Christian Göbel

This took me less than an hour based on code I had written nearly ten years ago, but trying to fix the pdf landscape issue took all night.

That said, the rest went flyingly. Program takes Multimarkdown script created with Scrivener, inserts citations form bibtex library, builds tex file and formats citations with the .csl file created by the LLM based on journal specifications, then produces pdf and docx files.

LLM output, model seemingly telling itself to "stop being silly" and to "focus", interspersed with gibberish.

LaTeX is the final boss for LLMs. Changing a conversion script so that one table in a document is presented in landscape mode broke the machine. The output is eerily similar to how I feel when I need to do this by hand.

Sounds like a good speech. Keeps options for cooperation open, but not at any price(“our response will be unflinching, united and proportional“); provides vision of world trade without the US, which fits the title, expresses that patience with US not honouring agreements is wearing thin.

Can‘t say the writing wasn‘t on the wall.

Associate Professor of Chinese politics (290742) | University of Oslo Job title: Associate Professor of Chinese politics (290742), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Tuesday, February 3, 2026

My department is hiring an associate professor in contemporary Chinese politics. Come and join me in Oslo! www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

I absolutely agree. We have a repair network, but nothing the scale of the Barn. And non-profits for teaching specific skills. Funding is definitely an issue.

It’s such a good show. How wonderful it would be if a place like that actually existed, where you not only could get things repaired, but also learn one or more crafts. The skills of the craftspeople are beyond belief.

Cover of ASPI’s “The Party’s AI”. A lone man stands on a road where tanks should be, but they’ve been erased, mirroring how Chinese LLMs censor sensitive images. For more, see Chapter 1.

Our new ASPI report 'The Party’s AI' is out now. It shows how China’s LLMs, vision models and “AI+” governance architecture are hard-coding censorship and control into the future of AI.

www.aspi.org.au/repo...

YouTube video by John Helveston Comet browser fills out a survey with bot detection questions

Online survey research is screwed. LLM-enabled agents can take surveys just like humans.

Here's a video I made where the Comet browser agent takes a simple survey and gets around nearly all my bot detection checks.

The crisis is here already...more in this 🧵

www.youtube.com/watch?v=05Je...

While Hongkongers are mobilizing to get beds, student's textbooks, curtains, baby formulas, missing pets to survivors of the Tai Po Hung Fuk fire, western-centric discourse are quick to paint us as "backwards, unscientific, unsafe"...

and I have zero patience for this racist bs.

I’ve been monitoring online discussions from Hong Kong about why HKers consider blaming bamboo scaffolding is a gov spin, and I think many AUS media have got it WRONG.

They think it’s a spin NOT because they see bamboo scaffolding as a tradition that distinguishes HK from China.

Screenshot of a page of the Ta Kung Pao newspaper with picture of fire-hose on Wang Fung Court tower, bamboo scaffolder at work alongside Chinese text. Headline reads: Revealing dark dealings behind maintenance work scaffolding.

State-backed Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao has taken down an investigative report published on 28 Nov which cited industry sources saying building maintenance works effectively controlled by cartel, rife with corrupt practices in tender process, widespread cost and corner-cutting in materials.

Multiple local new sources in Hong Kong are reporting that the police have begun arresting activists calling for independent inquiries and accountability for the Tai Po fire 😡

It does make sense if you are utterly devoid of compassion and feel compelled to seize this tragedy as an opportunity to showcase your internalisation of Beijing’s fear of incipient collective action.

天朝物產豐盈，無所不有，原不藉外夷貨物以通有無

📊 In this blog post, I use my visits database to look at Xi Jinping’s changing dominance seen through diplomatic patterns in MFA data: the third term really is different. sensehofstede.nl/xi-jinpings-...

I lied. Put your clothes back on. We’re going to talk about how there are actually female scholars within Confucianism who contributed significantly to Chinese literature, philosophy, and history, and their accomplishments are worthy of note and should be studied just as much as the men

Thank you for this tribute. He must have been an amazing mentor. A long time ago, I spent a whole day with him cafe-hopping in snowy Lund, and I will never forget his kindness, wisdom, brilliance and curiosity. I am very grateful for that day, and think about it often.

Stellar, important and painstaking work tracing China's external investments worldwide on a project-by-project level, more than 33k in total. The dataset and very good visualisations available on china.aiddata.org. Can't believe this isn't getting more attention here.

YouTube video by William & Mary Tracking China's Global Influence: A Conversation with CNN and W&M's AidData

Interesting conversation on China's lending and investments in the US, UK, and EU. With AidData's Brad Parks, David Culver, and Sailor Miao (all @wm.edu alums). Foreign aid nerds, see Brad's comments on U.S. now emulating China: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ZL...

In a nutshell

China’s Foreign Police Training: A Global Footprint New data reveal how China’s foreign police training programs have become an integral part of Beijing’s strategy to remake global security.

Delighted to share a new @carnegieendowment.org report on China’s Foreign Police Training: A Global Footprint. Over 50 entities in China have provided training to at least 138 countries, forming a major pillar of Beijing’s drive to reshape global security:
carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

Leib Littman at CloudResearch notes that acquiescence bias is often exacerbated on some opt-in online panels typically used for consumer research, where fraudulent respondents have an incentive to say "yes" and route themselves into more surveys.

Quantitative History of China This Open Access book showcases a collection of new findings concerning China's political, social, and economic history based on large historical datasets.

New edited volume just dropped! Quantitative History of China: State Capacity, Institutions, and Development edited by Chen Zhiwu, myself, and Ma Debin is now able as a free PDF/ePub download. 1/2
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Indie Chinese film festival in US canceled after pressure campaign Organizer's reports of harassment echo other allegations of transnational repression

Independent Chinese-language film festival in US canceled after pressure campaign – Nikkei Asia: ‘said that he did not feel he was in physical danger but that the relentless messages forced him to shut down the event.’

Tang Dynasty

In case you missed it, Kerry Brown wrote a book that plagiarized Shelley Rigger’s classic book title.

I, along with others who were asked to review Kerry’s manuscript, said verbatim to change the title.

In the most tacky and unprofessional fashion, he stole her title anyway.

Includes a photo timeline of other "warrior" protests, which shows how they inspire each other: echoed slogans, repeated strategies like remotely activated projectors …. but the man behind the famous Sitong Bridge protest was reportedly sentenced to 9 years, and still most do this in person.

China academic intimidation claim referred to counter-terrorism police Sensitive research into alleged human rights abuses is alleged to have been shut down by Chinese agents.

"a decision by the university not to publish a final phase of the research... was communicated to the National Security Service..." "China is not believed to have an organisation named National Security Service, so it is not clear who the individuals were".
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...