Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 337

Philippines election: When is it and who is running for president?

The Philippines is holding presidential elections on 9 May and they are set to be highly controversial. Among the main candidates are the daughter of the country's notorious outgoing president, the son of a former dictator and a world-famous boxer. The Philippines is a Southeast Asian country made up of more than 7,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It has a population of 110 million.It was

How the Beijing Winter Olympics Help Boost the Chinese Communist Party’s Legitimacy

Aside from fake snow and COVID-19, the Beijing Winter Games are controversial for many reasons. They are a potent political symbol of the Chinese state’s ambitions and authority. Held just a year after the triumphalist 100-year anniversary of the Communist Party’s founding, General Secretary Xi Jinping is using the Olympics to showcase to the world that China is powerful and on track to fulfil

How China’s Economic Coercion Is Bringing Lithuania and Australia Together

Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielus Landsbergis, flew to Australia this week for the opening of his country’s new embassy in Canberra. The trip should have been a routine visit to cut a ribbon, shake hands with Australian politicians, diplomats, and business leaders, and meet with Lithuanian diaspora community groups. Yet in recent weeks the trip has taken on a much larger significance, as

Why Won’t Vietnam Teach the History of the Sino-Vietnamese War?

The exam period at Vietnamese colleges often falls in late January, a few weeks before the commemoration of the Sino-Vietnamese war, known in Vietnamese as Chiến tranh biên giới (the border war). The end of the semester thus “would be a perfect time to reflect upon the 1979 war, but I cannot lead my students to discuss it at length,” said Hang, a lecturer of international politics at a

International pressure accelerates shift to ‘other forms of control’ in Xinjiang, expert says

The Winter Olympics are under way in Beijing in an event that’s launched the country back into the international spotlight over its treatment of Muslims and ethnic minorities in its far western region of Xinjiang. For nearly a decade, China has pursued an a heavy-handed program of indoctrination and forced assimilation to address what it calls a terrorist threat in Xinjiang. To this end, the

North Korea boasts of 'shaking the world' by testing missiles that can strike the US

North Korea boasted on Tuesday that it is one of only a handful of countries in the world to field nuclear weapons and advanced missiles and the only one standing up to the United States by "shaking the world" with missile tests.International tension has been rising over a recent series of North Korean ballistic missile tests, actions long banned by the United Nations Security Council. January

Athletes are criticizing Covid measures in the Olympic bubble. That's just daily life for many in China

Many athletes from Western countries were stunned by the stringent Covid-19restrictions they met upon arrival in Beijing for the Winter Olympics in recent weeks. Some were placed in isolation for weeks after testing positive, while others complained about the bland food served in quarantine. The measures were a violation of human rights, one Finnish coach argued. But for 1.4 billion people across

Is that a nuclear plant? The story behind those towers at the Winter Olympics big air

Winter Olympians are accustomed to performing their awe-inspiring feats against the backdrop of spectacular snow-capped mountains. But Beijing's Big Air Shougang Olympic venue is drawing attention for its much edgier, urban setting.Behind the skiers launching themselves off the 60-meter-high (196-foot) ramp are furnaces, tall chimney stacks and cooling towers on the site of a former steel mill

Zhu Yi: US-born Chinese Olympic figure skater slated in China after falls

Chinese figure skater Zhu Yi has faced increasing criticism on Chinese social media, after falling several times during her Olympic team event skates. The debut of the US-born athlete on Sunday saw her fail to land jumps, pushing Team China out of the medals. A second performance on Monday, where she fell twice, earned more criticism. Her performance was called shameful and embarrassing by some,

As Hong Kong tightens Covid restrictions again, residents complain of being held ‘hostage’

A viral open letter from a member of Facebook group, HK Moms, marked something of a shift in public opinion. The group is the type not usually preoccupied with the city’s political upheavals, but the letter revealed a limit had been reached.Addressing Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, it accused the government of holding its citizens hostage with new Covid measures – the toughest