A Chinese prison helped fuel the deadly fentanyl crisis in the US – Asia Times

This article was originally published by ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom.

Reporting Highlights

  • Pipeline: A Chinese prison is part of the pipeline that delivers fentanyl to the US, ProPublica found in a review of US and Chinese documents and interviews with investigators.
  • Fallout: Opioid overdoses have killed more Americans than the number of US deaths in several wars combined.
  • Permissive: Veteran federal agents told ProPublica that China has failed to cooperate and even interfered with drug investigations; China insists it has cracked down.

China’s vast security apparatus shrouds itself in shadows, but the outside world has caught periodic glimpses of it behind the faded gray walls of Shijiazhuang prison in the northern province of Hebei.

Chinese media reports have shown inmates hunched over sewing machines in a garment workshop in the sprawling facility. Business leaders and Chinese Communist Party dignitaries have praised the penitentiary for exemplifying President Xi Jinping’s views on the rule of law.

But the prison has an alarming secret, US congressional investigators disclosed last year. They revealed evidence showing that it is a Chinese government outpost in the trafficking pipeline that inundates the United States with fentanyl.

For at least eight years, the prison owned a chemical company called Yafeng, the hub of a group of Chinese firms and websites that sold fentanyl products to Americans, according to the US congressional investigation, as well as Chinese government and corporate records obtained by ProPublica.

The company’s English-language websites brazenly offered US customers dangerous drugs that are illegal in both nations. Promising to smuggle illicit chemicals past US and Mexican border defenses, Yafeng boasted to American clients that “100% of our shipments will clear customs.”

Although China tightly restricts the domestic manufacturing, sale and use of fentanyl products, the nation has been the world’s leading producer of fentanyl that enters the United States and remains the leading producer of chemical precursors with which Mexican cartels make the drug.

Overdoses on synthetic opioid drugs, most of them fentanyl related, have killed over 450,000 Americans during the past decade — more than the US deaths in the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.

The involvement of a state-run prison is just one sign of the Chinese government’s role in fomenting the US fentanyl crisis, US investigators say. Chinese leaders have insistently denied such allegations. But US national security officials said the Yafeng case shows how China allows its chemical industry to engage openly in sales to overseas customers while blocking online domestic access and enforcing stern laws against drug dealing inside the country.

Beijing also encourages the manufacture and export of fentanyl products, including drugs outlawed in China, with generous financial incentives, according to a bipartisan inquiry last year by the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

“So the Chinese government pays you to send drugs to America but executes you for selling them in China,” Matt Cronin, a former federal prosecutor who led the House inquiry, said in an interview. “It’s impossible that the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t know what’s going on and can’t do anything about it.”

China’s antidrug cooperation has been persistently poor, US officials said. In 2019, Xi imposed controls that cut the export of fentanyl, but Chinese sellers shifted to shipping precursors to Mexico, where the cartels expanded their production.

“We couldn’t get the Chinese on the phone to talk about fighting child pornography, let alone fentanyl,” said Jacob Braun, who served as a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration. “There was zero cooperation.”

China also remains the base of global organized crime groups that launder billions for fentanyl traffickers in the US, Mexico and Canada. ProPublica has previously reported that this underground banking system depends on Chinese elite who move fortunes abroad by acquiring drug cash from Chinese criminal brokers for Mexican cartels. Chinese banks and businesses also help hide the origin of illicit proceeds.

The regime in Beijing therefore has considerable control over key nodes in the fentanyl chain: raw materials, production, sales and money laundering.

US leaders, Democrats and Republicans alike, have accused China of using fentanyl to weaken the United States. Some veteran agents agree.

Ray Donovan, who retired in 2023 as the Drug Enforcement Administration’s chief of operations, said he believes that a “deliberate strategy” by the Chinese state has caused the trafficking onslaught “to grow in size and scope.”

“They have said for years that they are cracking down,” Donovan said in an interview. “But we haven’t seen meaningful action.”

Still, current and former US officials told ProPublica that the national security community has not found conclusive evidence of a planned, high-level campaign against Americans by the Chinese government. That is partly because for years the US treated fentanyl as a law enforcement matter rather than a national security threat, making it hard to gather intelligence about the extent and nature of the regime’s role.

“If this was Chinese intelligence doing something, we have a focus on that as counterintelligence,” said Alan Kohler, who retired from the FBI in 2023 after serving as director of the counterintelligence division. “If it was drug cartels, we have a criminal focus on that. But this area of crime and state converging falls between the seams in and among agencies.”

Nonetheless, the current and former officials said rampant fentanyl trafficking could not continue without at least the passive complicity of the world’s most powerful police state.

“I haven’t seen smoking-gun evidence that it’s a policy or strategy of the government at a high level,” Kohler said. “You could argue that their decision not to do anything about it, even after the results are clear, is tacit support.”

In a written statement, the spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington described as “totally groundless” any allegation that the regime has fomented the crisis.

“The fentanyl issue is the US’s own problem,” said the spokesperson, Liu Pengyu. “China has given support to the US’s response to the fentanyl issue in the spirit of humanity.” At the United States’ request, he said, China in 2019 restricted “fentanyl-related substances as a class,” becoming the first country to do so, and has cooperated with the US on counternarcotics.

“The remarkable progress is there for all to see.”

