Kinaforum

mandag 6. april 2026

China imports US oil for Asian fuel markets amid Hormuz crisis

China is moving to resume large-scale purchases of United States liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil, as supply disruptions in the Middle East and tightening fuel markets across Asia force Beijing to recalibrate its energy strategy.

Some observers view the move as a significant concession by Beijing, or even a strategic reward to Washington, after China halted US LNG imports in early 2025 when trade tensions escalated under US President Donald Trump’s tariff measures.In return, China will have sufficient fuel supply to resume gasoline exports to Asian countries, helping it maintain market share and increase political influence in the region amid tightening fuel supplies. On March 11, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) ordered a halt to exports of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel.

According to Nikkei Asia, China is restarting imports of US energy, with tanker tracking data indicating that around 600,000 barrels per day of American crude oil are scheduled to be loaded in April. The shift marks a resumption of energy trade between the United States and China following a suspension of purchases triggered by earlier trade tensions.

Trump turning China’s yuan into world’s next safe haven

As US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and military adventurism chip away at the dollar’s credibility, the privilege may be all China’s.

The reference here is to the phrase coined by France’s finance minister in the 1960s, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, to criticize the dollar’s dominant role in the global economy. America’s “exorbitant privilege” enables it to sell 10-year US debt at 4.1% yields, even as the national debt nears US$40 trillion.Trump’s trade war, regime-change gamble in Venezuela and joining hands with Israel to attack Iran also give investors valid reasons to worry about the stability of US assets. So do Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve, the most globally respected US institution.

It’s no coincidence that foreign central banks’ holdings of US Treasury securities are now the lowest since 2012. The amount of Treasuries held in custody for overseas institutions at the New York Fed was $2.7 trillion.

Taiwan opposition leader’s China trip is fraught with risk

Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), plans to visit mainland China from April 7-12.

Cross-Strait dialogue is crucial for managing tensions, which have risen sharply over the past decade, and the KMT has long played an important role in maintaining these channels. But the timing and circumstances around this trip expose Cheng and the party she leads to political risks that will be difficult to navigate.Cheng’s visit follows a precedent of KMT leaders traveling to mainland China, beginning with Lien Chan’s groundbreaking 2005 meeting with then-Chinese leader Hu Jintao. Some subsequent KMT chairmen made similar trips.

Although Cheng’s immediate predecessor, Eric Chu Li-luan, refrained from visiting during his most recent term, which ran from 2021 until last November, he frequently dispatched Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia to the mainland.

South Korea president says regrets drones sent to North

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Monday expressed regret to Pyongyang after a drone entered North Korea earlier this year, calling the act "irresponsible."

Initially, Seoul had denied the role of the government in the drone incursion, which took place in January, and suggested it was the work of civilians. However, Lee said an investigation found that government officials had been involved in the incident.

In February, Pyongyang warned of a "terrible response" if it found more drones transgressing the airspace, which compelled Seoul to investigate the claims.

French and South Korean leaders say they’ll work together on the Strait of Hormuz

French President Emmanuel Macron and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung agreed Friday to work together to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and ease global economic uncertainties caused by the war in the Middle East.

Their summit in Seoul came as U.S. President Donald Trump slammed allies for not supporting the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran. Macron was making his first visit to South Korea since taking office in 2017, as part of an Asian tour that already has taken him to Japan.

Macron told Lee at the start of the meeting that the two countries can play a role in helping to stabilize the situation in the Middle East, including Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, which has unleashed shock on global energy markets.

France condemns China’s execution of a French citizen held on death row for 15 years

France said China has executed a French citizen convicted of drug trafficking after keeping him on death row for more than 15 years.

Chan Thao Phoumy, 62, was executed in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, despite French authorities’ clemency appeals, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Saturday. It didn’t say when the sentence was carried out. A Chinese court sentenced him to death in 2010. The ministry’s statement expressed “consternation” and added: “We particularly regret that Mr. Chan’s defense did not have access to the final court hearing, which constitutes a violation of his rights.”

“We extend our condolences to his family, whose grief we share,” it said.

In a short statement Sunday that didn’t mention Chan by name, the Chinese Embassy in Paris said that China “treats defendants of all nationalities equally, handles all cases impartially and strictly in accordance with the law.”

