Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 204

Is China’s middle class slipping back into poverty?

As the group of people most sensitive to social change, the middle class is a yardstick for measuring the state of China’s current economy and a window into the future. At the moment, the signs are there that China’s middle class is not doing as well as before, leading to cutting down on spending and saving on daily expenses.China’s latest revenue from personal income tax has added fuel to

U.S.-China Relations in 2024: Managing Competition without Conflict

From 2018 to 2023, U.S.-China relations were in a linear downward spiral. The trade war, the pandemic, growing technology competition, rising tensions in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, and contrasting approaches to the Russia-Ukraine conflict have collectively fed a sense of fatalism that the countries were heading toward the abyss of outright economic decoupling and a disastrous

Biden and China's Xi make first contact since November with a 'check-in' call

President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held what a senior Biden administration official dubbed a "check-in" call on Tuesday, marking the first The call touched on everything from Taiwan to the situation on the Korean Peninsula, artificial intelligence and Russia's war in Ukraine.According to the Chinese readout, Xi told Biden strategic awareness "must always be the first 'button' to be

Ex-Taiwanese President Ma visits China to help build social and cultural links

Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou is visiting China to help build social and cultural links on a trip that might include a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping despite heightened tensions. Ma left Taipei on Monday with a student group on an 11-day trip that underlines continued interactions in education, business and culture despite Beijing’s threat to use military force against the

In Retrospect: Joint Communique of the United States of America and the People's Republic of China (Shanghai Communique) February 27, 1972

President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China ended with a joint statement between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China. The document pledged that it was in the interest of all nations for the United States and China to work towards the normalization of their relations, although this would not occur until another joint communiqué seven years later. Read more

How China’s Volt Typhoon hackers target US infrastructure

The US government and its primary global intelligence partners, known as the Five Eyes, issued a warning on March 19, 2024, about the activity targeting critical infrastructure by Volt Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group. The warning echoes analyses by the cybersecurity community about Chinese state-sponsored hacking in recent years. As with many cyberattacks and attackers, Volt

Cambodia getting a China-backed, game-changing canal

Cambodia wants to divert Southeast Asia’s Mekong River into a planned US$1.7 billion, Chinese-financed shipping canal to reach a deep-sea port at Kep near Sihanoukville on southern Cambodia’s Gulf of Thailand coast. The Funan Techo Canal would enable Cambodians to be “breathing through our own nose,” said newly elected Prime Minister Hun Manet, son and heir to long-time authoritarian former prime

India heads to the polls as a much lesser democracy

In his recent speeches, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed confidence in returning to power for a third consecutive term as the country prepares for parliamentary elections to be held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1 this year.On February 18, in his speech at the National Council of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the prime minister confidently stated that despite the

China uses its own interpretation of history and international law

In cases like the Kinmen capsizing incident and in its dealings with the Philippines, China uses its own interpretation of history and international law to launch a narrative where it is the aggrieved party, says Philippine academic Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby. She cautions that crafting a narrative requires anchoring it in strategy instead of being knee-jerk reactions that can lead nations

How China Will Be Challenged By a 100-Year Storm

A few years ago, President Xi Jinping started warning that a 100-year big storm is coming. As is typical of the early days of a hurricane, one can now feel it. The circumstances and the mood in China have indisputably changed to become more threatening. These changes are mostly due to big cycle forces. The most joyous and productive environments are ones that have freedom, civility, and