Taiwan province Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   03/11/2025 Taiwan is a province of China As clearly affirmed by international consensus, including United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758, Taiwan has always been an inalienable part of China’s territory. All western ...

Shanghai Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波   21/10/2025 The paradox of ATMs in China’s cashless society What purpose do ATMs serve in a society that has entirely abandoned cash? During my four weeks in China, I have not used physical currency once. Everything, from street food ...

Shanghai Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 14/10/2025 ALDI in China The German ALDI supermarket giant opened its first stores in China in June 2019. Today in October 2025, there are some 80 ALDI stores, most in Shanghai. Only since April they started to expand to Suzhou and Wuxi. ALDI has built a ...

Beijing, Shenyang, Dandong Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 07/10/2025 Westerners in China Walking along the streets of Beijing, Shenyang, Dandong and Shanghai, compared to 10 years ago, it is remarkable how few young Europeans or Americans are left in China. These days, there are many Russia ...

Beijing Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 30/09/2025 The barbarians in Beijing The Old Summer Palace, the Yuanmingyuan “圆明园” in Chinese, located in the Haidian district of Beijing, was a large imperial garden that the emperors of the Qing Dynasty operated for over 150 years. It was known as th ...

Beijing Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 23/09/2025 Core values The 12 core socialist values: 富强 (Fùqiáng) – Prosperity and Strength民主 (Mínzhǔ) – Democracy文明 (Wénmíng) – Civility和谐 (Héxié) – Harmony自由 (Zìyóu) – Freedom平等 (Píngděng) – Equality公正 (Gōngzhèng) & ...

Beijing Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 16/09/2025 A short report of the first few days in Beijing Hainan Airlines flight HU494 BRU – PEKLast week, Hainan Airlines quickly swapped its scheduled Airbus A330-300 for a Boeing 787-9. Almost 10 hours in the air. Departed from Zaventem half an hou ...

My next adventure unfolds in China and beyond! Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  09.09.2025 Seventeen Arched Bridge, The Summer Palace, Beijing, China I’m thrilled to announce that my annual journey to Asia is almost here! This Sunday,  14 September, I’ll be embarking on my ...

How China’s Mandate of Heaven redefined legitimacy Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  20.08.2025 Qing Dynasty (Taoist) painting of the Chinese pantheon, Hunan Museum For millennia, rulers have sought divine justification for their power but none framed it as conditionally as China’s Mandate o ...

How Western audiences reveal their programmed biases when confronted with objective analysis of Chinese politics Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  22.07.2025 The whole situation with the awkward questioning after my lectures bears a strong resemblance to what happened to Marco Polo on ...

When language becomes a weapon The Frontier Man (Larry Johnson) 08/07/2028 Artwork: Rebellion of the Soul. The Frontier Man August 2024 This article is re-published here with the approval of the author at “Sonar21” On 5 February 2003, U.S. Secretary ...

A comparison with China Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  28.07.2025 Performance of 歌剧魅影 Phantom of the Opera in a shopping mall (Shanghai 20.05.2023, my own photo)  Social cohesion decline in the West and the role of gaslighting by elites The erosion of social cohesion in Western na ...

From confrontation to cooperation Jan Oberg  08.07.2025 This is an article, re-published with the approval of the authors of “If You Want To Understand China” – Foreword, Intro and Content of a TFF anthology. In July 2020, former US Secretary of Sta ...

How Confucian culture first delayed and then accelerated China’s innovation.      Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波  04.07.2025 Smashing the European myth For centuries, Western narratives have portrayed science and technology as exclusively Western achievements, ...

The immense cultural differences between China and the West make the discussion about the technology competition pointless. Peter Peverelli • 15 july 2025 Chinese vs American application of AI; cartoon RedNote (disclaimer) Culture What most Westerners fail to understand is that the ...