Kinaforum

onsdag 6. mai 2026

Taiwan’s president says state visits are ‘basic right’ after trip he says Beijing tried to block

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said Tuesday it was a basic right for countries to hold state visits, as he returned from his three-day trip to the African kingdom of Eswatini, which his government says China tried to block.

Lai was supposed to travel to the country, one of Taiwan’s 12 remaining diplomatic partners last month, but had to cancel the initial trip owing to Chinese pressure, Taiwan’s government said. China pressured three countries to revoke flight permits, denying Lai transit through their airspace, Taiwan’s government said. China did not confirm whether or not they had pressured the countries, but thanked them for their support for Beijing’s one-China principle.

Undeterred, Lai rescheduled the trip, arriving in Eswatini on May 2, where he discussed cooperation on economic, agricultural, cultural and educational ties.

Hong Kong government seeks to seize millions from jailed activist Jimmy Lai

The Hong Kong government is seeking to confiscate millions of dollars in funds and corporate shares it says are linked to crimes committed by jailed former media tycoon Jimmy Lai, according to a court document seen by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The filing does not explain how the property, which it estimates to be worth over 127 million Hong Kong dollars ($16 million), is linked to Lai’s crimes. The government previously announced that it was seeking asset forfeitures in the case but did not disclose the amount.

Lai, an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party who founded the now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily, was convicted in December of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and conspiring with others to publish seditious articles. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February, the toughest sentence given so far under a Beijing-imposed national security law.

The rapid embrace of AI in China, its biggest testing ground, may shape how AI is used globally

On a recent weekday, around 50 people gathered outside the headquarters of a Chinese mobile internet company, waiting to get help with installing an artificial intelligence assistant. The scene in Beijing, China’s capital, was repeated for days at several events and was also seen in the southern technology hub Shenzhen in March, as engineers helped crowds trying to set up the popular AI “agent” OpenClaw on their laptops.

“I’m worried about falling behind in technological developments,” said Sun Lei, a 41-year-old human resources manager at the Cheetah event. She said she hoped the tool might help her source and screen resumes across various recruitment platforms.

China is stepping up its Iran war diplomacy ahead of Trump’s summit with Xi

China’s diplomatic role in the Iran war has come into sharper focus following talks between Chinese and Iranian foreign ministers on Wednesday, days before U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Beijing’s profile in international diplomacy has risen in recent years. Long reluctant to get involved in conflicts far from its borders, it has nevertheless emerged as a major player with attempts to mediate conflicts from Southeast Asia to Europe.

Beijing is not an official mediator in the Iran war, but all parties — including Washington and Tehran — say it has played an important role in efforts to de-escalate the conflict. The Trump administration is pressing China to use its influence with Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Unexpected Resilience: Two months of fighting have emphasized some of the country’s advantages.

By the United States military’s estimation, about 1,550 marine vessels—oil tankers, bulk carriers, container ships, and more—are idling in the Persian Gulf right now. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively blockaded, their crews, many of them uninvolved in the ongoing war with Iran, are slowly using up supplies as they await safe passage through the mine-filled waterway. Donald Trump announced on Sunday that the U.S. would rescue these “victims of circumstance” by guiding them out of the war zone in an as-yet-unspecified way. On Monday, though, Iran’s military rejected the plan, warning that American military forces would be attacked if they approached the strait.

Trump advisers step up their calls on China to help open Strait of Hormuz ahead of Beijing summit

White House officials are pressing China to use its influence with Iran to open Strait of Hormuz just days before President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s highly anticipated summit in Beijing.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Chinese officials to use Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s visit to China to urge Tehran to release its chokehold on the critical waterway. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Araghchi on Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

“I hope the Chinese tell him what he needs to be told,” Rubio said during a White House briefing Tuesday. “And that is that what you are doing in the strait is causing you to be globally isolated. You’re the bad guy in this.”

China was the birthplace of recreational drones. Now you can’t buy one in Beijing

In the flagship Beijing store of the world’s biggest drone maker, display racks designed to showcase DJI’s famous flying products sit awkwardly empty.

