Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 391

Doug Bandow: How China’s Communist Regime Will Outlast The USSR’s

Smart economics, Western goodies, and cruel politics have helped Beijing avoid a Soviet-style collapse—for now. The collapse of the Soviet Union 74 years after the Bolshevik revolution was supposed to herald the end of communism. Yet the People’s Republic of China lives on, 72 years after Mao Zedong famously proclaimed the founding of the PRC in Beijing. That regime is on course to outlast the

To Beat China on Tech, America Must Invest in the Developing World

Huawei is hurting. Since the United States placed export restrictions on the company last year, the Chinese telecommunications giant has been cut off from key components of the semiconductor supply chain. U.S. diplomats have also persuaded a growing number of foreign leaders, many of them in advanced democracies, to keep Huawei out of their 5G networks. These punitive measures are taking a toll,

China's Evergrande debt woes could spill over to the US, the Fed says

The US Federal Reserve has warned that stresses in the Chinese real-estate sector from Evergrande's debt crisis could spill over to the US. In its Financial Stability report released on Monday, the Fed warned of high leverage at financial institutions and stretched real-estate valuations in China."In this environment, the ongoing regulatory focus on leveraged institutions has the potential to

Zhang Zhan: US asks China to free jailed Wuhan citizen journalis

The US state department has urged China to release citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, expressing deep concerns over her deteriorating health. She was given a four-year jail term over her reporting of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan when the pandemic began. Zhang has been on an intermittent hunger strike since she was detained in May last year.The US moves comes after reports that she is perilously

Nury Turkel: I was born in a Chinese 'reeducation camp.' I'm watching history repeat itself

I was born in a Chinese reeducation camp, where my mother was detained in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which many Uyghurs call East Turkistan. For most of my life, I tried to forget the horrific experiences my mother and I had during my early childhood. But it seems the past is repeating itself -- and with a vengeance.When I was born, the Uyghur region -- like the rest of China -- was

Anote Tong: Australia’s commitment to coal is putting my country of Kiribati in danger

When I came into office as president of Kiribati in 2003, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had released its third assessment report and, like my predecessors, I believed the report’s projected rise in sea levels posed a real threat to the survival for those of us on the frontline. Accordingly, in my first address at the UN General Assembly in 2004 I drew attention to the

Xi Jinping to lay out vision for China’s future – and past – at key meeting

A meeting of hundreds of members of China’s political elite, which is expected to further consolidate the power of president Xi Jinping, has opened in Beijing. The closed-door, four-day meeting of the ruling Chinese Communist party’s central committee, known as the sixth plenum, is expected to produce a resolution on the history of the party, which analysts say will shape domestic politics and

China’s coal imports in October nearly doubled from a year ago

China imported nearly twice as much coal in October as it did a year ago, despite signs the country’s power shortage is easing, according to customs data released Sunday.Monthly purchases of coal reached 26.9 million tons in October, up 96.2% from a year ago, according to data accessed through Wind Information. However, that was down 18.2% from 32.9 million tons in September. Chinese authorities

Asia-Pacific is home to some of the world’s largest carbon-emitters — 2 charts show its reliance on coal

Asia-Pacific is home to some of the world’s largest carbon emitters — and experts say much of global efforts to fight climate change depends on Asian countries cutting their reliance on coal. The region accounted for 52% of global carbon dioxide emissions last year, according to the latest edition of BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy, a widely cited report. China alone contributed 59% of

China’s Xi Jinping, preparing for a third term, shuts the door on the past

As world leaders in Glasgow, Scotland, attempted to hash out an agreement to confront the global climate crisis in recent days, Chinese President Xi Jinping was not among them. Instead, his attention was on priorities closer to home, where he intends to make history of a different kind at a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s top leaders in Beijing in the coming days.In an unusual flair of