Ardi Bouwers

This might be the most China story I've seen all year.

Villagers paint a patriotic Tiananmen mural.

State media praises it.

Tourists arrive.

Officials panic.

….So they paint it over in blue.

The ‘Putinization’ of US foreign policy has arrived in Venezuela Trump is no longer bending the rules – he is demolishing them, with consequences far beyond Caracas

@theguardian.com’s headline nabs the essence of this moment: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Exclusive: How China built its ‘Manhattan Project’ to rival the West in AI chips In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence, smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned.

Reuters reports China secretly built an EUV chip machine in Shenzhen in early 2025.

Former ASML engineers helped reverse engineer it.

President Xi Jinping backs the effort, with Huawei coordinating, aiming to make advanced chips by 2028 to 2030.

Sexual Harassment of Chinese Critics Abroad China’s government has long sought to silence dissent abroad, but recently there’s been a disturbing escalation: harassment through sexually explicit letters targeting activists outside the country.

China’s government has long sought to silence dissent abroad, but recently there’s been a disturbing escalation: harassment through sexually explicit letters targeting activists outside the country www.hrw.org/news/2025/12...

HCSS General Internship is open for applications! HCSS is looking for new interns to start in February 2026! Are you a student interested in geopolitics and international security? The HCSS internship is a dynamic and varied opportunity in research,…

📢 Calling all students interested geopolitics:

HCSS is looking for motivated interns to support our research on defence, security, energy, climate & resilience.

The February internship round is open — don’t miss your chance!

🔗 Apply today.
buff.ly/5x1GLzQ

Have been seeing this video going around of a Chinese animation depicting Taiwan as a literal baby that needs to be saved from sinister Japan

Hoorde net in @bureaubuitenland.bsky.social sinoloog @ardibouwers.bsky.social een treffende beschrijving van de sfeer in huidig Hong Kong geven:
'Rule of fear'

Expanding China’s Geopolitical Influence through Peripheral Communication - Mapping China's Strategic Space The discourse of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and trio of global initiatives implies that the country’s geopolitical interests are firmly global. Nonetheless, in recent years Chinese scholars and ...

Since 2015, a new concept has emerged in the PRC propaganda sphere: "peripheral communication" (周边传播).
For @nbr.org, @angrant.bsky.social examines how this new propaganda theory purports to help China better penetrate the information space of its neighbors.
strategicspace.nbr.org/expanding-ch...

Exclusive | China tells EU it cannot afford Russian loss in Ukraine war, sources say Wang Yi tells top EU diplomat Beijing fears US shift of whole focus to China.

„🇨🇳 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the 🇪🇺 European Union’s top diplomat on Wednesday that Beijing cannot afford a 🇷🇺 Russian loss in 🇺🇦 Ukraine because it fears the United States would then shift its whole focus to Beijing, according to several people familiar with the exchange.“

Statement by President von der Leyen at Session II - working lunch of the G7, \'Economic growth, security and resilience\' Today, I brought with me a permanent magnet.\nNot just any magnet—this is a rare earth permanent magnet.\nIt was manufactured in Estonia, by a Canadian company using raw materials sourced from Austral...

Wow - looks like the real VDL is back

Mega-hawkish speech on China at G7 - accuses it of intentionally making the world reliant on rare earths

"We are seeing a new China shock - as China's economy slows down, Beijing floods global markets with subsidised overcapacity its own market cannot absorb"

1/ 🚨 JUST IN: #HongKong has tumbled five places in the 2025 @rsf.org Press Freedom Index, entering the "red zone" - meaning a "very serious" situation - for the first time.

Full map and index: buff.ly/6SUYQDR

Threatened by transnational repression, Hong Kong exile media outlets aim to preserve press freedom The Hong Kong journalist diaspora strikes to report on politically sensitive news and connect the scattered diaspora communities.

The Hong Kong journalist diaspora strikes to report on politically sensitive news and connect the scattered diaspora communities.

100+ Global Journalism Leaders Urge China to Free Journalist Dong Yuyu WASHINGTON, April 23 — Today, more than 100 prominent figures from the global journalism and media community released an open letter in support of Chinese journalist Dong Yuyu, calling for his immedia...

We'd appreciate media coverage of this petition, which is in support of the unjustly imprisoned journalist Dong Yuyu, whose appeal will be decided shortly. The CCP is figuring that the world is distracted by tariffs please help us prove them wrong.
www.press.org/newsroom/100...

