Hungary opens up to Chinese tech despite protests

"We do not intend to become the world leader," said Hungary's foreign minister in Beijing last October, about his country's ambitious plans for manufacturing Electric Vehicle batteries, "because the world leader is China".

China has an astonishing 79% share of the lithium-ion global battery manufacturing capacity, ahead of the US on 6%. Hungary is now third with 4% and aims soon to overtake the Americans, explained Peter Szijjarto, during his visit to China. With 36 factories already built, under construction or planned, his words were no idle boast.

When it comes to maintaining strong economic ties with Russia, Budapest draws considerable criticism. More important in economic terms are the growing ties with China and South Korea. Electric vehicles are the cornerstone of that push, and for once Hungary is attracting the envy of fellow EU members, rather than their approbation.

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Whistleblowing Uyghur surgeon speaks truth to horror

When an armed police officer directed Uyghur surgeon Enver Tohti to remove organs from a not-quite-dead prisoner on an execution ground outside Urumqi, his first reaction was overwhelming relief: "I thought they were going to execute me," he recalled.

It was 1995 and Tohti was working as an oncological surgeon at the Railway Central Hospital in the northwestern city of Urumqi. He had been pressed into service at the last minute by his chief of surgery, who told him to assemble a surgical team and prepare for "something wild" the next morning.

When the driver turned onto a mountain road that led to the local execution ground, Tohti became "really, really scared" that he would be the target, as the only ethnic minority present. Instead, his team was directed to a man at the end of a row of executed prisoners and told to remove both kidneys and his liver.

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China expels teacher for pushing for students to use Tibetan language

A Tibetan language teacher in China’s Sichuan province was interrogated and expelled by authorities after pushing for greater use of the Tibetan language in schools — a measure that has been banned in education institutions, two sources inside Tibet told Radio Free Asia.

Dhonyoe, who goes by only one name, was expelled in early April from Meruma Central Primary School in Ngaba county’s Meruma township after he was interrogated several times by Chinese authorities, said the sources who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. His teaching license was also suspended, they said. “Dhonyoe was accused of teaching his students beyond the national education system and was repeatedly questioned by authorities in mid-March,” said the first source.

The Chinese government-run boarding school has about 500 Tibetan students, studying in kindergarten to the sixth grade, and about 60 teachers. The school previously taught Tibetan language and used Tibetan as a medium of instruction, the sources said.

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Activists interrupt Chinese ambassador's Harvard speech

A protester who loudly disrupted a speech at Harvard by Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng on the eve of a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China said she did it to discourage world-class universities from "kowtowing to China" despite committing human rights abuses.

Harvard junior Cosette Wu, who grew up in Hawaii with Taiwanese parents, stood up with a banner that read "China Lies" during Xie's speech to the Kennedy School of Government on Sunday, shouting loudly about the ruling Chinese Communist Party's political crackdown in Hong Kong and its threat to invade democratic Taiwan. As Xie was speaking, Wu stood up suddenly and yelled: "Xie Feng, you paint an image of a prosperous China, but your hands are painted with blood!"

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Calls grow for proof of whereabouts of Tibet’s missing Panchen Lama

Global leaders joined Tibetans across the world this week to mark the 35th birthday of a revered Tibetan religious leader taken into custody 29 years ago and missing ever since. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, then just six years old, was recognized by Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as the 11th Panchen Lama, Tibet’s second most-senior Buddhist monk, in May 1995.

Shortly after the Dalai Lama’s announcement, Chinese authorities abducted the new Panchen Lama, his family and his teacher. His whereabouts remain unknown. If alive, he would have turned 35 on Thursday. At a commemoration event in Dharamsala, India, Sikyong Penpa Tsering, the democratically elected head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, reissued a long-standing plea for information about his fate. “Our most pressing concern is whether the Panchen Rinpoche is still alive or not,” Tsering said, using a name Tibetan Buddhists reserve for reincarnated lamas.

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The story of one of Buddhism’s most revered figures, long missing, explained

Why is China risking US sanctions by arming Russia? Survival

US secretary of state Antony Blinken fired a warning salvo towards China during a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting on the Italian island of Capri on April 20. The US’s top diplomat said that China is a “prime contributor” of weapons-related technology to Russia, and was fuelling what is the “biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War”.

