Kinaforum

fredag 16. mai 2025

Buddhist nations urged to speak up ahead of China’s 30-year Panchen Lama abduction, disappearance

Human Rights Watch has on May 15 reiterated its call on China to release the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his parents, ahead of the completion of 30 years since it abducted them on May 17, 1995. The New York-based international rights group said the issue had become all the more urgent as the Dalai Lama marks his 90th birthday on Jul 6, 2025 and the two top spiritual leaders of Tibet have historically played key roles in recognizing each other’s reincarnations. This is an opportune moment for Buddhist nations especially to raise their voices, the group said.

Noting that the question of the current, 14th Dalai Lama’s succession—and the future of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan people—is becoming increasingly urgent, the group said the Chinese government forcibly disappeared the then six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima three days after the Dalai Lama recognized him as the 11th Panchen Lama. Even his pictures, along with those of the Dalai Lama, are prohibited in Tibet.

The kidnapping and disappearance of the six-year-old and his family for 30 years thus far was meant to “control the selection of the next Dalai Lama and thus Tibetan Buddhism itself,” Yalkun Uluyol, the group’s China researcher, has said.

China’s Visit And Economic Playbook In Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia: Solidifying Leverage And Belt And Road Initiative With Strategic Allies – Analysis

The U.S. had imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese imports last April, prompting China to seek stronger regional alliances. Amid interruptions brought on by U.S. tariffs, China’s President Xi Jinping urged for closer trade and supply chain connections with Vietnam on last week while attending the signing of dozens of cooperation agreements between the two communist-run countries in Hanoi, Vietnam last 14 April 2025.

The weeks-long tour, which is a component of a larger Southeast Asian journey, comes as China faces 145% U.S. levies and Vietnam is negotiating a 46% reduction in proposed U.S. tariffs that would otherwise take effect in July following the end of a global moratorium or global tariff freeze.

Mass protest by parents prompts reversal of private school closure in China

A mass protest by parents this week against the planned closure of a private school in northern China prompted a rare reversal by authorities, officials and parents said. Video posted on social media showed hundreds of parents outside the Nangong municipal government building in Hebei province on Sunday, demanding Fengyi Elementary School stay open after learning it was set to close its doors.

The planned closure appeared to be part of a broader government effort that began several years ago to scale back private education and boost state-run schools.In the video, posted on X by Yesterday, a project that documents mass protests in China, the demonstrators could be heard shouting “Disagree!” and “Leaders come out!” Witnesses told RFA that the protest continued into the night, and police were dispatched to maintain order.

Relief on China's factory floors as US tariffs put on hold

There's a vast empty space in the middle of the factory floor in Foshan in southern China where workers should be welding high-end air fryers for the US market.Derek Wang says his American customers were wowed by his air fryer models - which are controlled via smartphones and can also bake, roast and grill. But then on 2 April, Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs hit all Chinese goods entering the US, eventually reaching 145% - and his clients asked him to pause production.

"I tried to keep smiling through my anxiety for the sake of my 40 workers," he told the BBC.

On Wednesday, as a deal to ease the trade war came into effect, Mr Wang said his US buyers were back on the phone.Both countries still face some tariffs. There is at least a 30% tax on all Chinese goods entering the US and Beijing has kept a 10% levy on American goods coming into the country, down from 125%.

How India and Pakistan share one of the world's most dangerous borders

To live along the Line of Control (LoC) - the volatile de facto border that separates India and Pakistan - is to exist perpetually on the razor's edge between fragile peace and open conflict. The recent escalation after the Pahalgam attack brought India and Pakistan to the brink once again. Shells rained down on both sides of the LoC, turning homes to rubble and lives into statistics. At least 16 people were reportedly killed on the Indian side, while Pakistan claims 40 civilian deaths, though it remains unclear how many were directly caused by the shelling.

"Families on the LoC are subjected to Indian and Pakistani whims and face the brunt of heated tensions," Anam Zakaria, a Pakistani writer based in Canada, told the BBC.

"Each time firing resumes many are thrust into bunkers, livestock and livelihood is lost, infrastructure - homes, hospitals, schools - is damaged. The vulnerability and volatility experienced has grave repercussions for their everyday lived reality," Ms Zakaria, author of a book on Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said.

India slams China’s renaming of places in its territory as ‘vain and preposterous’

India on Wednesday rejected China’s renaming of 27 places in Arunachal Pradesh as a “vain and preposterous” move, saying its northeastern border state, which Beijing claims is part of Zangnan or southern Tibet, remains an “integral and inalienable” part of the country.

