Kinaforum

fredag 16. oktober 2026

How China came to dominate consumer technology

Do you remember the days when GoPro was synonymous with action cameras? At its peak in 2015, the US company reigned supreme with around 6.6 million units sold that year and a market share of over 70%. Today, the pioneer is fighting for survival.

The main culprit? Chinese competition. GoPro's biggest rivals, DJI and Insta360, entered the action camera market in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Today, they account for more than 90% of global smart handheld camera sales.Alexander Hannemann, who regularly uses action cameras to film his motorcycle rides, says he switched from GoPro to Insta360 around two years ago.

"The quality is much better than a GoPro, even when I'm speeding up and going into corners at like 80 kilometers per hour," he told DW. GoPro's case is not an exception. Since around 2010, many Chinese brands have not only caught up but surpassed once-dominant Western rivals across the consumer technology industry, from smart TVs to robot vacuums.

Beyond Military Exercises: Is China Testing the Conditions for a Taiwan Blockade?

The possibility of a conflict over Taiwan is frequently discussed in terms of a Chinese amphibious invasion. Yet an invasion is not the only way Beijing could attempt to compel Taiwan to accept its political demands. A blockade, a selective restriction of maritime and air traffic, or a law enforcement operation designed to control access to the island could create a serious crisis without an immediate attempt to occupy Taiwanese territory.

Developments reported in October 2026 have renewed questions about this possibility. Reuters reported on 8 October that a Chinese maritime militia vessel had been observed operating alongside a China Coast Guard cutter and a research vessel off Taiwan’s Pacific coast in August. The report described this as the first known sighting of such a vessel in that sensitive area. Reuters subsequently reported on 10 October that the United States had criticised Chinese maritime activity off Taiwan as deeply destabilising.

China’s qualms with long Trumpism

Beijing may believe that Donald Trump’s 2016 election and his return to office eight years later are not accidents but part of a deeper American current. Beyond Trump himself, the America that has emerged since 2016 increasingly seems unwilling to worry about the world.

For a century, beginning with America’s intervention in the First World War in 1917, the United States concerned itself with the global order through three great conflicts: World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. Trump’s 2016 election, however, gave voice to an America tired of international affairs, once again “selfish” and feeling cheated by the world for its generosity. This America is undermining the very international institutions it created, including the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.

China has never truly felt that these institutions fully represented it, its values, or its way of thinking. The American world order does not belong to China. If America wants to destroy that order, why should China support it?

Twenty Harbin Students Disciplined for Unauthorized VPN Use After Reportedly Being “Informed on” by Classmate

Twenty students at Harbin Engineering University (HEU) were given disciplinary warnings for using unauthorized VPNs to circumvent the Great Firewall in order to access overseas websites and conduct academic research. The university released a statement announcing that, during a two-day period in late September, it had caught and punished seven undergraduates and 13 graduate students for unauthorized VPN use.

As the university’s statement about the disciplinary actions spread online, it fueled intense debate, particularly after rumors surfaced that the school was tipped off by a student “informer” motivated by the desire to bring down an academic rival and move up the recommendation list for admission to HEU’s mathematics department graduate program.

Who Are the Houthis and Why Are They Attacking Saudi Arabia’s Airports?

The European Union and Gulf Cooperation Council on Thursday announced the postponement of a joint summit set to take place in ‌Saudi Arabia next week, amid safety concerns prompted by Houthi attacks on airports in the kingdom. Citing the “continued attempts by the terrorist Houthi militia to target the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its civilian infrastructure, which threatens the security and safety of innocent civilians,” the council said the Gulf-European Summit will be rescheduled.

The postponement comes after Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday vowed to forge ahead with the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s airports and oil facilities, just hours after striking oil giant Saudi Aramco’s headquarters.

“Operations toward Saudi depths will continue in the coming days,” said Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree, describing the locations as “legitimate targets” and framing their attacks as a direct response to Saudi strikes on Yemen. Saudi-led forces said they had intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis towards Riyadh on Wednesday and local journalists reported hearing “loud blasts” in the Saudi capital.

Myanmar’s coup leader-turned-president wins back neighbours despite war

When Malaysia invited Myanmar’s coup leader-turned-president Min Aung Hlaing for a visit in September, it insisted the trip did not amount to recognition. The purpose, an official said, was to address the “longstanding issue” of refugees and migrants from Myanmar in Malaysia.

But when Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Kuala Lumpur last week, the former general – whose power grab in 2021 triggered a devastating civil war – received a red carpet welcome, complete with an honour guard. After an official luncheon on Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Myanmar was prepared to take its nationals back at its own cost, a message with appeal in a country where anti-refugee sentiment is growing. Malaysia hosts about 193,000 Myanmar nationals, most of them from the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.

“Because the weather is favourable, I will dispatch Navy ships to repatriate them,” Min Aung Hlaing said.

China tells Israel to stop ‘forced establishment’ of West Bank settlements

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told Israeli President Isaac Herzog during a meeting in Azerbaijan that Israel should stop and reverse its “forced establishment” of West Bank settlements, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Wang told Herzog that China has consistently viewed the Palestinian question as the greatest historical injustice of this century, the ministry said in the statement on Friday. Wang emphasised that the “two-state solution” is the right path to a resolution and said the immediate priority is to fully open access to the Gaza Strip so a humanitarian “catastrophe” is not allowed to spread.

Wang added that China is willing to work with the international community to push all parties to return to dialogue as soon as possible and seek a political settlement.

What's the impact of China's influence on the gaming industry?

