Kinaforum

fredag 27. februar 2026

China’s Erasure of Ethnic Minority Languages

How is the Chinese government marking international mother language day on February 21? By legalizing the erasure of mother languages.

In December 2025, according to the NPC Observer, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee signed off on revisions to the Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language, originally adopted in 2000. The revisions remove a provision that allowed speakers of “minority languages” to use those as the medium of instruction in schools, stating simply that such education is “no longer necessary.”

A years-long trend of replacing Mongolian-, Tibetan-, and Uyghur-medium instruction with Mandarin Chinese-medium instruction is now codified in law. Students in these communities will now only be taught their mother tongue as a single, standalone class; all other classes will be taught in Chinese.

Why Did Donald Trump Leave China Out of His State of the Union Address?

Despite being the longest State of the Union address in modern U.S. history, President Donald Trump’s 2026 speech marked the first time in two decades that an American president did not directly mention China in the annual address to Congress.

Many observers have attributed the omission to timing: Trump is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in April. But a closer look suggests that Trump’s careful approach to China reflects two important domestic factors: an internal Republican battle over tariffs – intensified by a recent Supreme Court ruling against his tariff authority – and the looming midterm elections later this year.

Trump’s upcoming trip to Beijing will be the first by a sitting American president since his own visit in 2017. He has repeatedly touted his “excellent relationship” with Xi. Earlier this month, Trump described a phone call between the two leaders as “very positive” and their relationship as “extremely good.”

China’s First Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier Will Challenge US Sea Power

New satellite imagery obtained by Newsweek shows work advancing on China’s fourth aircraft carrier, with defense analysts increasingly convinced the vessel will be nuclear-powered — a step that would give it far greater range, endurance and sustained speed than its conventionally powered predecessors.

China already possesses the world’s largest navy by hull count and is launching major warships at roughly three times the rate of the United States. A nuclear carrier would mark a major milestone in President Xi Jinping’s drive to build a “world-class military” by mid-century, and would place China in a club occupied by only two other nations: the U.S., which operates 11 nuclear carriers, and France with its Charles de Gaulle.

Google Shuts Down ‘Prolific’ Hacking Group Linked to China

Google and its cybersecurity partners have disrupted a cyber espionage group with suspected ties to the Chinese state, the company said Wednesday.

It was one of several such operations involving enforcement actions against Chinese cyberoperations this week, including misuse of AI to train domestic large language models (LLM) and carry out pro-Beijing influence operations.The disclosure follows a string of Chinese-linked hacking campaigns in recent years, some believed to have state backing, that have targeted government officials, think tanks and Chinese dissidents overseas.

Other groups have sought access to U.S. critical infrastructure. American intelligence officials have warned that such access, if established, could be weaponized in the event of a conflict with Beijing.

Trump will head to Beijing weakened — and Xi knows it

The ideological centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s second-term trade doctrine has been struck down by the Supreme Court — a legal setback that has dramatically shifted the balance of power in the US-China rivalry just weeks before their two leaders are scheduled to meet in Beijing.

Within hours of the ruling, the Trump administration pivoted, activating Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose a temporary 15% tariff on top of existing ones, citing balance-of-payments concerns. The maneuver is legally narrower and time-bound. Trump’s trade war is not over — its legal battlefield has merely shifted.

For China, the ruling delivers an unexpected reprieve, easing pressure on Chinese exporters and recalibrating the leverage dynamics ahead of Trump’s planned April visit. Chinese celebration, however, would be premature.

Why India’s diaspora isn’t coming home

A few weeks ago, a post on X stopped thousands of Indians mid-scroll. A user recounted a conversation with a friend settled in Canada — educated, successful, with half a million dollars saved — who said, quietly but clearly: “I’m not coming back.”

Not because he doesn’t love India. But because, after years abroad, he has simply stopped wanting to fight for things that should just work.The thread exploded. Doctors in Toronto. Engineers in Amsterdam. Nurses in Auckland. Their geographies differed. The emotional core did not: India is exhausting in ways that have nothing to do with poverty, and everything to do with choices made by those in power.

Officially, India loses over 200,000 citizens to emigration every year. Between 2011 and 2023, more than 1.6 million Indians surrendered their passports. In 2024 alone, over 200,000 renounced citizenship. India’s diaspora — 35.4 million strong — is the world’s largest.

