Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 1298

China's Christians angry as removal of church crosses continues

Anger has risen over a Communist party campaign that has seen crosses stripped from the roofs of at least 1,200 Chinese churches after authorities removed another cross despite a month-long sit-in by churchgoers. Nearly two dozen members of the Ya village church in Huzhou have been camping out on the building’s roof since early July in a desperate attempt to prevent the toppling of their cross.

Sub-Saharan Africa still overwhelmingly prefers the US to China

Most Sub-Saharan African countries approve more of the White House than Chinese leadership, according to a new poll. While Chinese investment and trade has far outpaced the US, all but two of 11 countries polled by the survey company Gallup showed higher approval rating for US leadership over China’s. Read more

Nagasaki, the Forgotten City

About 74,000 people in Nagasaki died instantaneously or within five months of the bombing. Only 150 were military personnel. Another 75,000 people were injured, and these numbers do not count those who fell ill and died from radiation-related conditions in the decades to come. Read more

Bare menn styrer Kina

Mens Taiwan slutter seg til rekken av asiatiske land med kvinnelige ledere, går utviklingen i motsatt retning i Kina. Etter at Xi Jinping ble president i 2012, er det nå færre kvinnelige folkevalgte enn hva tilstanden var under Maos styre, skriver The Guardian. I Taiwan stiller den tidligere læreren Hung Hsiu-chu (67) fra det sittende nasjonalistpartiet KMT til valg mot juristen Tsai Ing-wen (58

Money, Lust and Kung Fu: Shaolin’s ‘C.E.O. Monk’ Is Under Fire

The accusations — new tidbits have appeared almost daily in the Chinese news media — are mostly based on documents released by a self-described former monk at the temple who says the abbot owns a small fleet of fancy cars, has embezzled millions of dollars from a temple-run corporation and has funneled some of the cash to a mistress now living in Australia. Read more

Should the U.S. Extradite Chinese Wanted by Beijing?

How can any democratic government negotiate an extradition treaty with China? The most that the U.S. government can do is to look carefully into each case presented by the PRC, see whether the suspect appears to have violated American immigration, financial or other laws and then open discussion with the suspect and his counsel as well as with Chinese officials to seek a solution to the

John Kerry urges Beijing to halt South China Seas operations

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, delivered a “blunt” message urging Beijing to halt its aggressive programme of artificial island construction in the disputed South China Seas during talks with his Chinese counterpart on Wednesday. Read more

China will ‘explode’ if communist regime remains, says Ai Weiwei

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has warned that his homeland will “explode” unless the communist regime allows managed transition to democracy.In his first interview since he was allowed to leave his homeland, the regime-critical artist said the Beijing leadership was in denial about the scale of the problems the country is facing. Read more

This country will have more people than China by 2022

China now has a population of 1.38 billion, compared to India's 1.31 billion, according to new data from the United Nations. But by 2022, India's population will draw even with that of China, at 1.4 billion people, and then exceed it. Read more

Will China Have a Mini US Navy By 2020?

A former admiral does the math – and the results are quite striking. Read more

By 2020, seeing Chinese warships in the far reaches of the Indian Ocean and the Meditteranean would become a much more routine affair, and some U.S. allies and partners may grow increasingly nervous.