Kinaforum
onsdag 1. februar 2023
Torbjørn Færøvik: India minnes Mahatma Gandhi 75 år etter at han ble drept
”USA vil stanse alle sine militære handlinger mot territoriet til Den demokratiske republikken Vietnam”, sto det i avtalen de signerte. USA ville trekke alle sine soldater ut og overlate landet til vietnameserne. Samtidig lovet regjeringene i Nord- og Sør-Vietnam å legge ned våpnene og slutte fred.
Samme dag fløy avtaleteksten, kjent som Paris-avtalen, over verden. Jubel brøt ut i mange land, ikke minst i USA, hvor folk flest var grundig lei av krigen. Unge amerikanske menn som hadde gruet seg til å dra til Vietnam for å slåss, gråt av glede. Nyheten var også en påminnelse om hvor meningsløs krigen hadde vært. Blodbadet hadde pågått i årevis. På slagmarken lå mer enn tre millioner døde og sårede, og 58.000 amerikanske soldater hadde vendt hjem i kiste.
US and India to boost defense and technology cooperation as China threat grows
Key among them are cooperation on developing jet engines and military munitions technology, according to a White House fact sheet. Specifically, it said the US government would look to expedite a review of an application by US manufacturer General Electric to build jet engines in India for use on indigenous Indian aircraft. Operationally, the US and Indian militaries would look to build up maritime security and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, the fact sheet said.
US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks told Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval that “building alliances and partnerships are a top priority” for the Pentagon, in what she said was “the region’s increasingly contested strategic environment,” according to a Defense Department statement.
Chinese province ends ban on unmarried people having children
Until now, the commission had allowed only married couples who wanted to have up to two children to register with local authorities. In a government notice, Sichuan authorities said the measures “shift the focus of childbearing registration to childbearing desire and childbearing results”. The measures will be in place for five years. National reproduction policies do not explicitly ban unmarried women from having children but proof of marriage is often required for parents to access free services including prenatal healthcare, a mother’s salary during maternity leave, and job protection.
Those who seek to register a birth outside of marriage often face heavy fines in order to get the child a hukou – China’s crucial household registration that gives the child access to education and social services.
China winds back online study ban after students left scrambling to get to Australia
How US Marines are being reshaped for China threat
How Indians crack one of the world's toughest exams
She was preparing for the country's civil service exams, one of the toughest tests in the world. Rivalled possibly only by gaokao, China's national college-entrance exam, India's Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams funnel young men and women every year into the country's vast civil service.
søndag 29. januar 2023
Lakes on Tibetan Plateau Freezing Late, Melting Early: Study
Around four-fifths of the 132 lakes monitored on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau saw the length of time they were covered by ice shortened by a certain period ranging from a few days to over 50 days between 1978 and 2017, according to the study published Friday. It was published in Scientific Data, Nature’s open access scientific journal, by researchers from the state-backed China Academy of Sciences.
Known as Asia’s “water tower,” the Tibetan Plateau is home to many glaciers and lakes. It is the source of 10 major rivers in Asia, providing water supply to almost 2 billion people.
How Climate Whiplash Is Upending Life in Rural China
Experts warn that with global warming already underway, extreme events like these are likely to become a new normal. In October of 2022, reporters from Sixth Tone and our sister publication The Paper paid a visit to Jiangxi, interviewed people making a living on the banks of Poyang Lake, and documented the historical drought and how it was affecting people’s lives.
China’s Spring Festival 2023 in Numbers
Sixth Tone lists notable statistics that suggest how businesses are gradually recovering this holiday season after China eased most of its pandemic control measures last month.
Is it Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year? Depends who you ask
A longstanding debate over the usage of “Chinese New Year” versus “Lunar New Year” has reignited in recent weeks as people around the world celebrated the holiday, with brands and celebrities coming under fire for using either phrase. Advocates of “Lunar New Year” point out that the holiday is celebrated by various countries, each with their own specific rituals, foods, histories and nuances – which are flattened and erased by an erroneous reference to “Chinese New Year.”
Marsh pointed to this in her apology, saying her original wording had been “inappropriate” given the holiday’s regional diversity. A number of organizations, including the Associated Press Stylebook used by many newsrooms, recommend using Lunar New Year instead of Chinese New Year.
