Kinaforum

mandag 23. mars 2026

Torbjørn Færøvik: Isfahan - A City Loved, A City in Danger

Travelers of the past struggled to find the right words to describe the Iranian city of Isfahan. Yet one of them, the Frenchman Jean Chardin, wrote in the seventeenth century: “The city shone like a pearl in the desert and dazzled us completely with its splendor.” Another, Pietro della Valle, added: “The beauty of the city surpasses everything I have seen in the East.”

But this spring it is threatened with mutilation and death. In recent weeks, its inhabitants have lived in constant fear of the thunder in the sky.

“Our city is like a museum without a roof. Spare us!” pleads the mayor.

Isfahan is not only a historical jewel, but also an industrial and technological hub in Iran. In and around the city are several facilities linked to Iran’s nuclear program, military industry, air bases, and logistics. This makes it a potential target for airstrikes, increasing the risk of damage to both civilian and historic areas.

Japan Is back – but not the version Washington wants

When Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi planned her visit to the Oval Office, she was hoping to showcase something familiar: Japan’s renewed commitment to defense spending, alliance coordination, and economic investment in the United States. Instead, on Thursday, she had to walk into a different conversation shaped by a widening war in the Middle East.

Following US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, Tehran has moved to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical energy chokepoint, through which roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies pass. The crisis has sent oil prices surging and markets reeling. For Japan, which relies on the Persian Gulf for some 90% of its crude imports, the implications are immediate and severe.

Even a ‘superpower’ is nowhere near as powerful as it looks

Yet again, the US-Israel war against Iran is showing that even a so-called superpower is nowhere near as powerful as it looks. Although we will all suffer the political and economic effects of this war for many months and years to come, we humbler powers in Europe should find this renewed proof quite reassuring. With the important exception of nuclear weapons, the gap between what a superpower can achieve and what humbler, so-called “middle powers” can do is a lot smaller than it seems.

It is tempting to attribute this to the strategic incompetence that has been demonstrated by the Trump administration. Despite having had many months to plan and prepare for this war, Donald Trump and his team have been taken by surprise by the ability of the Iranian regime not just to survive but also to hit back against American military assets and Arab allies and to restrict the flow of oil out of the famously narrow Strait of Hormuz.

‘Better Than Gold’: China’s Traders Cash in as Memory Chip Prices Soar

AI demand is tightening memory supply and driving sharp price swings, creating windfalls for traders while forcing China’s tech firms into an increasingly volatile market. Standing beside an open car trunk on a side street in southern China’s tech hub of Shenzhen, Roy Luo runs a quick, practiced eye over the labels on a stack of NAND flash memory chips, the kind vital for phones, computers, and servers.

He has only minutes to decide. Prices can shift without warning, and high-value stock may vanish to another buyer. Luo, a 30-year-old electronics trader, checks his phone, nods once, and wires payment to the seller.

In Huaqiangbei, the world’s largest electronics market, this is how some of the most lucrative deals have been made since last September, as a global shortage of memory chips fuels more speculation.

Iran says it will allow Japanese ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz

Iran says Japanese ships will be allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz, in the latest sign that Tehran has started pursuing a selective blockade of the strategic waterway.

“We have not closed the strait. In our opinion, the strait is open. It is closed only to ships belonging to our enemies, countries that attack us. For other countries, ships can pass through the strait ,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Japan’s Kyodo News late on Friday.

“We are talking to them to find a way to pass safely. We are ready to provide them with safe passage. All they need to do is contact us to discuss how this route will be,” Araghchi said, according to an English transcript of the interview shared on his Telegram account.

Japan sources more than 90 percent of its crude oil imports from the Middle East and is heavily dependent on exports transiting the strait, but the waterway has been de facto closed since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

China’s Record-Breaking Underwater Tunnel Reaches Major Milestone

The upper deck of the Yellow River tunnel in Jinan, the capital of the province of Shandong in East China, was completed on Tuesday, marking a major breakthrough for the world's largest-diameter underwater shield tunnel, according to Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency.

The upper deck of the tunnel, which is located on Huanggang Road, was finished with the pouring of the final cast-in-place roadway slab, reported the Global Times, the state-owned Chinese newspaper.

The tunnel is China's first single-bore, double-deck shield tunnel to pass beneath the Yellow River, an engineer involved in the project told the Global Times. Spanning 5.75 kilometers (around 3.6 miles), the tunnel accommodates six lanes across two levels, with a speed limit of 60 kilometers per hour (around 37 miles per hour).

About 3.3 kilometers (around 2 miles) of the tunnel were constructed using the shield tunneling method, deploying a 17.5-meter diameter (around 57 feet) tunnel-boring machine (TBM), according to Xinhua.