As Blinken detailed further when he landed in Beijing this week, while China has complied with US’s requests not to sell arms to Russia during the Ukraine war, the list of items they are selling, which could have military use, is extensive. They include semiconductors, drones, helmets, vests, machine tools and radios.

Apparently, the Chinese resupply of the Russian industrial complex also undermines Ukrainian security. And unfortunately for China, Chinese support of the Kremlin’s war effort is likely to earn Chinese firms sanctions from the US government. Why then is Beijing aiding Moscow so ardently even when imminent US sanctions are going to aggravate its already weak economy? One word: survival.

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Fresh Tensions In Vietnam-China Ties Over New Baseline Announcement By China In Gulf Of Tonkin – Analysis

China’s recent maritime activities leading to disputes with Philippines have caught the attention of analysts who are busy dissecting China’s long-term intentions and future course of direction. This is a serious issue as these impacts on the security and stability in the region. There are internationally governed rules for conducting maritime trade but China has often violated with impunity ignoring the sensitivities of the smaller countries which have legitimate claims in their territorial waters.

China has nine maritime neighbours, including Taiwan, but no settled maritime boundaries, due in part to China’s unwillingness to specify its maritime claims. Only one particular exception to this exists – a boundary agreement with Vietnam to delimit the northern part of the Gulf of Tonkin and a fishery agreement establishing a joint fishing regime in that area, both reached in 2000. (1) As is the wont with China, that is being violated now, provoking Vietnam to issue a de marche against such incursion into its territorial waters.

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The environmental cost of China's addiction to cement

The use of concrete exploded to fuel China's rise. Now the costs of this weighty material are being counted.

China's cities are sinking – apparent victims of their own success. Large swathes of the country's population now live in major cities that are subsiding at more than 3mm (0.1in) per year, according to a recent study. Some areas are sinking by more than 45mm (1.7in) each year, such as parts of Beijing. And by 2120, around a quarter of China's coastal land will be beneath sea-level, the researchers predict.

While there are a number of reasons for the subsidence, the researchers have pointed to the rapid rate of urban development as among the culprits. The huge amounts of groundwater abstraction needed to support urban populations alongside the weight of the buildings and city infrastructure were singled out by the researchers as contributing to the sinking.

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In Retrospect: What Happened When China Tried To Take Taiwan in the 1950s?

In 1950, the PLA launched a series of amphibious operations, most notably resulting in the capture of Hainan island in the South China Sea. However, a landing in Kinmen was bloodily repulsed by Nationalist tanks in the Battle of Guningtou, barring the way for a final assault on Taiwan itself. Then events intervened, as the outbreak of the Korean War caused President Truman to deploy the U.S. Seventh Fleet to defend Taiwan. However, the naval blockade cut both ways—Truman did not allow Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek to launch attacks on mainland China.

This policy changed with the presidency of Eisenhower in 1953, who withdrew the Seventh Fleet, allowing the Nationalists to build up troops on the forward islands and launch more guerilla raids on the mainland. However, the PLA was able to counter-escalate with new World War II surplus heavy artillery, warships and aircraft it had acquired from Russia. The series of artillery duels, naval battles and aerial bombardments that followed became known as the First Taiwan Strait Crisis.

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Why Didn't Mao Invade Taiwan?

Torbjørn Færøvik: Valgets kval for Indias muslimer

Hver morgen ved soloppgang strømmer tusener av muslimer til Jama Masjid, den største moskeen i Delhi. For de indiske hindunasjonalistene er den som en torn i øyet, for muslimene et uunnværlig gudshus i en vanskelig tid. «Allah er stor», runger det fra helligdommen i gamlebyens hjerte.

Moskeen har plass til 25 000 mennesker og ble reist på 1600-tallet under mogulkeiseren Shah Jahan. Han ønsket å sette spor og sørget for å oppføre storslåtte islamske monumenter over hele landet, ikke minst det uforliknelige Taj Mahal utenfor byen Agra. Uheldigvis for Shah Jahan endte han sine dager i fengsel, hvor han etter sigende ble liggende og gjengi islamske vers inntil han trakk sitt siste sukk.

