Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 127

Anti-corruption campaign in China: An empirical investigation

With China’s economic reform in the late 1970s, and then again with a pro-market turn in 1992-93, corruption became increasingly visible. Since growth has been the top priority for China’s leadership, tackling corruption took a back seat in the past four decades. Meanwhile inequality, some of it probably fueled by corruption, increased significantly. By 2012 corruption became the most compelling

China is building new detention centers all over the country as Xi Jinping widens corruption purge

China has built or expanded more than 200 specialized detention facilities nationwide to interrogate suspects ensnared in Xi Jinping’s widening anti-corruption drive, a CNN investigation has found, as the Chinese leader extends his crackdown beyond the ruling Communist Party to a vast swath of public sectors.Since taking power in 2012, Xi has launched a sweeping campaign against graft and

What’s going on inside Xi Jinping’s military purge?

On 26 November, the Financial Times named China’s Defence Minister, Dong Jun , as the latest high-ranking military official under investigation for corruption, adding to a growing list of targeted military leaders and officials. If true, this would make him the third consecutive defence minister to face such a fate. The following day, however, China’s Defence Ministry an nounced at its

Video series: ‘China Beyond Borders’ looks at Beijing’s influence and intimidation

In a three-part series, Radio Free Asia examines the reach of the Chinese Communist Party far beyond its borders, on U.S. college campuses and through technology. RFA speaks with victims of intimidation, policy experts, and lawmakers on what’s at stake. Episode 1 delves into incidents like a Harvard University protester being forcibly removed by a Chinese Communist Party-linked student,

China firing preemptive trade war shots at Trump

China has heightened trade war tensions with the United States by extending existing tariffs imposed on a crucial chemical solvent, sanctioning seven American firms on security grounds and threatening to stop buying US semiconductors within a single day. China’s Ministry of Commerce (MoC) announced on December 27 that it will continue to impose anti-dumping duties on n-butanol imports from the US

No assurances for Taiwan under Trump 2.0

The incoming Trump 2.0 administration’s nomination of China hawks such as Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz and Elbridge Colby for senior leadership positions would seemingly bode well for Taiwan. Sydney Morning Herald correspondent Lisa Visentin is among those who conclude that “Trump has sent an early message to Beijing that Washington is unlikely to abandon Taiwan.” A recent Taipei Times editorial

Newly released pictures show Joe Biden meeting Hunter Biden’s Chinese business partners

Newly released pictures show then-Vice President Joe Biden meeting some of his son Hunter Biden’s Chinese business partners during an official visit to the country, as well as Hunter meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior officials. This is the first time these images have been made public, even though the photo ops and meetings they depict have been known about for years. The

Taiwan’s presidential office runs first ‘tabletop’ simulation of Chinese military escalation

Taiwan’s presidential office held a “tabletop” exercise on Thursday simulating military escalations by China, a first-of-its-kind drill involving government agencies beyond the armed forces that highlights Taipei’s urgency in ensuring preparedness against an increasingly assertive Beijing. The simulation involved central and local government units and civil groups, and was aimed at testing

The Near Enemy: China’s Subnational Reach Into the United States

Xi Jinping’s latest visit to the United States had echoes of his 2015 sojourn.1 The Chinese leader’s appearance at the 2023 APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in San Francisco featured as much direct engagement with American state, local, and commercial leaders as with counterparts in the U.S. federal government. But the subnational playbook of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was even more on

China approves world’s largest, $137-billion dam on the Brahmaputra close to the Indian border

China has approved the construction of the world's largest dam, stated to be the planet's biggest infra project costing $137 billion, on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet close to the Indian border, raising concerns in riparian states — India and Bangladesh. The Chinese government has approved the construction of a hydropower project in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, the Tibetan name