Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ingrid Fischer @yingeli.bsky.social · 2d

globalvoices.org/2025/10/06/c...

China’s Cyberspace Administration is suppressing ‘pessimistic and negative sentiments’ online

China's Cyberspace Administration (CAC) announced on September 22 the launch of a two-month campaign to curb content that incites antagonism and violence, and amplifies pessimistic and negative sentim...

globalvoices.org

Reposted by Ingrid Fischer

Jemimah Steinfeld @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social · 3d

"The Party’s tight control on historical narrative has rendered much of the pain afflicted in the name of liberation — or after liberation had ostensibly been achieved — unspeakable." Powerful from @yangyangcheng.bsky.social on voicelessness of Chinese women chinabooksreview.com/2025/10/09/f...

No Country for A Woman | China Books Review

Women in China have suffered abuse, silencing and erasure — despite the Communist Party’s slogans about women’s liberation. Two novels by the Wuhan writer Fang Fang show how gendered oppression persis...

chinabooksreview.com

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Julian-Ferdinand Vögele @julianferdinand.bsky.social · 4d

Recorded Future just published a report diving into the Beijing Institute of Electronics Technology and Application (BIETA), which is almost certainly a front for China’s MSS, developing technologies to support intelligence and military missions. Full report: www.recordedfuture.com/research/bie...

BIETA: A Technology Enablement Front for China's MSS

Discover how China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) almost certainly operates BIETA and its subsidiary CIII as public fronts for cyber-espionage, covert communications, and technology acquisition. C...

www.recordedfuture.com

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Chine Corée Japon (CCJ) @ccj.ehess.fr · Sep 10

📚 L'ouvrage collectif "Penser en résistance dans la Chine d'aujourd'hui" (dir. A. Cheng, C. Froissart) s'interroge : "Comment, dans ces conditions, les intellectuels peuvent-ils continuer de penser de façon critique, mener leurs recherches, se faire entendre ? Sous quelles formes et… à quel prix ?"

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Ingrid Fischer @yingeli.bsky.social · 12d

‘I have to do it’: Why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

‘I have to do it’: Why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China

In 2020, after spending half his life in the US, Song-Chun Zhu took a one-way ticket to China. Now he might hold the key to who wins the global AI race

www.theguardian.com

Ingrid Fischer @yingeli.bsky.social · 20d

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Arc'teryx: Outdoor brand apologises for 'dragon' fireworks in Himalayas

Officials are investigating the firm after the display drew backlash for its potential environmental impact.

www.bbc.com

Reposted by Ingrid Fischer

Josh Chin @joshchin.bsky.social · 21d

This is yet another story about authoritarianism — but one that hits a little different. Phurba is resilience incarnate, a person born for these times. And his tale is bonkers. I hope you enjoy reading it as much we did reporting it. Gift link: www.wsj.com/world/asia/t...

The Daring Caper of a Faithful Tibetan Who Outfoxed China

He escaped from police and crossed thousands of miles of wilderness on a decadelong odyssey toward freedom.

www.wsj.com

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Ingrid Fischer @yingeli.bsky.social · 21d

Arc’teryx has issued an official apology after facing backlash from its recent campaign, which featured the works of Cai Guo-Qiang. www.lifestyleasia.com/hk/nature/ar...

www.lifestyleasia.com

Reposted by Ingrid Fischer

Jeremy Goldkorn @goldkorn.bsky.social · 23d

The Trump-Xi phone call today was a nothingburger, and there is, of course, no deal on TikTok yet:

Chinese readout of Xi-Trump phone call on Friday

China’s foreign ministry just released the following readout in Chinese on the night of Friday, September 19 (Beijing Time)

www.pekingnology.com

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Global Voices @globalvoices.org · 29d

As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) promotes DeepSeek abroad, making cutting-edge AI technology accessible to the Global South, this comes with hidden risks and human-rights-related consequences.

DeepSeek and the digital battleground: China’s AI influence abroad

As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) promotes DeepSeek abroad, making cutting-edge AI technology accessible to the Global South, this comes with hidden risks and human-rights-related consequences.

globalvoices.org

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Sense Hofstede @sensehofstede.nl · Sep 9

Massive leak shows how a Chinese company is exporting the Great Firewall to the world – Wired: ‘Geedge Networks, a company founded in 2018 that counts the “father” of China’s massive censorship infrastructure as one of its investors, styles itself as a network-monitoring provider’

Massive Leak Shows How a Chinese Company Is Exporting the Great Firewall to the World

Geedge Networks, a company with ties to the founder of China’s mass censorship infrastructure, is selling its censorship and surveillance systems to at least four other countries in Asia and Africa.

www.wired.com

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China Books Review @chinabooksreview.com · Sep 4

A banned Tibetan novel, now published in English, recounts the devastation of Mao’s campaigns in the wake of the 1958 Amdo Rebellion.

Read Benno Weiner's @bennoweiner.bsky.social review of "The Red Wind Howls" by Tsering Döndrup: chinabooksreview.com/2025/09/04/i...

chinabooksreview.com

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China Digital Times @chinadigitaltimes.net · Aug 22

Translation: Jiangyou City Residents Explain Why They Turned Out to Protest in Support of Bullied Girl and Her Family
"No matter how powerful those officials are, we ordinary folks outnumber them. It’s not like they can wipe out tens of thousands of us in one fell swoop."

