China

VIOLENCE: Is man fundamentally violent? History does not show exactly that. We have several examples of large societies in prehistory showing few traces of war and authoritarian rule. For example, the Stone Age can be essential for anyone who wants to say something about human evolution and nature.

USA: The European political-media elite portrays Trump as the new Hitler, but is nevertheless in a great hurry to subordinate itself to the USA economically, militarily and politically. Glenn Diesen analyzes the US situation now.

LITERATURE: Han Kang does not turn away from death or the dead. And she also sees the perpetrators, sees them as alive, with their own history. MODERN TIMES gives here an introduction to the Nobel Prize winner in literature for 2024.

BORN: Although Rødt and SV claim that they support Palestine, with the new attitude to NATO they support the maintenance of Israel's 'security'.

WAR: The fear of a third world war is becoming palpable. Last year, 59 armed conflicts were registered in the world, the highest number since the end of the previous world war. Can one today compare states at war with teenagers who have not yet developed the ability to think about consequences? Today, the possibility of nuclear war is undoubtedly present – with Norway linked to a nuclear-weapon dependent NATO.

UIGUR: This is Tahir Hamut Izgil's own story, and at the same time the story of hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs, who suffer under China's oppression. From exile, he envisions his friends, weak and emaciated in a cell, terrorized during cross-examination, political retraining and forced labor, singing red anthems to the party's praise.

GEOPOLITICS: In The Battle for World Power, Tunsjø is guilty of 'mirror imaging'. In recent decades, the United States has started a large number of wars and supported a large number of coup d'états, while in the same period China has actually built up trust in various states in the Third World.

URBANIZATION: China has chosen urbanization as its main strategy. In China, 11 million housing units are built every year, and 10–15 districts are completed every day. The country is now offering standardized turnkey city models to other countries at a loan cost of $4 billion – Ukraine next?

AFRICA: The film series Tidløs reise, which is now staged in several of the country's cinematheques, shows films rooted in African culture and history – but also Africa's connection to Europe and China.

EQUIPMENT: That the rest of the world, apart from the West, does not stand on the side of Norway, the USA and NATO when it comes to Ukraine today, is not surprising when we know the centuries of looting and colonial times, followed by imperialist wars and Western-backed coups. It is still "war and weapons that create peace" that is the narrative. Stop the race to a possible world war!

COMPETITION: The weapons are sanctions, subsidies, dumping, hostile takeovers and theft of industrial secrets. The goal is simple: to weaken a country's economy so that it cannot offer political, economic or military resistance.

EU: Europe has never become an adult and responsible player in a multipolar world. And a common foreign and security policy has never gone beyond the sketch plane. Will it happen now?

AUTHORITARIAN: What happened after the height of freedom ideals, the fall of the Iron Curtain and Bill Clinton's fusion of liberal politics with market forces? Today, the Chinese's mastery of original Western technology and surveillance seems limitless.

USA / CHINA: Is the current systemic divide between the US and China insurmountable? According to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken: "Our relationship with China will be competitive when it should, cooperative when it can, and hostile when it has to." On the other hand, China is now led by a man who, according to book author Kevin Rudd, has considerable intellectual resources . Under his leadership, China has grown into a superpower.

CHINA: About China, it is important to be curious and willing to learn before making judgments. But how to understand something that is so fundamentally different from the culture we ourselves come from?

CAPITALISM: Is not the struggle now about the right not to be exploited, but the right to be allowed to participate? There is much that is valuable in Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen's short book about the possible return of fascism in today's world – but it is weak in terms of empirical documentation.