Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 1348

Confucius Institute to close in Sweden

"Generally speaking, establishing institutes that are funded by another nation, within the framework of a university, is rather a questionable practice," the Vice-Chancellor Astrid Søderbergh Widding of Stockholm University said in a comment to the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Read more

China’s Water Problems Are Even Worse Than You Think

A new report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal says China’s water shortage crisis is likely to deepen as the country continues to develop. Government efforts to try and redistribute water from relatively water-wealthy regions to more parched provinces are also likely to further exacerbate the problem, the authors say. Read more

Nobel Prize laureate Mo Yan Stirs Controversy With Support for President Xi

"I judge that the Chinese Communist Party, more than any other party in the world, wants China to be rich and powerful," the 59 year-old author says. Read more

Baby Hatch Programs Struggle to Cope with Number of Infants with Birth Defects

Giving birth to her first baby granted Zheng Yuling no happiness, but instead brought pain and sadness. The seriously ill girl died hours after birth, and Zheng's husband, Chen Dafu, was arrested on suspicion he abandoned the newborn. Read more

A Turning Point in China’s Anti-Graft Campaign

A key phase in the Communist Party's anti-corruption campaign has concluded. Read more

New President in Sri Lanka Puts China’s Plans in Check

On a Sunday four months ago, a vessel pulled unannounced into Sri Lanka’s Colombo harbor: the Chinese Navy submarine Great Wall No. 329, which is designed to carry torpedoes, a cruise missile and a 360-pound warhead. 

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10 things China does better than anywhere else

China's achievements today, including several of the items on this list, can be credited to a deep sense of pragmatism, which assesses most situations by looking at the practical consequences of actions. Read more

Beijing steps up political arrests, prosecutions

China arrested or prosecuted more than 2,300 people for political offenses in 2013, the vast majority in secret, an advocacy group reported Thursday as the ruling Communist party continues a crackdown on dissent. Read more

3 Biggest Misconceptions About India

As we near the end of the year, I would like to reflect on a few of the biggest misconceptions I’ve noticed people, even those interested in South Asia, have about the region, especially India. Read more

China Leads Race to the Moon

In October 2014, China’s Chang’e 5-T1 lunar probe, known as Xiaofei or Little Flyer, successfully completed an orbit around the Moon. This was the first time that a trip around the Moon and back of this sort had been made since the USA and Russian trips in the 1970s. Read more