Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 1487

Chinese Activist to Sue Over Labor Camp Term

A rights activist in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin who was sent to labor camp after texting political poems to friends has vowed to sue the ruling Chinese Communist Party for illegal detention.
Yu Yunfeng was sentenced to two years' "re-education through labor" by Harbin authorities in 2011 for "serious disturbance of public order" as well as "opposing the Party and opposing socialism

In China, Losing Sleep Over Choice of Schools

Next week, millions of fifth graders across China will struggle with their end-of-year examinations. And, with just one year of elementary education left, their parents will struggle with choosing a high school for them. Read more

Philippines Boosts Defense Ties to Counter China

The Philippines is boosting military ties with the U.S. and Japan as it seeks to counter China’s increased presence in disputed waters in the fish and gas-rich South China Sea. President Aquino's government is crafting an agreement with the U.S. giving its military access to Subic Bay, Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said at a briefing in  Manila. Read more

Return to Xiaogang Village

In 1978, 18 farmers from Xiaogang Village (小岗村) in Anhui Province risked being labeled "counter-revolutionary" by dividing village-owned land into private family plots. They each farmed their own plot, giving part of their yield to the collective and the government, but keeping the rest for themselves. Read more

Ian Buruma: Spending time in jail is no fun

Spending time in jail is no fun anywhere, but each society has its own cultural refinements of misery. The sadistic imagination of Chinese prison authorities, though hardly unique, is often remarkable. But so is that of the inmates themselves, who form their own hierarchies, their own prisons within prisons. Read more

"Maos rike" - nå i pocketutgave

Min Bragepris-belønte bok "Maos rike - en lidelseshistorie" er utkommet i pocketutgave. Boken handler om Maos styre fra 1949 til 1976. " ... en levende og kritisk beretning om menneskelig lidelse under Maos styre," lyder Brage-juryens dom.  "En sterk bok," skriver Sven Egil Omdal (Stavanger Aftenblad) i sin anmeldelse. Pris kr. 199. Løp og kjøp! Bestill boken

Korea – 60 år med «våpenhvile»

Den 27. juni 1953 satte en våpenhvile sluttstrek for en krig uten seierherrer i Korea. Begivenheten fant sted i en naken bygning i Panmunjom, på grensen mellom Nord- og Sør-Korea. Seksti år etter er det fremdeles våpenhvile, men ingen fredsavtale, skriver Torbjørn Færøvik i en kommentar på NRK Ytring.

27 Dead in Xinjiang Violence

Xinhua reports that 27 people were killed in riots in Xinjiang on Wednesday morning. The riots happened at around 6 a.m. in Lukqun township of Shanshan County in Turpan Prefecture. Read more

Xi Jinping’s Rare Scolding of Top Party Leaders

After telling the lower ranks of the Communist Party to shape up and make a
clean break from past practice, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has taken aim at a new
target: the Party leadership itself. And he’s done so with authority and openness from the highest pulpit of
politics in China–the Politburo, the very place where the senior leaders sit and
make policy. Read more

Human Rights Watch: A New Report on China

China’s new leadership, consisting of the Communist Party’s seven permanent standing committee members, assumed power at the 18th Party Congress in November. The Chinese people had no say in the selection of their new leaders, highlighting that despite the country’s three decades of rapid modernization, the government remains an authoritarian one-party system that places arbitrary curbs on