U.S. executives, from Apple to Eli Lilly, revamp their push into the world’s second-largest economy at the China Development Forum

As corporate giants navigate U.S.-China tensions, more than 80 global executives, from Apple to Eli Lilly,traveled to Beijing this weekend for the annual state-organized China Development Forum.

The executives’ remarks reflected renewed interest in capturing the Chinese consumer, after years of uncertainty from the Covid-19 pandemic, slower growth and U.S. trade tensions. Fresh off a recovery in Apple iPhone sales in China, the company’s CEO Tim Cook took the stage after Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Sunday, praising the “extraordinary” pace of technological progress in the country, such as factory automation.

He said: “We are proud to be part of that progress, and we’re committed to working alongside our supplier partners to push it even further.” He added that more than 90% of Apple’s production in China is powered by clean energy.

China-North Korea transit relaunch points to better ties

Passenger rail services between Pyongyang and Beijing resumed on March 13 for the first time in more than six years, as North Korea and China seek to expand trade and diplomatic coordination.

North Korea sealed its borders at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020, and while freight trains between North Korea and China resumed in September 2022, passenger rail and air links remained dormant. According to China Tourism Group, the Pyongyang–Beijing service now runs four times a week. A separate line between Pyongyang and the Chinese border city of Dandong operates daily.

Air links are also set to expand. Chinese flag carrier Air China is scheduled to resume a weekly flight between Beijing Capital International Airport and Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport from March 30, according to the airline's booking system.

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Hong Kong: New rule forces people to surrender passwords

The Hong Kong government on Monday announced that anyone refusing to give up phone or computer passwords in investigations related to national security could face up to a year in prison. The new rule is part of a raft of amendments to Hong Kong's national security law, which was imposed by China in 2020 following huge pro-democracy protests in the semi-autonomous city.

It requires people to provide "any password or other decryption method" necessary to allow police with warrants to access electronic equipment that is believed to hold evidence.

Those who fail to comply could face a fine of up to HK$100,000 ($12,700; €11,000) or a one-year prison sentence.The amendment applies to people who are under investigation for endangering national security, as well as anyone who owns, controls, or is authorized to access the equipment in question. It also covers anyone who knows the password or decryption method.

Torbjørn Færøvik: Krigen truer Irans kulturskatter

Fortidens reisende slet med å finne de riktige ordene når de skulle beskrive den iranske byen Esfahan. Men en av dem, franskmannen Jean Chardin, skrev på 1600-tallet: «Byen skinte som en perle i ørkenen og blendet oss helt med sin prakt». En annen, Pietro della Valle, tilføyde: «Byens skjønnhet overgår alt jeg har sett i Østen.»

Men denne våren trues den av lemlestelse og død. De siste ukene har innbyggerne levd i konstant frykt for larmen på himmelen.

«Byen vår er som et museum uten tak. Spar oss!» trygler byens borgermester.

Esfahan er ikke bare en historisk perle, men også et industrielt og teknologisk knutepunkt i Iran. I og rundt byen finnes flereanlegg knyttet til Irans atomprogram, militær industri, flybaser og logistikk. Det gjør den til et potensielt mål for luftangrep,noe som øker risikoen for skade også på sivile og historiske områder.

China weathering Iran war with minimal damage

Various observers are emphasizing that the US-Israeli war against Iran is either hurting or helping China.

Some argue that “China has a lot to lose,” that the war is “unsettling China and its ambitions,” or that “Xi Jinping’s geopolitical chessboard is starting to collapse.” Others contend that the war “could help China,” that “China gains [an] edge from Trump’s war,” or that “Beijing may emerge as the quiet winner.”This is a complicated question involving several factors, some favorable to China’s global agenda and some unfavorable. A proper assessment finds that the war is a net negative for China, but not by much.

For China, Iran was a useful but never a vital economic partner. In 2021, China signed a deal to eventually invest US$400 billion in Iran in exchange for a steady flow of oil. China’s investment up to the start of the war was only a small fraction of that figure. As University of Pennsylvania analyst Aaron Glasserman summarizes, “Iran needs China, but China does not need Iran.”

Japan's prime minister emerges buoyed from Trump summit

The delicate summit between US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichiwent off largely smoothly on Thursday. Takaichi arrived in Washington bearing trade and energy deals, and Trump reciprocated by reiterating the importance of the relationship while refraining from asking Tokyo to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz to support the US-Israel war with Iran.

The meeting was arranged long before the US and Israel launched their attacks on Iran late last month, with Trump last week calling on US allies, specifically naming Japan, to commit military forces to the region.

