Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 203

This country has a national happiness index. But what is it really like to live there?

Located between China and India, the world’s two most populous countries, high in the Himalayas, sits Bhutan. Known as the Land of the Thunder Dragon, it’s a Buddhist monarchy of 700,000 residents that has only had regular television broadcasts since 1999.Most foreigners who have heard of Bhutan know two things: the country charges international visitors a $100/day sustainable development fee (

Germany blocks another big business deal with China

Germany has blocked the sale of a Volkswagen subsidiary to China on national security grounds, delivering a fresh blow to the already tenserelationship with its biggest trading partner. MAN Energy Solutions, part of the Volkswagen Group, said in June 2023 that it planned to sell its gas turbines business to Chinese state-owned CSIC Longjiang GH Gas Turbine Co (GHGT). But a German government

China’s Xi urges regional leaders to resist ‘external interference’ as security bloc grows to counter US

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday urged regional leaders to resist “external interference” at a gathering of a Eurasian security bloc touted by Beijing and Moscow as a counterbalance to Western power. Addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)’s annual leaders’ summit in Kazakhstan, Xi called on member states to “consolidate the power of unity” in the face of “the real challenge

China’s demographics aren’t a short-term problem

In discussions about China’s economy, the issue of demographics comes up quite a lot. In 2022, China’s population began to decrease (and coincidentally, India’s population surpassed China’s). The country’s fertility rate, which had already fallen below replacement levels decades earlier, fell again recently, to just 1.09 — one of the lowest rates in the world, and even lower than Japan.This is

Indonesia rebuffs China’s Global South trade drive

Beijing’s strategy to boost trade relations with countries in the Global South to diversify away from closing Western markets has taken a hit with Indonesia’s announced intention to impose a 100-200% tariff on China’s labor-intensive goods.Over the past few days, several Indonesian officials have said that the world’s fourth most populous nation is drafting regulations to impose anti-dumping

A growing club led by Xi and Putin to counter the US is adding a staunchly pro-Russia member

A club of Eurasian countries spearheaded by China and Russia to advance their leaders’ vision of an alternative world order is set to expand again this week – this time adding a staunch Russian ally that has openly supported Moscow’s war on Ukraine. The expected admission of Belarus to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at its annual leaders’ summit in Astana, Kazakhstan is another push

A Norwegian citizen has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, a report says

A Norwegian citizen has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to spy for China, Norway's domestic security agency said Tuesday, declining to give details about the case. “We are in an initial phase. Therefore we are rather tight-lipped now. We are not going to give many details in the case,” said Thomas Blom, a prosecutor with the security agency, known by its Norwegian initials PST. He spoke

China's Communist Party expels ex-defense chief, predecessor in graft probe

China on Thursday expelled its former Defense Minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor from the ruling Communist Party over corruption allegations, state broadcaster CCTV reported, deepening a sweeping purge within the top ranks of the military. Li was removed in October last year without explanation after he vanished from public view for two months, amid a series of high-level shakeups that have

China restricts religious debate event for Tibetan monks

Chinese government authorities in a a Tibetan-populated county in Sichuan province have shortened the duration of a key weeklong debate on Buddhist philosophy and reduced the number of monks who could attend the event, Tibetans with knowledge of the situation said. The annual Dhokham Jang Gunchoe, or Great Winter Debate Session, is a longstanding tradition of Tibet’s three monastic universities —

China condemned for rejecting key recommendations of UN review of its rights record

China has rejected all key recommendations urging it to end violations of human rights of its citizens while accepting only those from friendly governments which either do not criticize it or which, in fact, praises its repressive policies in the name of combating separatism and maintaining the socialist government system following the UN’s Universal Periodical Review (UPR) of its record held in