Modern consumers are “increasingly willing to pay for emotional value, seeking deeper engagement and cultural meaning through immersive experiences,” Yang Jinsong, director of the International Institute at the China Tourism Academy, told state media outlet People’s Daily in June.
søndag 2. august 2026
China loves historic sites. Tourists don’t mind if they’re not the originals
China is proud of its history. The only problem? Much of it has been lost to fires, wars, looting and revolutions. Enter fanggu, “historical imitation” attractions. Across the country, entire faux-ancient villages have been built from scratch. From glistening palaces to majestic boulevards, every detail is curated. Vines are transplanted in bulk, and tiles are crumbled mechanically. The result is a grand, albeit sometimes bizarre, fusion of dynastic history, architecture and geography.
Modern consumers are “increasingly willing to pay for emotional value, seeking deeper engagement and cultural meaning through immersive experiences,” Yang Jinsong, director of the International Institute at the China Tourism Academy, told state media outlet People’s Daily in June.
Modern consumers are “increasingly willing to pay for emotional value, seeking deeper engagement and cultural meaning through immersive experiences,” Yang Jinsong, director of the International Institute at the China Tourism Academy, told state media outlet People’s Daily in June.
Japan is launching its first centralized intelligence agency since WWII. Here’s why
Japan is launching a new centralized intelligence body for the first time since World War II – a controversial move that some fear deviates from Tokyo’s pacifist ideals, but one others say is much needed in a country so riddled with security weaknesses it has been called a “paradise for spies.”
The National Intelligence Bureau will formally launch on Friday, replacing previous structures criticized as disjointed and ineffective – and laying the foundation, experts say, for broader changes that could include an anti-spy law and a new external foreign intelligence agency similar to the CIA in the US, or MI6 in the UK.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi nodded to these ambitions on Monday, saying: “These measures are merely the first step in intelligence reform.”
The National Intelligence Bureau will formally launch on Friday, replacing previous structures criticized as disjointed and ineffective – and laying the foundation, experts say, for broader changes that could include an anti-spy law and a new external foreign intelligence agency similar to the CIA in the US, or MI6 in the UK.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi nodded to these ambitions on Monday, saying: “These measures are merely the first step in intelligence reform.”
A young Tibetan flees his homeland – and reveals how China is eroding his culture
Cheogyal Dawa couldn’t contain his emotions when he finally came face-to-face with an image he hadn’t seen openly displayed since he was a small child: a portrait of the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s spiritual leader.
“I was so excited I burst into tears,” Cheogyal said of seeing the large portrait, which is banned from being displayed within China, at a center for new Tibetan refugees in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, earlier this year. “Then I felt that I had reached a safe place, that I was free.”
This was the first time the 25-year-old had left China – his first stop in a journey that’s made him one of just a small number of Tibetans who have fled the country for exile in recent years.
“I was so excited I burst into tears,” Cheogyal said of seeing the large portrait, which is banned from being displayed within China, at a center for new Tibetan refugees in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, earlier this year. “Then I felt that I had reached a safe place, that I was free.”
This was the first time the 25-year-old had left China – his first stop in a journey that’s made him one of just a small number of Tibetans who have fled the country for exile in recent years.
From petitions to memes: How students made dissent visible
It was a clip destined to go viral. On July 22, 2026, in rainy Mumbai, India, a casually dressed young woman stepped in front of a slow-moving police van carrying detained students. She placed her palm on the hood, forcing the vehicle to stop. Mobile phones captured the moment from every angle. She too, raised her own phone and recorded the encounter. Within hours, the clip spread across India and beyond.
It became one of the defining visuals of the Cockroach Janta Party protests, a movement in which students demanded transparency and accountability, following leaks in India's medical entrance exams.
It became one of the defining visuals of the Cockroach Janta Party protests, a movement in which students demanded transparency and accountability, following leaks in India's medical entrance exams.
India's 'Cockroach' protesters face ongoing legal pressure
A student-led protest movement in India satirically called the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) scored a major political win when Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stepped down after weeks of protests calling for his removal.
The movement began on social media as an activist campaign sparked by leaks of a question sheet for the NEET exam, a highly competitive entrance test for aspiring medical students, in early May. Along with the education minister stepping down, the government promised to withdraw police cases against peaceful protesters, compensate families affected by the NEET examination controversy and continue talks on the movement's five-point charter for reforming India's examination system.
