Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 274

Yellen warns Europeans about working with China, urges unity

Even as Western allies grapple with how to counter Russia’s assault on Ukraine, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Tuesday that they also must take a wary and united approach to checking China and its business practices. “We have a common interest in incentivizing China to refrain from economic practices that have disadvantaged all of us,” Yellen said in a speech to the Brussels Economic

Students protest, discontent grows over China’s COVID policy

Administrators at an elite Beijing university have backed down from plans to further tighten pandemic restrictions on students as part of China’s “zero-COVID” strategy after a weekend protest at the school, according to students Tuesday.Graduate students at Peking University staged the rare, but peaceful protest Sunday over the school’s decision to erect a sheet-metal wall to keep them further

Afghanistan: Inside a secret school for girls

Hidden away in a residential neighbourhood is one of Afghanistan's new "secret" schools - a small but powerful act of defiance against the Taliban. Around a dozen teenage girls are attending a maths class. "We know about the threats and we worry about them," the sole teacher tells us, but she adds, girls' education is worth "any risk". In all but a handful of provinces in the country, girls'

Climate change swells odds of record India, Pakistan heatwaves

Climate change makes record-breaking heatwaves in northwest India and Pakistan 100 times more likely, a Met Office study finds. The region should now expect a heatwave that exceeds the record temperatures seen in 2010 once every three years. Without climate change, such extreme temperatures would occur only once every 312 years, the Met Office says. The report comes as forecasters say

Set opp minnesmerke av Tiananmen-massakren i Oslo

Statuen «Skamstøtta», eller «Pillar of Shame», blei set opp utanfor universitetet i Hongkong i 1997. Det åtte meter høge monumentet var eit minnesmerke etter massakren på Den himmelske fredsplass 4. juni 1989. I desember i fjor blei statuen fjerna av universitetet på oppmoding frå kinesiske myndigheiter. 25. mai blir ein annan versjon av statuen avduka ved Det juridiske fakultet i Oslo. Her skal

Eventually, China’s Borders Will Reopen. Will Foreigners Return?

Longtime Shanghai resident Alex Shoer’s life path typifies that of many foreigners living in China. He arrived, in 2011, for what was supposed to be a short period. And then he just didn’t want to leave. “I really liked it and then decided to stay for one year,” Shoer, who is American, told Sixth Tone. “Every year after that I stayed for one more year.” He eventually started his own consultancy

China’s Youth Are Changing. The Party’s Message Must Too.

For a century, China’s Communist Youth League has been a central pillar of the Communist Party’s power. Party leaders proposed setting up a socialist youth league to train up potential future members at the very first National People’s Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. The organization began operating a year later. After the Communist Revolution, the League wove itself into the

Coal, Once a Boon, Turns Chinese Rustbelt City Into a Bust

When internet giant NetEase Inc. offered a free apartment in Hegang city as part of a marketing gimmick to promote online game Nishuihan, it was a sign the once-prosperous coal-mining hub in Northeast China had reached rock bottom.The winner was even given the option of cashing in the 89-square-meter or larger apartment for 50,000 yuan ($7,858), just in case they didn’t fancy moving to the city —

Chinese Views of the US and Russia After the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

A new survey taken after the Russian invasion of Ukraine finds that the Chinese are very negative about the U.S., very positive about Russia – and very confident about China.Weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Chinese were unapologetically positive about Russia and highly negative about the United States, according to a survey of public opinion conducted online in mainland China with a

Is Authoritarianism the New Normal for Asia?

Democracy is under heavy assault throughout Asia. In the latest 2022 Freedom in the World report released by Freedom House, the continent is home to the three biggest drops in this year's global freedom index.Compared to the previous year, junta-ruled Myanmar experienced a depressing 19-point plunge on the report's 100-point scale. This is the largest annual decline since 2014, when neighboring