Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 16

U.S. House passes Uyghur Policy Act supporting victims of persecution by China

The House passed the Uyghur Policy Act on Tuesday, a bill that advances a strategy for the United States to support Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities enduring persecution at the hands of China’s government. It’s the latest try for the measure, which was passed by the House in the past two congressional terms without advancing further. Sponsored by a bipartisan group led by Rep. Young Kim,

Pentagon plan prioritizes homeland over China threat

Pentagon officials are proposing the department prioritize protecting the homeland and Western Hemisphere, a striking reversal from the military’s yearslong mandate to focus on the threat from China.A draft of the newest National Defense Strategy, which landed on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s desk last week, places domestic and regional missions above countering adversaries such as Beijing and

‘Skull Chart’ math behind Trump’s climbdown on all things China

The newest National Defense Strategy just delivered to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth calls for refocusing the Department of War on domestic and regional missions instead of global adversaries like China and Russia. The document – supposedly the work of Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby – overturns decades of received interventionist wisdom.This may surprise many given our boy Colby

'I don't dare go back': BBC visits Cambodian villages caught in Thai border conflict

Rolls of razor wire now run through the middle of the village Cambodia calls Chouk Chey, and on through fields of sugar cane. Behind them, just over the border, tall black screens rise up from the ground, concealing the Thai soldiers who put them up.This is the new, hard border between the two countries, which was once open and easily crossed by people from both sides.  Then, at 15:20

Japanese stocks jump as Prime Minister Ishiba set to step down

Asia-Pacific markets traded mostly higher Monday as investors assessed Japan Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation announcement over the weekend, and eyed key economic data in the region. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.5% following the prime minister’s statement, which came after weeks of mounting pressure over his national election defeat late last year. The Topix climbed 1% to a

China’s U.S. shipments plunge 33% in August as overall exports growth hits a 6-month low

China’s shipments to the U.S. plunged 33% in August while overall exports growth slowed to its weakest level in six months, as President Donald Trump’s policy targeting transshipments weighed on exports and businesses’ frontloading activity lost momentum.Imports from the U.S. also dropped 16% from a year ago, customs data showed. China’s total exports climbed 4.4% in August in U.S. dollar

South Korea Issues Update on Georgia Hyundai Plant ICE Raid

South Korea said it has reached an agreement with the U.S. to repatriate hundreds of South Korean nationals who were arrested during a U.S. immigration raid at a Hyundai–LG electric vehicle battery construction site in Georgia on Thursday.The detained workers were connected to one of the largest Korean investments in the U.S.—a Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution battery joint venture—

South Korean worker tells BBC of panic and confusion during Hyundai ICE raid

A South Korean worker who witnessed a massive immigration operation at a car factory in Georgia has told the BBC of panic and confusion as federal agents descended on the site and arrested hundreds. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, was at the factory which is jointly owned by Hyundai and LG Energy when agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 475 people,

Parades and charades at Tiananmen

On September 3, in a historic military parade in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping displayed a defense system capable of countering the United States. It showed that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is no longer an American junior partner, as some Americans have believed for the past 50 years, but a global power ready to defend and expand its interests.Second, the Indian presence at

Trump’s rare earth push hits a Chinese wall in Myanmar

President Donald Trump is miffed that the US is aced-out by China in processing rare earths that are especially prized for making strategic-use magnets. Those magnets are critical to creating high-tech weaponry and equipment used by the military and aerospace industries, including for US warplanes needed to check China.China hopes to strengthen its near-monopoly over the world’s