Kinaforum

fredag 17. juli 2026

Torbjørn Færøvik: Legendary Xanadu - Unearthing the Emperor's Summer Capital

Sunshine and summer, and gentle breezes sweep across the green plains of Inner Mongolia. Also in Xanadu, once the capital of the world. Here a travel-weary Marco Polo arrived in 1275, where he was granted the honor of kneeling before the Emperor himself, the incomparable Kublai Khan.

“You are most welcome,” Kublai said to the small Italian party, which, in addition to the twenty-year-old Marco, consisted of his father and uncle.

Years later, the Venetian recorded that Kublai Khan was “of a good stature, neither too tall nor too short, but of a middle height.” He had “a fresh complexion, with black and handsome eyes, and a well-shaped nose, properly situated in his face.”

Xanadu, or Shangdu, was the summer capital of the Mongol Empire. Today, almost nothing remains, yet patient archaeologists continue to dig in the vast solitude with trowel and spade day in and day out, for as long as the weather permits.

As Trump accuses China of stealing voter data, Xi pitches China as a responsible tech leader

As US President Donald Trump accused Beijing of exploiting US election data in a televised speech in Washington, halfway across the world in China, Xi Jinping was sending a very different message.

Beijing is a responsible global leader bent on shaping the future of technology for good, Xi intoned to hundreds of tech executives, researchers and industry figures gathering in Shanghai Friday for the opening of China’s flagship artificial intelligence summit.

“With AI advancing at a staggering speed, we must ensure its development is for positive, for good, and for humanity,” Xi said in an opening address to the conference. “We must make its oversight and governance precise and effective and constantly refine measures to forestall loss of control.”

Trump doubles down on 2020 election claims in national address, alleging China meddling

President Donald Trump in a national address Thursday night sowed doubts about the security of U.S. election systems and voter information, alleging widespread meddling by China in the 2020 cycle among numerous other claims that were quickly challenged by fact checkers.

Trump, who has falsely claimed for years that his loss to former President Joe Biden in the 2020 race was “rigged” due to widespread fraud, claimed in the primetime speech that newly declassified intelligence reveals “shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.”

The roughly 25-minute primetime speech came as the president and his allies work to impose major changes in U.S. elections ahead of the November midterms via redistricting, adding procedural steps for Americans to vote and casting doubt on the validity of the country’s electoral systems. Polls show Democrats are favored to retake the U.S. House amid Trump’s slumping popularity, and Trump has expressed concerns about investigations he could face if Democrats control one or both chambers of Congress.

What living in one of the world’s hottest towns feels like

Heat at all hours, even in the middle of the night. Long stretches without electricity, meaning some homes can’t even use basic fans. And a constant search for relief, like being hosed down with water or sleeping outside.

For many residents of Banda, a town in northern India that has recorded some of the country’s highest temperatures, just getting through each day is a challenge. Global warming, caused mostly by the burning of fuels like gas, oil and coal, is making heat waves across India more frequent and intense. Uttar Pradesh, the state Banda is in, is among those most vulnerable to extreme heat. In 2023, at least 119 people died over several days during a severe heat wave in parts of the state.

In May, temperatures reached 48.2 Celsius (118.8 Fahrenheit), one of multiple times this year that the town recorded the country’s highest temperature for the day. Banda was also the hottest spot on Earth seven times this year, most of them in April, according to climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera, who tracks global weather extremes. Since then, temperatures have dropped some but are still stifling, particularly as seasonal rains increase humidity.

Climate-driven heat in India’s textile factories stifles workers but coolers and ventilation help

Hong Kong official says booksellers should ensure titles won’t harm national security after arrests

Hong Kong ’s top security official said Thursday that booksellers should ensure the titles they sell do not harm national security, a day after five people linked to two bookstores were arrested. The police operation on Wednesday was the third round of arrests targeting independent bookstores within four months. Critics have raised concerns over the city’s freedom of expression under what they called an unclear red line. Two of the booksellers were seen released on bail on Friday morning.

On Thursday, Secretary for Security Chris Tang told reporters at the legislative building that the law is clear.

“If you are a bookseller, you have the responsibility to make sure the books you sell won’t endanger national security,” he said. “It’s equal to, for example, when you are selling food, you need to ensure the food won’t cause a stomach ache and is not either poison or illegal.”

Japan is running out of royals. So why won’t it let women become emperor?

