Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 1443

Interview: China's Great Famine Years 'Were an Era of Cannibalism'

Tens of millions of people died in China in the famines that followed the start of the Great Leap Forward (1958–1961), a bid by then supreme leader Mao Zedong to catch up with U.S. levels of development in just a few years. Estimates of the total range from the official 10 million figure, to at least 45 million. But more recently, reports have begun to emerge suggesting that not all of those

Islamister tar på seg ansvaret for Beijing-terror

En islamistgruppe som kaller seg Turkestans islamske parti tar på seg skylda for hendelsen der en bil kjørte inn i en folkemengde på Den himmelske freds plass i Beijing. Les mer

Revolutionary reform in China

China is pushing the accelerator of economic and social change to shift wealth and quality of life to those who have been left behind in the economic boom. This is the only way the dragon can gain momentum. It is a very realistic approach. Political reform will come later, at the right time, Writes China expert Gabriele Battaglia. Read more

No Release in Sight for Film Exploring China’s Violence

When Jia Zhangke screened his new movie, “A Touch of Sin,” for a small group of journalists in his office last August, he said the film would make a round of foreign film festivals in the autumn and then, if all went well, be released on Nov. 9 in China. Now, with winter approaching, there is still no indication that the film will be shown in Chinese theaters. Read more

Kina oppretter flyforbudssone i omstridt havområde

Igjen skjerpet Kina  tonen overfor sine naboer, denne gang ved å forby dem å fly inn et omstridt område i Kinahavet. Forbudet gjelder kun for militære fly og berører ikke den sivile luftfarten. Land som krenker forbudet, må regne med "resolutte mottiltak". Les mer

“A Time of Reckoning” for Journalism on China

"I can confirm that I have left Bloomberg News. That's all I'm going to say for now. Mike Forsythe"

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What Will It Cost to Cover China?

Journalism on China is facing a time of reckoning as well. The foreign correspondent Paul Mooney, an American who has covered China for the past eighteen years, for Newsweek, the South China Morning Post, and others, has been denied a visa. Mooney joins a list of other foreign correspondents who have been denied entry, or have been forced to leave, in the past two years, because the Chinese

Xi's power grab dwarfs market reforms

While the recent Third Plenary Session of the 18th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee was expected to unveil major initiatives in economic liberalization, what has struck Chinese and foreign observers most is the weight that the leadership has given to enhancing state security, particularly centralizing powers in the top echelon of the party-state apparatus. Read more

Urbanites flee China's smog for blue skies

At a time when hundreds of millions of Chinese, many of them poor farmers, are leaving their country homesteads to find work and tap into the energy of China's dynamic cities, a small number of urban dwellers have decided to make a reverse migration. Their change in lifestyle speaks volumes about anxieties over pollution, traffic, living costs, property values and the general stress found in

Kinas høyeste domstol forbyr tortur

Sentralkomiteen i det kinesiske kommunistpartiet sier det vil skape et bedre rettsvesen og gi borgerne et bedre vern mot små og store overgrep. Landets høyeste domstol følger opp med å forby tortur under forhør. Read more

"Interrogation by torture in extracting a confession, as well as the use of freezing, hunger, drying, scorching, fatigue and other illegal methods to obtain a confession from