Jan Oberg, TFF Director In October 2025, I attended two major academic conferences in Shanghai—both by invitation, and, curiously, as the only scholar from Scandinavia. That absence felt unjust to the more experienced Nordic experts in China studies who deserve a seat at such global forums. What unfolded was a journey through two distinct but […]
August 12, 2025 Professor Zhang Weiwei is a highly respected Chinese intellectual and professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. He is the director of its China Institute and also runs a series of conversations with many different people around the world. Here is what came out of their meetings there and in Skopje, Macedonia in […]
Photo collage © Jan Oberg 2024 Launched on November 17, 2024Updated with new materials regularly TFF Associates Editor Jan Oberg TFF Board members Thore Vestby and Jan Oberg participated in a week-long Nordic fact-finding mission to the Xinjiang Province in China in September 2024. Everywhere, the delegation was met with a sincere wish to develop […]
Photo Jan Oberg Peter PeverelliTFF Associate July 28, 2025 China has recently garnered significant attention due to its advancements in various technological fields, such as quantum physics and artificial intelligence. In media discussions and my lectures on China, it is common to encounter objections asserting that the West, particularly the United States, is certainly ahead […]
Foreword August 25, 2024 – July 7, 2025 The Board of The Transnational Foundation in Sweden has decided to publish an easy-to-read, scholarly anthology that addresses one of the most important – and potentially dangerous – issues of our time: Why are the political, economic, and medialised Western images of China so consistently negative – […]
Johan Galtung (1930-2024)TFF Associate 1985 to his death June 18, 2025 Johan Galtung wrote this article in 2010, the original here. It is remarkable, bordering on the prophetic, that Galtung already suggested – in section 4 below – what closely resembles China’s and President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was launched in […]
Wang Yuewei（王玥玮） March 24, 2025 This is a chapter in a TFF anthology in the making “If You Want To Understand China.” Foreword, Introduction, Authors and Table of Content here. How to treat others is a core issue in a nation’s foreign policy and a direct reflection of its moral tradition. Throughout history, the performance […]
Peter Peverelli March 24, 2025 This is a chapter in a TFF anthology in the making “If You Want To Understand China.” Foreword, Introduction, Authors and Table of Content here. Cultural bias Before looking at concrete patterns of manipulation, it is necessary to point at the cultural bias that is partly driving the manipulation. Not […]
But does the West want to understand China? Jan Oberg February 7, 2025 This is a chapter in a TFF anthology in the making “If You Want To Understand China.” Foreword, Introduction, Authors and Table of Content here. We learn about other cultures than our own mostly through our media – however, in many cases, […]
Thore Vestby February 12, 2025 This is a chapter in a TFF anthology in the making “If You Want To Understand China.” Foreword, Introduction, Authors and Table of Content here. China has had an unprecedented development in the last 4 decades. It cannot be disputed. The progress list is long and covers absolutely everything, literally […]