure safe and orderly testing and demonstration activities. Nowhere did it mention "suspending issuing new licenses." Distorting a routine regulatory meeting with an anonymous source is neither professional nor responsible. While some foreign media were hyping the "suspension" narrative, China's autonomous-driving industry continued advancing at full speed. In December 2025, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) officially granted the country's first permits for Level-3 (L3) conditionally automated vehicles, with two domestically developed models approved for pilot road operations on select areas in Beijing and Chongqing. It marked a major step toward commercial application. That same month, China's first license plate for L3 autonomous driving was granted in Chongqing. By late March this year, another automaker's in-house developed Robotaxi secured a Level 4 (L4) autonomous driving test permit in Chongqing. These developments stand in stark contrast to the foreign media narrative. The contrast also highlights a double standard in Western media coverage. In December 2025, a mass power outage in San Francisco disrupted traffic lights and caused thousands of Google-owned Waymo robotaxis to stall and block streets, sparking public frustration. Yet Western media largely framed the incident as a normal problem in technological development, rarely portraying