On Sunday, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs released its fifth batch of “standardized” names for over 27 places in Arunachal Pradesh – including mountains, mountain passes, rivers, residential areas, and a lake – in its latest attempt to bolster its claim over the territory that Beijing claims is Chinese territory and part of historical Tibet. “We have noticed that China has persisted with its vain and preposterous attempts to name places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.

“Consistent with our principled position, we reject such attempts categorically. Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” Jaiswal added.

Uncovering injustice: Key stories from RFA Uyghur

Radio Free Asia has provided a unique, international news service for Uyghurs that has exposed China’s creeping persecution of the minority Muslim group in real time, culminating in the eventual U.S. government declaration of a genocide.

RFA Uyghur was in the vanguard on reporting a massive crackdown in the Xinjiang region in the far west of China in 2017 which led to an estimated 1.8 million people confined in internment camps. By speaking directly to sources inside Xinjiang, it documented the repression of Uyghurs as the crackdown began before other news outlets were focusing on the issue. RFA has also played an important role in promoting Uyghur language and culture as it came under attack, and focused on the human struggles and resilience of Uyghurs to retain their dignity and identity.

How undersea communication cables surrounding Taiwan could be targeted by China

Submarine communication cables are critical for modern life: for security, economic prosperity and connecting people. Experts warn that the cables serving Taiwan and its high-tech economy are vulnerable not just to wear-and-tear and accidents, but sabotage.

In early 2025, a Chinese cargo ship was suspected of damaging the submarine cables between Taiwan and its outlying Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait. That incident highlighted the risks facing self-ruling Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory, from so-called “gray-zone” activities - acts of aggression against an adversary that fall short of being acts of war. Radio Free Asia interviewed Huang Shengxiong, chairman of the Taiwan Internet Information Center, about the potential impact if China damages Taiwan’s submarine cables.

US Reveals Nuclear Submarine in China's Backyard

The United States has deployed a nuclear-powered submarine, armed with over 100 long-range missiles, to the Western Pacific Ocean amid China's rapid naval fleet expansion. The deployment of USS Ohio, a guided-missile submarine, reflected America's commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, the U.S. Submarine Group Seven, which commands submarines deployed in the Western Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Arabian Sea, told Newsweek.

Photos released by the U.S. Submarine Group Seven on Tuesday show the Ohioarrived at Naval Base Guam on April 23. The island of Guam is home to several U.S. military bases, serving as a major staging area to project America's power against China, which is 1,800 miles away.

Map Shows Countries That Prefer China to the US

Far more countries hold a favorable view of China than the United States, according to a new report. The findings, from the polling organization Nira Data's Democracy Perception Index 2025, found that over three-quarters of the nearly 100 nations surveyed had a preferable view of Beijing compared to Washington.

China has been attempting to capitalize on global opposition to President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs that he imposed after returning to the White House. Beijing has worked to deepen ties with America's East Asian allies, while also encouraging the European Union to confront Washington's economic agenda. Nira Data's report shows that perception of the U.S. around the world has fallen sharply over the past year.

China Factory Protests Show When US Tariffs Began to Bite

A wave of protests over factory closures in China in recent weeks appeared to show the impact of U.S. tariffs on a highly exposed sector that employs millions. The demonstrations, a reflection of the export-driven economy's early pain, came as Chinese officials quietly engaged with U.S. President Donald Trump's team weeks before last weekend's high-profile meeting in Geneva.

The deal that emerged from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng has cut the countries' respective tariffs by 115 percent for 90 days. The pause halted what was approaching a trade embargo—one that led to higher prices and recession risks in the United States and deepened deflationary pressures and a manufacturing glut in China.

Devotion and defiance: Highlights from RFA Tibetan

For nearly three decades, Radio Free Asia has provided critical Tibet coverage, serving as an information lifeline for Tibetan audiences living under China’s authoritarian rule and connecting them to Tibetans in exile – and all the while offering a rare window into life in the highly restricted region. Through shortwave radio and digital platforms, RFA Tibetan has reported epochal moments in the history of modern Tibet.

It recorded first-hand accounts of the widespread protests in Tibet in 2008and the subsequent wave of self-immolations. RFA documented the Dalai Lama’s historic voluntary devolution of his temporal powers in 2011 and transfer of it to the democratically elected leader of Tibet’s exile government, or the Central Tibetan Administration.

