Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 350

In China’s new age of imperialism, Xi Jinping gives thumbs down to democracy

The US describes its newly announced diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, backed by Britain and other western countries, as a protest against China’s “egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang”, where the Chinese Communist party (CCP) is accused of genocide, as well as its evisceration of Hong Kong’s democracy.Yet a separate, lurking worry informs Washington’s action:

Jonathan D. Spence, popular China scholar, dead at age 85

Jonathan D. Spence, a British-born historian who became a longtime Yale University professor and prominent sinologist and attracted a wide following with his 1990 best-seller “The Search for Modern China,” has died at age 85.Spence, who retired from Yale in 2008, died Saturday at his home in West Haven, Connecticut. His wife and fellow Yale professor, Annping Chin, said the cause was

China pursues tech ‘self-reliance,’ fueling global unease

To help make China a self-reliant “technology superpower,” the ruling Communist Party is pushing the world’s biggest e-commerce company to take on the tricky, expensive business of designing its own processor chips — a business unlike anything Alibaba Group has done before. Its 3-year-old chip unit, T-Head, unveiled its third processor in October, the Yitian 710 for Alibaba’s cloudcomputing

'Pillar of Shame' Statue Removed from Hong Kong, Could Be Placed Near D.C. Chinese Embassy

A statue at the University of Hong Kong memorializing those who lost their lives in the Tiananmen Square massacre was removed from the campus and put into storage Thursday. The 26-foot red statue, called the Pillar of Shame, was sculpted in remembrance of when China's military opened fire on pro-Democracy protestors on June 4, 1989. The statue depicts bodies piled up on each other.While Chinese

China Rips $770 Billion U.S. Defense Bill as 'Political Manipulation

President Joe Biden signed off on the $770 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which will fund the U.S. Department of Defense and chart a path forward as to where the nation will focus its military resources in the year ahead.Among the bill's priorities include a $7.1 billion carveout for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, a program that will bolster U.S. defense operations in the

‘Journalism is not sedition’: Blinken urges release of seven arrested in Hong Kong media raids

The US has called on Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to release the seven people linked to the now-shuttered independent news outlet Stand News who were arrested on sedition charges during a police crackdown on Wednesday.Secretary of state Antony Blinken said in a statement: “We call on PRC [People’s Republic of China] and Hong Kong authorities to cease targeting Hong Kong’s free and

Speed of Stand News shutdown sends chilling signal to Hong Kong’s media

The Christmas attack on Hong Kong website Stand News was no great surprise in a city where all forms of political opposition are being dismantled wholesale, but the scale, speed and nature of the operation to shutter this pro-democracy website were still shocking.Over 200 police officers swept into the newsroom, and others fanned out over the city making arrests under a harsh sedition law from

China: Public shaming returns amid Covid fears

Police in southern China have been captured on camera parading four alleged offenders through the streets in a public shaming exercise. The four men were accused of smuggling people across China's borders, which are largely sealed because of Covid. They were paraded through the streets of Jingxi city in Guangxi province in hazmat suits. The shaming drew mixed reactions online, including in

Gordon Chang: Is McKinsey China's Weapon Against America?

A spat between McKinsey & Company, the world's largest consulting firm, and Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican, highlights a critical American national security vulnerability to China. The consultancy has been caught covering up its work for the "Chinese government." McKinsey denies deception, but the episode suggests it knows its dual representation of the American and Chinese

How Does China Aim to Use AI in Warfare?

Having observed U.S. theater operations and war campaigns for more than three decades, the leaders of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are keenly aware of the huge disparity between its capabilities and those of the U.S. military in information and communication technology (ICT), and the gap seems unlikely to be eliminated in the near future.Aside from ICT, cutting-edge technologies, also