Kinaforum

tirsdag 23. juni 2026

Apart from China, Asia isn’t afraid of a remilitarizing Japan

China is harping non-stop about resurging Japanese “militarism” – but almost nobody in the Asia-Pacific region is listening – or believes it. The more China blusters and warns of a dangerous Japan, the more ridiculous it looks and the better Japan appears by comparison.

Make no mistake, Japan caused plenty of misery in the region during the 1930s and 1940s. But World War II ended 81 years ago and today’s democratic, consensually governed Japan is another country. That’s been obvious for a long time. Even in 1990, when US Marine General Hank Stackpole described US forces in Japan as the “cap in the bottle” that kept Japanese militarism in check, the idea seemed outdated.

Japan is well-liked in most of Asia, and has been for decades. Japanese investment and economic assistance are welcomed across Asia, and Japan’s role in regional security is now widely taken for granted.

China’s humanoid robots moving in as Asia’s workforce ages out

While the world focuses on the “tech cold war” and “de-risking” between the US and China, a quiet “tech truce” is unfolding at the baggage loading areas of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

As Japan faces a critical labor shortage and an aging workforce, it is turning to Chinese-made humanoid robots to handle baggage — a pragmatic move where biological limits override geopolitical friction on the airport floor. When an advanced humanoid can cost a mere US$4,900, “de-risking” becomes a geopolitical luxury that aging societies can no longer afford.

China sanctions US defense, rare earth firms in retaliation

China hit back at Washington on Monday with a sweeping two-pronged retaliation, barring government departments from buying products from 46 US defense contractors and blacklisting 10 American companies from receiving Chinese dual-use exports.

The Ministry of Finance announced that procurement entities are prohibited from purchasing products manufactured by the 46 US firms, a list headed by Lockheed Martin Corporation and Raytheon Missiles & Defense. The restrictions, which exempt US-funded enterprises operating within Chin, took effect immediately.

The future of oil prices may depend on China

As the US and Iran hammer out how to permanently reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart the flow of Middle Eastern oil, the market’s next move may depend on one country absent from the negotiations: China.

The world’s second-largest consumer of crude oil, China, has pulled out all the stops to preserve supplies as the war in Iran has cut off access to more than 11 million barrels of oil per day. By cutting down on imports, relying on vast stockpiles and utilizing more clean energy, China has been able to cushion the impact of higher prices at home, if not alleviate it completely.

Those actions have been felt in the global market as well.

After more than three months of war, some analysts predicted oil prices could surge as high as $200 a barrel this year. However, even as total estimated supply losses have surpassed 1 billion barrels of oil, crude prices have remained relatively muted. Many analysts point to China as a primary reason.

China reports completion of first large-scale hydropower station on main stream of Yarlung Tsangpo

China has formally completed on Jun 14 the first large-scale hydropower station on the main stream of the Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet, following the conclusion of its final acceptance check. An acceptance check is the final testing phase used to confirm that a product or system meets the original business requirements and is ready for release. China is also building the world largest hydropower dam on the same river system before it enters India and then Bangladesh, raising serious ecological, geological, and geostrategic concerns both within and outside occupied Tibet.

The acceptance opinions state that the key project of the Zangmu hydropower station has been fully completed in accordance with the approved design scale and plans. Since the reservoir began water impoundment, it has withstood 11 flood seasons, reported China’s official globaltimes.cn Jun 14, citing Chengdu Engineering Corporation Limited under Power China which was responsible for the planning, demonstration and full-stage survey and design.

Another Xi Jinping thought is made China’s official party doctrine

China’s ruling Communist Party has coined a new phrase to make Xi Jinping the country’s ideological Czar on Party Building, stressing governing the party with discipline and unified leadership, under him of course. In this connection, the Central Leading Group for Party Building of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has issued a notice on studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Party Building, reported China’ s sate news agency Xinhua Jun 18. The aim is, of course, to strengthen the party’s grip on power in a changing world.

China already has Xi Jinping thoughts in other areas such as the economy, military, diplomacy (Xiplomacy), and culture under the overarching rubric of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

‘This Land is My Land’ – Remembering Lhasang Tsering

It was late in the night of June 14, 1988, in Geneva. Lhasang Tsering and I had checked into a cheap hotel room. All the while, I was wondering how I should justify giving Lhasang Tsering, the president of TYC, a copy of the Strasbourg Declaration, which the Dalai Lama was due to announce the following day in Strasbourg.

