Yet the meeting also revealed why Europe’s China debate is about more than trade. The new EU-China consultation mechanism was not limited to market access or the bilateral trade deficit. According to the European Commission, both sides also discussed export controls, intellectual property rights, and WTO reform. The disagreement, then, is not only technical trade issues, but about who gets to define the rules under which interdependence operates.
tirsdag 21. juli 2026
Why Europe’s China Anxiety Is About More Than China
When EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič met Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Brussels on June 29, the encounter could easily be read as another episode in Europe’s growing anxiety over Chinese economic pressure. In 2025, China’s goods trade surplus with the EU reached roughly 360 billion euros, and by early 2026 the imbalance was still widening. Šefčovič himself warned after the Brussels talks that rising Chinese exports to Europe, combined with shrinking European market share in China, were “not sustainable.”
Yet the meeting also revealed why Europe’s China debate is about more than trade. The new EU-China consultation mechanism was not limited to market access or the bilateral trade deficit. According to the European Commission, both sides also discussed export controls, intellectual property rights, and WTO reform. The disagreement, then, is not only technical trade issues, but about who gets to define the rules under which interdependence operates.
Yet the meeting also revealed why Europe’s China debate is about more than trade. The new EU-China consultation mechanism was not limited to market access or the bilateral trade deficit. According to the European Commission, both sides also discussed export controls, intellectual property rights, and WTO reform. The disagreement, then, is not only technical trade issues, but about who gets to define the rules under which interdependence operates.
‘Escaping Beijing’: Why some young Chinese are quitting the capital
For centuries, Beijing has represented the pinnacle of ambition in China. From imperial capital to the political heart of modern China, the city has long attracted those hoping to build a better life.
In medieval times, scholars travelled here to sit the imperial examinations. In more recent decades, graduates, entrepreneurs and migrant workers have flocked to the capital in search of opportunity as China’s economy boomed. Wang Lei, 29, was one of them. Born in neighbouring Hebei province, he vividly remembers his first visit to the capital as a child. “When we arrived at Beijing Railway Station, my friend and I spotted a towering skyscraper for the first time,” Wang recalled. “I told him when I grew up, I would stand on top of it.”
He moved to the city in 2020 and found work in the real estate industry, then still one of China’s most lucrative sectors. Like millions before him, Wang arrived with the hope his hard work would be rewarded.
In medieval times, scholars travelled here to sit the imperial examinations. In more recent decades, graduates, entrepreneurs and migrant workers have flocked to the capital in search of opportunity as China’s economy boomed. Wang Lei, 29, was one of them. Born in neighbouring Hebei province, he vividly remembers his first visit to the capital as a child. “When we arrived at Beijing Railway Station, my friend and I spotted a towering skyscraper for the first time,” Wang recalled. “I told him when I grew up, I would stand on top of it.”
He moved to the city in 2020 and found work in the real estate industry, then still one of China’s most lucrative sectors. Like millions before him, Wang arrived with the hope his hard work would be rewarded.
China’s Xi Jinping launches new AI alliance: What is it?
It was an artificial intelligence summit with very real-world geopolitical messaging. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday urged countries to cooperate on artificial intelligence and ensure no country dominates the technology – in an apparent jab at the United States. Xi spoke at a major tech conference in Shanghai on Friday, where China showcased cutting-edge technology that rivals the prowess of the US.
Both countries are locked in a battle for tech and AI dominance and view each other’s advancements in these areas as deliberate attempts to stymie the other. As Chinese AI models gain ground globally, Beijing appears to be casting itself as a leader of the new global AI order, challenging the US’s influence in the development and regulation of the fast-evolving technology.
Both countries are locked in a battle for tech and AI dominance and view each other’s advancements in these areas as deliberate attempts to stymie the other. As Chinese AI models gain ground globally, Beijing appears to be casting itself as a leader of the new global AI order, challenging the US’s influence in the development and regulation of the fast-evolving technology.
