Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 137

China slams Lithuania over expulsions amid cable-cutting row

China on Monday slammed Lithuania’s expulsion of three of its nationals amid an ongoing row over the involvement of a Chinese-registered cargo vessel in the cutting of undersea internet cables in the Baltic Sea. The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday declared three staff members of China’s representative office in the country, a type of diplomatic mission, as personae non gratae,

Anders Magnus: Hvorfor skal Norge betale for Kinas miljøgriseri?

Verdens rike land skal betale fattige land for klima-skader. Hvorfor slipper verstingen Kina unna hele tiden? Klimatoppmøtet COP29 i Aserbajdsjans hovedstad Baku endte med at de rike landene skal (forsøke) å betale 3000 milliarder kroner årlig for klimatiltak i de fattige landene. Dette nivået skal nås innen 2035, opp fra dagens enighet om 1000 milliarder kroner i året.«Akkurat nå er det

China jails journalist Dong Yuyu for 7 years for ‘spying’

A court in Beijing on Friday handed down a seven-year jail term to prominent journalist and columnist Dong Yuyu after finding him guilty of “espionage” in a trial behind closed doors that ended in July 2023, his family and press associations said. The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court announced the verdict and sentence in the trial of Dong, 62, on Friday, saying it was based on evidence

Taiwan leader to visit Hawaii as part of visit to Pacific: report

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will visit Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam on a trip to the Pacific that will include stops in three diplomatic allies, media reported, after the government called on China not to “overreact” to his travels. China views Taiwan as its territory and it objects to any country or organization treating it as a state. In particular, China gets infuriated by visits by

Chinese military conducts patrol near disputed Scarborough shoal

The Chinese military held a large-scale maritime and airspace patrol near the Scarborough shoal, a disputed reef in the South China Sea known in China as Huangyan Dao, citing “instability” created by “certain countries.” Scarborough Shoal, known as Bajo de Masinloc in the Philippines, is about 125 nautical miles (232 kilometers) from the main Philippine island of Luzon. China now effectively

Torbjørn Færøvik: Ibn Battuta var Marco Polos overmann

På besøk i Tanger har jeg bare ett i hodet - å oppsøke graven til Ibn Battuta. Ibn hvem? vil du kanskje spørre. Svaret mitt er kort og greit: Ibn Battuta var middelalderens største reisende. Ikke engang Marco Polo klarte å tilbakelegge like mange mil.  «Jeg forlot Tanger, min fødeby, 13. juni 1325 for å dra på pilegrimsreise til Mekka. Jeg vinket farvel til alle vennene mine, kvinner som

VOLKSWAGEN EXITS XINJIANG AFTER CRITICISM ABOUT COMPLICITY IN HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

On Wednesday, German auto manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) announced that it would sell its operations in Xinjiang. The move comes after years of pressure from rights groups that have documented the Chinese government’s grave abuses—including forced labor—against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in the region, and the attendant complicity of Western corporations that operate there. However, based on

Trump has assembled a team of China hawks. How will Beijing respond?

One called China an “existential threat.” Another called for a “whole-of-society effort” to confront China and was sanctioned – twice – by Beijing. A third claimed the Chinese military was “specifically dedicated to defeating the United States of America.”US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed cabinet is stacked with so-called China hawks who have made clear an ambition to confront America’s

China plans big data warning system to prevent public killings

China’s Communist Party is stepping up the use of big data to predict people’s behavior in a bid to identify “social risks” and prevent violent attacks on members of the public in the wake of the car killings in Zhuhaiearlier this month. “We should ... deeply tap into the rich seams of political and legal data, strengthen data identification, screening, analysis and evaluation, and find ways to

Beijing tests bilateral waters with US prisoner exchange

Three Americans who Washington says were wrongfully imprisoned in China have landed back on U.S. soil as part of a rare prisoner swap with Beijing, in a move analysts said could signal China’s willingness to do further deals with the incoming Trump administration.Mark Swidan, of Houston, Texas, Kai Li, of Long Island, New York, and John Leung, a permanent resident of Hong Kong, have been reunited