When I look back on that night and consider the extent to which Lhasang Tsering would shape the debate over Tibet’s future in the years that followed—a debate that shook the Tibetan exile community—I am struck by how quietly it all began.

In the preceding weeks, my task as a volunteer at the Tibet Office had been to enter corrections for the final printed version of the Strasbourg Declaration. And there were quite a few corrections. Kelsang Gyaltsen, then the Dalai Lama’s representative in Switzerland, had been charged with preparing the print of the declaration together with a small offset printing shop near the office, at Waffenplatz in Zurich. Before leaving for Geneva, I took a copy for myself. I can still vividly remember the elegant printing in pastel yellow. Kelsang Gyaltsen had chosen glossy paper.

Independent Tibet campaigner who said ‘No’ to His Holiness is no more

India raises its guard as China accelerates building of world’s largest, potentially most dangerous hydropower dam in Tibet

India is monitoring with high alarm the site in Tibet where satellite imagery and intelligence inputs reveal a sharp acceleration in China’s construction of the world’s largest hydroelectric dam in a seismically active area on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, just 50 kilometres from its Arunachal Pradesh state border, said Indian media reports Jun 18-20. New Delhi is also taking measures to counter what China may throw at it through this dam in potential future conflict situations.

Reportedly the world most expensive infrastructure project ever, the massive 1.2 trillion-yuan (($167-170 billion) Medog Hydropower Station features a five-stage cascade system. It sits at the world’s highest river’s dramatic U-turn before it enters India’s Arunachal Pradesh state as the Siang River and flows into Assam as the Brahmaputra before continuing it course into Bangladesh.

From Ama Drime to Artificial Intelligence: Tibet’s High-Purity Quartz Discovery and the New Global Resource Frontier

For centuries, Tibet has been known as the “Roof of the World,” a land of high mountains, sacred landscapes, vast grasslands, and the source of many of Asia’s great rivers. To geologists, however, Tibet is one of Earth’s most extraordinary natural laboratories, where the ongoing collision between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates continues to reshape continents and generate new geological resources. I have been analyzing Chinese exploration of Tibetan natural resources for years.

Over time, extraction activities have become increasingly aggressive, resulting in the depletion of Tibetan generational wealth. (Patterson, 2024). I am left questioning how to communicate the urgency of this situation to the world and the Tibetan community: how can we prevent the complete exploitation of Tibet and the resulting environmental catastrophe?

China adds 10 US firms, including rare-earth miner, to export control list

China has added 10 United States-based companies to its export control list and barred government procurement from nearly 50 US companies two weeks after the Pentagon blacklisted some of China’s best-known companies for their alleged ties to the Chinese military.

China’s Ministry of Commerce announced the export order on Monday, barring Chinese companies from exporting “dual-use” items that can be used for civilian or military purposes to the US firms.The list of companies includes rare-earth mine operator MP Materials Corp, rare-earth magnet maker USA Rare Earths, and US defence contractors specialising in fields such as aerospace, drones, synthetic-aperture radar, and shipbuilding and repairs.

Under the order, “foreign institutions and individuals worldwide are also prohibited from transferring or providing Chinese dual-use goods to them” while ongoing export transactions must be suspended immediately.

Five Eyes intelligence alliance warns of threats from new AI models

Cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology is poised to supercharge offensive hacking capabilities, and urgent action is needed to face up to the threat, US, UK, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand officials have said.

“Frontier AI models are anticipated to exceed current industry expectations, fundamentally transforming both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities,” the intelligence alliance commonly known as the Five Eyes said in a three-page statement on Monday.“The timeline is not years, it is months.”

The statement was light on detail and mostly restated core cybersecurity advice, such as swiftly patching faulty software and not putting systems online unless necessary. The officials also urged defenders to use AI “to strengthen defence”, for example by identifying weaknesses sooner or responding more quickly to incidents.

UK court convicts two men for spying for Hong Kong, China

Two ‌men, including one who worked as a British immigration officer, ⁠were jailed after being convicted of spying on prominent pro-democracy dissidents now based in the United Kingdom on behalf of Hong Kong, and ⁠ultimately China.

Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen, 66, and Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 41, who worked for the UK Border Force, were imprisoned on Thursday after being convicted last ⁠month of assisting a foreign intelligence service by carrying out surveillance on targets between December 2023 and May 2024.

