Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 1490

Amartya Sen: Why India Trails China

The hope that India might overtake China one day in economic growth now seems a distant one. But that comparison is not what should worry Indians most. The far greater gap between India and China is in the provision of essential public services — a failing that depresses living standards and is a persistent drag on growth, writes Nobel prize laureate Amartya Sen. Read more

How Shady Education Agents Get Chinese into U.S. Colleges

This fall, David Zhu will join an exodus of Chinese students boarding planes for the leafy, beer-soaked campuses of American colleges and universities. But like many Chinese students who don’t speak English fluently, Zhu might not have been accepted without a little help. Read more

Liu Xiaobo's wife to sue Beijing authorities

The wife of the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo is preparing a legal challenge against authorities after her husband and brother were jailed for 11 years and she was made a prisoner in her home.
Lawyers representing Liu Xia said she would sue Beijing police for illegal house arrest and prepare a petition for her husband's subversion case to be retried. Read more

Inside Southeast Asia's dog meat trade

There are few trades that can match dog smuggling’s visceral ugliness. Come nightfall on the Mekong, metal cages packed tight with squirming canines are loaded onto boats and floated across Thailand’s river border. The animals reek. They yowl. They starve and suffer all the way to their final destination: Hanoi slaughterhouses. Read more

“The worst year in history to graduate”

About 7 million students will graduate from Chinese universities and vocational schools in July, the most in the history of the People’s Republic. But many of them won’t find jobs. Half of China’s undergraduate seniors—more than the number of annual graduates in the US—were still unemployed (paywall) this month, according to the China Development Research Foundation. Read more

Russia to supply China with oil

Russian state-controlled oil company Rosneft has committed to supply China with 365 million tonnes of oil over 25 years in a deal
worth around $270 billion, chief executive Igor Sechin said on
Friday.
Sechin said the new supplies would start
in July. Read more Petroleum industry in China

Russia to supply China with oil for the next 25 years

Russian state-controlled oil company Rosneft has committed to supply China with 365 million tonnes of oil over 25 years in a deal
worth around $270 billion, chief executive Igor Sechin said on
Friday.
Sechin said the new supplies would start
in July. Read more Petroleum industry in China

Spyware claims emerge in row over dissident

When Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States in May last
year he was given a fellowship at New York University, use of a Greenwich
Village apartment, and a pile of gifts from supporters, including smartphones
and an iPad. Read more

US leaker both boon and burden for China

For China, Edward Snowden's sudden arrival in Hong Kong and his explosive
revelations about the extent of US cyber-spying activities around the world are
both a boon and a burden, a potential propaganda and intelligence gift, but also
a diplomatic dilemma. Read more

Sexually abused children suffer in silence in China

A young girl shocked her family when she broke her silence and told them she could no longer endure the beatings and abuse from a staff member at school. Murong was one of six schoolgirls aged around 11 who were sexually abused by a classroom adviser for two years in a remote village in the northeast mainland. Read more