Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 1344

Q. and A.: Roderick MacFarquhar on Xi Jinping’s High-Risk Campaign to Save the Communist Party

"As the picture of Mao’s face on the Tiananmen Gate shows, Mao is still the great legitimator of this regime. That’s all they’ve got left. They’ve got no Marxism-Leninism, they’ve got no party that’s got respect and authority any longer. People are revolting against local cadres 500 times every day, apparently, in China." Read more

China Warns Against ‘Western Values’ in Imported Textbooks

Chinese universities must ensure that the ideas of Xi Jinping, the powerful and ardently traditionalist party leader, would “enter teaching materials, enter classrooms and enter minds.” Read more

Kinesisk forsker i Norge mistenkes for spionasje

Forsvareren til forskeren fra Kina, Nils Anders Grønås, sier til NRK.no at de nå sender en stevning til Oslo tingrett fordi de ikke kjenner hele bakgrunnen for utvisningsvedtaket. Les mer

China targets foreign tech vendors with new trade rules

China has adopted new regulations requiring companies that sell computer equipment to Chinese banks to turn over secret source code, submit to invasive audits and build so-called back doors into hardware and software, according to a copy of the rules obtained by foreign technology companies that do billions of dollars of business in China. Read more

China is limiting high-ranking officials to offices the size of a shipping container

"Do you work for the communist party? Do you know the size limit for your office at work?" So begins an announcement from the Chinese Communist Party's Commission for Discipline Inspection.  Read more

Facebook har flere "innbyggere" enn Kina

Facebook har nå 1,3 milliarder brukere, eller "innbyggere", enda flere enn i Folkerepublikken Kina. Og forresten, i Kina er Facebook forbudt. Les mer

Excellent news for the planet – if it’s true

Talking about Chinese coal production would once have seemed as obscure as banging on about Soviet tractor output. No longer. Climate change is the biggest threat to life on Earth, China the biggest emitter of carbon, and coal the overwhelming culprit. Extraction in the People’s Republic has soared, up tenfold since the 1960s. Read more

Beijing smog makes city ‘unliveable’, says mayor

Beijing’s mayor, Wang Anshun, has called the city “unliveable” because of its noxious smog, according to state media. “To establish a first-tier, international, liveable and harmonious city, it is very important to establish a system of standards, and Beijing is currently doing this,” he said last Friday, according to the China Youth Daily newspaper. “At the present time, however, Beijing is

The Sinocism China Newsletter, January 28, 2015

Get smarter about China. Read more

China: The Eclipse of the Politburo

Evidence suggests that the Politburo Standing Committee is in decline, while the central party bureaucracy gains more clout. Read more