Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 35

Innovative Chinese dissident uses cryptocurrency to fund his activism

To skeptics, a meme coin is a fast way to make a cheap buck. For exiled activist Li Ying, it’s been a way to bankroll a pro-democracy community that’s challenging Chinese censorship and authoritarian rule.Li, 32, is better known by his handle on the social media platform X: “Teacher Li is not your teacher.” He’s built a following of more than 2 million by posting news that Chinese authorities

How the atomic bombing of Nagasaki tore apart Japan’s understanding of motherhood

When Kikuyo Nakamura’s adult son discovered bumps on his back, she assumed it was just a rash. Still, she urged him to go to the hospital — better safe than sorry.Hiroshi, her second son, was born in 1948, three years after the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. As a survivor of the bombing, Nakamura had long feared she might pass on health problems to her children. In 2003, at age 55,

Japan used to be a tech giant. Why is it stuck with fax machines and ink stamps?

When you think of Tokyo, you might think of neon-lit skyscrapers and its world-famous bullet train system, or films like “Akira” and “Ghost in the Shell” that depict a futuristic Japan filled with intelligent robots and holograms. But there’s a more mundane side of Japan that you won’t find anywhere in these cyberpunk films. It involves fax machines, floppy disks and personalized ink stamps –

Trump calls for Intel boss to resign immediately, alleging China ties

President Donald Trump has called on the head of US chipmaker Intel to resign "immediately", accusing him of having problematic ties to China. In a social media post, he said CEO Lip-Bu Tan was "highly conflicted", apparently referring to Mr Tan's alleged investments in companies that the US says are tied to the Chinese military. It is unusual for a president to demand the resignation of a

Japan’s Forgotten Countryside: Demographic Crisis and Revival Strategies

What happens when a nation famed for its cultural richness and close-knit communities begins to decay–not from war or famine, but from a demographic implosion? For Japan, this is not a hypothetical question but a stark reality. In 2017, The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research predicted that in the next 50 years, Japan’s population would decline by 30%.A 2023 revision

Learning from Mao’s ‘nightmare’ youth revolution in China

In the 1960s and 70s, the youth of the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia rebelled by protesting against the Vietnam War, trying psychedelic drugs, embracing free love and discovering the Beatles. Meanwhile, what their contemporaries in China were getting up to was just as transformative. The key difference, as Linda Jaivin’s book shows, is that the young Chinese rebels’ actions

Eighty years after Hiroshima, the big nuclear risks are in Asia

Eighty years ago, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki helped end the largest war in history. The bomb has reshaped global power, deterrence and diplomacy ever since. Today, much of the world’s nuclear attention is fixed on Iran’s nuclear ambitions and Russia’s brinkmanship. But Asia remains the region most affected by the nuclear age.In Asia, where nuclear weapons were first used in

Taiwanese analysts sceptical about China’s barges with legs

Since March, China has been making a splash with manoeuvres off its south coast involving a line of odd-looking barges with retractable legs that work like giant stilts. Taiwanese analysts aren’t impressed, however.The barges have towers at their fronts that convert to long, drop-down bridges, so the vessels can connect to each other. If the first barge in a line of them touches the land, they

Japan's population decline shows no sign of slowing

Japan’s precipitous population decline shows no sign of slowing, with the nation shrinking by more than 900,000 people last year – the biggest annual drop on record, according to government data. The data, released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Wednesday, showed that the number of Japanese nationals fell by 908,574 in 2024, bringing the total population to 120

Propaganda or fair warning? Taiwanese TV show imagines Chinese invasion

A Chinese fighter jet plane crashes in the waters off Taiwan's coast, prompting Chinese warships to blockade the island for a "search and rescue". Taiwanese soldiers manning Dadan Island, a rocky outcrop mere kilometres from China's coast, begin vanishing mysteriously. Then one night, a fishing boat lands on Dadan. A signal flare arcs into the inky sky – and illuminates Chinese soldiers