Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 339

China’s Xi meets more heads of state in Winter Games diplomatic push

Chinese President Xi Jinping met the leaders of several more countries on Saturday as Beijing used the start of the Winter Olympics to score diplomatic points amid simmering tensions with the United States. Following a groundbreaking agreement with Russia on Friday over Taiwan and against NATO expansion, Xi held meetings with the leaders of Serbia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan

Putin and Xi call for halt to NATO expansion during show of unity at Beijing Olympics

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a call for NATO to halt further expansion during a meeting on the sidelines of the Beijing Olympics on Friday. The two leaders' summit, held on the day of the Opening Ceremony for the Winter Olympics in China's capital, marked a further step in what has become an increasingly close partnership between Beijing and Moscow, as

How to Make Snow for a Winter Olympics in a Dry City

Wang Feiteng has spent much of his career keeping an eye on China’s glaciers, making arduous treks into the mountains every year to study how to slow their decline in a warming world. More recently, however, his work has involved a different kind of ice formation. Wang and his team are in charge of the artificial snow needed for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, set to start on Feb. 4.Beijing and

An Olympics like no other: Can sports overcome the controversy of Beijing 2022?

The ice rinks have been smoothed out, the brown mountain slopes draped with artificial snow. The Olympic flame is on its final journey to the heart of Beijing, ready to light up the night sky. Defying a raging pandemic and months of international controversy, the 2022 Winter Olympics will officially open as scheduled in the Chinese capital tonight.Sealed off from its host city by a labyrinth of

Xi-Putin summit: Russia inches closer to China as ‘new cold war’ looms

When the leaders of China and Russia meet in Beijing this Friday shortly before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, observers of the bilateral relationship will be looking for insights into how this 21st century quasi-alliance is reshaping the postwar world order. It was 50 years ago this month, on 21 February 1972, that the historic handshake between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong changed

Xi Jinping meets Vladimir Putin as tensions grow with west

China’s Xi Jinping is holding his first face-to-face meeting with a world leader in nearly two years on Friday as he hosts Russia’s Vladimir Putin, with the pair drawing closer as tensions grow with the west. Xi has not left China since January 2020, when the country was grappling with its initial Covid-19 outbreak and locked down the central city of Wuhan where the virus was first detected.He is

China: What does it want from the Ukraine crisis with Russia?

As the war of words between the US and Russia grows louder over Ukraine, one major player on the international stage has spoken up firmly as well: China. In recent days, Beijing has called for calm on both sides and the end of a Cold War mentality, while also making it clear it supports Moscow's concerns. It would seem obvious that China would side with its longtime ally and former Communist

Beijing Winter Olympics: Why are they controversial?

The US, UK and Canada have declared a diplomatic boycott of the Games, along with Australia, Lithuania, Kosovo, Belgium, Denmark and Estonia. Although they will all send athletes to compete, no ministers or officials will attend. The US said this was because of China's "human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang" against the province's Muslim population.British MP Iain Duncan Smith, who

Beijing Olympics: Winter Games start amid Covid and boycotts

The most divided Olympic Games in decades gets under way in China on Friday as Beijing becomes the only city to host both the Summer and now the Winter Games. As well as tight Covid-19 controls, the Games are fraught with political tensions over allegations of human rights abuses and boycotts.Most of the snow on the slopes where the Olympic events will take place is man-made. But inside an indoor

India's coronavirus death toll passes 500,000

India’s official death toll from Covid-19 has passed 500,000, even as many experts flag underreporting of cases across the country. The daily update from the country’s federal health ministry on Friday showed the number of deaths reaching 500,055, up 1,072 in the previous 24 hours. Total infections stood at 41.9m, according to the statistics, second only to the United States.Case numbers have