Author: Media Library

How the Japanese Spy Drama ‘Vivant’ Became The Target of China’s Anger

Media Library

China’s recent pressure campaign against Japan has involved critical minerals, tourism, seafood and even pandas. Now Beijing is taking the dispute to the cultural sphere, targeting a Japanese television drama. The Chinese government has in recent days focused its ire on “Vivant,” one of Japan’s most popular shows, a cross between “24” and “Homeland” that tells the story of Japanese spies working to protect their country from threats overseas. Beijing says the show, which features a fictional Chinese intelligence agency called “Xinxi” as the antagonist, promotes negative views of China.…

China expels a record number from Communist party amid Xi’s intensified purges of top officials

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China expelled a record number of officials from the Chinese Communist party (CCP) as it concluded a major political gathering, which saw an unprecedented number of empty seats indicating the scale of the purges under Xi Jinping. A record 33 members were expelled at this week’s fifth plenum, a gathering of top officials that takes place roughly once a year. Just 279 of the full and alternate members of the CCP’s Central Committee attended this week’s gathering, compared with the 376 originally named as members in 2022. That means that…

Crypto worth billions frozen after suspected Binance hack

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Cryptocurrency giant Binance said on Thursday that it has frozen digital assets worth around $3bn (£2.24bn) to prevent them from being stolen while it investigates a security issue. The company said as part of a series of alerts online that all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while its teams conduct security checks and that the firm will “cover all losses”. Two other major crypto platforms, Tether and Circle, said they have also frozen a total of about $2.4bn of assets in response to the potential Binance hack. Binance has…

Inside the PLA’s new austerity drive: lean, mean, printing-on-both-sides machine

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The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is distributing second-hand briefcases, salvaging screws and steel bars, and reusing holiday decorations to keep costs down as part of a thrift campaign emphasising growth through frugality. It forms part of a broader cost-cutting effort in the Chinese military under Beijing’s 15th five-year plan covering 2026 to 2030, which calls for building the armed forces through “diligence and thrift” and pursuing a path of “high efficiency, low cost and… South China Morning Post

China Confirms Expulsion of 33 Officials, as Xi’s Purge Deepens

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China’s ruling Communist Party announced on Thursday that it had formally expelled 33 senior political and military officials, including a prominent former diplomat and a military secretary of Xi Jinping, the country’s top leader. The announcement laid bare the depth of Mr. Xi’s anticorruption purges as he prepares to secure a fourth term in power next year. The party said the expulsions had been made earlier by the Politburo, a council of top officials. They were confirmed by the party’s Central Committee, which concluded a four-day meeting in Beijing on…

Chinese scholars warned of challenge of ‘translating academic research into policy’

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Chinese academic courses designed to deepen understanding of different countries or regions face a challenge in better informing policy and moving beyond frameworks developed in the West, a conference in Beijing has heard. Speakers said that as the country’s international engagement deepened, it needed a better understanding of the nations it engaged with, including their political systems, histories and strategic priorities. The discipline – known in China as “area studies” – draws on… South China Morning Post

U.S. to China after demolition report: ‘End interference in Tibetan religious life’

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The U.S. government Thursday urged China to stop interfering with Tibetan religious freedom after sources in eastern Tibet told Radio Free Asia that Chinese authorities began demolishing monks’ quarters at a monastery there. Authorities on Oct. 25 and 26 began demolishing about 200 monks’ residences at Dza Sershul Thekchen Dargyeling Monastery in Sershul County in the Kardze (Ganzi in Chinese) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, sources there told RFA, speaking on the condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Everything is over now,” the source said. “We are losing everything.” A U.S. State…

China made Mbappé apologise – but many don’t know exactly what he said

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China’s sophisticated censorship system, which cuts 1.4 billion people off from the global internet, meant many didn’t know exactly what had happened. The accusation of “hurting the feelings of the Chinese people” alone seemed enough to trigger a tsunami of anger, amplified by social media algorithms and a heavily controlled internet, where people are wary of disagreeing with the majority view. It wasn’t long before Mbappé, one of the biggest football stars in the world, said he was “sincerely sorry” for his “ill-judged” comment. His club, Real Madrid, and the…

Chinese scientists dissatisfied with jobs but optimistic about future, survey says

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Chinese scientists are less satisfied with their jobs than researchers in any other major country, according to a survey that also found they are more optimistic about their careers than their counterparts in the United States and Britain. Only 51 per cent of the 157 respondents from China said they were satisfied with their jobs, according to the survey published this month in the British scientific journal Nature, down 24 per cent from 2018. The survey drew 3,882 respondents from 133… South China Morning Post

President Trump Was Briefed on a Chinese Spy Plot. He Took No Action.

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new video loaded: President Trump Was Briefed on a Chinese Spy Plot. He Took No Action. <img src="https://www.chinastrategy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/president-trump-was-briefed-on-a-chinese-spy-plot-he-took-no-action.png" data-testid="betamax-poster" sizes="(width Our trade and international economics reporter, Ana Swanson, unravels how a tech executive in Singapore aided in steering banned Nvidia advanced A.I. chips to China and provided information to the Chinese government. When President Trump was briefed on this, and the knowledge that this executive was in close contact with the Nvidia chief executive, Jensen Huang, he did nothing about it. By Ana Swanson, Nour Idriss, Whitney Shefte, Pierre Kattar…