‘It was all for nothing’: Chinese count cost of Xi’s snap decision to let Covid rip
By the end of the year, zero-Covid was gone. Sunny says she felt instantly “relieved” that lockdowns were over but her feelings soon turned to anger as it became clear China’s government had opened up the country, knowing it wasn’t ready. “I felt it was all for nothing,” Sunny says.
lørdag 28. januar 2023
Torbjørn Færøvik: Femti år siden Paris-avtalen om Vietnam
Paris 27. januar 1973. Under en blek morgensol stanset en lang rekke svarte limousiner foran det elegante Hotel Majestic på Rue Laperouse. Ut av bilene strømmet et stort antall dresskledde menn som straks samlet seg rundt et bord i hotellets ballsal. En time senere var Vietnam-krigen offisielt over.
”USA vil stanse alle sine militære handlinger mot territoriet til Den demokratiske republikken Vietnam”, sto det i avtalen de signerte. USA ville trekke alle sine soldater ut og overlate landet til vietnameserne. Samtidig lovet regjeringene i Nord- og Sør-Vietnam å legge ned våpnene og slutte fred.
Samme dag fløy avtaleteksten, kjent som Paris-avtalen, over verden. Jubel brøt ut i mange land, ikke minst i USA, hvor folk flest var grundig lei av krigen. Unge amerikanske menn som hadde gruet seg for å dra til Vietnam for å slåss, gråt av glede. Nyheten var også en påminnelse om hvor meningsløs krigen hadde vært. Blodbadet hadde pågått i årevis. På slagmarken lå mer enn tre millioner døde og sårede, og 58.000 amerikanske soldater hadde vendt hjem i kiste.
WOMEN BALK AT CHINESE GOVERNMENT PLANS TO RAISE BIRTH RATE
Last week, the Chinese government announced that the country’s population had declined for the first time in decades, setting off a cacophony of alarm bells among those concerned about China’s demographic destiny. Chinese women, by contrast, have largely ignored the hoopla. As demonstrated in numerous commentaries over traditional and social media this week, women have little interest in participating in the state’s latest pro-natalist project.
“[I]n terms of China’s population governance,” explained Yun Zhou, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s Department of Sociology, “women’s bodies and women’s reproductive labor in different ways are being utilized or co-opted as the ways in which to achieve […] the state’s demographic, political or economic growth.” But many women have had enough. Some are explicitly linking their aversion to childbearing with their poor treatment by society and the government, which Yuan Yang at The Financial Times described as a women-led “birth strike”.
UYGHURS CHALLENGE THE WORLD’S SELECTIVE MEMORIES OF GENOCIDE ON HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
New testimonies reveal the dire state of affairs in Xinjiang. Earlier this month, Kazakh activist and former journalist Zhanargul Zhumatai sent a plea for help from her home in Urumqi. Previously detained in a concentration camp for two years and 23 days, allegedly for having Instagram and Facebook on her phone, she now receives almost daily calls from local authorities. Christoph Giesen and Katharina Graça Peters from Der Spiegel shared her story this week and highlighted the persistent harassment she has faced since her release
In Beijing's backyard, U.S. demonstrates its military might
The group's commander, Rear Admiral Christopher Sweeney, said the tour was part of a U.S. commitment to uphold freedom of passage in the waters and airspace of a region vital to global trade. "We are going to sail, fly and operate wherever international norms and rules allow. We're going to do that safely and we're going to be resolute about that," Sweeney told Reuters on Friday.
"It's really just about sailing and operating obviously with our allies and partners in the area and assuring them of free and open commerce and trade in the Indo-Pacific."
Holiday trips within China surge after lifting of COVID curbs
But for three years people were told not to travel during the holiday, with those who insisted facing the risk of snap lockdowns, multiple COVID tests, quarantine and even admonishment by their work units.
The Atlantic Council: China and the New Globalization
The unitary globalized economy no longer exists. Driven in significant part by security considerations, a new and more diverse globalization is both required and being built. The transition is ongoing, and its final form is yet to be determined.
This issue brief describes the still-developing new globalization focusing on the issues surrounding China. A fundamental challenge that China presents arises because its actions have generated significant security and economic challenges, yet it nonetheless is a massive trade and investment partner for the “advanced democratic economies”, which for purposes of this analysis include the Group of Seven (G7) countries, plus Australia, Norway, the Republic of Korea, and the European Union. Adapting to a new globalization requires establishing a strategic approach that resolves the inherent contradictions between those conflicting considerations.
Book Review: Frank Dikötter - China After Mao
Dikotter, who has written seminal books on Mao’s disastrous Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, shows in China After Mao that the CCP, even as it allied with the United States against the Soviet Union in the Cold War, was planning to reverse what it called a “century of humiliation” at the hands of Western powers by eventually replacing the United States as the world’s preeminent power.