Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 275

Shanghai lockdown: The hard life of a homeless deliveryman

Weeks into a strict lockdown, most of Shanghai's 25 million population continue to rely on delivery riders to bring them food and supplies. But this largely invisible workforce of 20,000 faces a lack of shelter and safety. Two delivery riders tell the BBC their stories.I've been so busy. So many people need supplies. I make deliveries all day long, then when it's approaching midnight, I look for

Can the US Deter a Taiwan Invasion?

As the world comes to grips with Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the questions surrounding why Western deterrence has seemingly failed to prevent such a situation will be hotly debated. But beyond the implications for the United States and Europe, perhaps the most common analysis being made, rightly or not, compares Russia President Vladimir Putin’s designs on Ukraine with Chinese leader Xi

How does Japan’s post-war constitution hold up in an era of increasing great power competition?

2022 marks the 75th anniversary of Japan’s remarkable constitution. It is Japan’s second, preceded by the Meiji Constitution of 1889 that heralded a similar overhaul of Japan’s social and political institutions. Both documents reflected a conscious effort to transform Japan to keep pace with global dynamics. The Meiji Constitution signaled an embrace of modernity by Japanese elites as the

China’s Inadvertent Empire: Welcome to Sinostan

In “Sinostan: China’s Inadvertent Empire,” Raffaello Pantucci and Alexandros Petersen take readers into the heart of Eurasia for insight into Beijing’s rise. Over a decade of travel, research, and writing went into the book, which charts the growth of Chinese power and presence in Central Asia. It was in Kazakhstan where, in 2013, newly minted Chinese President Xi Jinping first laid out the

China Suggests Attack on Taiwan Can't Be Called 'Invasion'

Beijing has given the strongest hint yet that it would reject attempts to categorize a future attack on Taiwan as an "invasion," after a government official suggested the term wouldn't apply to another "part of China." The Chinese government in Beijing, established after the Chinese Civil War in 1949, has never governed Taiwan, whose president, Tsai Ing-wen, describes the island democracy as a "

Why Is No One Talking About Elon Musk's Ties to China?

Ever since Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, a debate about free speech and social media has been roiling the internet. The Right sees in Musk a savior from Twitter's liberal bias, while the Left sees in Musk someone who would eliminate content moderation, allowing all manner of views and speech on the social media platform. Both sides are missing an equally important other side

Rural Chinese Cycle Between Mechanization and Migration

Since the beginning of the reform period in the 1980s, millions of rural Chinese have left the countryside for opportunities in the city. According to the 2020 national census, China’s “floating population” — defined as people who have been away from their registered place of residence for more than six months — has risen to more than 375 million, or over one quarter of the total population. This

n Locked-Down Shanghai, Students Adapt to a Surreal New Normal

For Xixi, life now revolves around the color-coded QR codes installed on her smartphone. People across China have grown used to showing a green “health code” to enter public buildings like malls and office buildings during the pandemic. But since the Shanghai lockdown began, some schools have taken the technology much further. Xixi, a sociology student at Shanghai University, now has to show a

China grapples with political challenges as Covid death toll mounts

For two years, China's Communist Party has enforced a costly regime of strict border quarantines, snap lockdowns, and mass digital tracking in the service of a single goal: Zero Covid cases. And Beijing points to the past successes of this strategy -- including only two reported Covid-related deaths for all of 2021 -- to burnish its claims of superiority over Western governments."No effort should

165 million people impacted by China's Covid lockdowns. Here's what you need to know

China has introduced lockdown measures in its two biggest cities, Beijing and Shanghai -- the twin engines that power much of the nation's economy -- in an uncompromising bid to stamp out Covid-19 outbreaks.Shanghai is at the center of the latest outbreak, reporting upwards of 10,000 new cases a day.Authorities have responded with a city-wide lockdown that has lasted weeks, confining nearly all