 
Mogulkeisernes lange styre fra 1526 til 1857 huskes som en storhetstid i Indias historie. Landet ble forent under en sterk ledelse, og det meste var på stell. Den fortellingen liker ikke dagens hindunasjonalister, som er ivrig opptatt av å omskrive historien. Mange går så langt som til å hevde at bare hinduene er «ekte» indere, mens muslimene er «uekte». Egentlig hører de hjemme et annet sted. Så hvor skal de gjøre av seg?

Delhi’s Dilemma: A Growing Economy and Growing Unemployment

India’s glass is half-full – and half-empty.

The good news is India is the fastest-growing major economy in the world, on course to overtake Germany and Japan in the next five years in aggregate GDP. It will become the third-largest global economy after the United States and China. However, there is a concern that the benefits of fast GDP growth are being undermined by low job growth and an accompanying pro-rich bias.
Unemployment among young people with graduate degrees is at an all-time high of 29 percent, and overall youth unemployment is hovering around 10 percent. This has prompted some young Indians to travel to war zones in search of employment and higher income opportunities.

Rapid economic growth in the past two decades has contributed to an unprecedented fall in poverty. The poverty headcount ratio, which indicates the proportion of the population living below the poverty line, fell from 37 percent in 2004-05 to 22 percent in 2011-12. This pulled 140 million people out of poverty. Recent estimates by India’s Knowledge Commission show that multidimensional poverty in India declined from 29.17 percent in 2013-14 to 11.28 percent in 2022-23, with about 250 million people moving out of deprivation.

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Herders on front line of India’s Himalayan dispute with China say they’re losing grazing land – and a way of life

High in the Himalayas, the people of a remote northern Indian territory fear their way of life is under threat from the changing climate, looming development – and border tensions with China. At stake, they believe, is the future of Ladakh, one of the world’s highest elevation regions, where indigenous tribes maintain nomadic traditions on sprawling plains hemmed in by mountains punctuated by Buddhist monasteries.

For years, Lopzang Dadul herded his yaks, sheep and goats across the vast, vertiginous landscape near India’s contested border with China, following the seasons to find grazing land. But now, Dadul says, shepherds are being barred by the Indian military from lands that for generations sustained Ladakh’s nomadic way of life – a situation he and others say has worsened following a deadly 2020 border clash between Chinese and Indian soldiers. “In India, the army is not letting us go to places which they call no-man’s land … civilians are not allowed to go there anymore,” says Dadul, 33, a father of two from the village of Phobrang. “If we do not get enough land we will have to sell our livestock … and look for another option.”

Ladakh’s herders inhabit what is now a highly strategically sensitive area, where India’s contested 2,100-mile (3,379-kilometer) boundary with China has for decades been a source of friction between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

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A New Round of Restrictions Further Constrains Religious Practice in Xinjiang

Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region rang in 2024 by announcing an update to the region’s strictures on religious practice. Changes include new rules to ensure that sites of religious worship, like mosques, look adequately “Chinese,” and to mandate the cultivation of “patriotic” religious leaders.

Officials have long levied restrictions on religious belief and practice in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), but the new provisions still represent a significant change. The XUAR enacted the first iteration of the Xinjiang Regulations on Religious Affairs in 1994 and amended it in 2015. Beijing has also been pushing for the “Sinicization” of Muslim religious buildings for the last several years. Therefore, the newest amendments to the religious regulations, which came into effect on February 1, 2024, do not represent a wholesale change in the government’s approach to the region, but rather the further codification of constraints on religious practice and the assurance of even harsher punishments for those who violate them. Despite enshrining religious freedom in its constitution and official pronouncements, China has seen a continued decline in the space available for religious practice.

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From China’s Past: The Panchen Lama’s Letter to Premier Zhou Enlai

The 70,000 Character Petition is a report, dated 18 May 1962, written by the Tenth Panchen Lama and addressed to the Chinese government, denouncing abusive policies and actions of the People's Republic of China in Tibet. It remains the "most detailed and informed attack on China's policies in Tibet that would ever be written."

For decades, the content of this report remained hidden from all but the very highest levels of the Chinese leadership, until one copy was obtained by the Tibet Information Network (TIN) in 1996. The report was based in part on research undertaken in Amdo by an assistant, the 6th Tseten Zhabdrung, Jigme Rigpai Lodro, after China's brutal retaliation and reforms which followed a massive anti-communist uprising in 1958.

