Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 2

President Lee Jae-Myung’s Plan to Reboot South Korea

It was not how Lee Jae-myung envisioned his first day on the job. Following his election as South Korea’s President on June 3, Lee’s staff arrived at their new offices in central Seoul the next morning to find rooms strewn with trash and desks equipped with monitors but bereft of computers, which had all been piled in a corner. It was a struggle to get doors unlocked and find even basic

How South Asia Can Adapt to Extreme Heat

Last year was the hottest the earth has ever experienced. There has been little sign of high temperatures abating; 2025 began with the hottest January on record. Climate change has doubled the number of days of extreme heat in 195 countries and territories, according to new research by Climate Central and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. In April 2024, Munshiganj in Southwest Bangladesh

China Reacts to Trump’s $14B TikTok Takeover

China has responded to President Donald Trump’s executive order approving a $14 billion deal to restructure TikTok’s operations in the United States. The move followed Trump’s announcement that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had signed off on the deal during their recent talks.TikTok, with more than 170 million U.S. users, has become central to how younger Americans consume information and culture. It

China Opens ‘Arctic Express’ Shipping Route to Europe

A Chinese container ship has embarked on a groundbreaking voyage through the Arctic, launching what Beijing calls an “Arctic Express” corridor to Europe. The vessel, Istanbul Bridge, is expected to complete the journey in just 18 days—nearly halving the time compared with traditional sea lanes.The route, Chinese state-run media outlet the Global Times reported, links ports including Ningbo,

Chinese stocks are on fire this year, drawing big interest from foreign and domestic investors

When Hou Yujie isn’t convincing customers to rent traditional Chinese clothing for photos at the country’s famous Forbidden City, she and her friends are checking stocks. Hou recently put 10% of her money in the market. In just a few days, she earned one month’s salary — and she’s thrilled.  “Interest rates for bank deposits are so low I don’t even want to bother,” Hou said at her shop

Miracle under threat: South Korea’s birth rate collapse could undo decades of growth

South Korea is staring down a demographic freight train. The country, known as one of the “Four Asian Tigers” for its meteoric economic rise from postwar poverty, is confronting a demographic cliff that could stall growth within two decades, studies warn. The Bank of Korea in 2024 projected that the nation’s rock-bottom birth rate will be one of the factors that will push it into a prolonged

Chinese electric cars are going global. A cut-throat price war at home could kill off many of its brands

In the spring of 2024, Li Hongxing, who runs a social media ad agency, took on a client he believed to be a rising star in China’s electric vehicle market. A marketing veteran in the auto industry, Li went so far as to borrow to cover the cost of ads for Ji Yue, expecting payment later from the EV startup he thought had everything it needed to succeed: efficiency, growing sales, and deep-pocketed

CPC Guidelines for Governing Xinjiang in the New Era: Practice and Achievements

"Since its birth, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has pursued its mission of working for the wellbeing of the Chinese people and rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, including the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang. Throughout the years of revolution, construction and reform, the CPC has drawn from the experience and lessons in governing Xinjiang to continuously renew and develop its

Why Trump believes he can push Modi around

On September 17, 2025, US President Donald Trump telephoned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to wish him a happy 75th birthday. In a post on Truth Social, Trump described their conversation as “wonderful” and pledged to strengthen ties between the two countries—a gesture that initially raised hopes of easing tensions after the imposition of a 50% tariff on Indian goods on August 27.Yet this

America’s misplaced priorities risk ceding the century to China

Last Friday, President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping engaged in a high-stakes phone call to finalize the future of TikTok, a platform that has become a lightning rod for geopolitical tensions. The proposed sale of TikTok to a US consortium, including Oracle and other Silicon Valley heavyweights, is being touted as a victory for American control over the platform’s algorithms and