“In September 2024, the university informed Chinese state security that it would not be publishing a final phase of research on forced labour in China. “Immediately, relations improved,” an administrator wrote.” www.theguardian.com/education/20...

This is great!

I wish it was only the billionaires.

I probably shouldn't be, but I'm always astonished by the people who can see the authoritarian turn in the US very clearly but somehow still manage to whitewash, ignore or play down authoritarianism in China despite having lived in the country. And I'm not talking about the classic tankies.

Congratulations, Elon Musk.

Huge if true, and seems to confirm that the semiconductor export control regime was indeed up as a bargaining chip in Trump's talks with Xi, which begs the question of what else might be up for negotiation

Thanks for publishing this. Reading the exchange, I couldn't help but think that the reason why Halligan feels so unconstrained to go for this ham-fisted intimidation/manipulation attempt is that this kind of stuff probably works on an unfortunately high number of people.

I like to joke that Xi Jinping is my most important and reliable ally when it comes to convincing the US and Europe to make better China policy. Maybe I need to add Putin to my list of "allies."

#China: Today, on the 10-year anniversary of the kidnapping of poet, bookseller and PEN member, Gui Minhai, 65 PEN Centres around the world renew our demand for his immediate and unconditional release. Read our joint statement ⬇️ www.pen-international.org/news/china-p... #FreeGuiMinhai

"escalating his challenge to the authority" @nytpitchbot.bsky.social is this you??

Is Trump irresponsible enough to fall for this? China’s leadership must think so www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

continue on the theme of different "toilet cultures", I grew up using toilets without flush water and without cubicles. this is a widely circulated image showing an illustrated 007 book likely from the 1980s. the illustration is about James Bond retrieving a secret letter in a public restroom...

My analysis of Tuesday's mtg: "...It underscored the admin’s intention to shift its focus... toward homeland issues, and provided the clearest indication yet that US partners and allies will have to contend with a military increasingly operating outside of int'l law." www.gmfus.org/news/rough-s...

Author copies for Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics by me & @cooleyoneurasia.bsky.social arrived today! If you re-post this by Sept 30 we'll put you in a drawing & send the winner a free signed copy anywhere they happen to be on the planet.

Glad to see people finally talking about this.

Chinese readout from the Trump-Xi call www.cac.gov.cn/2025-09/19/c...

""Fünf nach zwölf" heißt jetzt: Ich weiß nicht, ob wir noch die Freiheit, die Vielfalt der Lebensformen, die Toleranz verteidigen können; aber mehr als verlieren können wir nicht."

I've had my fair share of disagreements with Mr. Niblett on China (and still do), but we are, sadly, in agreement here.

One of my last few trusted online resources really let me down today, and it feels like we have entered a new era where anything and everything can and will be taken down. Even the most trustworthy corners of the internet are no longer exempted.

Brendan Carr had better get on the ball to silence this Brendan Carr guy

Tired: Qu Yuan 屈原 as the voice of a pearl-clutching elitist Wired: Qu Yuan as a queer flower queen who’s utterly unwilling to just be cool with appalling government

❗ #China: Zhang Zhan spent 4 years in prison for reporting on COVID-19. She is to be tried in Shanghai tomorrow after being re-arrested a year ago for a bogus offense. It’s urgent for the international community to pressure Beijing for her release. #FreeZhangZhan! rsf.org/en/covid-19-...

For EU nerds, helpful list of all EP Committees now on Bluesky:

No one has the goods yet, but journalists should be digging to see if there is an agreement with Russia about these deportations

Russia designated the 'LGBT Movement' as a terrorist organisation. They know there is no such group; that's the point. It means they can choose to arrest ANYONE with any association with LGBT issues and treat them as a terrorist. The fact that 'antifa' is not a group should not be a comfort here.

The correct term is "historical nihilism", and you got to fight it.

Apropos of current events, here's Silent Contest (2013), produced by the PLA and the National Defense University. Consider it. a prelude to China's NGO Law. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUjk...

this is a gloriously stupid new take on a book that is a constant generator of stupid takes

I spoke with @whiskeyocelot.bsky.social and @chinafile.bsky.social's Jessica Batke about their recent Locknet report, which provides a brilliant, concise, detailed but accessible overview of China's online censorship system.

Lol. A year ago these same people insisted that any effort to label foreign propaganda was an attack on free speech, and forced the dismantling of multiple orgs studying foreign disinformation

Agree with Noah: this one might have led to interesting results (if not a 1:1 adoption) if it had come in January in the form of a closed-door ask. Instead, we're getting this bad faith bs. I say this as someone who would have advocated for this if we had a good-faith partner on China in the US.

BREAKING: ICE is sending Russian dissidents back to Russia. When the dissidents arrived in Russia, the Russian authorities were given documents relating to their asylum applications in the US which under US law are confidential. This seems to be part of a secret agreement between Trump and Putin.

Hey, they're just doing what China has been asking of them ("more European strategic autonomy")

Right now across the West we are seeing the center right radicalize against human rights as an illegitimate tool of majorities against the majority, while at the same time the far right is increasingly adopting the language of rights to promote ethno-nationalist majoritarianism.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is dismantling the Foreign Malign Influence Center, established by Congress during the first Trump administration. David Salvo explains #WhatJustHappened and the ramifications: www.justsecurity.org/119653/wjh-d...

EU trade director general Sabine Weyand yesterday, via Politico "DSA, DMA, our regulation is absolutely not on the table for concessions to the US... We regulate for our own needs in the way we see fit" www.politico.eu/newsletter/b...

If Europe does bend to Trump, Vance, Rubio, Musk & Zuckerberg on its digital regulations, it can fold up shop. Its leaders realize that www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/b...

It's been clear they're going after EU legislation since day 1. It's mostly a favor to US tech companies, but it'll help undermine democracy in Europe -- also a goal. One thing I asked folks on my first visit to Brussels post US elections was: where can I sign up to defend the DSA? I wasn't joking.

With friends like these…

🎁 link A high level takeaway from this excellent and thorough investigation is just how much folks are willing to sell out their own for the right price, and also how little Chinese govt gives a shit about the wellbeing of the diaspora that it claims as its own far-flung children.

didn't realize that fifteen years in China would prepare me *so* well for understanding U.S. politics tbh

🇹🇼 GMF's Taiwan-US-Europe Policy Program (TUPP) applications are now open! 📖 TUPP encourages young professionals from the United States and Europe to include Taiwan in their research and activities and help Taiwan to expand its global networks. 🔗 Learn more about TUPP here:

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...

The data shows that Europe’s long-promised defence revival, driven by an injection of public subsidies, is beginning to materialise not just in policy rhetoric or spending pledges but also in concrete and steel on.ft.com/46OwOFn

I'm trying to find a polite, analytical way of commenting on this, but honestly, I am out of polite, analytical terms: WTF is wrong with the people in the Trump Administration? Stupidity aside, "forcing them out" also means killing them or getting them imprisoned in many cases.

I honestly hope some U.S. diplomats reach out to me to try to brief against the DSA. I'd LOVE to have that chat with them.

That's what I always tell American leftists: non-white/non-western people have agency too. Not everything is America/the West's fault, you are not that important.

I'd be a lot cooler with the cheap dictatorship optics if he cut down a little on the dictatorship substance.

I've seen this movie before, and I know how it ends.