From digging coal to selling noodles? China’s mining workers face change

Yang Haiming didn’t stop working when he retired from the coal mines at age 60. Instead, he jumped into a new industry. Yang is part of a generation of workers that powered China’s growth by digging coal from underground mines in Datong, a city known as China’s coal capital in the northern province of Shanxi. Now, as China prioritizes renewable energy over coal, Yang is ahead of the change his fellow workers are being forced to confront.

He now runs a restaurant that sells lamb skewers to tourists visiting the Yungang Grottoes, a historically significant 6th century site featuring Buddhist carvings in caves that draws millions of visitors a year.

Energy fallout from Iran war signals a global wake-up call for renewable energy

Asia boosts coal use as Iran war squeezes global LNG supplies

China won’t supplant Australia in the Pacific anytime soon

Last year, Australia was reminded of China’s willingness to exercise its growing naval power in the region. In February, a Chinese flotilla circumnavigated the country and conducted live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea.

And in November, a powerful Chinese task group came within a few kilometers of Australia’s maritime territory.These events also highlighted the continued importance of Australia’s relationship with its Pacific neighbors and their maritime security. In fact, several Pacific Island countries worked with Australia to monitor the Chinese task group as it passed their territories.

Australia has been accused of “neglect” and “stupor” when it comes to the Pacific. Some even claim Australia has “lost” the Pacific to China. But these observations overlook the sophisticated ways the Pacific countries decide who they will partner with.

Torbjørn Færøvik: Beijing Fifty Years Ago - When China Turned on Mao

Beijing, an April day fifty years ago. China had never seen anything like it. From all directions, agitated citizens streamed toward Tiananmen Square. Many carried white funeral wreaths, a sign of mourning.

In 1976, the annual day of remembrance for the dead, Qingming Festival, fell on April 4. In Beijing, preparations had begun weeks in advance. In courtyards across the city, young and old squatted side by side, weaving white wreaths—white being the color of grief. “Do not go to Tiananmen Square!” the party leadership ordered. “Honoring the dead is a tradition of the past.”

The first mourners had already made their way to the square in March. Party newspapers urged them to turn back, but they were not heeded. On April 2, the British diplomat Roger Garside estimated the crowd at ten thousand. The following day, even more arrived. Most walked in silence; others sang “The Internationale” or China’s national anthem. On the silk ribbons attached to their wreaths, they had written their final greetings to Zhou Enlai, the country’s recently deceased prime minister.

China cranks South China Sea buildup while Iran consumes US

China’s renewed land reclamation at Antelope Reef comes as the ongoing US-Israel-Iran War draws significant US military assets into the Middle East, raising questions over whether shifting US force posture is opening strategic space in the South China Sea.

This month, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that China has stepped up land reclamation at Antelope Reef in the disputed South China Sea, satellite imagery shows, underscoring an effort to consolidate maritime claims and reshape the strategic balance in a potential Taiwan-linked conflict.

UNESCO World Heritage sites facing the heat

While wars and revolutions have long threatened national cultural heritage sites — most recently in Iran and Ukraine — a new danger has emerged in the form of climate change.

UNESCO World Heritage sites from the 4,000 year-old pyramid temples in Iraq to the ancient statues of Easter Island are facing extreme erosion and deterioration as temperatures rise and storms and droughts intensify. A 2025 study showed that 80% of World Heritage sites are facing climate stress as materials such as wood and stone struggle to adapt to a hotter world.

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Taiwan’s failures on migrant labor issues

Despite calling itself a nation based on human rights, Taiwan continues to let migrant workers remain subject to the pressures of debt, precarity and fear in the workplace. This is not the institutional progress we expect; it is a distortion of our values.

These so-called “ghost workers,” sidelined to the fringes of society, are evidence of what Taiwan still finds to be an uncomfortable reality: Despite being critical to our factories, care systems and daily life, migrant workers pay a much higher price than local workers in accessing basic labor rights, including lodging appeals, resignations and accessing financial relief.

Recent reports have once again illustrated how many migrants, after paying brokerage fees and being saddled with debt, are forced to remain in exploitative situations, working overtime, and dealing with occupational injuries or poor conditions. The question is not whether Taiwan has laws to address this; it is whether the laws are being upheld to protect workers’ rights.

Weeks into the craze, nobody quite knows what to make of the OpenClaw mania

Weeks into the craze, nobody quite knows what to make of the OpenClaw mania sweeping China, marked by viral photos of retirees lining up for installation events and users gathering in red claw hats.