Torbjørn Færøvik: Why Millions of Young Indians Call Themselves Cockroaches

They are crawling out everywhere. Millions of young Indians have begun calling themselves cockroaches. Since late May, they have been demonstrating in city after city, refusing to back down.

“Long live the Cockroach Party! Take us seriously! Give us education and jobs!”The new “party” came into being in May after India’s Chief Justice referred to student activists and unemployed young people as “cockroaches” and “parasites.” The next day, Abhijeet Dipke, an Indian living in the United States, turned the insult on its head and launched the viral parody known as the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).

Since then, CJP has gathered remarkable momentum. With more than 22 million followers on Instagram, it presents itself as “the party of the lazy and unemployed.” Not even Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s powerful ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), commands such a large digital following.

Why Xi is walling in China’s money – and why it won’t work

China’s latest fix for its ailing economy: build a better birdcage.

The metaphor runs deep in Chinese culture, where enclosures for pet birds have long captured the tension between freedom and control — the belief that markets, like captive creatures, need defined limits or they descend into chaos. But Xi Jinping’s attempt to cage Chinese citizens’ money movements abroad probably won’t fly as intended.In recent weeks, Beijing has moved to seal off the channels through which its 1.4 billion citizens send capital overseas.

On May 22, the China Securities Regulatory Commission cracked down on unlicensed brokers funneling investor money into foreign markets. Regulators are now pressing Hong Kong and Singapore brokerages to wind down their cross-border securities, futures, and fund businesses.

Why dropping ‘Indo-Pacific’ clarifies the Pentagon’s China strategy

On June 16, the US Department of Defense announced that the US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) will officially revert to its previous name, the US Pacific Command (PACOM).

The move reverses a decision made during President Donald Trump’s first term to include “Indo” in the name of its largest combatant command. This publication reported in June 2018 that the original change “highlights the increasing significance of India in Washington’s strategic thinking and also marks India’s re-entry into the American government’s ‘Asia Nexus.’”

As much as New Delhi may protest, this change signals the opposite: the decreasing significance of India in Washington’s strategic thinking – and its exit from the American government’s “Asia Nexus.”

Taiwan needs US weapons for self-defense as threat from China grows, diplomat tells AP

Taiwan needs to purchase American weapons to ensure its self-defense in the face of a growing threat from Beijing, the island’s top diplomat in the U.S. said, adding that he has seen no change in Washington’s policy toward the self-governing island that China claims as its own.

A $14-billion arms sale package to Taiwan is still in limbo after President Donald Trump returned from Beijing in May and said he had discussed the proposal “in great detail” with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, heightening anxieties in Taiwan and raising concerns among lawmakers on the Capitol Hill.

“We need those arms for defensive purposes,” Alexander Yui Tah-ray, who heads the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S., told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday in Washington. “We’re trying to increase our defense expenditure. We try to increase our ability to defend ourselves better and survive times of crisis.”

Fury in India as its sailors become collateral damage in Trump’s war with Iran

The deaths of three Indian seafarers in a US strike on a commercial oil tanker has prompted public fury in India, and added new friction to an already strained phase between New Delhi and Washington.

On Wednesday morning, the M/T Settebello was transiting the Sea of Oman, laden with Iranian oil, when a US aircraft fired precision munitions into its engine room –– causing a fire, sending smoke billowing into the air, and sparking a large rescue operation.

The three men found dead following the attack on the Palau-flagged vessel are the first seafarers confirmed to have been killed in a US strike as part of Washington’s operation to blockade Iranian ports, raising concerns in India that its nationals are becoming collateral damage in a war that isn’t their own.

Taiwan hopes US arms sale package can be approved soon, president says

Taiwan’s president has said he hopes the United States approves a $14bn arms sale “as soon as possible”, reiterating that the island “rejects unification” with China.

Taiwan relies heavily on US support to deter any potential Chinese attack, and Washington has put pressure on Taipei to increase its defence spending. But arms sales also complicate ties between Washington and Beijing. Democratically governed Taiwan is viewed by China as its own territory, and Beijing has ⁠stepped up military and diplomatic pressure on the island.

In May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the $14bn deal was “under review”. Speaking to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Taipei on Thursday, Taiwan’s President William Lai Ching-te reiterated his desire for talks based on “parity and respect” with China, but said only the Taiwanese people can decide their future.