The Trump administration has made the fight against fentanyl a priority and in February imposed a 25% tariff on Chinese imports to pressure Beijing for results. The approach could put a dent in the drug trade, but it’s too early to tell, officials said.

“The Chinese system responds to a negative incentive,” said former FBI agent Holden Triplett, who served as legal attache in Beijing and director of counterintelligence on the National Security Council. “China may be willing to endure more pain than we can give. But it is our only chance.”

To respond effectively, the US needs a clearer picture of the Chinese fentanyl underworld, Triplett and others say. The activities of the Shijiazhuang prison are a compelling case study, but not the only one.

To examine the role of the Chinese state in the drug trade, ProPublica interviewed more than three dozen current and former national security officials for the US and other countries, some of whom provided exclusive inside accounts. The reporting also drew on last year’s House investigation, digging into significant findings that have received little public attention, plus court files, government documents, academic studies, private inquiries and public records in the US, China and Mexico.

Prison business

In 2010, the Hebei Prison Administration Bureau combined three detention facilities to create a high-security prison in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province. The region is a base of China’s chemical industry, which is the largest in the world. It is also weakly regulated and freewheeling, according to US national security officials, private studies and other sources. Companies peddle everything from innocuous fertilizers to deadly opioids.

Liu Jianhua, a veteran Chinese Communist Party official with a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Illinois Chicago, became director of the prison in 2014. By then, fentanyl was cutting a swath across America. Overdose deaths soared due to the ease with which US users and dealers could acquire fentanyl products by mail from China.

China’s high-tech surveillance apparatus aggressively polices the online activities of its citizens. Yet sales of fentanyl to foreigners have thrived on popular, easily accessible websites, said Frank Montoya Jr., a former FBI agent with years of China-related experience who served as a top U.S. counterintelligence official.

“You don’t have to go on the dark web,” Montoya said. “It is out in the open.”

Yafeng Biological Technology Co. Ltd., also known as Hebei Shijiazhuang Yafeng Chemical Plant, became a typical player on this frontier, the congressional inquiry found. (As part of its reporting, ProPublica mapped links between the prison, the company and the US drug market with the help of two entities that specialize in China open-source research: Sayari, a company that provides risk management and supply-chain analysis and that supported the House inquiry, and C4ADS, a nonprofit that investigates illicit global networks.)

Yafeng’s websites and Chinese corporate records describe the firm as a chemical manufacturer. It has ties through other websites, phone numbers and email addresses to at least nine companies that advertised illicit drugs, causing investigators to conclude that Yafeng was a network hub, according to the report and interviews. It’s common for interconnected Chinese fentanyl producers and brokers to obscure details about their enterprises and change names and platforms to elude detection, US officials said.

In some ways, Yafeng presented itself to foreign buyers as a respectable company. The English-language websites featured peppy phrases like “team spirit” and “promoting the well-being of community.” The China-based sales representatives gave themselves Western names: Diana, Monica, Jessica. A map of markets showed shipping routes from China to the United States, Mexico, Canada and other countries.

Yet the sales pitches left little doubt that the firm knew its activities were illegal. Yafeng websites utilized familiar terms assuring US and Mexican drug users and traffickers of the company’s skill at smuggling illegal narcotics overseas, according to the House report and US investigators.

The company touted its use of “hidden food bags,” a method in which drugs are concealed in shipments labeled as food products. Ads promised “strong safety delivery to Mexico, USA” with “packaging made to measure” to “guarantee” that illicit chemicals would elude border inspections, documents show.

Chinese traffickers often discuss lawbreaking in such brazen terms with foreign customers, seemingly unconcerned about China’s omnipresent surveillance system, court files and interviews show.

Another firm, Hubei Amarvel Biotech, explicitly explained to US and Mexican clients online — complete with photos — its methods for “100% stealth shipping” of drugs disguised as nuts, dog food and motor oil, court documents say. After undercover DEA agents lured two Amarvel executives to Fiji and arrested them, a New York jury convicted them in February on charges of importation of fentanyl precursors and money laundering. (One defendant, Yiyi Chen, has filed a motion requesting an acquittal or retrial.)

At the time of the arrests, the Chinese government issued a statement condemning the US prosecution as “a typical example of arbitrary detention and unilateral sanctions.”

Similarly, Yafeng websites displayed photos of narcotics in plastic baggies to peddle a long list of chemicals, including fentanyl precursors and U-47700, a powerful fentanyl analogue outlawed in both the US and China that has no medical use, the House report says.

One victim of U-47700 was Garrett Holman of Lynchburg, Virginia. Holman had fallen in with youths who discovered how easy it was to buy synthetic drugs online. In late 2016, Holman overdosed on U-47700, street name “pinky,” that arrived by mail from southern China. His father, Don, performed CPR before paramedics rushed Holman to the hospital. Although he survived, another overdose killed him just days before his 21st birthday in February 2017.

“My son’s opioid exposure was less than two months,” Don Holman told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee the next year. “At 20 years old, I do not believe my son deserved to die for his initial bad choices.”

The father handed over evidence, including the envelope in which the drugs arrived, to federal agents, who traced about 20 shipments back to the same sender in China, he said in an interview. Don Holman blames the fentanyl crisis on the American appetite for opioids as well as the Chinese government. He has spent eight years telling anyone he can, from drug czars to fellow parents, about the experience that shattered his family.

