tirsdag 3. november 2026

Taiwan to criminalize Nvidia AI chip smuggling to China

Taiwan is moving to criminalize the unauthorized export of advanced AI chips to China, aiming to close a loophole exposed when Nvidia-powered servers bought on the island reached Chinese buyers via Indonesia, Japan, and Hong Kong.

The Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee held a public hearing on Monday on an amendment to the Foreign Trade Act proposed by lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). It would ban exports of specified integrated circuits, key wafer materials, components and chipmaking equipment to mainland China without government approval.

Violators would face up to 10 years in prison and fines of NT$5 million to NT$10 million (US$155,000 to US$310,000), according to the proposed amendment. The same penalties would apply to anyone shipping controlled goods to China through a third country, while illegal gains would be confiscated.

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China’s tech boom borrowing the playbook of its property bust

On October 28, 2026, Unitree, China’s top robotics company, released its first quarterly report since going public in Shanghai. Third-quarter profit fell 17.4%, even as the stock traded at more than 465 times earnings. Those numbers explain why its founder, Wang Xingxing, looked so grim on listing day two months ago.

Then, on August 19, Wang struck the gong on Shanghai’s STAR Market as Unitree debuted at 445 billion yuan(US$66 billion), yet the new billionaire did not smile. One day later, Xu Jiayin, founder of the property giant Evergrande and once China’s richest man, stood white-haired in court where he was sentenced to life in prison.

A Chinese proverb says the waves behind drive the waves ahead, and the waves ahead die on the shore. Most of the commentary those two days saw it as a handover from the old economy to the new.

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How North Korea became the crypto heist king

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was the victim of a massive heist in late October. Approximately US$6.36 billion of funds were stolen within the space of 20 minutes in an attack that has been described as the largest of its kind in history.

The source of the attack has not yet been officially confirmed. But the FBI and blockchain analytics company TRM Labs identified North Korea’s TraderTraitor hacking unit as the group most likely to have been behind it. Two other blockchain analytics firms, Chainalysis and Elliptic, have supported this attribution.

This is not the first time North Korea has been linked to cyber-attacks. Several other cryptocurrency exchange thefts in recent years have been attributed to North Korean state-sponsored hackers. These include the 2019 Upbit and 2025 Bybit hacks, where funds worth US$42 million and US$1.5 billion respectively were stolen.

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How Japan's Reforms on Imperial Succession Affect Its Monarchy

Japanese lawmakers are reforming the country’s more-than-a-millennia-old continuous hereditary monarchy in an effort to keep it alive amid a shrinking imperial family.

Amendments to Japan’s Imperial House Law that passed in July took effect on Saturday. One allows Japanese princesses to keep their royal status even if they marry non-royals, though their future children are not considered royals. The other amendment is an apparent roundabout way to preserve patrilineal succession: members of the royal family may adopt a male from former imperial branch families, and those adoptees’ future male offspring can be considered legitimate successors to the throne.T

The revisions aim to expand the future pool of eligible heirs to the throne while reinforcing the shutting out of women from leading the Japanese monarchy, which staunch conservatives including the country’s first female Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, have repeatedly advocated against upending.

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War, tariffs and China: What the US midterms mean for the Asia-Pacific

Across the Asia-Pacific region, governments and businesses reeling from the energy shock of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran are watching Tuesday’s US midterm elections closely.

Many want to see “enormous changes” during the rest of President Donald Trump’s term, analysts say, from the war on Iran to his policies on trade and tariffs. But few expect that to happen, even with the Democrats poised to take the House of Representatives, and potentially the Senate, from Trump’s Republican Party.“Of course, everybody is watching,” said Steven Okun, a trade specialist and the chief executive of APAC Advisors, a Singapore-based consulting firm. “It’s great political theatre.”

Outside the Middle East, no region has been hit harder by the war on Iran than the Asia-Pacific. Before the start of the conflict in January, the region took in most of the Gulf oil and gas that passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

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How India pulled 500 million people out of poverty as inequality deepens

India lifted nearly 500 million people out of poverty between 2011 and 2023, with extreme poverty dropping from 27.1 percent to 2.6 percent in the world’s most populous nation during the period, according to a new World Bank report.

The only other parallel in poverty reduction on this scale is China, which lifted more than 800 million people out of extreme poverty, though that was over a period of 40 years. Yet despite the substantial fall in poverty in India — home to 1.4 billion people — the income and wealth inequality gap has widened significantly since it opened up its economy in the early 1990s. According to the 2026 World Inequality Report, inequality in India remains among the highest in the world.

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North Korea denies links to Binance hack as researchers trace stolen billions

North Korea rejected allegations linking Pyongyang to the estimated$6.3 billion Binance hack, calling the accusation a “grave political provocation,” according to state media. Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, denounced the FBI’s attribution of the attack to North Korea-linked hacking group TraderTraitor, Yohnap reported Tuesday, citing the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Blockchain analytics firms including Elliptic and Chainalysis have also linked the attack and subsequent movement of the stolen funds to North Korea-linked actors.

