Kinaforum

mandag 27. juli 2026

Torbjørn Færøvik: That Night, Both Heaven and Earth Tore Apart

That night, both heaven and earth tore apart. "Run!" shouted the father, and everyone rushed outside. But where could they go? "Everything happened so suddenly, and we were trapped like in a snare."

Fifty years have passed since the Tangshan earthquake in China—one of the largest in history. It lasted for only 23 seconds, but claimed more than 242,000 human lives. Another 144,000 were seriously injured.

The tragedy struck at 3:42 in the morning on July 28, 1976. Almost the entire city lay in ruins when the aftershocks came, followed by dirty rain that lasted for hours. In the rubble, the wounded and shock-stricken stumbled around; many in underwear or rags, others almost naked. From deep fissures and gaping holes, thousands of cries for help echoed. A city of over a million inhabitants was suddenly gone.

US-China AI rivalry heats up as Chinese models gain ground

In what seems like the blink of an eye, China has gone from being up to five years behind the United States in top-tier artificial intelligence (AI) to lagging by just a few months. While US players, including Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's ChatGPT, have spent hundreds of billions of dollars to push the frontier of AI, China has pursued a very different path.

Faced with US curbs on high-end chips that help AI to do its most advanced thinking, Chinese tech firms have prioritized dozens of open-source AI models built on "good enough" technology. These platforms, including DeepSeek, Alibaba's Qwen and Xiaomi's MiMo, are now widely deployed across Chinese businesses, government services and consumer devices.

How India's Gen-Z protesters shifted the political debate

On Saturday, student protesters embraced, danced and climbed onto barricades as chants of victory echoed across New Delhi's historic Jantar Mantar protest site.

After weeks of demonstrations, marathon negotiations and repeated government refusals, a movement named the "Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)" succeeded in its demand for Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to step down. The movement began on social media as a satirical activist campaign sparked by leaks of a question sheet for the highly competitive NEET exam in early May.

Along with Pradhan's resignation, the government also agreed to provide the maximum possible compensation to families of students who died by suicide following the NEET paper leak controversy. Additionally, it promised to withdraw criminal cases against protesters, refrain from pursuing future legal action and continue discussions on the CJP's five-point charter for academic examination reform.

In Japan, Prime Minister's Sleep Schedule Prompts Work-Life Balance Debate

For Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a day off means more work. As the country enjoyed a three-day weekend to celebrate the Marine Day national holiday, Takaichi said that she spent the weekend poring over policy documents and catching up on domestic work.

“I was able to get five hours of sleep for the first time in a while,” Takaichi posted on X on Monday night, noting that she was able to do ironing and sewing she’d put off. “Since taking office, getting zero to three hours of sleep has become the norm ... I can work hard again from tomorrow!” she added.

It’s not the first time that Takaichi has projected an image as a tireless worker. When Takaichi was elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in October, she proudly announced, “I will abandon the phrase ‘work-life balance.’ I will work, work, work, work and keep on working.” She also called on LDP members to “work like workhorses.”

Read more

Philippine president slams China in veiled rebuke in his state of the nation speech

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. denounced China in a veiled rebuke Monday in his state of the nation speech, vowing that his government will defend a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s expansive claims in the disputed South China Sea, and saying that Filipinos “do not yield” to conquerors.

On domestic issues, Marcos disclosed that a special anti-graft prosecutor would soon file charges against former House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez, who has been implicated in a corruption scandal that the president exposed in his state of the nation speech last year.

South Korean court gives ousted President Yoon suspended jail term for lying during campaign

Former South Korean President President Yoon Suk Yeolwas convicted of making false statements during his presidential campaign in the latest verdict after he was removed from office last year over his brief imposition of martial law.

Yoon denied the charges and appealed, with his lawyers arguing that the verdict was based on a misinterpretation of the facts and election law. If upheld by higher courts, the ruling could financially cripple the conservative People Power Party by forcing it to return around 40 billion won ($27 million) in election expenses reimbursed by the government after Yoon’s narrow victory over current liberal President Lee Jae Myung in 2022.

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.

How Australia resisted PRC economic coercion: lessons for others

The People’s Republic of China has used its statecraft to weaponize its trade with other countries on several occasions in recent years. Such behavior usually arises when the PRC interprets another country’s actions as hostile to its political interests and resorts to nonofficial sanctions, tariffs, regulations, and consumer boycotts that damage a host nation’s economy.

These actions don’t follow market sentiments and can be revoked without a change in any underlying economic concerns the PRC initially used to justify its imposition. Many targeted countries use terms such as economic coercion to refer to trade decisions intended to alter a nation’s policies, behaviors or decisions.

Trump administration opens review of Harvard-China cooperation

The Justice Department is investigating whether Harvard University is allowing Chinese donors to create scholarships that exclude American students, adding to the barrage of federal inquiries the Trump administration has opened in its battle against the Ivy League school.

Justice Department officials announced the new review Monday, saying Harvard’s foreign funding disclosures “raised concerns” about possible discrimination against U.S. students. The agency did not specify which scholarship programs are being targeted and emphasized it “has not reached any conclusions.”

The investigation is aimed at Harvard’s “China-based financial aid programs,” the Justice Department said. The agency said Chinese donors have given money to Harvard to support financial aid programs limited to students from certain countries. That restriction could amount to illegal discrimination based on country of origin, the department said.

Read more

As heatwaves strike, Europeans turn to Chinese air-conditioner

Steven Scholtysek, 36, is no stranger to Europe's heatwaves. The German engineer has lived through sweltering summers since his childhood.

But this year the heat has been especially unbearable. Western Europe has experienced its hottest June on record, and cities across Germany saw temperatures rise above 40C (104F). The region is bracing for more heatwaves before the summer ends. To make things worse, a few months ago Scholtysek moved into an attic apartment - the kind that's notorious for overheating.