“I’ve had to hit parents right between the eyes, like: ‘Hey, your child is not going to be here if you don’t do something,” he said. “You need to wake up.’”

No link to Yafeng surfaced in that case. The firm’s sales of U-47700 and other illicit drugs occurred during a period when its sole owner and controlling shareholder was the Shijiazhuang prison, according to the House inquiry, Sayari and C4ADS.

One of Yafeng’s street addresses was that of the prison, ProPublica determined through satellite photos and public records. Another Yafeng address next door also houses the offices of a clothing firm owned by the provincial prison administration. A third Yafeng address a few blocks away is a former municipal police station, records and photos show.

The director of the prison, Liu Jianhua, left his post after becoming the target of a corruption inquiry in 2021, according to Chinese media reports. It’s unknown how that investigation was resolved or if his fall had anything to do with the drug activity. Liu could not be reached for comment. The prison administration did not respond to requests for comment.

Yafeng stopped doing business under that name at some point between 2018 and 2022, records show. Yet the Yafeng group continued to function through at least one of its affiliated websites, protonitazene.com, the congressional report said. As of last year, the site was still advertising “hot sale to Mexico” of drugs including nitazenes, which are 25 times more powerful than fentanyl.

Government incentives

Yafeng is not the only company with connections to the Chinese state and fentanyl.

Gaosheng Biotechnology in Shanghai is “wholly state-owned,” congressional investigators found. The company sold fentanyl precursors and other narcotics — some illegal in China — on 98 websites to US, Mexican and European customers, the report says. Senior provincial development officials visited Gaosheng and praised its benefits for the regional economy. Gaosheng did not respond to requests for comment.

The Chinese government owned a stake in Zhejiang Netsun, a private firm that had a Chinese Communist Party member serving on its board of directors as a deputy general manager, the congressional report says. Netsun carried out over 400 sales of illegal narcotics, the report says, and served as a billing or technical contact for over 100 similar companies — including Yafeng. Netsun did not respond to requests for comment.

And the Shanghai government gave monetary awards and export credits to Shanghai Ruizheng Chemical Technology Co., a “notorious seller of fentanyl products, which it advertises widely and openly on Chinese websites like Alibaba,” the report says. Chinese officials invited company reps to roundtable discussions about technology and business. Shanghai Ruizheng did not respond to requests for comment.

Chinese government officials who interact with the trafficking underworld are often prominent in provincial governments, where corruption is widespread, said a former senior DEA official, Donald Im, who led investigations focused on China. Not only can they make money through kickbacks or investments, but they benefit politically, rising in the Communist Party hierarchy if their local chemical industries prosper.

“Key government officials know about the fentanyl trade and they let it happen,” Im said.

China’s central government also plays a vital role by providing systemic financial incentives that fuel fentanyl trafficking to the Americas, US officials say. The House inquiry discovered a national Value-Added Tax rebate program that has spurred exports of at least 17 illegal narcotics with no legitimate purpose. They include a fentanyl product that is “up to 6,000 times stronger than morphine,” the House report says.

This state subsidy program has pumped billions of dollars into the export of fentanyl products, including ones outlawed in China, according to the report and US officials. The tax rebate is 13%, the highest available rate. To qualify, companies have to document the names and quantities of chemicals and other details of transactions, the report says.

The existence of this paper trail refutes a frequent claim by Chinese leaders: that weak regulation of the chemical sector makes it impossible to identify and punish suspects.

Chinese officials did not respond to specific questions about the government financial incentives or the state-connected companies involved in drug trafficking. But the embassy spokesperson said China has targeted online sellers with a “national internet cleanup campaign.”

During that crackdown, Liu Pengyu said, Chinese authorities have cleaned “14 online platforms, canceled over 330 company accounts, shut down over 1,000 online shops, removed over 152,000 online advertisements, and closed 10 botnet websites.” He said Chinese law enforcement has determined that many illegal ads appear on foreign online platforms.

Wall of resistance

In May 2018, Cronin — then a federal prosecutor based in Cleveland — went to Beijing in pursuit of one of the biggest targets in the grim history of the fentanyl crisis: the Zheng drug trafficking organization, an international empire accused of trafficking in 37 US states.

Cronin and his team of agents hoped to persuade Chinese authorities to prosecute Guanghua and Fujing Zheng, a father and son who were the top suspects. They ran into a wall of resistance.

In an interview, Cronin recalled walking into a cavernous room in China’s Ministry of Public Security where a row of senior officials and uniformed police waited at a long table. A curtain-sized Chinese flag covered a wall.

Cronin took a breath, opened a stack of binders he had lugged from Cleveland and presented his case. The prosecutor laid out evidence connecting the Zhengs, who were chemical company executives based in Shanghai, to two overdoses in Ohio. The US distribution hub was a warehouse near Boston run by a Chinese chemist, Bin Wang. Later, Wang said he simultaneously worked for the Chinese government “tracking chemicals produced in China” and traveled home monthly from Boston “to consult with Chinese officials,” a memo by his lawyer said.

The response of the Chinese counterdrug chiefs was a brush-off, Cronin recalled in the interview. Essentially, he said, they told him: “You are right that the Zhengs are exporting these drugs that are killing Americans. But unfortunately, technically what they are doing is not a violation of Chinese law.”