Japan may have its first ever female prime minister, but her government’s attempts to avoid a royal succession crisis are making the chances of a woman taking the imperial throne ever slimmer. With just three eligible heirs to the Chrysanthemum throne – and two of them 60 or over – the imperial family is facing a succession crisis.

Japan’s monarchy has for centuries maintained male-only succession, which is on-brand for a deeply patriarchal society where men dominate other spheres of life such as business and politics. Now, that rule has come to threaten the very survival of the world’s oldest monarchy which, in recent decades, has spawned more daughters than sons.

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One of China’s top investors says finance, not AI, is the country’s biggest bottleneck

China’s biggest weakness in its rivalry with the United States isn’t AI, semiconductors or tariffs. It’s finance, according to one of the financiers who helped open China’s markets to Wall Street.

Fred Hu, the former Goldman Sachs executive who helped engineer the firm’s landmark investment in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China before founding Primavera Capital, says Beijing’s financial system has become the country’s “short plank” as Washington and Beijing increasingly sever investment ties. Hu’s private equity firm has backed several of the China’s tech and consumer conglomerates, including Alibaba, ByteDance, Yum China and ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing.

Loga Rangzen: The Spirit Lives On

Those who dedicated their lives in exile to the cause of Tibetan independence as their ultimate purpose endured countless obstacles. There were moments when they felt completely lost and wondered how much more they could bear. At times, it seemed as though the darkness would never lift. Yet, in those moments of despair, many found strength in a simple but profound Buddhist teaching: everything is impermanent. No pain, no hardship, and no suffering lasts forever.

Whenever they felt overwhelmed, they reminded themselves that time is always changing. Just as joy is impermanent, so too is sorrow. Rather than allowing themselves to be consumed by grief, they accepted their struggles as part of the long journey toward freedom, trusting that even the most difficult setbacks would eventually pass. This belief became their source of hope, giving them the courage to continue, one day at a time, with faith that brighter days lay beyond the pain.

Loga Rangzen will be deeply missed, but his spirit will never be forgotten.

The Next Dalai Lama: Faith, Power and the Contest for Legitimacy

Every time the Dalai Lama appears in public these days, there’s this quiet question hanging in the air. You hear it in monasteries, in conversations among Tibetans and in diplomatic backrooms across Asia: what happens when he’s gone?

His 91st birthday celebrations in Leh this July felt both joyful and heavy. Thousands came for the prayers, the traditional dances, the long-life ceremonies. There was real warmth in the air, but underneath it all was the awareness that the institution he’s carried for over six decades is heading toward a crossroads. The question of the 15th Dalai Lama isn’t just a religious matter anymore. It’s become one of the bigger geopolitical issues in Asia, tangled up with legitimacy, cultural survival, sovereignty and the future direction of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Dalai Lama: A Journey Through Tibet, Exile, and Global Peace Advocacy

China’s Ethnic Unity Law extends legal reach to Taiwan, diaspora

Taiwan’s government and overseas ethnic groups have raised concerns after China implemented the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress this month, warning it forces Taiwanese people to accept Beijing’s political framework and threatens minority communities well beyond China’s borders.

Passed by the National People’s Congress on March 12, the law took effect on July 1. On July 2, Cho Jung-tai, premier of Taiwan’s Executive Yuan, warned that Beijing has built an expanding network of laws with extraterritorial reach, including the Anti-Secession Law, the Counter-Espionage Law, and the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, aimed at forcing Taiwanese people to accept Beijing’s political framework.

Cho said the Ethnic Unity Law extends that network farther. He announced the Executive Yuan would set up a cross-agency platform to counter transnational repression while expanding cooperation with allied democracies.

US-China moon race could turn into a lunar land grab

Sixty years ago, the United States and the Soviet Union were embroiled in a race to the moon, which the US won. The 21st-century lunar contest, with China stepping in for the Soviet Union, has many similarities but also key differences.

The Apollo astronauts planted the stars and stripes in lunar soil, bounced – and drove – around, set up experiments and collected scientifically valuable rock samples. Ultimately, however, there was no real plan to stay.The new moon race is different: space agencies are targeting the south pole of the moon due to its deposits of water ice. This water can be used for life support on a lunar base. It can also be turned into rocket fuel, splitting it into the hydrogen and oxygen used by space vehicles, making it a valuable resource.

But ice deposits are not evenly distributed and suitable spots for establishing human outposts are finite. This could spark competition to bag the best spots. So will the US-China lunar contest turn into a land grab?