Opinion: Trump Is Good for China. But Is He Good for America?
After a rocky period at the outset of President Trump’s second term, the U.S.-China relationship has found its groove. So said several Chinese government officials and academics with whom I formally met during a recent trip to Beijing.
A China-focused researcher, I lived in Beijing before the pandemic, and I returned after over six years as part of a delegation of China hands. While the city had not changed all that much, save for several new subway lines, I was struck by the whiff of triumphalism that permeated the Chinese policy community. Whereas the Biden administration’s approach to China was marked by “zero-sum ideological and technological competition,” Trump’s more transactional nature, some academics and think tankers argued, had produced a reset in relations that would benefit both sides.
A China-focused researcher, I lived in Beijing before the pandemic, and I returned after over six years as part of a delegation of China hands. While the city had not changed all that much, save for several new subway lines, I was struck by the whiff of triumphalism that permeated the Chinese policy community. Whereas the Biden administration’s approach to China was marked by “zero-sum ideological and technological competition,” Trump’s more transactional nature, some academics and think tankers argued, had produced a reset in relations that would benefit both sides.
Inside the ‘Cockroach’ Protests Challenging India’s Modi
"If standing against a broken system makes me a cockroach, then I accept being called a cockroach," Beauty Giri, 25, told Newsweek among thousands of protesters at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar, a historic protest ground.
The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) was only launched online in May as a satirical movement reflecting anger among youth over unemployment and political neglect, but its protests now draw thousands of people and have broadened. Police used teargas and batons on New Delhi's streets to stop their unauthorized march to parliament on Monday.
The group has become an outlet for frustration over education reform, unemployment, alleged corruption and institutional accountability in a growing challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party after 12 years of his power.
The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) was only launched online in May as a satirical movement reflecting anger among youth over unemployment and political neglect, but its protests now draw thousands of people and have broadened. Police used teargas and batons on New Delhi's streets to stop their unauthorized march to parliament on Monday.
The group has become an outlet for frustration over education reform, unemployment, alleged corruption and institutional accountability in a growing challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party after 12 years of his power.
mandag 20. juli 2026
Chinese geologists warn of active fault line dangers from world’s largest hydropower project in Tibet
It is not just Tibetans and India but also China’s own scientists that are seriously concerned about the world’s largest hydropower dam that is being built, reportedly at a speeded up pace in recent times, towards the end of the run of the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet’s Metog County, just 50km before it enters India. Chinese geologists have determined that an active fault line directly beneath the project poses a threat to the mega-dam, reported scmp.com Jul 9, citing a paper published last month in the Chinese-language journal Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology.
The scientists have not called for the project to be scrapped, although this would be the best sensible recommendation, as this was obviously beyond their term of reference. They have, instead, called for strengthened safeguard measures to hopefully minimise the risks.
The scientists have not called for the project to be scrapped, although this would be the best sensible recommendation, as this was obviously beyond their term of reference. They have, instead, called for strengthened safeguard measures to hopefully minimise the risks.
Can AI Preserve a Homeland in Exile? Tibetan Memory in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
In the Sonamling Tibetan Settlement outside Leh in Ladakh, I found that the most venerable memories were not to be had in any museum or archive. They were to be found in conversation. My fieldwork there put me in the company of elderly Tibetan refugees who would talk of the monasteries from their youth, the villages they put behind them and the Himalayan crossings that altered the course of their lives. Younger members of the family would be seated about them, keenly listening. Now and then, one might subtly raise a mobile phone to put the exchange on record. An unremarkable thing to do, perhaps, but with no small import. In a sense, these were more than family tales, they were pieces of a homeland being put aside for the keeping of those who have never set eyes on it.
For Tibetans in exile, memory is never just an act of recollection, it is how culture endures. Before such things ever made it into an institution’s files, they made their way through the home and the prayer hall, in song and in the ordinary course of talk, conveying language and faith and an abiding connection to Tibet over the years.
