Ardi Bouwers
ardibouwers.bsky.social
Ardi Bouwers
@ardibouwers.bsky.social
China Circle | University of Amsterdam | China | geopolitics | media | propaganda
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
Hoorde net in @bureaubuitenland.bsky.social sinoloog @ardibouwers.bsky.social een treffende beschrijving van de sfeer in huidig Hong Kong geven:
'Rule of fear'
August 21, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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...
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 ...
strategicspace.nbr.org
August 13, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
„🇨🇳 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.“
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.
www.scmp.com
July 3, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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"
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...
ec.europa.eu
June 17, 2025 at 5:47 AM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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
May 2, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
The Hong Kong journalist diaspora strikes to report on politically sensitive news and connect the scattered diaspora communities.
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.
globalvoices.org
April 23, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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...
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...
www.press.org
April 23, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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"
4月15日凌晨,四川成都
某高架桥上被人悬挂横幅
“没有政治体制改革就没有民族复兴”
“人民不需要一个权力不受制约的政党”
“中国不需要谁指明方向,民主才是方向”
April 15, 2025 at 4:44 AM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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.
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
www.thetimes.com
April 12, 2025 at 7:08 PM
“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...
‘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
www.theguardian.com
April 11, 2025 at 5:55 AM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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...
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. ...
chinadigitaltimes.net
March 24, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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...
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.
apnews.com
February 14, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
All five of them! The five HK women that China put a bounty on, hunting them around the globe. Event on March 4, 2025
February 26, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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...
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.
www.bloomberg.com
February 25, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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...
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...
madeinchinajournal.com
February 21, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
Portuguese editorial cartoonist Zez Vaz reaches back to Tiananmen Square to call on American defiance.
February 15, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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:
Exclusive—Chinese patents reveal aim to cut undersea cables
Patent applications showed that Chinese scientists had been devising ways for severing undersea cables
www.newsweek.com
January 14, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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:
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.
www.nytimes.com
January 14, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
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)
December 9, 2024 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
Taiwanese YouTuber reveals how CCP buys ‘influencers’ – Taipei Times: ‘several templates and materials […] with some mentioning Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politician Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜)’
YouTuber reveals how CCP buys ‘influencers’ - Taipei Times
Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan
www.taipeitimes.com
December 8, 2024 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Ardi Bouwers
China legt kritische journalisten het zwijgen op.

👉 Hoe groot is de Chinese invloed op de Nederlandse media en journalisten?

In deze aflevering bespreken wij de schokkende resultaten van het onderzoek van @ardibouwers.bsky.social en Susanne Kamerling

open.spotify.com/episode/16P8...
72. China intimideert Nederlandse journalisten. Met Ardi Bouwers en Susanne Kamerling
GeopolitiekNu Podcast · Episode
open.spotify.com
December 3, 2024 at 5:52 PM