The queues and cosplay inspired by the “raising a lobster” trend make for irresistible China clickbait. However, the West is fixating on the least important part of the story. As a consumer craze, OpenClaw — the AI agent designed to do tasks on a user’s behalf — would likely burn out. Without some developer background, it is too glitchy and technically awkward for true mainstream adoption, not to mention the cybersecurity risks.

Even so, the fad could leave China’s AI industry with something far more valuable: more token demand, more real-world experimentation, and more live training data for open-source models trying to catch US rivals.

India makes first Iranian oil purchase in seven years with no payment problems

Indian refiners have purchased Iranian oil amid the Middle East conflict that has disrupted supplies through ‌the Strait of Hormuz, the oil ministry said on Saturday.

The world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer, India has not received a cargo from Tehran since May 2019, following U.S. pressure not to buy Iranian ⁠crude, but supply disruptions from the U.S.-Israel war have hit the South Asian nation hard. “Amid Middle East supply disruptions, Indian refiners have secured their crude oil requirements, including from Iran; and there is no payment hurdle for Iranian crude imports,” the oil ministry said on X.

Chinese chip firms hit record high revenue driven by the AI boom and U.S. curbs

Chinese semiconductor firms have reported record revenue last year driven by AI demand, a shortage of memory chips and U.S. export restrictions that have pushed Beijing to bolster its homegrown tech industry.

Analysts and the companies themselves are also expecting further revenue surges this year, underscoring how Chinese chip players are capitalizing on strong demand from domestic tech giants looking to build their AI infrastructure. U.S. export restrictions on China’s tech sector over the last few years have added “rocket fuel” on chip demand, amplifying growth from other areas like electric vehicles and AI data centers, according to Paul Triolo, a partner at Albright Stonebridge Group.

Fossils from China show complex life evolved millions of years earlier than once thought

Goblet-shaped sea jelly relatives with miniature “arms.” A plump, legless creature resembling a sausage. Long, wormlike animals tipped with flat “holdfast” discs for anchoring to the seafloor.

Newfound fossils from a site in southwestern China, preserved in exquisite detail, offer a peek at a time in Earth’s distant past called the Ediacaran (635 million to 542 million years ago). The discovery suggests that complex animals — perhaps even ancestors of all vertebrates — were around millions of years earlier than once thought.

A few types of creatures were previously known from the Ediacaran, but the evolution of complex animal life has long been associated with the Cambrian, a later period from 542 million to 488 million years ago when fauna diversity and complexity were booming.

Tibet, a rare exception to China’s visa-free entry for citizens of over 50 countries

While China has opened up the People’’s Republic of China (PRC) for visa-free entry or transit to a total of 77 nationalities from over 50 countries in an effort to give a boost to its flagging economy, Tibet remains a rare exception to the applicability of this rule. Even travels within Tibet are subjected to obtaining of further, specific permits, underlining the severe lack of accessibility to the region over which China has launched a new assimilation campaign under the vigour of President Xi Jinping’s renewed Sinicization drive.

Tourists visiting the PRC can “move freely between provinces and cities”; however, Tibet is a significant exception, noted the travel website travelandtourworld.com Mar 27, correcting its claim in an earlier article.

All foreign passport holders — including those from visa-free countries — must obtain a Tibet Travel Permit (TTP) in addition to their Chinese visa (or visa exemption) to enter the Tibet Autonomous Region, the report noted.

‘It all depends on the crop’: Gulf crisis hits South Asia farmers

Ramesh Kumar, 42, is anxiously doing the calculations for his crops this year.

Standing at the edge of his wheat field in northwest Punjab’s Gurdaspur, he runs through the numbers in his head, totting up fertiliser costs, expected yield, and market prices.Then he shifts to more personal concerns: School fees, household expenses, loan repayments and the money he has been saving for his daughter Varsha’s wedding.

“I don’t know if we can afford it this year,” he says. “Everything depends on the crop.”

The uncertainty has crept in quietly. Fertiliser, once a fairly predictable staple in farming, has become more expensive and harder to secure in time. For Kumar, it is not so much a question of cost as it is the difference between stability and strain.

“If prices go up more, we will have to cut somewhere,” he says. “Maybe delay the wedding. If things get worse … even children’s education becomes difficult.”