For Tibetans in exile, memory is never just an act of recollection, it is how culture endures. Before such things ever made it into an institution’s files, they made their way through the home and the prayer hall, in song and in the ordinary course of talk, conveying language and faith and an abiding connection to Tibet over the years.
“China launches new demolitions at Larung Gar Buddhist centre as its ‘ethnic unity’ law came into force”
Apparently in order to implement its post-Ethnic Unity Law order, which officially came into force on Jul 1, China is reported to have launched a new round of demolitions at what was until not long ago one of the world’s largest centre for Buddhist learning, located in eastern Tibet’s Kardze Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The centre already stands greatly diminished due to several rounds of expulsions of large numbers of its monk, nun, and lay-students, and the demolition of their residences, carried out since 2001.
A new round of demolitions that will impact at least 1,060 residences of monks and nuns has begun at Serthar Larung Five Sciences Buddhist Academy, popularly known as Larung Gar, in eastern Tibet in Serthar (Chinese: Seda) County, said Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) Jul 17, citing a source with knowledge of the matter.
A new round of demolitions that will impact at least 1,060 residences of monks and nuns has begun at Serthar Larung Five Sciences Buddhist Academy, popularly known as Larung Gar, in eastern Tibet in Serthar (Chinese: Seda) County, said Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) Jul 17, citing a source with knowledge of the matter.
Iran war, Myanmar crisis and South China Sea rifts under the spotlight in ASEAN ministerial talks
Southeast Asia’s top diplomats will express alarm over renewed hostilities in the Middle East when they gather in the Philippine capital Tuesday for talks to be joined by Western and Asian counterparts, including from the United States, China, Russia and the European Union.
Some of the world’s most intractable conflicts, including the latest fighting in Iran, will be high in the agenda of the annual talks held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Philippines holds the 11-nation regional bloc’s chairmanship this year and is hosting the three-day talks in Manila.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are among the attendees. Ukraine’s top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, has been invited to attend a Friday ceremony commemorating a 1976 nonaggression treaty of ASEAN but is not a participant in the ASEAN meetings Lavrov and Rubio will attend.
Some of the world’s most intractable conflicts, including the latest fighting in Iran, will be high in the agenda of the annual talks held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Philippines holds the 11-nation regional bloc’s chairmanship this year and is hosting the three-day talks in Manila.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are among the attendees. Ukraine’s top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, has been invited to attend a Friday ceremony commemorating a 1976 nonaggression treaty of ASEAN but is not a participant in the ASEAN meetings Lavrov and Rubio will attend.
Chinese company demands compensation from the UK over British Steel nationalization
The Chinese company that formerly owned British Steel demanded Sunday compensation from the U.K. government for investment losses following the nationalization of the manufacturer last week. The British government took operational control of the company last year after Jingye Group said that it was considering closing the blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant in northern England, the last in the United Kingdom to make “virgin steel” from raw materials.
Jingye Group said in a WeChat statement that the nationalization move tarnished the credibility of the British government, spooked international investors and caused great losses to the company’s operation and British taxpayers’ funds. It also demanded that the U.K. government stop “trampling on international investment rules.”
Jingye Group said in a WeChat statement that the nationalization move tarnished the credibility of the British government, spooked international investors and caused great losses to the company’s operation and British taxpayers’ funds. It also demanded that the U.K. government stop “trampling on international investment rules.”
India’s Cockroach movement supporters gather to attempt a march to Parliament
Thousands of supporters of the youth-led Cockroach movementgathered Monday to march to India’s Parliament, demanding the resignation of the education minister despite police denying permission for the protest, as the government appeared to open its first talks with movement leaders.
Scores of police surrounded the barricaded protest site in the heart of New Delhi, raising the prospect of a confrontation if demonstrators pressed ahead with the march. Television footage showed police striking some protesters with batons after they tried to breach security barricades.