In January 1998 upon the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the birth of the 10th Panchen Lama, a translation by Tibetologist Robert Barnett entitled A Poisoned Arrow: The Secret Report of the 10th Panchen Lama[ was published by Tibet Information Network.

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US and Ally Begin Major Military Exercise on 'China's Doorstep'

More than 16,000 troops will take part in the U.S.'s largest military exercise with the Philippines as tensions simmer between the U.S. ally and neighboring China. The 39th edition of Balikatan, or "shoulder to shoulder" in Tagalog, kicked off on Monday and will be held around Palawan and Batanes, two Philippine provinces near South China Sea hotspots and China-claimed Taiwan. Under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in 2022, Manila has been pushing back against and publicizing China's increasingly muscular presence within the Philippines' internationally recognized exclusive economic zone.

Balikatan is "a cornerstone event between the U.S. and the Philippines, directly supporting the refinement and understanding of our shared Mutual Defense Treaty obligations," Lt. Col. Brian Block, a U.S. Marine Corps spokesperson, told Newsweek.

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Protesting Spanish professor 'warned university' over Confucius Institutes

A university professor who gatecrashed the opening ceremony of a new Confucius Institute at Spain's Seville University last week tried to warn the school authorities for years that the language and cultural centers have been linked to the Chinese Communist Party's influence operations, she told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview.

Journalism professor Mar Llera jumped onto the dais along with a research team member during the ceremony, as the university's rector, Miguel Ángel Castro was welcoming participants to the ceremony on April 8, holding up a poster protesting the opening. She told security guards she wouldn't be moved, and remained in place for several minutes, before they tried again, this time reassuring her that the protest had been registered by several media organizations. At that point she agreed to leave.

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No, Southeast Asians do not now prefer China over the US

The famed quip “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned Lies, and statistics” can be updated for the modern era with “confusion, damned confusion, and opinion Polls” in the wake of the 2024 State of Southeast Asia surveys of the region’s elites published this month by a think tank in Singapore.

The annual report by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute has sparked some alarmist headlines. “Majority in Southeast Asia would choose China over the U.S., survey suggests,” Al Jazeera went with. Nikkei Asia intoned: “Majority of ASEAN people favor China over U.S., survey finds”. Guess what Chinese media ran with? “Survey shows Southeast Asians favor China over U.S”.

Was this actually what the survey revealed? Yes, but only if one takes only a cursory flick through its pages to copy and paste some regional averages. The headlines were mostly generated by replies to question 31, an annual feature of the survey, which asks respondents: “If ASEAN were forced to align itself with one of the strategic rivals, which should it choose?”

As a regional average, 61.1% of all Southeast Asian respondents said they’d pick the United States over China in the 2023 poll. This year, however, only 49.5% selected the U.S.. The 50.5% who said they’d pick China over the U.S. represents a 1 percentage point difference, notwithstanding the drop in U.S. favorability. In a survey in which pollsters interviewed 1,994 people, the difference between choosing China over the U.S. comes down to the opinions of about 20 people – perhaps not a reliable measure of how a region of 660 million people regard the most important geopolitical issue of the day.

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In Retrospect: Richard Nixon And Zhou Enlai, "Toasts At A Banquet Honoring The Premier," February 25, 1972

President Richard Nixon made history by breaking the ice and visiting China in February 1972. During his stay, he hosted a banquet in the Great Hall of the People. The toasts were made shortly after 9 pm and were broadcast live via satellite to the United States.

"Mr. Prime Minister and our very distinguished guests from the People's Republic of China and the United States of America:

It is a great privilege while we are guests in your country to be able to welcome you and the Chinese who are present here as our guests this evening. On behalf of Mrs. Nixon and all of the members of our official party, I want to express our deep appreciation for the boundless and gracious hospitality which you have extended to us.

As you know, it is the custom in our country that the members of the press have the right to speak for themselves and that no one in government can speak for them. But I am sure that all those from the American press who are here tonight will grant me the rare privilege of speaking for the press in extending their appreciation to you and your government for the many courtesies you have extended to them."

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