Translation: Jiangyou City Residents Explain Why They Turned Out to Protest in Support of Bullied Girl and Her Family

In the wake of early August’s spontaneous mass protests in the city of Jiangyou, Sichuan province over official inaction in a severe bullying case, there has been unusually stringent online censorship...

chinadigitaltimes.net

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Turquoise Roof @turquoiseroof.org · Aug 24

Egune is one of several linguistically and culturally aware AI models built by smaller nations to reduce reliance on American and Chinese tech giants:

Viola Zhou @violazhou.bsky.social · Aug 22

With 128 GPUs, Mongolian startup Egune AI is training large-language models tailored to Mongolian language, culture, and nomadic traditions.

Story on why small nations are building their own LLMs despite limited resources
restofworld.org/2025/mongoli... via @restofworld.org

The Mongolian startup defying Big Tech with its own LLM

Egune is one of several linguistically and culturally aware AI models built by smaller nations to reduce reliance on American and Chinese tech giants.

restofworld.org

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Ingrid Fischer @yingeli.bsky.social · Aug 21

www.guerrillamedia.coop/en/

Guerrilla Media Collective - Guerrilla Media Collective

www.guerrillamedia.coop

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · Aug 21

Since 2023, translators and interpreters have seen work dry up, rates plummet and their jobs reduced to editing AI-generated output. Some are leaving the field, others are considering bankruptcy. All despite any major upgrade in translation quality.

This is how AI is killing translation work:

AI Killed My Job: Translators

Few industries have been hit by AI as hard as translation. Rates are plummeting. Work is drying up. Translators are considering abandoning the field, or bankruptcy. These are their stories.

www.bloodinthemachine.com

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MERICS @merics.bsky.social · Aug 20

China's new model of social governance merges Mao-era grassroots mobilization with digital surveillance and party-led service delivery. Nis Grünberg, Katja Drinhausen and Alexander Davey explore how China’s Communist Party is reinserting itself into daily life: merics.org/en/report/se...

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Hong Kong Free Press HKFP @hongkongfp.com · Aug 8

HK activist Joshua Wong's second national security case will be transferred to the High Court, where he may face life imprisonment if convicted. In full: buff.ly/fAPdXvF

HK activist Joshua Wong's 2nd nat. sec case to be transferred to High Court

HK activist Joshua Wong's second national security case will be transferred to the High Court, where he may face life imprisonment if convicted.

buff.ly

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MERICS @merics.bsky.social · Aug 1

🎧In a new episode of our podcast, former Financial Times correspondent and MERICS Senior Fellow James Kynge talks about his work as a journalist in China since the mid-1980s and China’s rise as a technological power: merics.org/en/podcast/c...

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Jonathan Chatwin @jmchatwin.bsky.social · Jul 31

An excellent piece—and equally true of literary travel writing about China, which has all but disappeared in recent years.

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · Jul 31

Interesting piece on whatever happened to China travel guides by Thomas Bird in the China Books Review - that hat tips my old time travel mentor Carl Crow - chinabooksreview.com/2025/07/31/t...

What Happened to China Travel Guides? | China Books Review

Guidebooks for China boomed from the 1980s to the 2010s. Then the Covid pandemic hit. With fewer visitors, and travel guides going out of print in the digital age, what are we missing?

chinabooksreview.com

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YTSL @ytsl.bsky.social · Jul 31

I can't possibly "like" 👇 post because it's informing me about something I find awful; but I can Repost it.

Matthew Bradford @matthewbradford.bsky.social · Jul 30

‘In a sweeping act of religious and cultural repression, Chinese authorities have demolished over three hundred Buddhist stupas and sacred statues in Sichuan province, according to reports from the Central Tibetan Administration and other sources’.

Over 300 Tibetan Stupas and Religious Statues Demolished by the Chinese

It is not the first time the CCP has destroyed religious symbols in Sichuan’s Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture—but this incident is the worst ever.

bitterwinter.org

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Chaniece @chaniece.com · Jul 26

China is making AI education mandatory across all primary and secondary schools in Beijing starting this fall.

Students will learn:
– What AI is and how it’s used
– Real-world applications & tools
– How to build simple models
– Data bias & ethics
– AI’s impact on society

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The China-Global South Project @chinagsproject.bsky.social · Jul 24

How Influencers Are Shaping China's Global Image

China is increasingly using influencers to shape global perceptions, and it’s proving more effective than traditional media in some regions.

Watch - tinyurl.com/mt32z5fx

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Jeff Doctor @jeff.doctor · Jul 15

"the ideas were more grounded in science fiction than in actual science and the grip on reality was tenuous at best. 'What this sort of crystallized for me... was that these tech guys — who people think of as knowing a lot about science — actually, don’t really know anything about science at all.'"

Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · Jul 14

In his new book, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity, Adam Becker probes the technocrat worldview.

Interview ⤵️

What Is Up With These Tech Billionaires? This Astrophysicist Has Answers

In his new book, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity, Adam Becker probes the technocrat worldview

www.rollingstone.com

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Rest of World @restofworld.org · Jul 15

Big-name LLMs like ChatGPT and Meta’s Llama struggle with non-English languages, leading to errors and hallucinations. Fed up, dozens of organizations across Latin America worked together to create LatamGPT.

Read today's story: restofworld.org/2025/chatgpt...

Fed up with ChatGPT, Latin America is building its own

Dozens of organizations in the region have partnered to develop a large language model that better understands Latin America’s cultural and linguistic nuances.

restofworld.org

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