The crowd at Jantar Mantar, a designated site for protests just a few kilometers from Parliament, included students, professionals, and families with young children. Many carried backpacks with water and food, expecting a long day, while others waved Indian flags. Police urged protesters to disperse over loudspeakers, as the crowd chanted slogans against the education minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Scores of police surrounded the barricaded protest site in the heart of New Delhi, raising the prospect of a confrontation if demonstrators pressed ahead with the march. Television footage showed police striking some protesters with batons after they tried to breach security barricades.
The crowd at Jantar Mantar, a designated site for protests just a few kilometers from Parliament, included students, professionals, and families with young children. Many carried backpacks with water and food, expecting a long day, while others waved Indian flags. Police urged protesters to disperse over loudspeakers, as the crowd chanted slogans against the education minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Indonesia’s telling empty chair on the South China Sea
The most significant development at this week’s Conference Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the South China Sea Arbitration Award in Jakarta was not what was discussed. It was who failed to appear.
Every Indonesian government representative scheduled to participate reportedly withdrew before the conference began on July 13. According to the organizers, the event had secured commitments from senior government officials, including a director general from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and officers from the Indonesian National Armed Forces.Several had agreed to deliver keynote addresses or participate as panelists. Yet, shortly before the conference opened, organizers were informed that approval for their participation had been withdrawn. The conference ultimately proceeded without a single representative from the Indonesian government.
Every Indonesian government representative scheduled to participate reportedly withdrew before the conference began on July 13. According to the organizers, the event had secured commitments from senior government officials, including a director general from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and officers from the Indonesian National Armed Forces.Several had agreed to deliver keynote addresses or participate as panelists. Yet, shortly before the conference opened, organizers were informed that approval for their participation had been withdrawn. The conference ultimately proceeded without a single representative from the Indonesian government.
Did China steal 2020 US election data, as Trump claims?
United States President Donald Trump has renewed a campaign to cast doubts on the 2020 elections that saw him lose to Joe Biden – this time painting China as a major adversary that helped “manipulate” the vote.
Speaking in a primetime address on Thursday, Trump claimed that newly declassified intelligence material exposed foreign interference. The US president’s insistence on debunked stolen election theories led to one of the country’s most serious political crises when his supporters led a violent attack on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, in the final days of his first term.
Trump repeated in recent months that the 2020 election results were manipulated at the same time that he sought to push Congress to pass a restrictive voter identification law, which its proponents have called the SAVE America Act.
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søndag 19. juli 2026
Whither ASEAN? A decade of silence on the South China Sea
July 12 marked the 10th anniversary of the arbitral tribunal ruling in favor of the Philippines on its South China Sea submission — a ruling China ignored, and one that has become a footnote in the gradual degradation of the rules-based order.
Ten years on, we live in a very different world: one in which Russia has invaded and occupied parts of a major European nation, and one in which China has built a string of heavily militarized islets, bristling with weapons, across one of the world’s most consequential maritime corridors — a corridor that carries roughly one-third of all global shipping.
The rules-based order is increasingly fractured, and as the July 12 joint statement from 14 nations showed, its defense is piecemeal by “coalitions of the willing.” But the statement’s signatory list is the more telling story here: of the 14 governments that commemorated the ruling, only one—the Philippines—is actually an ASEAN member state—something that Chinese trolls trumpeted on social media.
Ten years on, we live in a very different world: one in which Russia has invaded and occupied parts of a major European nation, and one in which China has built a string of heavily militarized islets, bristling with weapons, across one of the world’s most consequential maritime corridors — a corridor that carries roughly one-third of all global shipping.
The rules-based order is increasingly fractured, and as the July 12 joint statement from 14 nations showed, its defense is piecemeal by “coalitions of the willing.” But the statement’s signatory list is the more telling story here: of the 14 governments that commemorated the ruling, only one—the Philippines—is actually an ASEAN member state—something that Chinese trolls trumpeted on social media.
