Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 1302

The Sinocism China Newsletter, June 24, 2015

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China aims to challenge U.S. air dominance: Pentagon

China is mounting a serious effort to challenge U.S. military superiority in air and space, forcing the Pentagon to seek new technologies and systems to stay ahead of its rapidly developing rival, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said on Monday. Read more

Why China is far from ready to meet the U.S. on a global battlefront

China can not meet and match the U.S. military on a global battlefront. Beijing lacks the expertise, military doctrine and equipment to do so. The Chinese military has no recent combat experience and, as a consequence, its training regimens are unrealistic. Read more

The five most important issues in U.S.-China relations

The South China Sea issue has been front and center for the last 18 months, as China carried out major land reclamation efforts. While the issue stems from territorial disputes between China and various Southeast Asian nations, which don’t intrinsically involve the United States, the United States sees China’s island building activities as a potential threat to freedom of navigation along a

U.S. Scolds China for Online Attacks

Top Obama administration officials admonished China in a bilateral meeting on Tuesday for sponsoring online attacks against businesses, but they remained silent — at least publicly — on the suspected role of Chinese hackers in the recently discovered theft from government computers of personal data on millions of federal employees and contractors. Read more

China Opens New Land Route to Tibet for Indian Pilgrims

Among the high peaks of the Tibetan plateau, dozens of Indian pilgrims walked slowly through the sentry post, breathed in the thin air and continued to the town of Yadong, on the side of the rugged border controlled by China. Read more

Deadly Clash Between Police and Ethnic Uighurs Reported in Xinjiang Region of China

More than a dozen people were killed in the Xinjiang region of far western China this week in a clash between ethnic Uighurs and the police, according to a report by Radio Free Asia that was largely corroborated by local residents, including a police officer. Read more

Hvorfor er det verre å fråtse i hunder enn i ku og gris?

Selv om det er rom for et veldig avgrenset engasjement, er det interessant å reflektere rundt hvordan det å ha et enormt hjerte for én dyreart, ikke smitter over på andre dyrearter. For hva er egentlig den prinsipielle forskjellen på å fråtse i hunder og å fråtse i andre typer dyr? spør bloggeren Henrik Kjellmo Larsen. Les mer

Mannjevning i Washington

Igjen møtes USA og Kina ved forhandlingsbordet, denne gang i Washington, og nå som før har de mer enn nok å snakke om. Møtene i dag og i morgen er et ledd i den «strategiske og økonomiske dialogen» mellom de to gigantene. USAs delegasjon ledes av utenriksminister John Kerry og finansminister Jack Lew, mens motparten stiller med ministrene Yang Jiechi og Wang Yang, skriver Torbjørn Færøvik i

Review: ‘Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China’ by Evan Osnos

Two themes drive this compelling and accessible investigation of the Modern Middle Kingdom. The first is hunger, the second is chase. 

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...  it doesn’t look as if there will be a mainland Chinese edition of “Age of Ambition.” Writing in the New York Times on May 2, Osnos noted that a Chinese publisher wanted to airbrush several key characters out of his picture of China to pass