Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 269

China’s foreign minister tells Pacific leaders ‘don’t be too anxious’ after they reject regional security pact

Pacific countries have declined to sign up to a sweeping regional economic and security deal proposed by China, after a crucial meeting of Pacific foreign ministers and their Chinese counterpart on Monday. China’s foreign minister Wang Yi is in the middle of a marathon tour of the region, visiting eight countries in 10 days, a trip that security experts have said represents a dramatic “uptick in

Outcry as China stops Pacific journalists questioning Wang Yi

Journalists covering the Chinese foreign minister’s tour of the Pacific say they have been blocked from filming or accessing events, and that not a single question from a Pacific journalist has been allowed to be asked of Wang Yi. The allegations raise serious press freedom concerns and alarm about the ability of Pacific journalists to do their jobs, particularly as the relationship between the

Shanghai starts to dismantle fences as Covid lockdown due to end

Shanghai authorities have begun dismantling fences around housing compounds and ripping police tape off public squares and buildings, to the relief of the city’s 25 million residents, before a painful two-month lockdown is lifted at midnight. On Monday evening, some of the people allowed out of their compounds for brief walks took advantage of suspended traffic to congregate for a beer and ice

Math books outrage China with 'ugly, sexually suggestive, pro-American' images

China has ordered a nationwide review of school textbooks after illustrations deemed ugly, sexually suggestive and secretly pro-American caused public uproar. The news has alarmed some experts and parents who fear the campaign is turning into a political witch hunt and represents an unnecessary tightening of the country's already stringent censorship of cultural publications.The drawings, found

The coming storm over a single common law in India

When it comes to matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption, India has different laws for different communities based on their religion, faith and beliefs. But since Independence there's been talk of a Uniform Civil Code or UCC, a single personal law for all citizens irrespective of religion, sex, gender and sexual orientation. Even the constitution says the state should "

Xinjiang Police Files: Inside a Chinese internment camp

The highly coercive and potentially lethal systems of control used against minority groups in China’s internment camps have been revealed in a giant cache of secret documents shared with the BBC. China insists the network of secure facilities built across its far western region of Xinjiang are simply “schools” for combatting extremism to which “students” sign up willingly. But the contents of the

Solomon Islands journalists shut out of China foreign minister visit, raising secrecy concerns

Pacific journalists have raised serious concerns about secrecy surrounding the upcoming marathon tour of the Pacific by China’s foreign minister, who will be visiting eight countries in 10 days. Wang Yi will visit Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Fiji between 26 May and 4 June, on a tour of the region that has been labelled “extraordinary and

China’s Pacific plan is ‘clear’ but so is Australia’s intention to be regional partner of choice

Australia has responded to reports that China is pursuing a Pacific-wide security pact with almost a dozen nations, stating that while Beijing’s intentions were clear “so too are the intentions of the new Australian government” to be the partner of choice in the region. China will seek a regional deal with 10 Pacific island nations covering policing, security and data communications cooperation

China is pursuing a Pacific-wide pact with 10 island nations on security, policing and data

China will pursue a Pacific-wide deal with almost a dozen island nations covering policing, security and data communications cooperation when the foreign minister, Wang Yi, hosts a meeting in Fiji next week, documents show. A draft communique and five-year action plan sent by Beijing to 10 Pacific islands ahead of a foreign ministers meeting on 30 May has prompted pushback from at least one of

Xi Jinping defends China’s human rights record to visiting UN commissioner

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has spoken with the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, as she visited the Xinjiang region, warning against the politicisation of human rights as an “excuse to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries” and defending his government’s record.It comes amid renewed defensiveness in Beijing after the publication of a significant data leak from Xinjiang’s