Audiences in Tibet have secretly accessed RFA broadcasts at great peril to their own lives. They have contended with China’s sophisticated censorship apparatus, deliberate signal jamming, and the risk of prison.

Bullying only leads to self-isolation, Xi says day after US-China tariff truce

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has taken aim at “bullying” and “hegemonism,” in his first public remarks since a temporary truce over tariffs was agreed in the trade war between the United States and China. Great changes unseen in a century are accelerating, which have “made unity and cooperation among nations indispensable,” Xi told an audience of Latin American and Caribbean officials — including the presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Chile —gathered in Beijing for a summit on Tuesday.

“There are no winners in tariff wars or trade wars. Bullying or hegemonism only leads to self-isolation,” he said, reiterating a warning he has made throughout the trade showdown with US President Donald Trump. Xi’s speech comes a day after the US and China announced they would drastically roll back tariffs on each other’s goods for an initial 90-day period, in a surprise breakthrough that has de-escalated a punishing trade war and buoyed global markets.

How Trump managed to get his much-needed China trade victory

President Donald Trump’s shock-and-awe tariff approach threatened to rupture the global financial system and drive the US economy into recession. Nervous about the prospect of empty store shelves and reignited inflation, Trump sent in his even-keeled and professional negotiators to Geneva to snag a win.

The unexpectedly dramatic de-escalation with China laid the groundwork for a growing series of trade negotiations that may produce a handful of rapid-fire, if less than fulsome, bilateral agreements to reduce US trade deficits. “We actually have a fresh start with China,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said in an interview on CNN News Central. “That’s the way to think about these negotiations.”

In China, some see the ghost of Mao as Trump upends America and the world

Ding Xueliang spent his early teenage years in China as a fervent believer and practitioner of Chairman Mao Zedong’s revolutionary ideals — but he never imagined those memories would one day be stirred by a sitting US president.

In 1966, at just 13 years old, the son of poor farmers became one of Mao’s Red Guards. He joined millions of young people across China to participate in the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long upheaval set off by an aging Mao to reassert his absolute control over the ruling Communist Party – with the stated goal of preserving communist ideology.

Nearly six decades later, Ding is a distinguished scholar of Chinese politics based in Hong Kong, with a PhD from Harvard and a career teaching about the catastrophic movement he embraced. But in recent months, he has begun to see uncanny echoes of Mao’s Cultural Revolution in an unexpected place: Donald Trump’s America.

Marcos' hold on senate grows shaky while Duterte wins mayor race from jail

Dominated by a fiery feud between two political dynasties, the Philippine mid-term elections have thrown up unexpected results that may shake President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr's hold on the senate. According to the latest count of 80% of the votes, Marcos allies appear to have captured fewer senate seats than expected.

Meanwhile his rival, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte who is detained in The Hague over his drug war that killed thousands, has been elected mayor of his family's stronghold. The fate of his daughter Vice President Sara Duterte, who is facing an impeachment trial, remains in the balance.

The Philippines has voted - now the game of thrones begins again

As the noise and colour of a two-month election campaign subsides, a game of thrones between the two most powerful families in the Philippines resumes. President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr, and his Vice-President, Sara Duterte, are embroiled in a bitter feud, and a battle for power. As allies they won a landslide victory in the last presidential election in 2022.

But as their relationship has fractured - he accusing her of threatening to assassinate him, she accusing him of incompetence and saying she dreamed of decapitating him - this mid-term election has become a critical barometer of the strength of these two political dynasties.

And the results were not great news for the Marcos camp. Typically incumbent presidents in the Philippines get most of their picks for the senate elected in the mid-term election. The power of presidential patronage is a significant advantage, at least it has been in the past. But not this time.

Chinese exporters use ‘origin washing’ to evade U.S. tariffs

A flurry of so-called “origin washing” advertisements have flooded Chinese social media platforms, offering exporters ways to avoid steep U.S. tariffs by re-exporting and freight forwarding goods or falsely labeling their place of manufacture. Video ads posted on Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, show businesses promoting “one-stop re-export and freight forwarding services” via Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam and Thailand to circumvent growing restrictions on export re-routing via these markets.

“Chinese manufacturers that have the U.S. as their main market must find a way to survive,” Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng-chu told Radio Free Asia, noting the “huge demand” for transit solutions that enable exporters to sell to the U.S. but evade the 145% U.S. tariffs imposed on Chinese imports.