Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 1347

Behind the Great Firewall: using my laptop and phone in China

The problem that most people face when traveling to China is its Great Firewall, which blocks access to many services that most of us take for granted. In my case, layered on top of that is the fact that the Chinese government has been accused of hacking some media organizations.  Read more

New Yorker Writer Is Surprised by Byline in Chinese Newspaper: His Own

Readers of Peter Hessler, the author of “River Town” and other well-received books about China, may have been surprised to see his byline this week in China Daily, a state-run newspaper. Read more

Shanghai Blames Local Officials and Police in Deadly New Year’s Stampede

The Shanghai city government dismissed two officials on Wednesday after releasing a report that blamed poor preparations and lax policing for a stampede that killed 36 people at a popular tourist site on New Year’s Eve. Read more

China Said to Be Doing Away With Goals for Arrests and Convictions

The Chinese Communist Party has demanded an end to secretive performance goals that set minimum arrest and conviction rates for the police, prosecutors and courts, which magnify the pressure for guilty verdicts, the state-run news media said on Wednesday. Read more

China posts its worst growth in 24 years

Gross domestic product was 7.4% in 2014, compared to the same period the previous year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That's below the government's 7.5% goal, and is the slowest growth rate since 1990. Read more

China arrests 60,000 and seizes 11 tonnes of drugs in anti-narcotic campaign

Police in China have arrested 60,500 people for drug-related crimes and seized 11.14 tonnes of narcotics in a vast, multi-city sweep, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Read more

Mourners mark China leader Zhao Ziyang's death anniversary

More than 100 people braved police surveillance to go to what was once his courtyard home in Beijing. Mr Zhao was detained after opposing the use of force to end the protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. Read more

Is ‘China’s Machiavelli’ Now Its Most Important Political Philosopher?

Party leader Xi Jinping quotes an ancient philosopher and offers possible insights into his political beliefs. Read more

Rapport fra livet «Beyond Index»

Man får følelsen av å være statist i en slags dystopisk science fiction-film hvor alt grønt og menneskelig har dødd ut, og de få som overlevde atomkrigen nå kjemper en brun, hard og skitten kamp for tilværelsen, skriver Peter Svaar, NRKs korrespondent i Beijing. Les mer

China's 109-Year-Old Dissenter Is Still Fighting For Democracy

"We don't have freedom of speech in China," says Zhou Youguang. Read more