Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 1428

Obama’s Choice for China Envoy a Longtime Free Trade Advocate

Senator Max Baucus, who has been chosen by President Obama as the new ambassador to China, is a free trade proponent whose chief China concerns have been lifting restrictions on the sale of American beef from his home state, Montana, to the Chinese market. Read more

Mind the gap: China's great education divide

For the second time in a decade, 15-year-olds in Shanghai have scored at the top of the PISA global education assessment, ranking number one in the world in reading, math and science. But one thing is for certain. The results are not representative of a nation. China as a whole does not take the PISA exam. Read more

In China, a Dynamite Solution to Land Shortages

Local governments in China have become increasingly reliant on revenue from real estate development to keep the engine of economic growth running at high speed. But what happens when you run out of land to develop? For some cities, like Shiyan in Hubei province, the solution has been to level nearby mountains. Read more

North Korea is more accessible to foreign journalists than Tibet is

The Tibetan Autonomous Region of China has been largely closed to the outside world since it was wracked by popular protests in 2008. But the extreme degree of its isolation is hinted at by this very revealing fact: There are more foreign journalists in North Korea than there are in Tibet. Read more

China's 'AIDS granny' living in exile in New York

Her story is as remarkable as it is revolutionary. Dr. Gao Yaojie (85) - a gynecologist, author and affirmed human rights Warrior - has been living in exile in Manhattan since 2009 for her tireless commitment to a crisis in China that has seen her almost universally renowned as "the AIDS granny". Read more

Mass Re-Education for China’s Reporters

The state-run Global Times reports that 250,000 Chinese journalists are being made to attend weekly training sessions ahead of a certification exam scheduled for next year. All journalists are technically required to be certified in order to be able to legally conduct interviews or otherwise gather information. Read more

China grants renewed press cards to several Western journalists facing expulsion

Journalists from the New York Times, Bloomberg News and other organizations were facing the loss of their Chinese visas around the end of December, at which point they and their families would be forced to leave the country. Read more

Dear President of China - An Open Letter

President Xi Jinping, for your sake and the sake of stability in China, please don’t make the mistake of blaming the messengers. The Great Chinese Firewall you need to construct can’t be against the truth. It has to be against corruption. An Open Letter from Thomas L. Friedman

Er tiden over for Nord-Koreas unge leder?

Er regimet i Nord-Korea i ferd med å kollapse? Spekulasjonene er mange etter landets unge leder, Kim Jong-un, i forrige uke sendte sin en gang så mektige onkel i døden. Les mer

China: Western media must be controlled

Foreign journalists must be kept under control, a Chinese state newspaper has said, as the government prepares to expel reporters from the New York Times and Bloomberg. Read more