Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 340

Which Chinese Athletes Have a Shot at Gold at Beijing 2022?

Since the turn of the century, China has never finished lower than third in the Summer Olympics medals table. In the Winter Games, however, it has been a different story. The country’s best-ever result was a seventh-place finish at Salt Lake City in 2010, when four of its five gold medals came in the same event: short track speedskating. In 2018, China won only one gold — again in the short track

When Beijing’s Skating Rinks Were Battlefields

On Friday, February 4, 2022, the 24th Winter Olympic Games will kick off in Beijing. After months of COVID concerns and geopolitical mind-games, fans will finally be able to sit back and immerse themselves in the excitement and emotion that only sports’ highest stage can provide.Of course, there’s no such thing as a truly apolitical Olympics, and this year’s Games are no exception. In the run-up

‘Nobody can say anything’: China cracks down on dissent ahead of Olympics

A chill is blowing through Chinese civil society as activists, journalists and academics report receiving police warnings and censorship of their social media platforms in recent weeks as Beijing prepares to host the Winter Olympics beginning on Friday. In mid-January, the Beijing-based human rights activist Hu Jia said in a tweet that China’s state security apparatus was summoning activists

Japan parliament adopts resolution on human rights in China

Japan's parliament adopted a rare resolution on Tuesday on what it called the "serious human rights situation" in China, and asked the government to take steps to relieve the situation. Japan has already announced it will not send a government delegation to the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, following a US-led diplomatic boycott over concerns about China's human rights condition, although

China Recruited Canadians to Avoid Embarrassment on the Olympic Ice

When Beijing was awarded the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, Chinese authorities found themselves with somewhat of an unwanted bonus: host countries are automatically granted a berth in the men’s ice hockey tournament. The glaring issue with that was, despite China being home to almost a full fifth of the Earth’s population, scarcely more than a few thousand of its people had ever played the game

China's biggest Lunar New Year release is another Korean War propaganda movie

The Chinese box office has raked in $314 million so far during the Lunar New Year holiday, largely thanks to a patriotic war epic celebrating China's victory over the United States during a key battle during the Korean War. "Water Gate Bridge" is the sequel to the 2021 Chinese blockbuster "The Battle at Lake Changjin," which glorifies the heroism of Chinese soldiers fighting American troops

Rise in Covid cases slows manufacturing in China to weakest in two years

Output from China’s manufacturing sector slowed to its weakest in almost two years in January as the country’s tough anti-Covid measures forced factories into temporary shutdowns. A monthly snapshot of industry in the world’s second biggest economy showed production being hard hit by Beijing’s zero-tolerance approach to the pandemic. The Caixin/Markit purchasing managers’ index dropped from 50.9

These Beijing Olympics Send a Much Darker Message

In 2008, the Summer Games appeared to be opening a window on an optimistic future, one in which China was a partner with the United States in an integrated global community. Here was a Communist government not aiming to overturn the U.S.-led world order (as the Soviet Union intended), but enmeshing itself in it. Those Olympics seemed a triumph of Washington’s policy of engagement with China.

Tibetan writer missing more than a year after his arrest

Popular Tibetan writer and poet Gendun Lhundrub is incommunicado more than a year after his arrest in western China’s Qinghai province, with family members still in the dark as to his whereabouts or current condition, Tibetan sources say. Lhundrub, aged around 46 and formerly a monk at Rongwo monastery in Rebgong (in Chinese, Tongren) county in the Malho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture,

China takes down Tibetan prayer flags, hoists China’s flag instead

Authorities in China’s Qinghai province are forcing Tibetan nomads to replace the prayer flags they set up near their camps with China’s national emblem in what critics see as an example of the government’s effort to wipe away Tibetan cultural and religious practices. The campaign was launched at the beginning of the year in Matoe (in Chinese, Maduo) county in Qinghai’s Golog (Guoluo) Tibetan