Read more

Why political fury is boiling over on the streets of India’s capital

For days the streets and parks in the center of India’scapital have seethed with the biggest demonstrations it has seen in years as young protesters demand change to a national exam system they say cheats millions of them out of a fair chance.

Earlier this week, as the mostly Gen-Z protesters tried the bring their demands to the parliament building at the heart of the world’s biggest democracy, they were met with tear gas and police violence, struck with the bamboo sticks officers carry in lieu of batons.

The protesters are refusing to back down, setting up a continued confrontation with Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government, one critics say has overseen a relentless crushing of dissent during its more than a decade in power.

Read more

China doesn’t need the World Cup. It has the ‘Village Super League’

Soccer players in red jerseys jump up and down, spraying their cheering teammates with champagne, as confetti and streamers cascade around them and crowds capture the jubilation on their phones.

This isn’t Spain’s World Cup victory, clinched Sunday in New Jersey, but a win celebrated a day earlier, some 6,000 miles away, in Fuping county, a mountainous and rural part of northern China’s Hebei province, at a stadium lined with Communist Party slogans.

This game is one of many taking place across the country, as teams battle for a place in the national “Village Super League” finals. The amateur tournament has become a phenomenon in China, attracting millions of spectators across the country – and making for a colorful alternative to the World Cup that hasn’t seen a Chinese men’s national team compete for more than two decades.

Read more

tirsdag 21. juli 2026

Why Europe’s China Anxiety Is About More Than China

When EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič met Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Brussels on June 29, the encounter could easily be read as another episode in Europe’s growing anxiety over Chinese economic pressure. In 2025, China’s goods trade surplus with the EU reached roughly 360 billion euros, and by early 2026 the imbalance was still widening. Šefčovič himself warned after the Brussels talks that rising Chinese exports to Europe, combined with shrinking European market share in China, were “not sustainable.”

Yet the meeting also revealed why Europe’s China debate is about more than trade. The new EU-China consultation mechanism was not limited to market access or the bilateral trade deficit. According to the European Commission, both sides also discussed export controls, intellectual property rights, and WTO reform. The disagreement, then, is not only technical trade issues, but about who gets to define the rules under which interdependence operates.

‘Escaping Beijing’: Why some young Chinese are quitting the capital

For centuries, Beijing has represented the pinnacle of ambition in China. From imperial capital to the political heart of modern China, the city has long attracted those hoping to build a better life.

In medieval times, scholars travelled here to sit the imperial examinations. In more recent decades, graduates, entrepreneurs and migrant workers have flocked to the capital in search of opportunity as China’s economy boomed. Wang Lei, 29, was one of them. Born in neighbouring Hebei province, he vividly remembers his first visit to the capital as a child. “When we arrived at Beijing Railway Station, my friend and I spotted a towering skyscraper for the first time,” Wang recalled. “I told him when I grew up, I would stand on top of it.”

He moved to the city in 2020 and found work in the real estate industry, then still one of China’s most lucrative sectors. Like millions before him, Wang arrived with the hope his hard work would be rewarded.

China’s Xi Jinping launches new AI alliance: What is it?

It was an artificial intelligence summit with very real-world geopolitical messaging. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday urged countries to cooperate on artificial intelligence and ensure no country dominates the technology – in an apparent jab at the United States. Xi spoke at a major tech conference in Shanghai on Friday, where China showcased cutting-edge technology that rivals the prowess of the US.

Both countries are locked in a battle for tech and AI dominance and view each other’s advancements in these areas as deliberate attempts to stymie the other. As Chinese AI models gain ground globally, Beijing appears to be casting itself as a leader of the new global AI order, challenging the US’s influence in the development and regulation of the fast-evolving technology.

Opinion: Trump Is Good for China. But Is He Good for America?

After a rocky period at the outset of President Trump’s second term, the U.S.-China relationship has found its groove. So said several Chinese government officials and academics with whom I formally met during a recent trip to Beijing.

A China-focused researcher, I lived in Beijing before the pandemic, and I returned after over six years as part of a delegation of China hands. While the city had not changed all that much, save for several new subway lines, I was struck by the whiff of triumphalism that permeated the Chinese policy community. Whereas the Biden administration’s approach to China was marked by “zero-sum ideological and technological competition,” Trump’s more transactional nature, some academics and think tankers argued, had produced a reset in relations that would benefit both sides.

Inside the ‘Cockroach’ Protests Challenging India’s Modi

"If standing against a broken system makes me a cockroach, then I accept being called a cockroach," Beauty Giri, 25, told Newsweek among thousands of protesters at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar, a historic protest ground.

The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) was only launched online in May as a satirical movement reflecting anger among youth over unemployment and political neglect, but its protests now draw thousands of people and have broadened. Police used teargas and batons on New Delhi's streets to stop their unauthorized march to parliament on Monday.

The group has become an outlet for frustration over education reform, unemployment, alleged corruption and institutional accountability in a growing challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party after 12 years of his power.

Chinese geologists warn of active fault line dangers from world’s largest hydropower project in Tibet

It is not just Tibetans and India but also China’s own scientists that are seriously concerned about the world’s largest hydropower dam that is being built, reportedly at a speeded up pace in recent times, towards the end of the run of the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet’s Metog County, just 50km before it enters India. Chinese geologists have determined that an active fault line directly beneath the project poses a threat to the mega-dam, reported scmp.com Jul 9, citing a paper published last month in the Chinese-language journal Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology.

The scientists have not called for the project to be scrapped, although this would be the best sensible recommendation, as this was obviously beyond their term of reference. They have, instead, called for strengthened safeguard measures to hopefully minimise the risks.