China expels Politburo member Ma Xingrui in Xi’s anti-corruption campaign

A senior official has been expelled from China’s ruling Communist Party, state media said Tuesday, the latest to fall in Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-corruption campaign. Ma Xingrui is one of three members of the current Politburo, the 24-member body made up of top party leaders, to be purged in the campaign. The other two are military generals. Analysts see the campaign as an important tool to enforce loyalty to Xi as well as root out corruption.

“Xi’s ability to expel a sitting Politburo member underscores his continued dominance ahead of next year’s 21st Party Congress” said Neil Thomas, an expert on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

State media referred to Ma, who was named to the Politburo in 2022, as a former member of the body in their latest reports.

Family says US seismologist has been detained in China for nearly 2 years with no trial

A China-born American seismologist has been detained in China without trial for nearly two years, an advocacy group advising the family said Tuesday, a revelation that came a couple of months before Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the U.S.

The relatives of Youlin Chen of Boston broke their silence this week, apparently after they saw no sign from the Chinese government that it was planning to release Chen — even after President Donald Trump brought up the case when meeting Xi in Beijing in May, according to Global Reach, a Washington-based nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing home Americans wrongly detained abroad.

China grew at its slowest pace in more than 3 years last quarter

China’s economy slowed sharply to a 4.3% annualized pace of growth in the April-June quarter, the government said Wednesday, the weakest in over three years. The official data fell short of forecasts and was far below the economy’s strong 5%pace of growth in January-March, despite a surge in exports driven partly by the boom in artificial intelligence, and by robust global demand for Chinese electric vehicles.

China has largely shrugged off wider economic impacts from the Iran war as soaring energy prices pushed up global inflation. Exports rose 17.6% in the first half of the year from a year earlier, and 27% in June, according to customs data.

But domestic spending and investment have lagged, limiting the boost from export manufacturing for an economy that has struggled to regain momentum since parts of China were locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

China continuing to thwart Nepali border residents’ traditional trade, grazing, pilgrimage access to Tibet

Pro-China elements among Nepal’s political leaders have shown an alacrity to jump at any opportunity to defend perceived damage to Beijing’s interest in the country. However, they seem to show little or no interest on longstanding allegations of Chinese transgressions on Nepali interests, whether it is border incursions or ill-treatment of the country’s citizens living close to occupied Tibet’s border.

An eight-day patrol to the Nepal-Tibet border found growing dissatisfaction among border residents over Chinese restrictions on grazing, cross-border trade and pilgrimages to Lake Mansarovar, reported kathmandupost.com Jul 11.

US weapons depletion in Iran war may invite tougher Chinese pressure on Taiwan

As the US keeps fighting in Iran, China is watching not only what the US can destroy, but how quickly it can replace what it fires. Yet depleted US stockpiles do not make an invasion of Taiwan any less perilous for China.

Multiple media outlets reported that the US launched multiple waves of airstrikes targeting over 140 military sites inside Iran on Sunday, triggering a sweeping drone and missile retaliation by Iran against US bases and Gulf Arab allies that has pushed a fragile interim ceasefire to the brink of collapse. The heavy exchange of fire followed an Iranian attack on a Cyprus-flagged container ship in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, which Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) subsequently declared closed until further notice.

Under orders from US President Donald Trump to preserve freedom of navigation and lower global energy prices, US Central Command struck Iranian drone launchers, missile networks, and naval assets, notably on Qeshm Island and in Bandar Abbas.

China’s Fujian carrier racing to kill America’s torpedo threat

China trashes international law as 14 countries plus EU reject its expansive South China Sea claims

Fourteen countries, led by the United States, have on Jul 12 reaffirmed that China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea have no legal basis under international law, marking the 10th anniversary of a landmark arbitration ruling that Beijing continues to reject.

A joint statement issued by the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, the Philippines, Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia said the Jul 12, 2016 ruling by an arbitral tribunal constituted under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) remains “final, legally binding and definitive”.

The 27-member European Union has issued a separate statement describing the decision as a “landmark” ruling in the peaceful settlement of maritime disputes.

China May Restrict Access to Its Most Powerful AI Models

Chinese AI companies have made inroads globally by giving their models away for free. Now Beijing is weighing whether to stop them. Chinese authorities have held talks with Alibaba, ByteDance, and Z.ai about whether to restrict foreign access to their most advanced models, including ones not yet released, Reuters reportedtoday, citing three people familiar with the discussions.

Nothing has been decided yet, and the ministries involved have made no official comment, but officials have gone as far as sketching options—including a bar on public release or a limit to domestic use only.

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