Now, student leaders, lawyers and activists say the battle has shifted from the streets to police stations, courtrooms and social media.
The movement began on social media as an activist campaign sparked by leaks of a question sheet for the NEET exam, a highly competitive entrance test for aspiring medical students, in early May. Along with the education minister stepping down, the government promised to withdraw police cases against peaceful protesters, compensate families affected by the NEET examination controversy and continue talks on the movement's five-point charter for reforming India's examination system.
Now, student leaders, lawyers and activists say the battle has shifted from the streets to police stations, courtrooms and social media.
UK court allows plans for Chinese 'super' embassy to advance
A UK High Court on Friday threw out a challenge against UK authorities' decision to permit a new Chinese super embassy in central London.
The challenge was brought by a neighborhood group called the Royal Mint Court Residents' Association (RMCRA), which represents families and businesses in roughly 100 properties around the planned embassy site. The RMCRA argued the presence of the embassy could increase the risk of terrorist attacks, lead to the targeting of dissidents and be used to enforce "draconian" Chinese laws in the UK.
The association also claimed that the embassy could pose a fire risk, arguing that Chinese authorities might ignore safety obligations that would be difficult to enforce because of diplomatic immunity on the embassy site. On that basis, the group argued the development should not have been approved by the UK government as well as the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
The challenge was brought by a neighborhood group called the Royal Mint Court Residents' Association (RMCRA), which represents families and businesses in roughly 100 properties around the planned embassy site. The RMCRA argued the presence of the embassy could increase the risk of terrorist attacks, lead to the targeting of dissidents and be used to enforce "draconian" Chinese laws in the UK.
The association also claimed that the embassy could pose a fire risk, arguing that Chinese authorities might ignore safety obligations that would be difficult to enforce because of diplomatic immunity on the embassy site. On that basis, the group argued the development should not have been approved by the UK government as well as the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
How crypto miners are stealing power in Southeast Asia
A raid in Malaysia last week exposed how cryptocurrency mining is becoming entangled with electricity theft and organized crime across Southeast Asia. In Malaysia's southern state of Johor, 71 cryptocurrency-mining machines had been running around the clock across four rented premises for about a month before police moved in. During the raids on July 22 and 23, officers arrested three suspects and seized computers, routers and vehicles alongside equipment used to illegally mine Bitcoin.
Johor police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad said the syndicate bypassed electricity meters, leading to an estimated €14,500 ($16,600) in losses in about a month, according to local media reports. The machines were thought to be generating between €17,200 and €21,500 in monthly revenue.
Johor police chief Ab Rahaman Arsad said the syndicate bypassed electricity meters, leading to an estimated €14,500 ($16,600) in losses in about a month, according to local media reports. The machines were thought to be generating between €17,200 and €21,500 in monthly revenue.
n record heat, a warming world has come to rely on China to stay cool
With wildfires blazing and temperatures hitting record highs in Europe, one China-made product has never been hotter: air-conditioners. Europeans, who have been slower to adopt AC than those living in other parts of the world, are lining up outside stores and driving long distances in the hopes of securing an AC unit as blistering summer temperatures in some areas surge past 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Major Chinese brands Midea, Gree and Haier are reporting AC higher sales overseas, just as leaders in countries such as France, Germany and Belgium are threatening to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, which they say are damaging their own industries.
Major Chinese brands Midea, Gree and Haier are reporting AC higher sales overseas, just as leaders in countries such as France, Germany and Belgium are threatening to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, which they say are damaging their own industries.
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 Statesin 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.
These platforms, including DeepSeek, Alibaba's Qwen and Xiaomi's MiMo, are now widely deployed across Chinese businesses, government services and consumer devices.
fredag 31. juli 2026
Photos show a rare look inside Tibet, 75 years after what China calls a ‘peaceful liberation’
This year marks the 75th anniversary of what China calls the “peaceful liberation” of Tibet in 1951, which critics describe as an invasion that has widely curtailed the rights and culture of Tibetans. Foreigners face tight restrictions on traveling to Tibet, a remote, high-altitude region know for its Buddhist faith and snow-capped mountains. The Associated Press last week joined a government-organized trip to the autonomous region, where journalists visited palaces, temples, tourist sites, an eldercare center and local businesses.