Japan would be unable to make any such commitment under the terms of its strict pacifist constitution. The Iran war in general is deeply unpopular with the Japanese people, analysts point out, effectively making it impossible for Takaichi to accede to any such request.

Europe and Japan Ready to Join Efforts to Secure Strait of Hormuz as Energy Prices Surge Amid Iran War

Leaders from Europe and Japan joined forces Thursday in an effort to secure the Strait of Hormuz so that global trade can once more journey through the vital passage. The announcement came amid rising concerns over the turbulent market, with European natural gas prices having jumped by 60% since the start of the Iran war.

In a joint statement, leaders from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan expressed a "readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait" and welcomed "the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning."

The leaders condemned “in the strongest terms” the attacks Iran has made on commercial vessels alongside oil and gas facilities and emphasized that “maritime security and freedom of navigation” benefits all countries. Citing the U.N. Security Council Resolution 2817, they called for Iran to immediately cease its ongoing threats to global trade and put forth their intention to intervene.

Trump invokes Pearl Harbor in front of Japanese prime minister to defend Iran attack secrecy

In an apparent awkward moment at the Oval Office on Thursday stateside, U.S. President Donald Trump referenced Pearl Harbor in his first meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi after her landslide electoral victory. When asked by a Japanese reporter on why the U.S. did not inform allies such as Japan before carrying out the attacks against Iran on Feb. 28, the U.S. president said it was to maintain the element of surprise.

“Who knows better about surprise than Japan ... Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”

Trump was referencing the surprise Japanese attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in 1941, which saw the deaths of over 2,400 personnel and drew the U.S. into World War II. Takaichi appeared to draw a deep breath and lean back in her seat with an uneasy expression.

The US is re-evaluating the threat of Chinese military action in Taiwan

Recent years have brought heightened concern in Western intelligence circles that China could invade the self-governing island of Taiwan as early as next year. But the United States now says an imminent attack is unlikely.

An annual threat assessment by the US intelligence community said Beijing prefers to achieve so-called unification without the use of force, and recognizes that an amphibious assault would be extremely difficult and carry a high risk of failure, especially if the US intervenes.

“Beijing almost certainly will consider a variety of factors in deciding whether and how to pursue military approaches to unification, including PLA readiness, the actions and politics of Taiwan, and whether or not the US will militarily intervene on Taiwan’s behalf,” the report said, referring to China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Japan’s people are aging as its snow worsens. That’s a lethal combination

For Yoko Toshima, winter hits harder these days. “Perhaps it is because I am getting older, but the way the snow falls seems more extreme than before,” she said.

During the warmer months, the 76-year-old’s small hometown in northern Japan seems an ideal place to live, offering lush parks and historical shrines. Daisen’s renowned summertime fireworks displays draw hundreds of thousands of visitors.

But when winter blows in, all that shifts. “Living alone is fine during the summer, but winter is very challenging because of the snow,” Toshima said. There were times these past few months, under freezing temperatures, when snow piled up “like a mountain” at Toshima’s doorstep, she said. No matter how hard she tried to clear it, it kept coming back.

Why a delayed Xi-Trump summit could give China a stronger hand

US President Donald Trump’s request to delay a high-stakes summit with China’s leader Xi Jinping could work in Beijing’s favor, according to several Chinese sources familiar with the matter, potentially allowing both parties to sidestep complications related to the US’ war with Iran – China’s most important strategic partner in the Middle East.

And if Trump loses his grip on the conflict that’s already threatening oil supplies and global economic growth, it could strengthen China’s hand in talks – if they go ahead at all –– according to experts.

Beijing never formally confirmed the highly anticipated visit, and has yet to provide an official response to the proposed “5-to-6 week” delay. Trump said this week that “China is fine with” delaying the meeting that, according to the White House, had previously been scheduled for March 31 to April 2.

Pakistan and Afghanistan Announce Pause in Fighting Over Eid

Pakistan and Afghanistan have declared a temporary pause in fighting over the coming Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The suspension, which was mediated by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar, will begin at midnight on Wednesday and is set to last until midnight on Monday local time, according to Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar. It is the first cessation of hostilities between the two countries since Pakistan declared “open war” with Afghanistan amid renewed clashes in February.“Pakistan offers this gesture in good faith and in keeping with the Islamic norms,” Tarar said in a statement on social media.

It does not yet appear likely that the temporary pause will lead to a more lasting cease-fire. Tarar cautioned that “in case of any cross-border attack, drone attack or any terrorist incident inside Pakistan,” Pakistan’s operations “shall immediately resume with renewed intensity.”