Cronin pulled out another binder. He went over evidence and an expert analysis showing that the Zhengs had committed Chinese felonies, including money laundering, manufacturing of counterfeit drugs and mislabeling of packages.

Tensions rose when the Chinese officials responded that, unfortunately, the police unit that handled such offenses was not available; they rebuffed Cronin’s offer to delay his return flight in order to meet with that unit, he said.

After the US Justice Department charged the Zhengs that August with a drug trafficking conspiracy resulting in death, a Chinese newspaper reported that a Chinese senior counterdrug official criticized the case. The US “failed to provide China any evidence to prove Zheng violated Chinese law,” the official said.

Later, the US Treasury Department sanctioned the Zhengs and designated the son as a drug kingpin. US investigators told ProPublica they concluded that the Zhengs operated with the blessing of the Chinese government, citing the defendants’ sheer volume of business, high-profile online activity and open communications on WeChat, the Chinese messaging platform that authorities heavily monitor.

Ohio courts granted millions of dollars in civil damages to the family of Thomas Rauh, a 37-year-old who died of an overdose in Akron in 2015. The family never received any money, however.

Rauh’s father, James, who traveled and did business in China in his youth, has become an antidrug activist. He said the US government must do more to crack down on China’s role and counter public stigma that still blames addicts.

“I don’t think the US government wants to take the responsibility for confronting this,” he said.

A decade of frustration has compelled James Rauh to call for a drastic solution. He wants the US to designate fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction in response to what he sees as an intentional Chinese campaign.

“It’s asymmetric warfare,” he said.

Wang pleaded guilty and served prison time. The Zhengs, however, remain free in China and have never responded to the allegations in court. During a brief encounter with a “60 Minutes” journalist in Shanghai in 2019, Guanghua Zheng denied he was still selling fentanyl in the United States and said the Chinese government “has nothing to do with it.”

The Zheng case is typical, said Im, the former senior DEA official. Thousands of DEA leads relayed to Chinese counterparts over the years have been “met with silence,” he said. In other cases, Chinese officials have asked for more details about the targets of US investigations — and then warned suspects linked to the Communist Party, Im said.

Most US national security officials interviewed for this story described similar experiences, citing a few exceptions, such as a joint US-Chinese operation in Hebei province in 2019.

A former DEA agent, William Kinghorn, recalled the dispiriting aftermath of an investigation he oversaw centered on Chuen Fat Yip, whose firms allegedly distributed more than $280 million worth of drugs. Yip has denied wrongdoing and denounced US criminal charges and sanctions. He is on the DEA’s 10 most wanted fugitives list and remains free in China, US officials said.

“We obtained information that the Chinese authorities did ban or shut down the companies” the DEA targeted in the case, Kinghorn said in an interview. “We learned that afterward these same people [linked to Yip] were now owning or managing similar companies. Even though they had been banned, they basically just changed the name of the company.”

A sense of impunity persists in the chemical industry, according to a 2023 inquiry by Elliptic, a UK analytics firm. It reported that many of the 90 Chinese companies contacted by its undercover researchers were “willing to supply fentanyl itself, despite this being banned in China since 2019.”

The final year of the Biden administration brought signs of modest progress in China, including new regulations, shutdowns of firms, and arrests of a suspected money launderer and four senior chemical company employees charged by US prosecutors.

Citing those cases from 2024, spokesperson Liu Pengyu said China has “collaborated closely” with the US, adding, “Multiple major cases are making great progress.”

Meanwhile, US overdose deaths fell by 33% compared with the previous year, according to the annual threat assessment by the US intelligence community released March 25. The drop may be tied to the increased availability of naloxone, a drug for treating overdoses, the report said.

The threat assessment report warned that “China likely will struggle to sufficiently constrain” companies and criminal groups involved in the US fentanyl trade, “absent greater law enforcement actions.”

Cronin, the former federal prosecutor, went on to become chief investigative counsel for the House Select Committee. He led last year’s inquiry into China’s role in the fentanyl crisis. The committee’s review of seven Chinese company websites found over 31,000 instances of firms offering illegal chemicals during a period of about three months in early 2024.

Undercover communications with the firms “revealed an eagerness to engage in clearly illicit drug sales,” the report says, “with no fear of reprisal.”

Kirsten Berg contributed research. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

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SM Lee receives top May Day award from NTUC for ‘supreme’ contributions to labour movement

At the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) ceremony held on May Day, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong was presented with the&nbsp, Distinguished Comrade of Labour Award on Friday ( Apr 25 ).

In a press release, NTUC stated that this major prize is” conferred on individuals who have made exceptional and significant efforts to the labor action.”

SM Lee worked diligently to reinforce the tripartite relationship between NTUC and its unions, employees, businesses, and the government over the course of many years of dedicated public services.

This made it possible for Singapore to climate economic downturns, safeguard work, and offer staff opportunities. Under his leadership, the pleasant labor-management environment that he fostered contributed to the growth of Singapore’s business and consistently improved the lives of its employees, NTUC continued.

The May Day Awards, which were held this year at the&nbsp, Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center, honored a document 180 recipients since its founding in 1963, according to NTUC.

