Kinaforum

onsdag 14. oktober 2026

New report: How China took control over the air of Tibet

Policing the skies on the roof of the world: how China took control of the air over Tibet

Tibet Watch is publishing the first detailed report on China’s use of drones in Tibet. Using the Chinese state’s own documents, it shows police buying drones for the places where Tibetans have protested, gathered to pray and tried to escape persecution, while the state closes the sky to almost everyone else. Much of the equipment is made by DJI, which made most of the drones UK police forces disclosed in 2023.

In Eyes Above the Plateau: Drones, DJI, and the Aerial Architecture of Control in Tibet, published on 30 September with research support from US non-profit C4ADS, Tibet Watch traces China’s build-out of aerial surveillance in Tibet through the Chinese state’s own paperwork published since 2017 including tenders, contract awards, police bulletins, flight bans and training reports.

China’s exports and imports surge past expectations in September

China’s exports grew by 36.3% in September from a year ago, their fastest pace since February, according to official data released Wednesday. Imports climbed by 31%, the fastest increase since June, the data showed, picking up from 28.2% in August.

Both exports and imports exceeded estimates from a Reuters poll, of 25.5% and 24.5%, respectively. China’s exports to the U.S. grew by nearly 39.6% in September, outpacing the growth of overall exports and sending the monthly trade surplus to the highest since January 2025, according to customs data accessed via Wind Information.

The value of China’s integrated circuit board exports globally surged by 136% in September from a year ago — but the number of units exported only rose by 1%, according to CNBC calculations of official figures.

A new bridge linking China and North Korea will open more than a decade late

A new bridge linking China and North Korea is set to open Thursday after more than a decade of delay in the latest sign of closer ties between the two countries. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday that both sides will hold a ceremony for the launch of the New Yalu River Bridge. The four-lane, 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) bridge will connect the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong to the North Korean city of Sinuiju.

The bridge initially was expected to enter use in 2014 after China apparently completed construction of access roads, customs facilities and other related infrastructure on its side. But the date passed with no sign of an opening and without North Korea doing corresponding works on its side.

'I'd talk to the TV': The paid companions bringing warmth to China's lonely

"The biggest difficulty really was the loneliness. Sometimes, if I wanted to talk to someone I'd talk to the TV."

Yang, 91, lives on the outskirts of China's bustling capital Beijing. Following the death of her husband, she was so lonely that she says she even considered the possibility of voluntary euthanasia. "I asked my son about it but he told me it was banned. I told him that if it ever becomes legal I want to do it - I didn't want to live any longer."

Suffering glaucoma, with failing eyesight, she was unable to even do basic things like adjust the controls on her air conditioner. Cases such as Yang's have become increasingly common in Chinese cities which Associate Professor Teresa Kuan, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says is "exacerbated by the structure of society and the modes by which people interact".

Who's to blame for the toxic haze choking South East Asia?

As Indonesia battles its worst wildfire season in a decade, a toxic smog is choking millions of residents in the region. The air on the islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra has turned an ominous amber, with air quality recorded at hazardous levels. The smog - or haze - has drifted beyond Indonesia's borders to neighbouring countries, raising public health concerns. It has obscured Singapore's skyline and forced some schools to close in Malaysia.

Now, anger is mounting at the companies accused of burning farmland, as well as the authorities who have struggled to stop them. The annual dry season wildfires have been especially intense this year because of an unusually strong El Niño: a natural climate phenomenon which changes weather patterns around the world.

India's 'cockroach' leaders jailed after holding protest

Two top leaders of India's Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have been sent to jail for five days after being arrested for allegedly trespassing at a protest site in Delhi. Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka appeared before a magistrate on Wednesday after being detained at Jantar Mantar, a longstanding venue for demonstrations that police recently removed from the city's list of authorised protest sites.

The two were among a group who climbed a locked gate and crossed barricades to enter the site on Tuesday. The GenZ-led movement has been protesting for days seeking electoral reforms and the resignation of India's top election official over allegations of vote fraud - charges the poll panel denies.

China sanctions officials in Paraguay and Belize over their countries’ ties with Taiwan

China sanctioned Paraguay’s communications minister and Belize’s foreign minister on Monday over ties with Taiwan, the island democracy Beijing claims as its own. The sanctions against Gustavo Villate of Paraguay and Francis Fonseca of Belize serve to safeguard China’s “national sovereignty, security, and development interests, and to oppose separatist acts seeking ‘Taiwan independence,’” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on its website.