The Chinese capital is now effectively drone-free. Under sweeping new rules that took effect May 1, you cannot buy, rent, or fly them without approval within the city’s sprawling jurisdiction – a stunning turnaround considering China is both the birthplace of and the dominant force in the consumer drone industry. Diehard enthusiasts rushed to electronics stores across Beijing this week for last-chance purchases before the remaining stock was pulled from the shelves.

Could China push Iran into a peace deal? Only if it gets something in return

A visit to Beijing by Iran’s top diplomat – days before US President Donald Trump is set to travel to the Chinese capital – has turned up the spotlight on a key question: can China take on the role of peace broker in US-Iran conflict?

With a shaky ceasefire and stop-and-start diplomacy so far failing to make for a durable end to a war that threatens to drag down the global economy, both Tehran and Washington are looking for an offramp. And Beijing, on paper anyway, is an obvious contender to take up that mantle.

An unfinished Iran war could give Xi the upper hand in Trump talks, sources say

China remains committed to the upcoming meeting between its leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump regardless of the situation in the Middle East, and cautiously views its adversary’s months-long conflict with Iran as having potentially strengthened its negotiating position, according to Chinese sources familiar with the matter.

The rare in-person meeting, already once delayed due to the US-Israeli war with Iran, is now scheduled for May 14-15, according to the White House. Several sources indicate Beijing views the high-stakes summit as a singular opportunity to secure a more stable long-term relationship with its largest economic and military competitor.

Torbjørn Færøvik: Revolusjonen som spiste sine barn

«En setning fra formann Mao er mer verdt en ti tusen setninger fra oss andre», erklærte hans kampfelle, forsvarsminister Lin Biao, i 1966.

Den 7. mai det året sendte Mao et viktig brev til Lin – og det besto ikke av bare én setning, men mange. Effekten ble så voldsom at flere hundre millioner mennesker ble berørt. Mao skrev at han gremmet seg over de store forskjellene mellom by og land, og mellom intellektuelt og fysisk arbeid. «Vi må forvandle samfunnet til en stor skole hvor enhver både studerer og arbeider», sa han.

I samme åndedrag advarte han mot fremveksten av en ny parasittisk klasse som kunne føre revolusjonen på villspor.

Mao hadde styrt Kina i nesten sytten år, men var ikke fornøyd med det han så. I flere år hadde han fablet om å finne en snarvei til kommunismen, det klasseløse samfunnet. Allerede i 1958 hadde han mobilisert hele landets befolkning for å virkeliggjøre sin visjon. Men Det store spranget fremover, som det ble kalt, ble et stort sprang tilbake og endte med sult og fordervelse for flere titalls millioner mennesker.

Made in China means made in Yiwu

The city of Yiwu in Zhejiang province is small by Chinese standards, with fewer than 1.9 million inhabitants. But it is a global trade hub, home to the world’s largest wholesale market for small commodities. More than 80% of Christmas decorations sold worldwide are said to come from Yiwu.

Some basic statistics capture the scale of the Yiwu International Trade Market: 6.4 million square metres, 75,000 stands, over 2.1 million product lines, and around 220,000 visitors a day. Nearly 600,000 containers are loaded here every year and shipped to more than 200 countries or territories.

Yiwu doesn’t showcase flashy innovations but instead comprises a reliable manufacturing network dedicated to the large-scale production of everyday goods. An order placed at a stand goes out to decentralised clusters of factories spread across the Zhejiang countryside and beyond.

Global military spending rise continues as European and Asian expenditures surge

Global military expenditure increased to $2887 billion in 2025, the 11th year of consecutive rises, bringing the global military burden—military expenditure as a share of gross domestic product (GDP)—to 2.5 per cent, its highest level since 2009. At 2.9 per cent, the annual spending increase was significantly smaller than the 9.7 per cent increase recorded in 2024. However, this slowdown is largely accounted for by a drop in US military spending. Outside the USA, total spending grew by 9.2 per cent in 2025.

‘Global military spending rose again in 2025 as states responded to another year of wars, uncertainty and geopolitical upheaval with large-scale armament drives,’ said Xiao Liang, Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. ‘Given the range of current crises, as well as many states’ long-term military spending targets, this growth will probably continue through 2026 and beyond.’

