Author: Media Library

Could ‘Apron Dad’ on North Korean TV pave the way for Kim Jong Un’s daughter to rule?

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Read a version of this story in Korean In a scene from a North Korean TV show, a man wears a floral apron and serves a meal to his family. Analysts told Radio Free Asia that this striking reversal in gender roles could be a propaganda effort to get the people to accept North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter Ju Ae as his successor. But the analysts noted that North Korea is still a society with rigid gender roles and warned against interpreting the scene in a way that…

America’s Naval Power Is Waning. That Could Change.

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The United States might be losing another war — one that could define the country’s security into the next century. Military and commercial power are intertwined. Maritime power, in particular, has always played a crucial part in establishing and maintaining commercial power. America is learning this lesson the hard way. For hundreds of years, the countries that have ruled the waves have ruled the world, as the 19th-century American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan put it. In an age of drones, we can be forgiven for thinking this time has…

China’s succession crisis: a generation of entrepreneurs is retiring, but are their children ready to take over?

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Growing up, Ayu would watch his parents put together hand made leather shoes on the ground floor of their three storey home in the Chinese city of Wenzhou. Their relatives in Europe would send photographs of designer products from Italy for the workers to base their designs on, and in the decades that followed, the tiny family-run workshop transformed into a 700 person factory. “The factory and the home were the same place. I watched them make shoes by hand, piece by piece, using small machines,” Ayu recalls of watching…

China’s ‘Self-Reliance’ Drive Is Upending Trade With Europe

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To understand Europe’s growing alarm over its trade deficit with China, consider a striking statistic: China now sends six containers of goods to Europe for every one it gets back. That ratio has more than doubled in China’s favor over the last five years as Beijing’s drive for greater economic self-reliance has expanded the range of goods China produces at home instead of buying from abroad. Jens Eskelund, president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, cited those figures last month and provided a simple explanation for why. “China…

China’s High-Tech Ambitions Have a Blue-Collar Status Problem

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As China celebrated its dominance at the Asian Games that concluded days ago in Nagoya, Japan, its achievement at another global sporting festival in Shanghai has been largely overlooked. In the 2026 edition of WorldSkills, what the organizers call an Olympics for vocational skills, the Chinese team topped the medal table with 41 gold, 11 silver, and 4 bronze medals. In fact, the Chinese team has topped the medal table five straight times in the biennial competition, a phenomenon that has been attributed to the country’s unparalleled investments in providing…

Satellite images show attack jets at Chinese military facility in Laos

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Satellite images show attack jets stationed at a new Chinese military facility in Laos, which opened last week and gives Beijing’s air force its first foothold in mainland south-east Asia. Images provided by the commercial satellite provider Vantor show eight light attack aircraft positioned at Ban Keun airport alongside what appear to be more than a dozen military vehicles lined up in rows. The planes’ shape matches that of the Chinese-made Hongdu JL-8 jet, a two-seat trainer that can be deployed in combat to carry bombs. Laos is reported to…