Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 149

Alex Joske: The Party Speaks for You - China and the United Front

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is strengthening its influence by co-opting representatives of ethnic minority groups, religious movements, and business, science and political groups. It claims the right to speak on behalf of those groups and uses them to claim legitimacy.These efforts are carried out by the united front system, which is a network of party and state agencies responsible for

Torbjørn Færøvik: Hvem «stemmer» Kina på? Harris eller Trump?

Verden holder pusten, i neste uke er det valg i USA. Også de kinesiske lederne følger nøye med. Hvem «stemmer» de på? Kamala Harris eller Donald Trump? Spekulasjonene har vært mange. I tidsskriftet Foreign Affairs skriver kommentatoren Agatha Demarais at Kina «heier på Trump». Andre mener at lederne i Beijing er usikre på hvem de er best tjent med. Professor Zhao Minghao ved Fudan-universitetet i

EXPLAINED: How would Harris and Trump differ on Asia?

As the result of Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election teeters on knife’s edge in a handful of evenly split swing states, the rest of the world is bracing itself for two starkly different potential futures.One prospect is the return of former President Donald Trump’s turbulent “America First” foreign policy, which last time around downplayed any U.S. obligations as a world leader to prioritize

American democracy ‘messy,’ Chinese state media says

As China watches the countdown to the U.S. presidential election results, state media has been hammering home the point that American democracy is messy, violent and encourages extreme behaviors on both sides, while ordinary people seem to support Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in roughly equal measure, commentators told Radio Free Asia. “In the past

REVEALED: Inside the CIA’s (largely) secret role in the Tibetan resistance

Following the People’s Liberation Army’s invasion of Tibet in 1949, thousands of ordinary Tibetans rose up in a series of independent uprisings in the 1950s to defend their country and religion against Chinese troops. In 1958, the Chushi Gangdruk army, a unified resistance force, was formally established.Led by Gompo Tashi Andrugtsang, a charismatic trader living in Lhasa, it later became known

Japan plunged into political uncertainty after voters deliver dramatic defeat to longtime ruling party

Japanese voters delivered a stinging rebuke to the country’s longtime ruling party in elections Sunday, plunging the world’s fourth largest economy into a rare period of political uncertainty. Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed almost continuously since 1955, has lost its parliamentary majority in the powerful lower house for the first time in 15 years.Public anger and distrust

Chinese hackers targeted Trump and Vance’s phone data

Chinese government-linked hackers have targeted the phone communications of former President Donald Trump and vice presidential nominee JD Vance as part of a much broader cyber-espionage effort aimed at high-level US targets, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The Chinese hackers also targeted people affiliated with the Harris-Walz campaign, another source familiar with the matter

US approves $2 billion in arms sales to Taiwan including advanced missile defense system

The United States has approved $2 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, including the first-time delivery to the self-ruled island of an advanced surface-to-air missile defense system, in a move that has drawn China’s criticism. Taiwan’s presidential office on Saturday thanked Washington for greenlighting the potential arms sales. Under the island’s new president, Lai Ching-te, Taiwan has been

From China’s Past: Boxer Protocol, 1901 Peace Agreement between the Great Powers and China

The Boxer Protocol was a diplomatic protocol[1] signed in China's capital Beijing on September 7, 1901, between the Qing Empire of China and the Eight-Nation Alliancethat had provided military forces (including France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Japan, Russia, and the United States) as well as Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands, after China's defeat in the intervention to

Social Outlook 2024 Protecting our Future Today: Social Protection in Asia and the Pacific

Social protection is a powerful policy tool to prevent and reduce poverty, inequality, social exclusion and insecurity emanating from risks and shocks, including those related to life cycle contingencies. But what is the status of social protection systems across Asia and the Pacific? Are they equipped to withstand and turn the megatrends of climate change, demographic shifts including population