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Watching American power tentatively arrive in the Philippines
When American forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011, I watched it happen from Kuwait, where I worked as a contracted security guard. The last convoy crossed the berm that December — roughly 100 vehicles — and with it went the war in which I had served.
Two years later, at a joint Department of Defense intelligence facility in Germany, I watched pieces of the old Cold War-era footprint being dismantled and shipped home. I have spent much of my adult life watching American power leave places abroad. Last week, from a hilltop above Oyster Bay on the Philippine island of Palawan, I watched it arrive. It did not arrive the way it left Iraq. What I looked down on was a Philippine Navy detachment on the western coast of Palawan, facing the South China Sea — one of the places where boats resupplying the Sierra Madre stage their runs.
A Philippine Coast Guard vessel, the BRP Malapascua, sat in the bay — the ship I was told had carried home the men wounded at the shoal last week, when a Chinese coast guardsman struck a Filipino marine in the head with a wooden baton.
Two years later, at a joint Department of Defense intelligence facility in Germany, I watched pieces of the old Cold War-era footprint being dismantled and shipped home. I have spent much of my adult life watching American power leave places abroad. Last week, from a hilltop above Oyster Bay on the Philippine island of Palawan, I watched it arrive. It did not arrive the way it left Iraq. What I looked down on was a Philippine Navy detachment on the western coast of Palawan, facing the South China Sea — one of the places where boats resupplying the Sierra Madre stage their runs.
A Philippine Coast Guard vessel, the BRP Malapascua, sat in the bay — the ship I was told had carried home the men wounded at the shoal last week, when a Chinese coast guardsman struck a Filipino marine in the head with a wooden baton.
Xi’s odyssey through Western confusion
The Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Congress scheduled for autumn 2027 could be one of the most delicate and significant in its history. President Xi Jinping will extend his power for a fourth five-year term and bring up an entire generation of younger cadres. They will be people born in the 1960s, roughly ten years younger than him, who will join the Standing Committee (five to seven people) or the Politburo (21-25 people).
In the three previous Congresses, Xi, who was born in 1953 and rose to power in 2012, had to navigate among officials his own age or older. He succeeded with clearly brilliant results. A Politburo composed of younger people who owe everything to him will further increase his clout in the country.
He has over a year to prepare, with no challengers on the horizon. He has completed an unprecedented purge of the military without any pushback from any party organization. The CPC was practically born out of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the military had always been the political kingmaker.
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In the three previous Congresses, Xi, who was born in 1953 and rose to power in 2012, had to navigate among officials his own age or older. He succeeded with clearly brilliant results. A Politburo composed of younger people who owe everything to him will further increase his clout in the country.
He has over a year to prepare, with no challengers on the horizon. He has completed an unprecedented purge of the military without any pushback from any party organization. The CPC was practically born out of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the military had always been the political kingmaker.
Read more
Taiwan’s path to victory is unclear
Like few other countries, Taiwan faces a legitimate existential crisis. Beijing’s position that Taiwan must submit to absorption by the People’s Republic of China, even by force if necessary, is insistent and uncompromising.
There is zero doubt this would result in the destruction of Taiwan’s democratic political system and liberal political culture. The Chinese government has already signaled that it would “re-educate” Taiwan and severely punish alleged “separatists” if it got its hands on the island. Even knowing that Taiwan’s people were watching, Beijing dismantled civil liberties and imposed harsh penalties for minor acts of dissent in Hong Kong.
There is zero doubt this would result in the destruction of Taiwan’s democratic political system and liberal political culture. The Chinese government has already signaled that it would “re-educate” Taiwan and severely punish alleged “separatists” if it got its hands on the island. Even knowing that Taiwan’s people were watching, Beijing dismantled civil liberties and imposed harsh penalties for minor acts of dissent in Hong Kong.
Nostalgia hinders Takaichi’s vision for Japan
Two themes dominate Japan’s elite thinking at present: a blend of awe and fear about the ambitions of Japan’s powerful prime minister, Sanae Takaichi; and concerns about the US-Japan security alliance.
Takaichi became prime minister last October through winning a party leadership election, then won her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a huge majority in general elections for the Lower House of the Diet (parliament) in February this year. This was attributed largely to Takaichi’s novelty as the country’s first female prime minister and one who does not come from a political dynasty, but also to her robust stance in the face of a row with Japan’s biggest security threat, China, over remarks she had made in the Diet about Taiwan.