“Certain politicians in Paraguay and Belize have willingly served as pawns of the Taiwan authorities in their attempts to seek Taiwan independence by soliciting external forces,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.

European Parliament’s China-policy report condemns forced assimilation drive in Tibet

The European Parliament has on Oct 7 adopted a set of policy recommendations on EU-China political relations drafted by its Committee on Foreign Affairs which among numerous other things strongly condemns China’s intensifying campaign of mandatory “Sinicisation” and forced assimilation in Tibet. China’s official media on Oct 8 severely condemned the report and warned of dire consequences, but with focus on the report’s labelling of the country’s industrial policy as an “existential threat” to the EU’s industrial base and as a “decisive enabler” of Russia in its Ukraine war.

The European Parliament report – which is a set of Recommendation for the European Council, the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on EU-China political relations – demands a stronger and principled EU-China policy that combines dialogue with more protection of European interests.

China harnessing AI microdramas in ‘mobile-first strategy’ to counter Tibet critics, others

The rapid boom in AI microdramas has prompted the government of China to adopt it and the technology underlying it to modernise its propaganda messaging, including on the issue of Tibet. AI microdramas are serialized, vertical video stories—typically lasting 1 to 2 minutes per episode—produced largely or entirely using generative artificial intelligence tools for writing, voice, music, and video

The Ideal of a Tree, a series set in the Tibet autonomous region and released on Sep 30, follows a young musician travelling there to find inspiration and connect with her grandmother’s past. In the process, the musician witnesses Tibet’s progress in modernisation and ecological conservation, said a scmp.com report Oct 12. Modernisation and ecological conservation are clarion propaganda calls of President Xi Jinping for the development of Tibet, although in reality environmental devastation remains an ever-growing problem there in the face of China’s relentlessly massive infrastructure, mining and militarisation drives there.

China sentences three people to death for running Myanmar scam centres

A court in eastern China has sentenced three members of a criminal gang to death for operating a network of scam centres in Myanmar.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Quanzhou Intermediate People’s Court, a high court in southeastern Fujian province, said it had sentenced Wei Huairen, Chen Dawei and Liao Jingfang for their involvement in the “Wei family criminal gang”. The syndicate was involved in crimes including drug trafficking, organised prostitution, illegal casino operations, telecommunications fraud and the murder of at least two Chinese nationals. The court said Wei was one of the group’s leaders and was found guilty of several crimes, including murder.

India: Can 'cockroaches' threaten Modi's political grip?

India's Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) may have anticipated pushback from the government after its first round of protests in July, but the scale of barricading and detentions that greeted its leaders in a fortress-like New Delhi on October 10 was unlike anything they had anticipated.

The CJP began as a satirical online movement after the chief justice of India, Surya Kant, referred to unemployed young people as "cockroaches" in an offhand remark. The name is an ironic riff on the name of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In its latest round of agitation, they are demanding the resignation of the country's controversy-hit Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, after more than 130 million names were reportedly removed from electoral rolls nationwide.

The US is fighting over data centers. China is building them fast

The area appears like a high-tech mirage. Block after block of hulking data centers – both new and under construction – rise up seemingly out of nowhere from rolling plains and fields of sunflowers and sorghum. On their sides are some of the biggest names in Chinese tech – hardware giant Huawei, social media platform Kuaishou, service provider VNET – all packed into a zone thrumming with bustle and movement.

This is Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, a Chinese city on the edge of the Gobi desert. It’s fast becoming one of the data hubs fueling a massive AI boom in China that’s made the country the only serious rival to the US’ ambitions to dominate the technology. Nearly 90 data centers are slated to be built in this city of fewer than two million people.

US turning B-52 bomber into long-range China ship killer

While the US is arming its long-serving B-52 with potent ship-killing missiles to take on China’s expanding navy, severe munition constraints and operational vulnerabilities could undermine its strategic impact.

