Kinaforum

tirsdag 28. juli 2026

Torbjørn Færøvik: Tjuetre sekunder som rystet Kina

Den natten revnet både himmel og jord. «Løp!» ropte familiefaren, og alle styrtet ut. Men hvor skulle de gjøre av seg? «Alt skjedde så brått, og vi var som fanget i en felle.»

Femti år er gått siden jordskjelvet i Tangshan i Kina – et av de største i historien. Det varte i bare 23 sekunder, men krevde mer enn 246.000 menneskeliv. Ytterligere 144.000 ble alvorlig skadd.

Tragedien inntraff klokken 03.42 om morgenen 28. juli 1976. Nesten hele byen lå i grus da etterskjelvene kom, fulgt av skittent regn som varte i flere timer. I ruinene ravet sårede og sjokkskadde; mange i undertøy eller filler, andre var nesten nakne. Fra dype sprekker og gapende hull lød tusener rop om hjelp. En by med vel en million innbyggere var plutselig borte.

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.

A weeks-old Gen-Z protest group managed to get India’s Modi to blink. What’s next?

For more than a decade, India’s leader Narendra Modi has seemed politically unassailable, presiding over a government that has outmaneuvered opponents, dominated public discourse and squeezed the space for dissent in the world’s biggest democracy.

But last weekend, an online-fueled and youth-led protest movement just a few weeks old landed a blow none of the embattled mainstream political parties who oppose him have been able to: They forced his government to back down.

For days, tens of thousands of Gen Z protesters had flooded the streets of New Delhi, led by a satirical movement called the “Cockroach Janta Party”, to demand accountability for a university entrance exam leak they say robbed millions of students of a fair shot at their future. In their crosshairs was education minister and trusted Modi lieutenant Dharmendra Pradhan, on whose watch the leak had happened.

I have lived in Sunset Park for almost six years, next to the bustling Brooklyn Chinatown

I have lived in Sunset Park for almost six years. A 15-minute walk from my house lands me in the heart of this bustling Brooklyn Chinatown, lined with grocery shops, vegetable stands, fish-mongers, and the kind of general stores sporting piles of kitchen utensils, household supplies, and gardening tools. I moved to Sunset Park for easy access to Chinese groceries I couldn’t find elsewhere: fresh water bamboo, whole yellow croaker imported from China, freshly-made tofu sold in individual takeaway containers instead of mass-produced plastic packaging. But I had never found my way into the life of the community; I felt sheepish calling it “my neighborhood.”

Trump’s Saudi Nuclear Deal Fiasco May Finally Push Ally to China and Russia

President Donald Trump's decision to impose a heavy post-deal condition on a landmark agreement that would see the United States support Saudi Arabia in establishing a civilian nuclear program has threatened to tank the deal and push the longtime U.S. partner to explore separate arrangements with China and Russia.

Trump's declaration Thursday that the U.S.-Saudi agreement could only proceed if the Kingdom were to join the Abraham Accords, effectively normalizing ties with Israel, came less than 24 hours after both nations announced the deal. The new clause, later reinforced by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, is widely viewed as a non-starter within Saudi Arabia, which has consistently held that diplomatic relations with Israel would be explicitly contingent on a roadmap for Palestinian statehood.

Can AI Preserve a Homeland in Exile? Tibetan Memory in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

In the Sonamling Tibetan Settlement outside Leh in Ladakh, I found that the most venerable memories were not to be had in any museum or archive. They were to be found in conversation. My fieldwork there put me in the company of elderly Tibetan refugees who would talk of the monasteries from their youth, the villages they put behind them and the Himalayan crossings that altered the course of their lives. Younger members of the family would be seated about them, keenly listening. Now and then, one might subtly raise a mobile phone to put the exchange on record. An unremarkable thing to do, perhaps, but with no small import. In a sense, these were more than family tales, they were pieces of a homeland being put aside for the keeping of those who have never set eyes on it.

For Tibetans in exile, memory is never just an act of recollection, it is how culture endures. Before such things ever made it into an institution’s files, they made their way through the home and the prayer hall, in song and in the ordinary course of talk, conveying language and faith and an abiding connection to Tibet over the years.

Who Gets to Choose the Next Dalai Lama? A Sacred Tradition Caught in a Political Tug-of-War

When the 14th Dalai Lama turned ninety in July 2025, he finally said what Tibetans everywhere had been hoping to hear for years. In a formal statement from his home in Dharamshala, tucked into the Indian Himalayas, he confirmed that the centuries-old institution of the Dalai Lama would continue after him. It was just one sentence — but it hit like a thunderclap in Beijing, in New Delhi, in Washington, and across monasteries stretching from Ladakh to Kathmandu.

Behind that single line lies a much bigger question, one that no religious body, government, or international institution has ever really settled: who actually gets to decide who the next Dalai Lama will be? For most of Tibetan history, this was purely a Buddhist matter, worked out by senior monks, oracles, and search parties reading signs in sacred lakes. Today, it’s become one of the most closely watched geopolitical flashpoints in Asia — wrapped up in China’s claims over Tibet, India’s tense relationship with its northern neighbor, and the simple fact that millions of people see this one elderly monk as a living embodiment of compassion.

‘There is freedom’: Why Asian women are leaving their husbands in their 50s and 60s

Eiko Toyama had waited 32 years to leave her husband. Throughout their marriage, she said, she did all the housework and childcare in their Japan home, as well as supporting the family financially. Her husband “wanted to control everything,” from her social life to professional ambitions, leaving her feeling trapped and miserable. Still, she stuck it out for their two children.

That finally changed when she turned 60. Her adult sons no longer needed her, and her husband was healthy – not yet so old that he needed a caretaker. It was a precious window of opportunity, and she took it.

“I was nothing but happy (after the divorce). That was my only emotion,” she said. “I was so happy I wanted to run around all over the place.”

India takes exception to Beijing’s claim that it respects China’s sovereignty

India has on Jul 24 taken strong exception to remarks attributed to its External Affairs Minister S Jaishakar by China, saying New Delhi’s position towards it on the “Taiwan and Tibet issues” had remained unchanged and that, in particular, it respects China’s sovereignty.

Responding to questions at his weekly media briefing about the Chinese foreign ministry’s account of Jaishankar’s meeting with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Manila on Jul 22 – on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit and ASEAN-related foreign ministers’ talks – Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal has said India had consistently respected China’s sovereignty, but China had violated India’s territorial integrity.

Chinese ship shoots water cannon at Philippine vessel with CNN crew on board near flashpoint shoal

Chinese ships fired water cannon at Philippine vessels, including one carrying a CNN crew, near a dangerous flashpoint in the South China Sea on Friday – the third tense confrontation this week in the contested waters. Besides rich fishing grounds in its lagoon and surrounding waters, there’s seemingly little remarkable about the shoal. But this corner of the world is a deceptively fraught geopolitical hotspot.

Free access to one of the world’s most vital shipping lanes, a mutual defense treaty between the Philippines and the United States, and a steady Chinese push to solidify claims over disputed territories mean one navigational mistake or errant shot could spark serious conflict.

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.”

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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.

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