That landslide victory did not make her impregnable – the LDP lacks a majority in the weaker Upper House of the Diet, which it cannot change until elections to that house in 2028 – but it opened up a big opportunity to bring about change.
Takaichi became prime minister last October through winning a party leadership election, then won her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a huge majority in general elections for the Lower House of the Diet (parliament) in February this year. This was attributed largely to Takaichi’s novelty as the country’s first female prime minister and one who does not come from a political dynasty, but also to her robust stance in the face of a row with Japan’s biggest security threat, China, over remarks she had made in the Diet about Taiwan.
That landslide victory did not make her impregnable – the LDP lacks a majority in the weaker Upper House of the Diet, which it cannot change until elections to that house in 2028 – but it opened up a big opportunity to bring about change.
Myanmar court sentences activists to 37 years over election protest
Myanmar courts have sentenced nine activists to up to 37 years in prison for participating in a protest that urged the public to boycott last December’s elections.
Eight protesters against the military government, including prominent activist Htet Myat Aung, were sentenced to 37 years on Tuesday by two courts in Mandalay, an activist group said on Wednesday. The sentences were imposed following the demonstrators’ convictions under the electoral law and counterterrorism law, according to May Hnin, a spokesperson for the Anti-Junta Forces Coordination Committee-Mandalay.
A ninth activist was sentenced to 27 years after being convicted under the counterterrorism law, she added. The activists were arrested on December 4, a day after they staged a flash protest in downtown Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.
Eight protesters against the military government, including prominent activist Htet Myat Aung, were sentenced to 37 years on Tuesday by two courts in Mandalay, an activist group said on Wednesday. The sentences were imposed following the demonstrators’ convictions under the electoral law and counterterrorism law, according to May Hnin, a spokesperson for the Anti-Junta Forces Coordination Committee-Mandalay.
A ninth activist was sentenced to 27 years after being convicted under the counterterrorism law, she added. The activists were arrested on December 4, a day after they staged a flash protest in downtown Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.
Taiwan: Ministry seeks to dissolve a political party
The Ministry of the Interior’s Political Party Review Committee yesterday said it would file a petition to dissolve the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) following a year-and-a-half investigation, calling it organized crime dressed as a political party, and saying that incidents of violence involving the party and its promotion of China’s “united front” rhetoric severely undermine Taiwan’s free and liberal democracy.
The committee in January last year passed a resolution to investigate the CUPP and has spent the past year and a half gathering information about the party’s activities to submit to the Constitutional Court, a source familiar with the committee said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The committee in January last year passed a resolution to investigate the CUPP and has spent the past year and a half gathering information about the party’s activities to submit to the Constitutional Court, a source familiar with the committee said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
China puts the ‘squeeze’ on Taiwan with new maritime patrols
China’s coastguard and civilian fleet are expanding their presence in the waters east of Taiwan, raising fears that Beijing may be rehearsing a containment strategy that would cut off the self-ruled island from outside trade and assistance.
Through June and July, China’s Maritime Safety Administration and coastguard staged multiple patrols and “special maritime law enforcement operations”, according to official government announcements.While China regularly patrols the Taiwan Strait – the waterway with an average width of about 180km (112 miles) separating coastal China from the main island of Taiwan – this marks the first time the patrols have moved east of Taiwan in such quick succession, according to analysts.
K Tristan Tang, a nonresident fellow at the United States-based National Bureau of Asian Research, said the shift carries both strategic and symbolic weight for Taiwan.
Through June and July, China’s Maritime Safety Administration and coastguard staged multiple patrols and “special maritime law enforcement operations”, according to official government announcements.While China regularly patrols the Taiwan Strait – the waterway with an average width of about 180km (112 miles) separating coastal China from the main island of Taiwan – this marks the first time the patrols have moved east of Taiwan in such quick succession, according to analysts.
K Tristan Tang, a nonresident fellow at the United States-based National Bureau of Asian Research, said the shift carries both strategic and symbolic weight for Taiwan.
torsdag 30. juli 2026
People in Many Countries Now View China More Positively Than the U.S.
Global views of the United States worsened last year as President Donald Trump’s second term began, though most people still had a more positive opinion of the U.S. than China. This year, that is no longer the case.Global views of the United States worsened last year as President Donald Trump’s second term began, though most people still had a more positive opinion of the U.S. than China. This year, that is no longer the case.
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