This month, multiple media outlets reported that the US Navy plans to award a sole-source contract to Lockheed Martin to integrate the AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile onto the US Air Force’s B-52 Stratofortress fleet, according to a Naval Air Systems Command notice. The effort will encompass missile software updates, flight testing, test-asset repairs, and separation clearances from both internal launchers and wing pylons, enabling the heavy bomber to carry up to 20 stealthy, autonomous anti-ship cruise missiles.

Derived from the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) already deployed on the aircraft, the LRASM uses onboard sensors, electronic support measures, and infrared terminal guidance to strike heavily defended naval targets beyond 320 kilometers without relying on GPS or active radar emissions.

India faces water and power shortages after weak monsoon

Ramesh Reddy, 44, put everything he had into his 3.5 acre (0.4 hectares) tomato farm in June. The farmer from Kolar district in the south of the state of Karnataka invested 320,000 rupees (€3,000, $3,357), borrowing 250,000 rupees at 24% annual interest and pledging his wife's wedding jewelry as collateral.

The harvest was meant to repay the loan and cover his son's overdue college fees. But then the farm's irrigation well ran dry. Within three weeks, the tomato plants had turned brown and Reddy could not salvage a single crate. "I have lost everything I invested," he told DW. "I have no money left for the next crop and I don't know how I will repay the loan."

He is now negotiating a job as a security guard in the state capital, Bengaluru, and preparing to leave his farmland behind.

TECH Why this little known Chinese chipmaker has caused a global stock rout

Chip stocks sank on Tuesday after a Chinese memory chipmaker said it had made significant progress in developing new and more efficient designs. ChangXin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, announced over the weekend that it had made headway on new architecture that will increase memory density by packing more data into a smaller space.

CXMT is China’s leading rival to global memory makers, including Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung, and the news sent rival names tumbling. Micron sank 5% on Tuesday, while SK Hynix’s South Korean-listed shares closed 10% lower and Samsung Electronics fell 7.4%. Other memory-related stocks, including SanDisk, Seagate and Western Digital, all fell as well.

Until its summer blockbuster IPO, CXMT was little known outside of its home market.

China’s Maritime Militia Surfaces Off Taiwan’s East Coast

A Chinese fishing boat that doubles as a militia vessel has been spotted off Taiwan’s Pacific coast for the first time. The sighting appears in a surveillance report by Taiwan’s Apex Aviation, which Reuters reviewed. The vessel, the Minfudingyu 07902, was seen in mid-August operating alongside a Chinese coast guard cutter and a research vessel.

Apex says its reconnaissance aircraft detected the group more than 30 nautical miles off Hualien county, with the three vessels spread across a radius of about 10 nautical miles. The company documented the cluster with radar screenshots, infrared imagery and automatic-identification system data. It withheld the exact date, citing concerns about counter-reconnaissance against its operations.

India’s ‘Cockroach’ movement founder and leaders released from detention after Delhi protest crackdown

A New Delhi court Sunday released the founder and leaders of a surging youth-led political movement who were detained in a crackdown that stifled a major protest a day earlier in the Indian capital.

Abhijeet Dipke was detained along with other leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) Saturday as their plane landed in New Delhi, according to the group. Footage showed Dipke shouting “go ahead and arrest us! Victory to Mother India! Long live the revolution!” Meanwhile in central Delhi, hundreds of the group’s followers were also detained.

On Sunday, the party’s legal head Ratna Singh said on X that the executive magistrate court released Dipke and the other two leaders on the condition there will be “no breach of peace for one year.” Delhi police on X confirmed the release, and conditions.

Stop hostile talk, Taiwan urges China

Taiwan yesterday urged China to stop its hostile rhetoric toward Taiwan as the US welcomed President William Lai’s commitment to Taiwan Strait stability in his Double Ten National Day speech.

Lai on Saturday described Taiwan as a “city upon a hill” and said that “Taiwan cherishes peace, but we will not give up our freedom. We are open to exchanges, but will not accept subordination.” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Lai’s speech “disregards facts, distorts the truth, misleads the public and reveals ulterior motives.” Taiwan is part of China and Taiwan’s future “can and must be decided jointly by all the Chinese people, including our compatriots in Taiwan,” it added.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said China has no right to dictate Taiwan’s future, urging Beijing to stop hostile rhetoric that could heighten cross-strait tensions and to abandon the use of force or coercion to change the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait.

President Lai evokes ‘city on a hill’