A rare public protest in Chengdu

"Without political reform there can be no national rejuvenation"
"The people do not want a party with unbound power"
"China does not need someone to dictate her path, because democracy is the way"

MP refused entry to Hong Kong on visit to see newborn grandson Wera Hobhouse, a Liberal Democrat, is believed to be the first parliamentarian turned away since China took control in 1997

I am the first MP to be refused entry on arrival to Hong Kong since 1997.

Authorities gave me no explanation for this cruel and upsetting blow.

I hope the Foreign Secretary will recognise that this is an insult to all parliamentarians and seek answers from the Chinese Ambassador.

‘Do you want to show strength here?’: Russia’s ads recruiting Chinese mercenaries More than 150 Chinese nationals are fighting for Russia in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, recruited via videos on social media

“The videos are across Chinese social media and (…) have one thing in common: selling the benefits of becoming a Chinese mercenary for Russia.”
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Loud and Mighty: Navigating the Future of Chinese Diasporic Media | Made in China Journal The Chinese diasporic media operates within a fragmented and turbulent environment. It is exceedingly difficult to deliver uncensored, meaningful content that can connect communities and reflect the c...

Made in China Journal – Loud and Mighty: Navigating the Future of Chinese Diasporic Media
madeinchinajournal.com/2025/04/08/l...

Interview with Gen Z Chinese Censor: June 4 is Internet "Folk Festival" In a remarkable interview, a censor for one of China’s biggest search engines described what gets deleted from the Chinese internet and how—as well as their perspective on the morality of their work. ...

In a remarkable interview by independent magazine Mang Mang, a Chinese censor describes what gets deleted from the Chinese internet and how—as well as their perspective on the morality of their work. chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/10/inte...

Her parents were injured in a Tesla crash. She ended up having to pay Tesla damages Tesla has sued its own customers and journalists in China for defamation – and won just about every time.

1/In the US, Elon Musk says he champions free speech. In China, his car company, Tesla, is silencing criticism - with the backing of the state.

Tesla China sued car owners, outlets and bloggers pointing out safety issues - and has won almost every case.
apnews.com/article/tesl...

All five of them! The five HK women that China put a bounty on, hunting them around the globe. Event on March 4, 2025

China Is Rewiring the Global South With Clean Power Faced with energy poverty, costly fossil fuels, and cheap solar, developing economies are voting with their feet.

The scale of what's happening with Chinese solar abroad is undercovered. Great piece by @davidfickling.bsky.social

Take Pakistan: it imported 16.6 GW (!) of Chinese panels in 2024. At 15% capacity factor, that's 21 TWh for the year on a grid that totaled 150 TWh!

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

News Media and the Feminist Movement in China: A Brief History This essay presents a historical analysis of the evolving relationship between Chinese news media and the feminist movement over the past three decades. It investigates how Chinese feminists have stra...

How do newsrooms in China report on and interact with feminist activism? What are the effects of commercialization, social media, and state pressure on journalism over the past few decades? Read this wonderful piece by Li Jun (Li Sipan) @madeinchinajournal.com:
madeinchinajournal.com/2025/02/19/n...

Portuguese editorial cartoonist Zez Vaz reaches back to Tiananmen Square to call on American defiance.

Exclusive—Chinese patents reveal aim to cut undersea cables Patent applications showed that Chinese scientists had been devising ways for severing undersea cables

Have your undersea #cables been cut recently? A Newsweek review of Chinese-language patent applications shows that engineers in #China invented devices to sever such cables quickly and cheaply:

How China is Erasing Tibetan Culture, One Child at a Time Across China’s west, the Communist Party is placing children in boarding schools to assimilate a generation of Tibetans into the national mainstream and mold them into loyal citizens.

China's "placing children in boarding schools in a drive to assimilate a generation of Tibetans into the national mainstream and mold them into citizens loyal to the Communist Party... Parents do not see their children for long stretches." By Chris Buckley for NYTimes:

Zag m onlangs in het vliegtuig naar Beijing. Fantastische film!

THREAD: How China is influencing local elections in New York City, mobilizing organizations via a local power broker known as "The King of Brooklyn" (布鲁克林之王）to ensure that candidates who voice sympathy for Taiwan, or for Hong Kong democracy, are either defeated or never get elected. (1/x)