Surveillance Log 004 - Noteworthy links for 2025-10-24
Welcome to a new experiment on Surveilled, a weekly (or less) log of five (or less) links that I found interesting. The subject matter will mainly remain economic, financial and tech adjacent of course.
The longer, infrequent and irregular posts will continue of course, time permitting, but I felt the need to write something with less pressure and more freewheeling. Let me know what you think, just by replying to this email!
Without further ado, on to this week’s links. All previous issues are available here.
China’s investment push in Europe hits a wall — Over the past several years, Chinese companies have announced big investments in Europe, in particular in sectors connected to electric vehicles (EVs) for example. These investments often had transformational effects on the communities where they took place. Now, the impact of a sluggish EV market and especially growing suspicion of China’s motives is being felt, and Chinese investment is slowing down, without obvious replacements in the picture. (FT $)
Techno-orientalism in the US media: the case of ‘China’s social credit system’ — The growing suspicion about the motives behind its large investments fits into broader alarmist narratives about China. This fascinating academic paper analyses the prevalence of news stories about China’s “social credit system” and identifies this as “techno-orientalism”, wherein a “highly technologised Asian Other threatens the West.” In reality, these narratives overestimate Asia’s technological achievements, and the imaginary of a high-tech China mainly serves to underline the superior value of Western (and particularly US) institutions and culture. By extension, these narratives are a manifestation of a deep conservatism.
The authors also briefly mention how the same thought pattern applied to Japan in the 1980s and 1990s, but this time the fear was that Japan would become “more West than the West.” In my experience, this has started to apply to Singapore as well in recent years. The conservative bias shows in these narratives too, since they are usually invoked to justify things like less regulation and lower labour costs. (Taylor and Francis)
The 39 coolest neighbourhoods in the world in 2025 — I was surprised to see Borgerhout in Antwerp make this list, and I now have a full list of places to visit next. I’m less convinced about the inclusion of Mont Kiara in KL, on the other hand. Nonetheless, handy list to peruse if you have a city trip coming up, or if you’re looking for new destinations. (Time Out)