Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 214

Beijing’s Culinary Crusade: Erasing Uyghur Identity through Food

Instruction began early on a November 2018 morning. This lesson was not taught in a classroom, but in a makeshift kitchen as part of Xinjiang’s “household school” program. There, a teacher stood before her class of adult women and asked: “What do you like to eat for breakfast?”The students responded in unison, “nan and milk” or “nan and tea.”“You don’t eat a bowl of hot congee?” the teacher

Putin and Xi announce plans to strengthen military ties in Beijing

Russia and China have announced they will deepen their already close military ties, as Vladimir Putin met Xi Jinping in Beijing on his first foreign trip since being inaugurated for a new term as Russia’s president. It is the latest in a string of statements and signals that the warm relationship between the two countries is as strong as it has ever been.Xi’s red carpet welcome for Putin – a man

AI and deepfakes blur reality in India elections

In November last year, Muralikrishnan Chinnadurai was watching a livestream of a Tamil-language event in the UK when he noticed something odd. A woman introduced as Duwaraka, daughter of ​​Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tamil Tiger militant chief, was giving a speech. The problem was that Duwaraka had died more than a decade earlier, in an airstrike in 2009 during the closing days of the Sri Lankan

In Retrospect: Jawaharlal Nehru, 'Note on Visit to China and Indo-China' (1954)

"During my visit to China, I had a number of talks with the Chinese readers. I had long talks with Premier Chou En-lai [Zhou Enlai] separately. I also had joint talks with Chairman Mao Tse-tung [Mao Zedong] and his principal colleagues, viz., Vice-Chairman Chu The, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Peoples Congress Liu Shao-chi [Liu Shaoqi], Premier Chou En-lai, Vice-Chairman Soong

How Does Chinese Media Write About AI?

Artificial intelligence is in everything these days, from ride-hailing apps to short videos — a meteoric rise that is raising concerns about big tech and the pervasive influence of algorithms in our daily lives. Last March, European legislators adopted the Artificial Intelligence Act, demanding greater transparency from AI developers. In China and the United States, regulators have tried to

China’s Xi Jinping highlights Europe’s divisions ahead of expected Putin visit

Xi Jinping may have started his recent European trip by fielding tough questions in France about trade and Russia’s war in Ukraine, but the Chinese leader ended the sojourn late last week by projecting a stark message: that despite frictions with much of the continent, China still has fans in some European capitals.Beijing’s pulling power was on show in Belgrade and Budapest, where streets were

Full text: China-Hungary Joint Statement on the Establishment of an All-Weather Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for the New Era

"Hungary respects the great achievements that China has scored in economic and social development, and hopes that the Chinese people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, will build China into a great modern socialist country in all respects, achieve the Second Centenary Goal and advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through Chinese modernization.

EU-China relations: De-risking or de-coupling – the future of the EU strategy towards China

Over the past decade, the political environment in the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as China) has become more closed and authoritarian. The influence of ideology and nationalism has grown, coupled with wider and more serious human rights violations. It is possible that this trend could continue. Moreover, the Chinese government’s external behaviour has become more assertive

China’s European bridgehead. Hungary’s dangerous relationship with Beijing

As the European Union tightens its stance towards China while the latter continues its expansion in the e-mobility sector, Chinese-Hungarian relations have gained new momentum. After a decade of difficulties in implementing joint infrastructural projects, new investments by Chinese giants such as CATL and BYD are set to turn Hungary into a manufacturing hub for Chinese electric vehicles in Europe

As China and Iran hunt for dissidents in the US, the FBI is racing to counter the threat

After a student leader of the historic Tiananmen Square protests entered a 2022 congressional race in New York, a Chinese intelligence operative wasted little time enlisting a private investigator to hunt for any mistresses or tax problems that could upend the candidate’s bid, prosecutors say. “In the end,” the operative ominously told his contact, “violence would be fine too.”As an Iranian