Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 1336

Isis Caliphate Meets China's Silk Road Economic Belt

This report examines the clashing ambitions between ISIS and China. With ISIS’s declaration of a caliphate that encompasses China’s Muslim Xinjiang, Chinese strategists will now consider how ISIS’s Eastward pivot will impact China’s own Westward march to create a Silk Road Economic Belt across Eurasia. Read more

China Bans Import of Ivory Carvings for One Year

In a move aimed at countering international criticism of skyrocketing Chinese demand for ivory that is decimating African elephant populations, China announced on Thursday a one-year moratorium on the import of ivory carvings. Read more

Kinesisk fiendejakt

Mens vinteren slipper tak i Beijing, intensiverer partiet sin kamp mot det som kalles «vestlige verdier». Utdanningsminister Yuan Guiren vil gjerne bidra og sier han akter å inndra vestlige lærebøker som «tilsøler kommunistpartiet og sosialismen». Den antivestlige stemningen rammer stadig flere læreanstalter rundt om i landet, ikke minst anstalter hvor utenlandske lærerkrefter er engasjert.

Americans See China's Economic Power as Diminished Threat

Since last year, Americans have shifted more toward viewing China's power as an important but not a critical threat, or as not an important threat. Read more

In China, Civic Groups’ Freedom, and Followers, Are Vanishing

These are perilous days for independent civic groups in China, especially those that take on politically contentious causes like workers’ rights, legal advocacy and discrimination against people with AIDS. Such groups have long struggled to survive inside China’s ill-defined, shifting margins of official tolerance, but they have served as havens for socially committed citizens. Read more

China's Fertile Ground for Islamic State

Three hundred Chinese citizens, members of the country's ethnic Uighur group, have recently traveled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State. Read more

China Targets Muslims, Curbs Freedom of Speech For All: Report

During 2014, the ruling Chinese Communist Party intensified its targeting of ethnic minority groups with an "anti-terror" campaign in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang, and ratcheted up controls on freedom of expression, Amnesty International said in its annual global human rights report. Read more

China has a growing terrorism problem and no one is talking about it

Deadly terrorist attacks are increasingly occurring in China's Xinjiang region, but you would never know it watching the country's major news outlets. Read more

For richer, for poorer: how China's laws put women second

Marriage and divorce, land and property, at work and at home - laws and customs discriminate against women and leave them at a glaring economic disadvantage. Read more

Hillary Clinton 'gave in' to China says Chen Guangcheng

As she prepares for a possible presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton faces embarrassing revelations over her handling of a diplomatic crisis between China and the US.

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“No one seemed to be putting pressure on the Chinese Communist Party ...  Suddenly I was overcome by sadness and wept.”