China hits out at British Steel nationalisation
China has hit out at the nationalisation of British Steel, saying it "firmly opposes and is strongly dissatisfied with the British government's decision". On Thursday, the UK government said that taking the loss-making firm into public hands would protect jobs and safeguard a "vital national capability".
The UK took control of British Steel's operations in Scunthorpe last year, though it was still owned by China's Jingye Group, limiting the government's ability to steer its future. China's commerce ministry said on Friday that the moves "seriously infringed upon Jingye's legitimate rights and interests and severely undermined the confidence of Chinese companies investing in the UK".
The UK took control of British Steel's operations in Scunthorpe last year, though it was still owned by China's Jingye Group, limiting the government's ability to steer its future. China's commerce ministry said on Friday that the moves "seriously infringed upon Jingye's legitimate rights and interests and severely undermined the confidence of Chinese companies investing in the UK".
More than 500 Rohingya vanished at sea - what happened?
Two boats carrying an estimated 530 Rohingya asylum seekers left Myanmar's Rakhine state on 29 June, and have not been heard from since. The equivalent of a jumbo jet full of people has vanished. It is very likely that they both capsized. The monsoon has started, the seas are rough, and the boats - usually old fishing trawlers converted to carry as many people as possible - are barely sea-worthy with unreliable engines.
It is also very likely that there were few, or no survivors. Half of them may have been women and children.
But we will never know for certain. Rakhine has been in a state of war for many years, with the insurgent Arakan Army driving the Myanmar military out of most of it and besieging its last stronghold in the state capital Sittwe, which is now accessible only by air and sea. Almost all telecommunications have been cut by the military.
It is also very likely that there were few, or no survivors. Half of them may have been women and children.
But we will never know for certain. Rakhine has been in a state of war for many years, with the insurgent Arakan Army driving the Myanmar military out of most of it and besieging its last stronghold in the state capital Sittwe, which is now accessible only by air and sea. Almost all telecommunications have been cut by the military.
Japan relaxes royal succession rules - but ban on female emperors remains
The Japanese parliament has approved a bill to relax imperial succession rules, amid concerns over the dwindling size of the imperial family. The bill, passed by the upper house on Friday, allows the imperial family to adopt distant male relatives over the age of 15 and lets women keep their royal status after marrying outside the family.
But it does not change the law barring women from ascending the throne despite wide public support for a female emperor, meaning Princess Aiko, the only child of the current emperor, is still not eligible to succeed the throne. The bill cleared the lower house last week, and will move through the final legal procedures before the changes take effect.
But it does not change the law barring women from ascending the throne despite wide public support for a female emperor, meaning Princess Aiko, the only child of the current emperor, is still not eligible to succeed the throne. The bill cleared the lower house last week, and will move through the final legal procedures before the changes take effect.
Kim Jong Un was meant to be their only idol - then North Koreans discovered K-pop
On a sunny Saturday in June, Lee Yeon-su took the day off from work and hopped on a train from Seoul to Busan for yet another concert by pop supergroup BTS. It was her third time in as many months. She had been in the crowds that poured into central Seoul in March, when the septet launched their comeback - but the stage was too far away. In April, on the first day of their world tour, the rain poured down, drowning out the singers' voices. But this time in Busan, it was "incredible".
"Every time I come to a BTS concert, I realise how happy I am that I can like and support someone of my own free will," Yeon-su, which is not her real name, says. "That would have been unimaginable in North Korea."
That's where she was born, in the so-called Hermit Kingdom, just north of the heavily fortified border with South Korea. The outside world was out of reach, cut off by a regime built on fear, surveillance and loyalty.
"Every time I come to a BTS concert, I realise how happy I am that I can like and support someone of my own free will," Yeon-su, which is not her real name, says. "That would have been unimaginable in North Korea."
That's where she was born, in the so-called Hermit Kingdom, just north of the heavily fortified border with South Korea. The outside world was out of reach, cut off by a regime built on fear, surveillance and loyalty.
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