Trump feeds America’s enduring appetite for destruction

Donald Trump still has the capacity to shock. The American president’s unauthorized war against Iran finds him in a vicious destructive mode, recently threatening to push Iran “into the Stone Ages” and to end Iranian civilization if Iran did not agree to “unconditional surrender.”

Even as the passing weeks have left Iran still standing, Trump’s words and deeds have already inflicted severe damage on the global economy and regional peace in the Middle East. Trump’s turn toward a wartime posture is striking, but not entirely unexpected. His second-term conduct shows a growing tendency to push an earlier taste for disruption toward outright destruction — at home and abroad.

He now routinely acts in the belief that those who dare to resist his plans deserve the severest forms of punishment that imperial presidential power can deliver. But Trump’s conduct is grounded in centuries of American experience. The US has an enduring tendency toward retribution and destruction.

China’s science surge is not a problem — America’s retreat is

China’s rapid rise in science has hit a milestone. The country’s investment in research and development has reached parity with – and by purchasing power measures has surpassed – that of the United States, according to a March 2026 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Both nations have crossed the US$1 trillion threshold on research spending.

For 80 years, the US operated the most productive scientific and technological enterprise in human history. Breakthroughs and advances that came from American labs included the internet; the mRNA vaccine; the transistor and its children, semiconductors and microprocessors; the Global Positioning System; and many more.

China seeks to block US tech giant Meta from AI acquisition

China has said it is blocking tech giant Meta from an acquisition of artificial intelligence (AI) startup Manus, tightening scrutiny of investment in domestic startups developing frontier technologies from the United States.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Monday that it was prohibiting the foreign acquisition of Manus, without specifically naming Meta. The move highlights Beijing’s increased concern over US acquisitions of Chinese AI talent and intellectual property, as Washington tries to limit Chinese tech firms’ access to advanced US chips.

It was not immediately clear on what grounds China was seeking the annulment of a deal involving a Singapore-based company and how, if at all, a completed acquisition transaction would be unwound. Manus, which has Chinese roots but is based in Singapore, provides general-purpose AI agents designed to carry out complex tasks with minimal human intervention.

Watching Iran, China Hopes to Learn New Tricks for the Taiwan Strait

Even as China wants the latest Middle Eastern conflict to wind down so it doesn’t damage China’s export-oriented economy, militarily, the conflict has been an intelligence gold mine for China. Beijing has shownit is tracking U.S. efforts in the Strait of Hormuz closely, fine-tuning its estimates of U.S. capabilities. China is also studying how Iran has largely succeeded in keeping the U.S. Navy outside the Persian Gulf and disrupting commercial shipping there.

Iran’s use of geography and low-cost units to impose economic pressure on the United States and its allies is a plan China may seek to implement itself in the Taiwan Strait during any future confrontation with the U.S. over Taiwan.

The Pentagon May Not Be Telling Trump the Full Picture About the War

In closed-door meetings, J. D. Vance has repeatedly questioned the Defense Department’s depiction of the war in Iran and whether the Pentagon has understated what appears to be the drastic depletion of U.S. missile stockpiles.

Two senior administration officials told us that the vice president has queried the accuracy of the information the Pentagon has provided about the war. He has also expressed his concerns about the availability of certain missile systems in discussions with President Trump, several people familiar with the situation told us. The consequences of a dramatic drawdown in munitions reserves are potentially dire: U.S. forces would need to draw from these same stockpiles to defend Taiwan against China, South Korea against North Korea, and Europe against Russia.

Iran’s Supreme Leader No Longer Reigns Supreme

On Apr. 17, when Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened to commercial shipping, the backlash within Iran was immediate. Hardline commentators in Iran, semi-official news outlets, and voices on state television questioned the timing and the language of his statement.

On Saturday, Iranian armed forces declared that the Strait was closed again because the United States continued its naval blockade of Iran.On Apr. 17, when Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened to commercial shipping, the backlash within Iran was immediate. Hardline commentators in Iran, semi-official news outlets, and voices on state television questioned the timing and the language of his statement. On Saturday, Iranian armed forces declared that the Strait was closed again because the United States continued its naval blockade of Iran.

Read more