“The FBI is trying to brand the DPRK as a ‘cyber criminal state’, claiming that it obtained information that a hacking organization ‘supported’ by the DPRK was involved in the incident,” Kim said, according to KCNA. She accused Washington of misleading international public opinion by portraying cybercrimes around the world as the work of North Korea.

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Mining in Tibet in 2026: The Copper Boom, Troubled Rivers and the Question of Who Benefits

In September 2014, over 1000 Tibetans gathered in a village east of Lhasa to protest mining, which they said was polluting their rivers and damaging their farming. The demonstration took place in Gyama, a mountain valley historically used for agriculture, livestock, and local water. Gyama, or Jiama as it is written in Chinese, is in central Tibet, about 60-70 km east of Lhasa in Meldro Gungkar County. It is well known for its large copper and gold mine and its cultural heritage.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that people in the area have been complaining of worsening river conditions, dwindling fish stocks, and crop damage. The rivers were once clean, and the area was famous for its scenic beauty, as recalled by a local resident. Now, serious waste-related issues continue to affect the waters. Gyama is also associated with environmental and mining safety issues. On the 29th of March 2013, there was a major landslide in the Gyama mining area which trapped 83 men. The disaster prompted many questions about mining safety and environmental management.

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US asks China to stop interfering in religious freedom in Tibet following latest reports of monastic demolitions

The US State Department has on Oct 29 called on China to stop interfering with the religious freedom of the Tibetan people following reports that authorities had begun demolishing the residential quarters of some 200 monks at a monastery in Sershul (Chinese: Shiqu) County of Kardze (Ganzi) Prefecture, Sichuan Province. This preceded another large-scale demolition work carried out in another major Buddhist study centre in the same prefecture.

The demolitions were begun over Oct 25-26 in the county’s Dza Sershul Thekchen Dargyeling Monastery, reported rfa.org Oct 29, citing a local source who spoke on condition of anonymity for personal safety reasons. +“Everything is over now,” the source has said. “We are losing everything.”

The report cited a US State Department spokesperson as saying the demolitions in Sershul reflected broader Chinese government efforts to bring spiritual institutions, religious education, and monastic life under government control.

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mandag 2. november 2026

Torbjørn Færøvik: North Korea's Kim Jong Un is laughing all the way to the bank

North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un is known for his infectious laugh. Now he is laughing all the way to the bank after the regime’s elite hackers pulled off one of the biggest digital heists in history last week. A staggering $6.3 billion vanished in an instant when they broke into Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Binance operates as a digital financial marketplace where users can buy, sell, exchange and invest in various cryptocurrencies. Last year, the same hackers made off with $1.5 billion after breaking into Bybit, another cryptocurrency exchange. There is considerable evidence to suggest that North Korea has raked in almost $10 billion from such activities over the past decade.

While ordinary North Koreans struggle daily to survive, Kim’s cybercriminals are working flat out to secure foreign currency for the regime’s ambitious nuclear programme. Many have wondered how such an isolated and impoverished country can maintain an army of 1.2 million soldiers and threaten peace in Asia. The answer is quite simply that North Korea under Kim Jong-un operates less like a conventional country than a global crime syndicate.
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South Korea targets ‘world’s highest performance’ sovereign AI model in record new budget

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung unveiled the country’s largest ever budget on Monday, pledging to “boldly invest in AI and future growth engines.” Speaking to the National Assembly on Monday, Lee said total spending for 2027 would rise 12.8% to 820.9 trillion won ($610.14 billion), including 21.3 trillion won for semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers — nearly double the 2026 level.

A separate 4.7 trillion won will go toward developing a sovereign AI model with what Lee described as the “world’s highest performance.” The government also plans to invest heavily into talent, including training 2,000 specialists to “lead semiconductor design and the regional semiconductor industry,” while expanding AI education for students, job seekers and existing workers.

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Torbjørn Færøvik: Nord-Korea Kim Jong-un ler hele veien til banken

Nord-Koreas diktator Kim Jong-un er kjent for sin smittende latter. Nå ler han hele veien til banken etter at regimets elitehackere i forrige uke gjennomførte et av historiens største digitale ran. Svimlende 6,3 milliarder amerikanske dollar ble borte på et blunk da de brøt seg inn i Binance, verdens største kryptobørs.

Binance fungerer som et digitalt finanshus hvor brukerne kan kjøpe, selge, veksle og investere i ulike kryptovalutaer. De samme hackerne stakk i fjor av med 1,5 milliarder dollar etter et innbrudd i Bybit, en annen kryptobørs. Mye tyder på at Nord-Korea de siste ti årene har raket til seg nesten ti milliarder dollar på slik virksomhet.