For their unwavering commitment and concern for protecting workers ‘ interests as well as for having a significant influence on the labor movement, they were given the honor of recognition of remarkable union leaders, tripartite partners, staff, and organizations.

In honor of Mr. Lee, NTUC applauded him and his team for “working tirelessly” to advance the country’s economy and prosperity through crises like the 1985 crisis, the Asian financial crisis, the global financial crisis, and the COVID-19 epidemic, which then enabled the country to emerge stronger from each problems.

Additionally, it was noted that Mr. Lee was in charge of important workplace activities that supported ongoing education and training, including the launch of the Skills Redevelopment Programme in 2008, which laid the groundwork for the SkillsFuture program today.

Mr. Lee even supported and introduced fundamental strategies like the Workfare Income Supplement and the Progressive Wage Model, which aid lower-wage workers and enhance their employment prospects.

Under his management, the National Wages Council’s annual comments continued to include wage increases for lower-income employees, according to NTUC.

In other industries, Mr. Lee’s initiatives for workplace change included:

  • The Employment and Employability Institute, a company that offers job-matching, job advice, and skills-upgrading services to employees.
  • The Job Security Council, which supports displaced employees ‘ job-matching and location.
  • The Company Training Committee program that promotes employee transformation and advancement.

Major changes in work safety and health standards were achieved under his command, reducing workplace injury levels and improving working conditions, NTUC added.

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Mark Lee nabs award for best actor at inaugural Asian Art Film Awards in Macao

Catherine Ng, Lee’s woman, expressed congratulations on his victory in a blog on her Instagram page, writing,” This honor belongs to you and to every companion who poured their heart and soul into this work.”

She continued,” Special thanks to all the production crew people… This job and his accomplishments were made possible by your expertise, determination, and passion.

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Is China suddenly cool? – Asia Times

A 20-year-old American YouTuber and digital star named ShowSpeed just live-streamed hourslong tour of Chinese locations, including Beijing and Shanghai, to show his almost 40 million viewers the locations.

IShowSpeed, whose true name is Darren Jason Watkins Jr., admired friendly locals, flawless streets, and the high-speed Wi-Fi on the train, and Chinese fans heckled him for selfies on the Great Wall during the March activities.

Beijing’s state media seized the spotlight, with one Foreign blog claiming that the American apex had “eliminated all American misinformation about China” in the eye of a new era.

This analysis is confirmed by IShowSpeed’s YouTube site.

One leading comment reads,” China is therefore underappreciated wtf.” Another person writes,” I realized how foolish my earlier sights on China were after watching this picture.”

Such feedback don’t provide any information. However, as someone who studies the impact of Chinese soft strength, I find the sight of a young American burning China’s picture to Western audiences to be incredibly important.

It provides an illustration of how smooth energy standards have been altered in recent years, and how China appears to be having some success appealing to the world’s children.

blending politicians and music

Soft power refers to a nation’s capacity to shape people’s preferences through society, values, and diplomatic relations by influencing others through attraction rather than coercion. The phrase was coined by political professor Joseph Nye to describe how nations job authority by imposing demands on others through military or economic stress.

US sweet energy didn’t have to make that much of itself throughout the Cold War and into the 21st century. It exploded from surge boxes after being broadcast on MTV and sported fabric. Rock music crossed the Iron Curtain when politics don’t, with painters like Madonna and Bruce Springsteen reaching Russian children more efficiently than any adviser.

And in China, Michael Jackson gained a following also before McDonald’s or Hollywood films, bringing about a beautiful, open America that so many people desired.

American society wasn’t really leisure to some growing up in China in the 1990s; it was persuasion, aspiration, and even subversion.

The blockbusters from Beijing

The US is still, of course, a cultural powerhouse, and American actors and musicians are still recognizable all over the world. However, there are indications that China is attempting to erode that position.

Take the movie. Chinese movies were once viewed as niche films in other countries. An animated Chinese feature film called” Ne Zha 2” broke box office records in January 2025. A stunning retelling of a mythic boy-god’s story, the film has grossed an astonishing US$$ 2 billion worldwide, outperforming many Hollywood studios.

It is now the highest-grossing animated film of all time, and it was produced by a Chinese studio with hundreds of local animators.

Beijing made a quick decision to incorporate” Ne Zha 2″ as a representation of China’s creative rise and” soft power moment” in terms of culture. The success of the movie was praised by state media as evidence that Chinese folklore and artistry can captivate audiences around the world just as effectively as Marvel superheroes.

” Ne Zha 2″ isn’t a one-off. The Beijing-based Wanda Films ‘” Detective Chinatown 1900,” which was released in January, is the year’s third-highest-grossing film to date.

Hollywood, which was once confident in its cultural monopoly, now faces a massive new rival on the global stage, one supported by 1.4 billion people and a government determined to overthrow Western pop culture dominance. Additionally, there are some international audiences. Ne Zha 2 also had a positive impact when it first aired in the US.

Gamers travel to the east in search of adventure.

Additionally, it includes non-profits.

Video games have been a stronghold in American and Japanese culture for decades. Black Myth: Wukong, a Chinese-developed game that was created by a Hangzhou studio, has become popular worldwide.

When its first gameplay trailers for Black Myth: Wukong first appeared in 2020, they were so popular that they were immediately followed along with its promising AAA-level graphics and action that drew inspiration from China’s well-known” Journey to the West” tale.

