Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 382

Chinese Social Platform Bans Users From Flaunting Wealthy Lifestyle

A popular Chinese lifestyle platform has banned wealth-bragging behavior on its site in the latest move to heed the national call to offer healthy online content and better regulate cyberspace. Operators of the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu announcedThursday that they had so far flagged over 8,700 posts and “punished” 240 accounts deemed as having overtly showed off wealth between May to October.

Chinese Cities Must Better Prepare for Climate Risks, Official Says

Chinese cities must boost their investments in eco-friendly construction and improve warning systems to reduce disaster-related losses amid an imminent climate crisis, officials and experts said during a conference.Jiang Wanrong, a senior official at China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said Chinese cities will turn against the traditional development model of “massive

U.S. ‘not as advanced’ as China and Russia on hypersonic tech, Space Force general warns

A top Space Force official admitted on Saturday that the U.S. has “catching up to do very quickly” to match Beijing’s hypersonic capability, one week after China successfully launched a missile that circled the globe before striking a target.Russia also launched a hypersonic missile from a warship in the Arctic this week, underscoring how quickly Washington, D.C.’s two primary competitors are

UN and White House call on China to give proof of Peng Shuai’s whereabouts

The UN has called on Chinese authorities to give proof of the whereabouts of tennis star Peng Shuai, as the White House said it was “deeply concerned” and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) said it was prepared to pull its tournaments out of China over the matter.Peng, a former doubles world No 1, has not been seen in public since sheaccused the former high-ranking official Zhang Gaoli of

The CCP is turning to traditional culture to bolster its rule and guard against the spread of Western values

After much anticipation from China observers, the Sixth Plenum of the 19th Party Congress was held in Beijing during the second week of November. During the plenum, the CCP passed the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century. One of the most significant changes in the resolution is

Asia's quiet militarization threatens to turn the region into a powder keg

In Shanghai's sprawling Jiangnan Shipyard, workers are fitting the catapults that will separate China's latest and most advanced aircraft carrier from its two older sister ships. Once launched, the high-tech vessel will be able to propel planes into the sky at the same speed as its US counterparts, another example of China's rapid military modernization. It's a trend that is putting the entire

Torbjørn Færøvik: Hvor mektig er egentlig Kinas "rormann?"

Er du usikker på hvilken styreform Kina praktiserer? Svaret er «et fullskala folkedemokrati». Vi finner betegnelsen i kommunikeet fra det siste sentralkomitémøtet i Beijing. Ifølge kinesiske medier dreier det seg om en ny, avansert styreform som står i skarp kontrast til de «råtnende» demokratiene i Vesten. Møtet i forrige uke ble som ventet en selsom tildragelse. De nesten 400 deltagerne

Opinion: International Community Must Resist China's Abuse of Interpol

Interpol, a global police organization with 194 members, will host a general assembly later this month to elect a new executive committee to oversee its administration. The nomination of Hu Binchin to that role, a deputy director in China's Ministry of State Security, would be disastrous for international human rights.In recent years, the Chinese government used Interpol's notices and diffusions

China Furious With Joe Biden As He Mulls Diplomatic Boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

China's Foreign Ministry has lashed out at President Joe Biden after he said the U.S. is mulling a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics over the ruling communist regime's human rights record. "It's something we're considering," Biden confirmed when pressed on the issue during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Oval Office on Thursday. A diplomatic boycott from the

EXPLAINER: What drives high-profile disappearances in China

The disappearance of tennis star Peng Shuai in China following her accusation of sexual assault against a former top Communist Party official has shined a spotlight on similar cases involving political dissidents, entertainers, business leaders and others who have run afoul of the authorities.A look at those cases and the background on such actions. Despite an outcry in the tennis world and