China snubs Nor-Shipping

Despite some signs that diplomatic relations between Norway and China may soon normalize, Chinese state-owned companies won’t be attending or exhibiting at this year’s large Nor-Shipping conference in Lillestrøm. “Relating to China, the situation is unchanged from the last Nor-Shipping exhibition two years ago,” Vidar Pederstad, Nor-Shipping director, told newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) on Thursday. [...]

Chinese relations set to normalize

Indications are getting stronger that diplomatic relations between Norway and China may soon normalize. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said at a meeting with foreign correspondents in Oslo on Wednesday that he’s “optimistic” after more than two-and-a-half years of tension between the two countries. “My sense is that there’s a shared ambition (to resume [...]

Bergen orchestra latest target of Chinese anger

The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra has felt forced to drop a long-planned and much-anticipated tour to China next year, after it failed to get the official invitation it needed for its musicians and staffers to obtain visas. The lack of visas has been tied to China’s ongoing attempts to punish Norway and Norwegians after the Norwegian [...]

China still angry over Liu’s Nobel

As critics bash this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, Chinese authorities seem to be carrying on their own crusade against the prize that was awarded in Oslo to one of their leading dissidents two years ago, Liu Xiaobo. They continue to blame the Norwegian government for their loss of face, and issued another snub this week [...]

Speculation swirls over Chinese chat

UPDATED: For the first time in two years, there’s been some top diplomatic contact between Norway and China. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported Monday that Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, had a brief but cordial back-room conversation while both were attending an Asian-European summit in Laos. Norway was admitted on Monday [...]

Chinese leaders still mad at Norway

Politicians in China are in the midst of a major, scheduled leadership transition this fall but there aren’t any signs there will be a change in the country’s official position towards Norway. They still blame the Norwegian government for the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed Chinese dissident. [...]

Artist misses latest exhibit in Norway

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is among 10 contemporary Chinese artists whose works are now on exhibit in Bergen, but Ai couldn’t be there for the opening last weekend. Chinese authorities have confiscated his passport over an alleged tax violation by the artist, who long has been critical of them. Ai Weiwei is considered one of [...]

Stoltenberg’s son off to China

Neither Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg nor members of his government or other top Norwegian politicians have been welcome in China for the past two years, but now at least one member of Stoltenberg’s own family has secured a visa. Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported Monday that Axel Stoltenberg, the 23-year-old son of the Norwegian prime [...]

Norway unhappy with Russia and China over Syria

The Norwegian government is holding Russia and China “especially” responsible for preventing the UN Security Council from making serious attempts to halt the violence and killings in Syria. The Norwegian military expert who’s been leading UN forces in Syria, meanwhile, felt forced to leave the embattled country. Major General Robert Mood left Damascus for Geneva [...]

China denies visa to former premier

Kjell Magne Bondevik, warmly welcomed to Beijing when he was Norway’s prime minister in 2002, has now become the latest Norwegian to be denied a visa to China. Bondevik, an ordained pastor in Norway’s state church, was supposed to have led a meeting at a seminar of the World Council of Churches in Nanjing this [...]

China sends new ambassador to Oslo

After 19 months of a diplomatic stalemate between China and Norway, the Chinese government has sent a new ambassador to Oslo. Some observers view the move as a sign that diplomatic relations, frozen since the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident in 2010, may finally be starting to thaw. The top [...]

China’s ambassador leaves in a freeze

Relations between Norway and China remain in a deep freeze, and China’s embassy in Oslo no longer has an ambassador in place. There’s been another rash of diplomatic snubs since Tang Guoqiang left Norway earlier this year. Tang’s departure came 16 months after China first blamed the Norwegian government for the awarding of a Nobel [...]

‘A lot being done’ to melt China freeze

Norway’s consul general in Guangzhou told an annual Norway-Hong Kong business seminar at the Grand Hotel in Oslo this week that the current diplomatic freeze with China “can’t continue.” Too much potential for trade and political cooperation, it seems, is being lost. “We need to re-establish a relationship with China,” said Tormod C Endresen, who’s [...]

Cold relations with China ‘damaging’

The ongoing diplomatic freeze between Norway and China is damaging to both parties, which would do well to put the conflict behind them, according to a major Chinese investment expert. Meanwhile, China’s ambassador to Norway continues to blame Thorbjørn Jagland, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. It was the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize [...]

Oil fund won’t exclude PetroChina

The Norwegian government is ignoring a recommendation from a state ethics council that it ban investments by Norway’s oil fund in the Chinese oil company PetroChina. Meanwhile, a Chinese shipbuilding company is making inroads on Norway’s west coast. The ethics council, which reviews investments made by Norway’s huge sovereign wealth fund, had recommended that PetroChina [...]

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