China’s fishing fleets are Beijing’s secret naval weapon

China is rapidly expanding its reach across the Indo-Pacific, deploying a shadow fleet of nominally civilian fishing vessels as a covert extension of the world’s largest naval force.

By weaponizing hundreds of thousands of fishing boats alongside the Chinese Navy (PLAN) and Coast Guard (CCG), Beijing has developed a gray zone militia strategy that threatens to blockade American and allied naval forces should a Taiwan contingency or conflict in the South China Sea erupt.

Both the PLAN and CCG have conducted gray zone operations around disputed islands and territorial waters claimed by Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines — with the fishing militia serving as the cutting edge of a hybrid warfare doctrine designed to encroach on neighboring territory while evading direct military confrontation.

Torbjørn Færøvik: China's Dark Factories - Can Robots Save a Shrinking Nation?

Imagine a factory hall that is almost dark, yet production is running at full speed. In China, an increasing number of “dark factories” are being built where advanced robots work around the clock. These robots never go to the bathroom, and no one has ever heard them complain.

In industrial cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, a nearly imperceptible revolution is under way. Workers are being replaced by robots that weld, assemble, lift and transport goods without interruption. At the electronics manufacturer Foxconn, nearly 200,000 workers have been replaced by robots in just a few years. At one factory alone, the workforce has been reduced from 110,000 to 50,000 since 2016.

“You notice the silence as the door slides shut behind you,” I read in a Chinese magazine. “Not an empty silence, but a dense, electric calm filled with humming, brief bursts of compressed air and the dry click of relays switching on and off. The light is dim, almost like twilight, because no one inside needs illumination.”

Les mer

The Complicated Stakes of the AI Race Between the U.S. and China

Trade tensions between the United States and China have eased for now, but the technology race is accelerating. While Washington and Beijing have relaxed export controls on semiconductors and rare earths, both have announced new AI models, new applications, and new deals.

This week, world leaders are meeting in New Delhi for the India AI Impact Summit. And technology competition is, unsurprisingly, high on the list of discussion topics. Ever since last year’s “DeepSeek moment,” policymakers and executives have continued to debate: Will the U.S. or China win the AI race?
But that question may simplify more than it clarifies. What does AI leadership mean? What are we racing toward? What are the tradeoffs? Where are global supply chains too connected to derisk? And where can countries other than the U.S. and China compete?

Without understanding the nuance of these questions, leaders risk advancing short-sighted solutions to today’s most pressing technology problems and may be pursuing flawed strategies in the long game of geopolitics.

Despite differences, China’s Xi and Germany’s Merz seek to deepen ties in turbulent times

There are many things that China and Germany do not see eye-to-eye on — notably Russia’s war in Ukraine — but the leaders of the world’s second and third largest economies nonetheless pledged Wednesday to work to deepen ties in an era of global turbulence.

Both countries have been buffeted by the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, who lauded his import tariffs in a State of the Union address delivered just hours before German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met separately with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing.

“The more turbulent and complex the world becomes, the more China and Germany should strengthen strategic communication and enhance strategic mutual trust,” Xi said at the government’s Diaoyutai state guesthouse, a leafy and sprawling property dotted with grand buildings.

A Hong Kong court quashes fraud conviction of ex-media mogul Jimmy Lai

A Hong Kong appellate court on Thursday quashed fraud convictions against onetime media magnate Jimmy Lai, a rare victory in the prominent activist’s legal battles.

Lai, 78, an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party who founded the now-defunct Apple Daily, will stay in prison because he was sentenced to 20 years weeks ago after being convicted in another case brought under a China-imposed national security law.

That came more than five years after he was arrested under the law, which was used in a yearslong crackdown on many of Hong Kong’s leading activists. His plight has evoked grief over the city’s loss of press freedom and sparked an international outcry, though the city’s authorities insist his case had nothing to do with media independence.

China cashes in on clean energy as Trump clings to coal

During a speech to global elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, US President Donald Trump announced that while China sold windmills to "stupid people that buy them," it did not use wind power itself. Nothing could be further from the truth.

China actually added record amounts of both wind and solar power capacity in 2025. And according to some calculations, it may even have reached peak CO2 emissions — way ahead of its planned trajectory The vast Asian country also provides the lion's share of the world's clean tech required for the global energy transition — manufacturing over 80% of solar panels, 60% of wind turbines and 75% of electrical vehicles (EVs) and batteries.