Mens vanlige nord-koreanere kjemper en daglig kamp for å overleve, arbeider Kims cyberkriminelle under høytrykk for å skaffe valuta til regimets ambisiøse atomprogram. Mange har undret seg over et så isolert og fattig land kan holde seg med en hær på 1,2 millioner soldater og true freden i Asia. Svaret er ganske enkelt at Nord-Korea under Kim Jong-un ikke fungerer som et vanlig land, men som et globalt forbrytersyndikat. 
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Regardless of psywar campaign, Taiwan shouldn’t rush to surrender

Taiwan’s external security situation is bleak. China, flush with new and modern weaponry, is regularly practicing for a military operation to forcibly annex the island.There are doubts about continued US support.

The Trump Administration, hoping for a big bilateral trade deal with China, is delaying a large arms sale already approved by Congress. President Trump’s own remarks about Taiwan are not encouraging: He has said on multiple occasions that Taiwan is unimportant compared with China, is indefensible, should pay the US protection money – and “stole” America’s semiconductor manufacturing industry. The successful pressure on Taiwan to build fabs in the US seemingly reduces Washington’s incentive to get involved in a cross-Strait war.

It is not surprising, therefore, to find observers urging Taipei to surrender. A recent example is South China Morning Post columnist Alex Lo’s October 23 opinion piece, which argues that “Taiwan might as well give up now.”

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Mining in Tibet in 2026: The Copper Boom, Troubled Rivers and the Question of Who Benefits

In September 2014, over 1000 Tibetans gathered in a village east of Lhasa to protest mining, which they said was polluting their rivers and damaging their farming. The demonstration took place in Gyama, a mountain valley historically used for agriculture, livestock, and local water. Gyama or Jiama as it is written in Chinese, is in central Tibet, about 60-70 km east of Lhasa in Meldro Gungkar County. It is well known for its large copper and gold mine and its cultural heritage. 

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that people in the area have been complaining of worsening river conditions, dwindling fish stocks, and crop damage. The rivers were once clean, and the area was famous for its scenic beauty, as recalled by a local resident. Now, serious waste-related issues continue to affect the waters. Gyama is also associated with environmental and mining safety issues. On the 29th of March 2013, there was a major landslide in the Gyama mining area which trapped 83 men. The disaster prompted many questions about mining safety and environmental management.

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India warned on China’s Arunachal border infrastructure, settlement-building spree

China has taken at least 15-20 years’ lead in developing remote Tibetan border regions with a design to strengthen its claims over Arunachal Pradesh, including especially through border infrastructure and settlement buildings, according to Lt General (Retd) Abhay Krishna, a former Army Commander of South Western, Eastern and Central Army Commands of the Indian Army, writing on Indianarrative.comwebsite Oct 24. He has warned against China trying to make a “demographic invasion” of Arunachal in future.

In this context, he has warned that China was resettling Tibetans close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) opposite Arunachal Pradesh, with the aim to make the disputed boundary resemble an ordinary Chinese provincial frontier, with a long-term goal of pushing a “demographic invasion” into the Indian state over the coming decades.

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Tens of thousands build 108 Buddhist stupas for Bhutan ‘mindfulness’ city



Tens of thousands of volunteers have taken part in building 108 Buddhist stupas in Bhutan’s new “mindfulness” city, as the Himalayan kingdom embarks on an ambitious project to boost economic growth.

The 15-metre-tall (50ft) stupas, sacred Buddhist monuments found across the Himalayas, were installed on Sunday along 12km (7.5 miles) of riverbank near the Indian border, at the site of the future Gelephu Mindfulness City. More than 40,000 volunteers participated in building the structures as “a physical form of prayer made permanent in stone and earth”, after starting work after midnight, officials said. The number 108 is sacred in Buddhism, widely practised in Bhutan.

About 200,000 people attended the ceremony, or nearly a fourth of the population, officials told the AFP news agency.

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Why Isn’t it “Foreign Interference” When They Praise China?

The post translated below, from WeChat account 守一手记 (Shǒuyī Shǒujì, “Shouyi’s Notes”), examines conflicting attitudes and selective scrutiny on Chinese social media when it comes to foreign views of China. Foreign media coverage may be met with hostility, and foreign involvement identified, without evidence, behind "hyping" of public safety issues, but foreign praise is often uncritically embraced. When Western "TikTok refugees" flooded onto Xiaohongshu in early 2025, for example, some Chinese netizens were quick to celebrate the visitors’ dazed wonderment at living standards in contemporary urban middle-class China. (Others had more critical responses that resonate with the translation below.) 


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China’s factory activity slips as new export orders weaken

China’s factory activity contracted in October as new export orders softened, reversing the previous month’s rebound. The world’s second-biggest economy has been facing pressure from trading partners to rebalance trade as its trade surplus with many countries balloons.

Data released on Saturday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 49.3 in October, compared with 50.1 in September and 49.8 in August. The PMI is based on a monthly survey of companies and measured from 0 to 100. Readings below 50 indicate contraction while readings above 50 reflect expansion.

Several key subindexes were also in contraction territory in October, including new export orders, which fell to 48.7 from 50.0 in September. The subindex on production dropped to 49.8, from 51.7.

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