Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 201

Philippines, Japan sign groundbreaking defense pact as ‘counterweight’ to China

The Philippines and Japan signed a defense pact Monday that will allow troops to be deployed in each other’s country, a landmark agreement seen as a counterweight to China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea. The Reciprocal Access Agreement, or RAA, was signed by Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa in Manila at a ceremony witnessed

China pulls plug on 'Wild Child,' a movie about troubled street kids

Chinese censors have pulled the plug on a movie about two homeless children who take care of each other. "Due to issues in post-production, we are withdrawing 'Wild Child' from release on July 10," the producers said in a public statement dated July 3, adding that full refunds will be issued. "We would like to convey our sincerest apologies to colleagues in movie theaters and all of our audience.

From China's Past: The Diamond Sutra, the Story of the World's Earliest Dated Printed Book

The Buddhist text known as the Diamond Sutra is believed to be the oldest surviving printed book in the world. Made in 868 AD and written in Chinese, the text contains a significant dialogue on perception, and is one of the most important sacred works of the Buddhist faith. The Diamond Sutra was hidden for centuries in a cave in northwest China, and it was created from seven strips of

China’s Typing Triumph: An Excerpt from ‘The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age’

A standard QWERTY keyboard has a few dozen keys. How can Chinese—a language with tens of thousands of characters and no alphabet—be input on such a device? To answer this question, one needs to return to the beginnings of electronic Chinese technology in the wake of World War II, and follow up through to its many iterations in the present day. In particular, we need to examine the development of

How ready is China's military?

After months of intense speculation and official reticence, China has finally confirmed its two former defense ministers who vanished from public view last year had been under investigation for corruption.  Their dramatic downfall has exposed deep-rooted alleged deceit in key sectors of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s military modernization drive despite his decade-long war on graft, raising

Tesla is now an official Chinese government car

For the first time ever, Tesla cars have been placed on a Chinese government purchase list, according to state-owned media outlet Paper.cn. Tesla is the only foreign-owned EV car brand on the purchase catalog published by the government of Jiangsu province in eastern China. The other brands mentioned include Volvo, owned by China’s Geely, and state-owned SAIC.That means that government agencies

Does China Still Need Libraries?

In 2020, literature professor Yang Suqiu chanced upon an opportunity of a lifetime after taking up a temporary position as the deputy chief of a district culture and tourism bureau in the historical northwestern city of Xi’an: establishing a new district library.Tasked with leading the project, Yang had to oversee every aspect of the library, from its physical construction to the content within.

As Devastating Floods Continue, Chinese County Issues Plea for Aid

A county in central China’s Hunan province has issued an urgent call for aid after being hit by an unprecedented flood that has devastated local infrastructure and left residents short of essential supplies. Over the past two weeks, Pingjiang County has experienced the heaviest rainfall since meteorological records began, causing a local river to swell to its highest level in 70 years on Tuesday

In Retrospect: The Sino-British Joint Declaration (1984)

The Sino-British Joint Declaration was a treaty between the governments of the United Kingdom and China signed in 1984 setting the conditions in which Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese control and for the governance of the territory after 1 July 1997.Hong Kong had been a colony of the British Empire since 1842 after the First Opium War and its territory was expanded on two occasions; first in

US expels more than 100 Chinese migrants in rare mass deportation

The US has sent back 116 Chinese migrants in the first such “large charter flight” in five years, the Department of Homeland Security has said. “We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States,” homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.The flight, which happened over the weekend, comes amid