Skeptics questioned whether the finished product could quite possibly compete with the likes of the well-known series God of War or the Elden Ring in George R. R. Martin’s style. But those doubts vanished when the game finally debuted in 2024. In the summer of 2024, Black Myth: Wukong debuted to a great deal of worldwide support, instantly claiming a spot alongside the biggest Western franchises.

It is China’s first true blockbuster video game, and it is evidence that the nation can produce world-class entertainment, according to critics all over the world.

A smartphone screen shows a monkey-man image.
At The Game Awards 2024 on December 13, 2024, Black Myth: Wukong won Best Action Game and Players ‘ Voice. via Getty Images / The Conversation image VCG / VCG

It’s about narrative power for the Chinese state, according to me, not just about snagging titles in China’s gaming industry.

Instead of, say, a Marvel superhero or a Tolkien epic, millions of young people around the world subtly shift the cultural center of gravity eastward as they spend 30 or 40 hours a week immerse in Sun Wukong’s adventures.

It suggests that Chinese myths are evolving to appeal to people around the world as cool as Western ones. And that is soft power.

Small screen, big impact

In the meantime, another Chinese export has deeply ingrained itself into global culture on the smaller screens we carry in our pockets: TikTok.

TikTok has over 1.6 billion monthly users in over 160 countries as of 2025.

TikTok’s cultural reach is even more impressive. The app’s algorithm has helped songs by musicians from South Korea or Nigeria reach the top of the global charts, and it has inspired grandmothers in Italy to try Mexican recipes from grandmothers in Italy who were previously featured on a popular Chinese app. Teenagers in Kansas are learning Indonesian dance moves.

In essence, TikTok has created a brand-new transnational pop culture commons, one that is owned by a Beijing-based business. Yes, users all create the content on TikTok, not dictated by the Chinese government, but the platform’s very existence is a testament to Chinese tech entrepreneurship and global ambition.

Every second spent scrolling TikTok by Western youths is a moment they are residing in a cultural sphere created by China. It’s no wonder the US government is worried about TikTok’s influence because it’s about cultural security more than just data security.

Since outright banning it has proven to be politically challenging, TikTok has continued to steadily firmly established itself as a staple of global youth culture.

Blockbuster movies, popular video games, and viral apps all feature a larger truth: China is rapidly gaining soft power as America runs the risk of letting its own erode. China expands its influence through the Belt and Road Initiative and development loans at a time when the US reduces foreign aid.

And while the US enacts visa restrictions for students and scientists, China’s universities, some of which are now in the top 20 on the world, are becoming more appealing.

Can the US maintain its cultural diversity?

It is notoriously difficult to assess the impact of soft power because most countries that use it play a very long game.

Beijing’s push for soft power is not guaranteed to succeed everywhere. Many societies continue to doubt Beijing’s intentions, and its authoritarian system limits the appeal of its political model in democratic societies.

However, there are obvious indications that younger generations are buying into China’s cultural exports.

The US once almost automatically set the pace for global culture. However, as China invests a lot in its creative industries and digital platforms, it is increasingly shaping the narrative and themes for a growing global audience.

The question is no longer whether China has the ability to compete for soft power power, but whether America has a strategy to hold its ground.

Shaoyu Yuan is a research scientist at Rutgers University – Newark’s Division of Global Affairs.

This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the text of the article.

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Why China’s robot makers are unfazed by US tariffs: ‘We’re the only supplier’

A group of customers gathers around an automated shop at China’s largest trade fair, eagerly watching as a pair of robotic hands fix a latte.

More than its creators had anticipated, the robotic cafe has already received orders totaling 8 million yuan ( RM4.82 million or US$ 1.1 million ) during the first two days of the Canton Fair in Guangzhou.

” To our amazement, the buyer enthralling this year has been overwhelming,” said Han Zhaolin, the leader of Dolphin Robot Technology. ” Clients from Vietnam to the Middle East demonstrated a strong willingness to make a purchase on-site.”

Han’s team had no idea how the growing US-China trade conflict, which has seen both sides increase tariffs on each other’s products by around 12 %, would impact sales. He ultimately had nothing to fret about.

The mechanical shop from the fifth generation, which has nearly 100 inventions, is unaffected by Han’s claim, Han said. In light of rising US jobs, the company has been able to remain resilient.

Because of US customers ‘ stringent demands, he said,” We aren’t bearing the tariff, nor are we lowering our prices.” Everything else compares to the goods produced in the US, Germany, or Japan, and North Korean goods cost half as much.

Han’s encounter reflects a wider trend at play at the Canton Fair: a wide range of Chinese-made intelligent products have proven extremely resistant to the effects of the trade war, from bionic limbs to skyscraper-cleaning robots to robotic limbs.

In many cases, the system’s main elements are all directly produced, indicating they are exempt from import duties. They also tend to be much less expensive than their adversary products in Europe and America, and they developed much more quickly, keeping them competitive even in the face of sky-high taxes.

Zhejiang Qiangnao Technology is in a position like this. Despite the current tensions, it is moving forward with releasing its artificial legs and hands, which are controlled by algorithms developed using brain-computer software research.

According to a company representative, Pan Siyu, the company’s smart prosthetic legs have now received health system accreditation from the US Food and Drug Administration and are covered by US health insurance.