In a dark underground hideout, dim light spills from a handful of oil lamps. A comrade fiddles with a rifle. A red flag hangs on one of the roughly hewn stone walls, bearing a hammer and sickle on a white star — the symbol of the ChineseWorkers' and Peasants' Red Army. Weapons are scattered on the ground. One is picked up, and soon the action moves into the snowy forest, where gunfire erupts among the trees.

Such a scene could fit in a new installment of "Call of Duty," the popular first person shooter game that transports players to battlefields past, present and future. But it is actually from "The Defiant." The game is currently being developed by the Chinese studio Hoothanes Technology in Hangzhou. It tells the story of Chinese forces fending off the Japanese army in the 1930s and 1940s.

Developer Connor Xu tells DW the weapons featured in the game are unique. They were used only in Asia and are therefore unfamiliar to many Western players, he says. The same goes for the story, which Xu says has never before been told in a video game.

No, China is not filling the Western aid gap in Southeast Asia

When Australia’s Lowy Institute think tank released the 2025 edition of its Southeast Asia Aid Map in July last year, it projected that Western aid cuts would shift the region’s development finance toward Asian partners. Specifically, the report expected the center of gravity to “drift East, notably to Beijing but also Tokyo and Seoul.”

Lowy’s 2026 edition, released on October 11, now includes 2024 data and preliminary 2025 estimates. They do not show that shift. Aid and other official development finance to the region fell to US$26.1 billion in 2024, its lowest level since 2015. China and Japan both reduced their spending, and South Korea’s cuts begin in 2025.

Wolf Warriors in Sheep’s Clothing: China’s New Subnational Diplomacy in Australia

For the government of China, diplomacy is more than simply a means of cultivating international relationships and advancing national interests. It is also an instrument of regime maintenance. In this capacity it can take the form of coercive interventions in the domestic affairs of other states with the aim of suppressing conduct or critique considered hostile to the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Deploying diplomatic agents to secure compliance with CCP objectives is in fact a significant feature of China’s subnational relations with local governments and communities in Australia.

During Xi Jinping’s first decade as CCP general secretary and chairman of state, Beijing’s approach to Australia grew increasingly blunt and confrontational, a style known as “wolf warrior diplomacy.” More recently, Chinese diplomats have shifted to a quieter, more self-assured form of subnational diplomacy.

India and China aren't friends - but Nepal wants to unite them against climate threats

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah used much of his speech at the recent UN General Assembly to warn of the growing threat of climate-related disasters in the Himalayas, recalling the devastating debris floodsthat struck his country in August. But it was his ambitious proposal to bring together regional rivals India and China, alongside Nepal, to tackle these shared threats that drew particular attention.

Shah called for the creation of a Himalayan Climate Resilience Mechanism to strengthen cross-border disaster response and the sharing of scientific data and expertise in one of the world's most environmentally fragile and geopolitically sensitive regions.

Why Chinese culture lands so fluently and freely in Vietnam

A recent ISEAS Fulcrum commentary by Hoang Thi Ha and Pham Thi Phuong Thao offers a useful mapping of how Chinese culture and economic opportunity are drawing in young Vietnamese.

The authors are right that this bottom-up attraction is unfolding alongside renewed official promotion of people-to-people ties, and that long-standing sensitivities about China have not disappeared. The current wave of Chinese cultural and consumer influence, from hit dramas, trendy brands to a surge in Mandarin study and growing student flows to Chinese universities, however, is better understood as an intensification of a much older pattern than as a new phenomenon. And the reasons should shape how we read both its reach and limits.

Vietnam is arguably the most deeply Sinospheric society outside China itself. It experienced over a millennium of direct Chinese rule. Literary Chinese remained the principal official script for centuries, even after chu Nom emerged as a vernacular script by the 13th century.

India reiterates border stability condition for normal ties as China rejects its Ladakh map assertions

India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar has on Oct 13 made an emphatic reiteration of New Delhi’s position that if China wanted a normal bilateral relationship, the border between the two countries had to be stable. His remark came on the day China said it strongly opposed India’s recent move to assign standardised names to 28 strategic locations and geographical features in Ladakh in its official map and India responded within hours by reiterating its position regarding the territorial ambit of the Union territory.

During a conversation at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi, Jaishankar has said that India and China do not have an agreed border. He has pointed out that despite the issue having persisted for decades, and border fatalities in 1975, India-China relations did grow.

Bhutan’s ‘Mindfulness City’ Hides a Dark Reality

On September 22, Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay of Bhutan stood at the podium at the United Nations General Assembly and made a direct sales pitch to foreign investors. “I stand before you today not as a prime minister, but as a salesman,” he told world leaders, openly seekingforeign investments to advance the concept of the Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC).

For Chet Nath Timsina, Tobgay’s speech was deeply personal. Timsina was 20 when he and his family were evicted from southern Bhutan in the early 1990s after being coerced into signing a “voluntary migration form.” He resettled in New York in 2009 and has called the state home ever since.

Vietnam Set to Sign Free Trade Pact With European Bloc This Week

Vietnam is set to sign a European ‌Free Trade Association (EFTA) this week, as Hanoi closes in on a final trade agreement with the United States. Reuters reported yesterday that the agreement with the EFTA bloc, which consists of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, will be signed in Hanoi on Sunday in the presence of Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin, who is currently on a trip to Asia.

The talks between Vietnam and the ETFA began in 2012 and have proceeded at a steady pace since. The two sides officially concluded the negotiations in July, following a ministerial meeting in Reykjavik that involved “intensive technical talks.”

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.