"On the economic and industrial front, the US has been left behind, and as a result of the very hostile approach of the current administration to decarbonization, the US will be further left behind," Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the US-based Asia Society Policy Institute, told DW.

China shock: Rivalry tests Merz and German economy

China's rise from poverty to the world's second‑largest economy rewrote the rules of globalization. Now Beijing's push into high-end technology is unfolding at an even faster pace. While the United States and United Kingdom had decades to absorb the first China shock at the turn of the century, those confronting the second — above all Germany — have had far less notice.

An obvious sign that Beijing's huge investments in high-tech were paying off emerged shortly after the first Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) rolled off transporters across Europe in 2023. While few believed they would make serious inroads against Germany's legacy carmakers, just over two years later, China's rivals have become a disruptive force in the European market.

China overtakes US to become Germany's top trading partner

China has overtaken the US as Germany's most important trading partner, according to figures released by Germany's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Friday. The sum of exports and imports between the two countries last year totaled €251.8 billion ($296.6 billion), a 2.1% increase, according to Destatis.

China was Germany's most important trading partner from 2016 all the way through to 2023. In 2024, the US briefly held the title. Germany last year imported goods worth €170.6 billion from China, an 8.8% increase from the year earlier. Chinese imports to Germany were mainly data processing equipment, electrical equipment and machinery.

Meanwhile, German exports to China last year totaled €81.3 billion, down 9.7% from the year earlier. The US was Germany's next top business partner last year, with a foreign trade turnover of €240.5 billion, a 5% drop from the year before. German exports to the US fell last year, after US President Donald Trump introduced tariffs on imported goods from many countries, including Germany.

The father of a US-based Hong Kong activist is sentenced to 8 months under national security law

A Hong Kong court sentenced the father of a U.S.-based activist to eight months in prison Thursday for attempting to withdraw some funds from his daughter’s insurance policy, in the first case against a family member of a pro-democracy advocate wanted by the city’s authorities brought under a national security law.

Kwok Yin-sang, 69, was found guilty earlier this month of attempting to deal with financial assets belonging to an “absconder” under the 2024 security law, locally known as Article 23 legislation. His daughter Anna Kwok, who is the executive director of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, slammed his conviction as “transnational repression.”

China holiday spending sends a strong signal on consumer stimulus plans

China’s consumer market is recovering — just enough that policymakers likely won’t need to roll out the large-scale stimulus that investors have long hoped for. The nine-day Lunar New Year, which ended Monday, saw a steady rise in spending across the country, from hotel bookings to duty-free shopping. Rail travel hit a record of over 18.7 million passengers in a single day.

The better-than-expected data suggest that Beijing’s recent support measures are effective, while underscoring a broader consumer trend: spending on experiences such as travel and entertainment is still picking up faster than traditional goods, CCB International Securities said in a report Tuesday.

North Korea promotes Kim Jong Un’s sister as he vows to boost economy

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been promoted in the ruling party structure at the party congress, during which he set the country’s economic agenda for the next five years, according to state media.

The ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee named the North Korean leader’s sister, Kim Yo Jong – who was previously a deputy department director – as a full department director, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday.According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, Kim Yo Jong will likely be assigned to lead the propaganda department, whose role includes overseeing inter-Korean relations or external strategies.

Thousands of party elites have packed the capital, Pyongyang, for the once-in-five-years Workers’ Party summit, a gathering that directs state efforts on everything from diplomacy to war planning.

China restricts exports to 40 Japanese entities with ties to military

China on Tuesday restricted exports to 40 Japanese entities it says are contributing to Japan’s “remilitarization,” in the latest escalation of tensions with Tokyo.

Beijing has shown continued displeasure with Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in November implied Japan could intervene if China used military force against Taiwan, an island democracy China claims as its own. The Chinese Commerce Ministry put 20 Japanese companies on an export control list and 20 others on a separate watchlist.

Companies on the export control list will not be able to import from China dual-use goods, which can be used for civilian and military purposes. They include multiple business subsidiaries of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries involved in shipbuilding and the production of aircraft engines and maritime machinery, as well as some of Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Fujitsu, among others.