Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 174

China-Vietnamese Relations in the Era of Rising China: Power, Resistance, and Maritime Conflict

In the twenty-first century, China and Vietnam have experienced heightened tension over their sovereignty disputes over the Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and the related disputes over the demarcation of their respective exclusive economic zones (EEZ).1 But, for China, Sino-Vietnamese conflict is more than a dispute over sovereignty and economic rights. It is a

Scammers prey on young Chinese desperate for jobs in bleak economy

A Chinese mother went on television to seek justice for her 19-year-old intellectually disabled son after scammers tricked the desperate jobseeker into having breast augmentation surgery, in an incident that has sparked widespread outrage. The teenager hoping for a job at a cosmetic surgery clinic in the central city of Wuhan was told the procedure would help him earn money, by winning followers

Thai heiress brings back divisive dynasty - but for how long?

Paetongtarn Shinawatra brings a fresh, young face, and yet another member of the powerful Shinawatra clan, to the country’s top job. She is the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed former PM who returned to Thailand last August after 15 years in exile. The 37-year-old is also the youngest prime minister in Thailand’s history, and only the second woman - the first was her aunt Yingluck

National strike held over India doctor's murder

Doctors in India have begun a national strike, escalating the protest against the rape and murder of a female colleague in the West Bengal city of Kolkata. The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the country's largest grouping of doctors, said all non-essential hospital services would be shut down across the country on Saturday. The IMA described last week's killing as a "crime of barbaric scale

From China's Past: EMPEROR QIANLONG’S RESPONSE TO THE KING OF ENGLAND

In 1793, the King of England sent a mission under Lord Macartney to China to open regular diplomatic and commercial relations with China. The King instructed Macartney to deliver a letter to the Emperor requesting, among other things, that the English be allowed to have an ambassador (also referred to as an “envoy”) who would live in the Chinese capital and who would help represent and protect

From China's Past: The Risky Journey That Saved One of China’s Greatest Literary Treasures

My father was not quite 20 years old in the fall of 1937 when he set out on a thousand-mile trek across China. He didn’t do this on his own, but rather with staff and students from the evacuated Nanjing University—and his school wasn’t unique in doing this, either. Across China, students, professors and staff crammed as much as they could into carts, wheelbarrows and their own backpacks. They

Just Where Exactly Did China Get the South China Sea Nine-Dash Line From?

First the dotted line on Chinese maps lost two of its hyphens in 1952, when, in a moment of socialist bonhomie with Vietnam, Chairman Mao Zedong abandoned Chinese claims to the Gulf of Tonkin. Then, on July 12, 2016, an international tribunal ruled that the now nine-dash demarcation could not be used by Beijing to make historic claims to the South China Sea, parts of which are claimed by six

In Retrospect: Who Died in Beijing, and Why?

Robin Munro was among the more than 1,000 foreign journalists in Beijing on the night of the army's final drive to clear Tiananmen Square in 1989. What happened? Who died, and where did the killings take place? This article appeared in The Nation June 11, 1990. Read more

Why China Won’t Allow Single Women to Freeze Their Eggs

Last week, Xu Zaozao, also known as Teresa Xu, received the final verdictfor a lawsuit she filed in 2019 against an obstetrics hospital that denied her access to egg-freezing services. Rejecting Xu's third appeal on Aug. 7, the Third Intermediate People's Court in Beijing sided with the hospital, saying it did not violate her rights by doing so. For the claimant, the outcome of a six-year battle

China's rhetoric turns dangerously real for Taiwanese

Calls to denounce “die hard" Taiwanese secessionists, a tipline to report them and punishments that include the death penalty for “ringleaders” – Beijing’s familiar rhetoric against Taiwan is turning dangerously real. The democratically-governed island has grown used to China’s claims. Even the planes and ships that test its defences have become a routine provocation. But the recent moves to