They are priced at US$ 50, 000 ( RM219, 275 ), and they continue to be competitive in the market at the current tariff level, Pan said. However, that might change if the US were to increase levies even higher.

The bright artificial legs and hands of our company just cost one-fifth to one-seventh as much as American goods, she said. ” It all depends on the taxes ‘ goings’… US regulations alter often. We didn’t foresee how our goods may be classified in the future.

A Guangzhou-based company named Lindu Intelligent Tech Development won the” Best of the Best” award at this year’s Canton Fair Design Awards.

The machine is a self-developed and eminently special system, like many of the 90, 000 intelligent products exhibited at the exhibition. It is non-invasive, can be used to clear skyscrapers up to 500 meters high, and can be firmly attached to cup curtain walls even in a force-12 hurricane.

” There are very few competitors in the market,” said Chen Sihong, a sales director at Lingdu. Various products can just reach about 60 meters and also require additional liquid pipes and wires.

Exports account for up to 80 % of Lingdu’s total revenue, with exports now accounting for more than 20 countries. According to Chen, Middle Eastern buyers have shown a strong curiosity in the Canton Fair.

Cleaning solutions are costly in foreign nations. He claimed that using our robot to clean a building’s exterior wall costs only 2 yuan ( RM1.20 or US$ 0.27 ) per square meter.

” With the exception of one or two properties cleaned, the expense will be paid off. Additionally, the machine has a duration of up to eight times and can perform 24/7.

Chen did not directly address the impact of US taxes on the company’s profits, but he argued that Chinese tech goods ‘ cost advantages and swift development would become even more obvious over time.

The automated cafe operated by Dolphin Robot, which occupies only 2.5 square meters of floor space, can make more than 50 different beverages, including coffee, milk, tea, matcha, and chocolate beverages. Each cup can be customized according to size, strength, temperature, sweetness, and ice level in only 50 seconds.

According to Han, the system’s low operating cost is a major plus for Western buyers.

He claimed that a single smartphone can control the entire robot cafe remotely. It can self-repair 90 % of malfunctions, run continuously for ten years without hiring anyone, and cost less than 5, 000 yuan ( RM3, 010 ) per year in terms of electricity.

” In contrast, a typical US cafe pays more than 10,000 yuan ( RM6, 020 ) per month for electricity,” the article states.

In some ways, Han added, the trade war may even offer the company an opportunity.

He continued,” It’s not a bad thing.” It increases the interest and willingness of many foreigners to try China’s newest tech product line. That’s one of my biggest takeaways from the Canton Fair this year, according to the South China Morning Post.

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Three universities nab coveted regional gongs

In the THE Awards Asia 2025, Burapha University, Mahidol University, and Chulalongkorn University were recognized for their advances and economic job.

The Excellence in Higher Education on the globe is honored at THE Awards Asia in recognition of exceptional leadership and administrative performance.

The finalists of this year’s awards were revealed on Tuesday at a dinner meal at the THE Asia Universities Summit in Macau.

Supamas Isarabhakdi, secretary of higher education, research, research, and creativity, praised the three universities for making a tag on the global stage and giving the kingdom greater recognition for its high standard of education.

For its task titled” MDCU MedUMORE: A Lifelong Learning Platform for Medical Experts,” submitted by the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University won the Technological or Digital Innovation of the Year award.

In the group of Remarkable Commitment to Environmental Leadership, Burapha University received a very praised award. This was in reaction to the Environmental Learning Center for the Eastern Regional’s job” PEMSEA”.

For her work on” Game-based learning to market student engagement and collaboration in medicine education,” Pornpun Vivithanaporn at Mahidol University received a very commended position in the Most Modern Teacher of the Year group.

THE Awards Asia is very competitive, according to Panpermsak Arunee, the ministry’s assistant continuous minister. More than 500 comments from 16 different Asian nations were submitted this year, but only 80 of those were chosen.

This year’s honors competition pitted ten Thai institutions. The last round of voting was made possible for twelve comments in seven groups.

Huachiew Chalermprakiet University, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Walialak University, Suranaree University of Technology, Assumption University, Nakhonratchasima Rajabhat University, and the Panyapiwat Institute of Management were other institutions in dispute.

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A charity patron who ‘touched the lives of many’: Puan Noor Aishah’s life as the wife of Singapore’s first president

Mr Winston Choo, past aide-de-camp to Mr Yusof, said in CNA’s 2015 film: “Personally, she takes great anguish to see to the list, decide on the menu, and to truly manage also the preparing of the dessert. ”

He added: “ In all my life, even until now, I have never eaten otak melaka the way she prepared. ”

FIRST ASIAN PRESIDENT OF SINGAPORE GIRL GUIDES ASSOCIATION

As Singapore’s second woman, she took on a major role as patron or leader of many generous and open organisations.

She hosted sessions for security agencies, raising funds to help the weak, the handicapped and the aged. Using her own effort, she prepared foods like burgers, ondeh ondeh, and epok epok for tea events to bless donors.

In 1964, she received the Distinguished Service Medal for her “active and committed ” interest in social security work – from Mr Yusof himself.

She had a special affinity for companies working with people. Worried about the education of young girls, she agreed to be president and patron of the Singapore Girl Guides Association   – as it was then known  – in 1960.

