Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 162

When horror hits China, the first instinct is shut it down

The gates outside the Zhuhai sports complex in China were closed. Inside, the stadium was in darkness, as were the grounds around it. It was here, hours before, where dozens of people were killed when a man drove an SUV into a crowd. Many more were injured.Only security guards appeared to be moving around behind the fence when the BBC arrived, and they had been ordered to keep an eye out for

China megaport opens up Latin America as wary US looks on

As the world waits to see how the return of Donald Trump will reshape relations between Washington and Beijing, China has just taken decisive action to entrench its position in Latin America. Trump won the US presidential election on a platform that promised tariffs as high as 60% on Chinese-made goods. Further south, though, a new China-backed megaport has the potential to create whole new trade

Rubio’s nomination welcomed by Uyghurs and Tibetans

Uyghur and Tibetan activists have welcomed U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Marco Rubio to be the next secretary of state, saying they hope the senator’s track record of defending human rights in China will continue in his role as America’s top diplomat. The son of Cuban migrants and a longtime foreign policy “hawk” when it comes to the Chinese Communist Party, Rubio was named by

What Does Taiwan Think About Trump 2.0?

As was to be expected, the U.S. presidential election cast a large shadow over Taiwan.Polling two days ahead of the election conducted by political scientists Lev Nachman, Yen Weiting, and Hannah Kim showed that Taiwanese seemed to prefer Vice President Kamala Harris, with 56 percent of respondents showing a preference for her over former President Donald Trump. Although some deep Greens remain

'I missed you very much': China's social media darling returns

A Chinese influencer, with a huge global following and the approval of the Communist Party, has returned to the internet after a three-year hiatus. Famous for idyllic videos of life with her grandmother in a village in Sichuan province, the 34-year-old has released three videos since Tuesday - and they have millions of views already. Li first rose to fame in 2016 when China's fast-growing social

World leaders heading to major summits are wary of Trump. China’s Xi sees an opportunity

As leaders from across the world gather for two major summits in South America in the coming days, the uncertainty brought by Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House is expected to loom large. Many will be grappling with what Trump’s “America First” agenda will mean for the global economy and the grinding conflicts in Europe and the Middle East.China, perhaps more than most countries,

China’s Commodification of Minorities: Colourful dances and sanitized theme parks

This summer, I returned to China after nearly a decade to conduct fieldwork among Tibetan communities in Sichuan Province. As a scholar of Chinese and Tibetan culture who has spent significant time in China over the past two decades, I have had the opportunity to observe the transformations as Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping has centralized power and revitalized Chinese

Trains: A Chinese Family History of Railway Journeys, Exile, and Survival

I liked trains as a child. Beijing Railway Station, a Soviet-style landmark constructed in 1959—the year I was born—was just two bus stops southwest of our apartment. Beijing had few tall buildings then, so we enjoyed an unobstructed view of the station from our balcony. On a clear day, it looked postcard-perfect with the elegant twin clock towers carved into the blue sky.Every morning, I crossed

Fiskeriministeren på heisatur til Kina - vil selge enda mer norsk sjømat

– Laksen er særdeles populær. Men også torsken, kongekrabbe og levende snøkrabbe. Og makrell.Marianne Sivertsen Næss (Ap) lister opp alt hun vil Norge skal selge i store kvantum. Fiskeriministeren dagdrømmer imidlertid ikke, der hun suser av gårde i retning Beijing på et lyntog samferdselsminister Jon-Ivar Nygaard (også Ap) kanskje ville vært misunnelig på. Kineserne sikler allerede etter all

Mandarin speech contests in Tibet are attempts to erase native language, experts say

Chinese authorities in Tibet are organizing Mandarin speech competitions in what analysts told Radio Free Asia is another ploy by Beijing to erase Tibetan language and culture. On Nov. 9 and 10, some 33 Tibetans competed the National Common Language Speech Contest in the regional capital of LhasaThough there are many dialects of Chinese spoken in the country, as well as many other languages,