Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 221

Quad summit in Australia canceled after Joe Biden shortens Asia trip

A planned summit of Quad leaders from the United States, India, Australia, and Japan in Sydney next week has been canceled after US President Joe Biden pulled out of his visit, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday, adding that talks could still proceed as leaders visit Japan.Biden was slated to gather with Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime

Pita Limjaroenrat: Who is the leader of Thailand's Move Forward party?

"Today is a new day, and hopefully it is full of bright sunshine and hope," 42-year-old Pita Limjaroenrat told a room packed with reporters and flashing cameras, hours after it had become clear that he could well be Thailand's next prime minister.Mr Pita's party, Move Forward, which in Thai evokes leaps of change, has swept to a surprising and stunning victory. Voters rejected nearly a decade of

Asia is spending big to battle low birth rates - will it work?

Falling birth rates are a major concern for some of Asia's biggest economies. Governments in the region are spending hundreds of billions of dollars trying to reverse the trend. Will it work? Japan began introducing policies to encourage couples to have more children in the 1990s. South Korea started doing the same in the 2000s, while Singapore's first fertility policy dates back to 1987. China,

Tiananmen Square books removed from Hong Kong libraries in run-up to anniversary

Books about the Tiananmen Square massacre, Hong Kong protest movements, and other subjects deemed politically sensitive by Beijing have been removed from the former British colony’s public libraries in the lead-up to the 34th anniversary of the killings. Hong Kong media have reported a marked increase in the number of book and documentary removals, which have been growing since the authoritarian

Mysterious Killing of Chinese Gold Miners Puts New Pressure on Beijing

The Chinese embassy in the Central African Republic had a stark warning for its compatriots in the landlocked nation: Do not leave the capital city of Bangui. Kidnappings of foreigners were on the rise, and any Chinese person outside of Bangui was to leave those areas immediately. Less than a week later, on March 19, a group of gunmen stormed a remote gold mine far away from Bangui and killed

Thailand’s opposition won a landslide in elections. But will the military elite let them rule?

Thai voters delivered a powerful message to the country’s military-backed government on Sunday: you do not have the will of the people to rule. The progressive Move Forward Party, which gained a huge following among young Thais for its reformist platform, won the most seats and the largest share of the popular vote. Pheu Thai, the main opposition party that has been a populist force in Thailand

In new battle for the Pacific, US and China force regional states to take sides

US efforts to counter Chinese military expansionism and political influence in the Indo-Pacific took another significant step forward last week with an agreement to deepen defence andsecurity ties with the Philippines. Yet US president Joe Biden’s success in developing bilateral and multilateral alliances may have more to do with growing wariness across the region about Beijing than a sudden

US to sign pacts with Micronesia and PNG as Washington seeks to counter China in Pacific

The US is set to sign strategic pacts with Papua New Guinea and Micronesia next week, as Washington seeks to shore up support among Pacific island countries to counter competition from China. Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, Jamas Marape, confirmed that his country’s agreements with the US would be signed when Joe Biden becomes the first sitting US president to visit the Pacific nation on 22

Jimmy Lai: editors from around the world call for release of Hong Kong media mogul

More than 100 journalists and editors have signed an open letter calling for the immediate release of Jimmy Lai, a British media mogul detained in Hong Kong on national security charges. Leading global media figures including the Guardian editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, and Nobel peace prize winner Maria Ressa called for the charges against Lai and other journalists in Hong Kong to be

Torbjørn Færøvik: Tør Kina virkelig invadere Taiwan?

Tør Kina virkelig invadere Taiwan? Prisen kan i så fall bli skremmende høy. De menneskelige og materielle tapene kan bli bortenfor fatteevnen, og verdenshandelen vil gå i stå. Og Kina kan ende opp som den største taperen. Det er et faktum at gode råd kan være dyre, men noen råd er faktisk billige og til og med gratis. For eksempel rådene til den kinesiske militærstrategen Sun Zi, som skal ha levd