Her characters to the federal helped the association receive a land contract for a new offices building in the 1960s.

In 1970, in glory of her decade-long services as the first Asian leader of the Singapore Girl Guides Association, Puan Noor Aishah was presented with the Laurel Leaf Award – its highest glory.

In 2000, the Puan Noor Aishah Awards was established to accept efforts of excellent Girl Guides.

“TOUCHED THE Life OF MANY”

Puan Noor Aishah proved to be an competent director who was balance many things at once, and even made her own clothing for activities.

“She’s always very, very prompt. She actually manages the time very well, ” said Mr Choo.

“She cooks but she knows that things must end at a certain time. She must give herself time to change dress up and to be on time for the next appointment, ” he added.

Puan Noor Aishah supported her husband in his official functions both in Singapore and abroad, drawing crowds wherever they appeared.

When Mr Yusof’s health deteriorated during his third term of office, she took his place to present medals for the 1968 National Day awards.

He eventually died of heart failure in 1970.

The following year, Puan Noor Aishah became the first Malay woman to receive an honorary doctorate – a Doctor of Letters degree from the National University of Singapore.

Mr Lee said at the book launch that it was a “daunting task ” for her to manage her large household while carrying out official and ceremonial duties.

“She even hired a teacher to teach her English so that she could communicate effectively with Singaporeans and foreign dignitaries, ” he noted.

“ But Puan Noor Aishah made all these appear effortless with her grace and poise, and she touched the lives of many with her quiet determination, humility and charm. ”

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Kerala: India’s sword-wielding grandmother still going strong at 82

An 82-year-old girl who teaches the old American martial arts of Kalaripayattu says she has no plans to retire.

“I’ll perhaps practise Kalari until the day I die,” says Meenakshi Raghavan, frequently thought to be the oldest woman in the world to practise the art type.

Kalaripayattu- kalari means battle and payattu means battle- is believed to have originated at least 3,000 years back in the southwestern state of Kerala and is regarded as India’s oldest military art.

It is not entirely practised for fight or fighting; it also serves to instil skill, develop strength and build self-defence knowledge.

Ms Raghavan is favorably known as Meenakshi Amma- Amma means family in the Malayalam vocabulary- in Kerala’s Vadakara, where she lives. The city is also home to another renowned exponents of the arts like Unniyarcha, Aromal Chekavar and Thacholi Othenan.

Meenakshi Amma often performs in various cities but generally runs her personal Kalari college, founded by her partner in 1950. Her time are active, with lessons from five in the morning to noon.

” I teach about 50 pupils regularly. My four babies were also trained [in the art form ] by me and my father. They started learning from the age of six,” she says.

Kalaripayattu has four rounds and it requires persistence to learn the art type.

Education begins with meypattu- an fuel treatment followed by exercises to issue the body.

After about two years, students progress to kolthari ( stick fighting ), then to angathari ( weapon combat ), and finally to verumkai- the highest level, involving unarmed combat. It usually takes up to five years to learn Kalaripayattu.

Kung fu is believed to have adapted principles like breathing techniques and marmashastra ( stimulating vital points to optimise energy flow ) from Kalaripayattu, according to Vinod Kadangal, another Kalari teacher.

Legend has it that around the 6th Century, Indian Buddhist priest Bodhidharma introduced these approaches to the Shaolin priests, influencing the more prominent Chinese martial arts.

Meenakshi Amma also recalls the first time she stepped into a Kalari- the red-earth area where the artwork is practised- 75 years before.

” I was seven and very good at dancing. So my expert- VP Raghavan- approached my papa and suggested that I learn Kalaripayattu. Just like party, the craft form requires you to be versatile,” she says.

Hailing from Kerala’s Thiyya area, Meenakshi Amma’s master was 15 when he and his brothers opened their own Kalaripayattu class after being denied entrance somewhere because of their reduced social caste.

” There was no discrimination when it came to girls enrolling to examine Kalari- in reality, real education was enforced in all Kerala schools at that time. But we were expected to stop after attaining adolescence,” she says.

Unlike people, Meenakshi Amma’s dad encouraged her instruction into her late teenagers. At 17, she fell in love with Raghavan, and they immediately married. Collectively, they went on to teach hundreds of students, usually for free.

” At the time, a lot of children came from poor families. The only money he [Raghavan ] accepted was in the form of technique or a gift paid to the instructor,” she says.

Gifts sustained the university, while Raghavan afterwards took a teaching work for more money. After his death in 2007, Meenakshi Amma fully took command.

While she has no plans to retire at the moment, she hopes to hand over the class one morning to her eldest son Sanjeev.

The 62-year-old, who is also an professor at the college, says he is happy to have learned from the best- his family. But being her brother earns no prioritises; he says she’s also his greatest player.

Meenakshi Amma is a native star. During our meeting, three officials drop by to ask her to an awards service.

” Amma, you must grace us with your presence,” one of them says with folded arms.

” Thank you for considering me, I’ll go,” she replies.

Her kids speak of “fierce enthusiasm” for her. Some have opened their own Kalari schools across the condition, a source of great pride for Meenakshi Amma.

” She’s an inspiration to women anywhere- a unique person who shows love and affection to her pupils, but remains a rigid disciplinarian when it comes to Kalari,” says KF Thomas, a former pupil.

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