Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 336

‘I have not gone anywhere’: former Kazakh leader denies fleeing country

Kazakhstan’s former president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has made his first appearance since unrest broke out in the country earlier this month, in a stilted video in which he denied reports that he had fled the country, or that there was a split in the country’s elites. Instead, Nazarbayev insisted, he had merely been having “a deserved rest”.Nazarbayev ruled Kazakhstan from independence in 1991

Exiled artist Ai Weiwei on Beijing Games

Ai Weiwei is one of China’s most famous artists, and many regard him as one of the world’s greatest living ones. Working with the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, he helped design the Bird’s Nest Stadium, the centerpiece of Beijing’s 2008 Summer Olympics.The stadium in northern Beijing, instantly recognizable for its weave of curving steel beams, will also host the opening ceremony

China forced 2,500 ‘fugitives’ back from overseas during pandemic, report finds

Chinese authorities captured more than 2,500 “fugitives” from overseas and brought them back to China during the pandemic, under a program using methods ranging from family intimidation to “state-sanctioned kidnapping”, according to a new report.Human rights group Safeguard Defenders estimates in its report published on Tuesday that the continued repatriations now total more than 10,000 since

Operation Fox Hunt: How China Exports Repression Using a Network of Spies Hidden in Plain Sight

Launched in 2014, Operation Fox Hunt and a program called Operation Sky Net claim to have caught more than 8,000 international fugitives. The targets are not murderers or drug lords, but Chinese public officials and businesspeople accused — justifiably and not — of financial crimes. Some of them have set up high-rolling lives overseas with lush mansions and millions in offshore accounts. But

Why China won’t tolerate instability in Kazakhstan

With China recently offering political and economic security to Kazakhstan against “external forces,” Beijing appears to have reached a point where it can no longer sustain its self-touted policy of non-interference in countries along its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Recent protests and violence in Kazakhstan over rising fuel prices turned another of China’s neighbors into a tumultuous mess,

Covid separating China from the world

There is a global social and political revolution brought about by the transformation of Covid from an epidemic to an endemic disease that might be with us for many years. A year ago, the belief was that we had reached a turning point and soon the pandemic would end because we now have the vaccine. So, we jab everyone, or almost everyone, we achieve herd immunity and life resumes as before or

China's birth rate drops for a fifth straight year to record low

China's birth rate plummeted for a fifth consecutive year to hit a new record low in 2021, despite government efforts to encourage couples to have more children in the face of a looming demographic crisis. The world's most populous country recorded 10.62 million births last year, or only 7.5 births per 1,000 people, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics — marking the lowest level

Beijing locks down office building with workers still inside after single Omicron case detected

At an office building in China's capital on Sunday, Covid control personnel lugged boxes of pillows and bedding through the closely guarded entrance for workers stuck inside, preparing for what may be days of lockdown as Beijing rushes to prevent the spread of Omicron ahead of the Winter Olympics.The building in the west of the city has been sealed off, with everybody inside subject to compulsory

Where is Kazakhstan’s former longtime leader Nursultan Nazarbayev?

It is a question being asked with increasing urgency by intelligence services, multinational companies and most citizens of Kazakhstan: where is Nursultan Nazarbayev? Kazakhstan’s leader from 1991 until 2019, Nazarbayev has long been the arbiter of all business and political decisions in the central Asian nation, and the purveyor of an all-encompassing personality cult. In 2019, he handpicked a

Colombo Port City: A new Dubai or a Chinese enclave?

"An economic game changer" is how officials describe Colombo Port City, a shiny metropolis soaring out of the water along the Sri Lankan capital's seafront. Next to Colombo's leafy business district, the huge expanse of sand reclaimed from the sea is being transformed into a high-tech city which will host an offshore international financial centre, residential areas and a marina - prompting