Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 117

Trump threatens China: More tariffs are coming on Feb. 1

President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned that even more tariffs could be coming as soon as next week: This time China was his target, as Trump threatened to unleash a wave of higher taxes on imports from America’s second-biggest trading partner.In an Oval Office press conference that echoed similar off-the-cuff remarks on Monday, Trump said that he is considering a 10% across-the-board tariff on

Xi and Putin hold video call after Trump's inauguration

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had a video call hours after Donald Trump was sworn in on Monday, pledging to bring bilateral ties to "greater heights", according to state media on both sides. Calling Xi a "dear friend", Putin said Russia and China were building ties "on the basis of friendship, mutual trust and support" despite external pressure. Xi called

TikTok could be affecting views of young Taiwanese

Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media.Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do

Trump has tossed TikTok a lifeline. But China’s not happy

For many of America’s 170 million TikTok users, US President Donald Trump’s move to delay a legal ban of the popular social media platform was cause for celebration. But in China, where TikTok’s parent company is based, the reception has been less positive, largely because Trump has suggested he could require the company to give up a 50% stake to avert a shutdown and suggested tariffs on Chinese

'Hell on earth': China deportation looms for Uyghurs held in Thailand

Niluper says she has been living in agony. A Uyghur refugee, she has spent the past decade hoping her husband would join her and their three sons in Turkey, where they now live. The family was detained in Thailand in 2014 after fleeing increasing repression in their hometown in China's Xinjiang province. She and the children were allowed to leave Thailand a year later. But her husband remained in

Read the full transcript of Trump's inauguration speech

President Trump delivered his second inaugural addressMonday, vowing a "revolution of common sense" and announcing "we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success." In the 30-minute speech in the Capitol Rotunda, he promised a "tide of change" and salvation from what he said was the "decline" brought on by the policies of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. To that end,

U.S. and China Just Set New Road Rules for Science Collaboration. Americans Will Benefit If We Don’t Scrap Joint Research

Amid heightened U.S.-China strategic and technology competition, bilateral scientific collaboration has become increasingly challenging. China’s broad military-civil fusion and espionage efforts have heightened Washington’s concerns that any collaboration could be exploited to advance Beijing’s military development. China’s increasingly closed information environment has also exacerbated doubts

Beijing’s Targeting of Taiwan’s Undersea Cables Previews Cross-Strait Tensions Under a Trump Presidency

On January 5, the Taiwanese government alleged that the Chinese-owned vessel Shunxin-39 cut an undersea fiber-optic cable near Taiwan’s Keelung Harbor by reportedly dragging its anchor across the seabed. Taiwan’s government-run telecommunications operator, Chunghwa Telecom, discovered the alleged sabotage after receiving a disruption warning around 7:51 a.m. While the ship is reportedly

ENTERING 2025, CHINA AND PARTNER COUNTRIES REFLECT ON THE BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE

In 2024, China’s trade volume with partner countries in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) grew by 6.4 percent year-on-year, accounting for over half of China’s total trade volume for the first time. At the start of 2025, over a decade since the BRI’s official launch in 2013, analysts reflected on how the BRI is being perceived in China and in partner countries around the world.Chinese media and

China executes man for car rampage that killed dozens

China has executed a man found guilty of killing at least 35 people in a car attack in November, in what is thought to be the deadliest attack in the country for a decade. Fan Weiqiu, 62, injured dozens more when he drove his car into people exercisingoutside a stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai.State media said a second man was executed for a separate attack that came days later. Xu Jiajin,