According to Norwegian media reports, a Chinese skiing delegation, currently training in Merok, Norway, demanded that a local library remove a Falun Gong related book. The reason was that the Chinese government banned those books in China in 1999. The librarian, however, categorically rejected the Chinese delegation’s demand.

Library manager Anne Marken told the Norwegian newspaper Trondheim, “Norway has freedom of speech, so we can’t comply with their request.” In preparation for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, more than 40 Chinese cross-country ski athletes and 15 coaches are training in Norway. The training is one of the exchange projects between China and Norway.

The Trondheim pointed out that in the past few weeks there have been three controversial incidents related to Chinese literary works in Merok’s local library. Library manager Marken told The Trondheim, “Three individuals have now asked us to take down that Falun Gong book. In addition, some others have made similar requests for three other books on our shelves. They said that if members of the Chinese ski team were found reading such books, they might be sent to a labor camp or prison in China.”

Marken emphasized that she told the Chinese ski team representatives that all the books in the library are available for ski team members to read, but the library will never remove any books because of the ski team’s request.

This is not the first time that Chinese groups have exerted pressure on foreign institutions overseas. In November 2019, China threatened to retaliate after the Swedish PEN awarded the Tucholsky Prize to Gui Minhai, a book dealer the Chinese regime abducted and who has been detained since 2015. After that incident, China announced that it cancelled plans for two business delegations to visit Sweden.

Source: Deutsche Welle, January 3, 2020
https://p.dw.com/p/3VewO

“Cultural Tourism Year” is an effective mechanism for China to build a close relationship with a target country and then exert its influence. People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, reported that 2019 is the China-Cambodia Cultural Tourism Year. The cultural and tourism authorities of the two countries have organized multiple cultural tourist activities, which has promoted the development of Cambodia’s tourism resources.

In recent years, the number of Chinese tourists to Cambodia has continued to grow. Because of the Cultural Tourism Year programs, there was an increase in the first 10 months of 2019. Chinese tourists to Cambodia exceeded 2.02 million, a year-on-year increase of 24.4 percent, accounting for 38.3 percent of the total foreign tourists to the Southeast Asian country. Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism estimated that the total number of Chinese tourists visiting Cambodia in 2019 will exceed 2.5 million and the figure is expected to reach 3 million in 2020. China has been Cambodia’s largest source of overseas tourists.

The tourism industry also benefits from the convenience of transportation. At present, cities in Cambodia including Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville have direct flights with dozens of cities in China. On a weekly basis, there are about 500 flights between China and Cambodia. The Cambodian government is also striving to open alternative tourist routes to China by both land and sea.

In 2019, China and Cambodia organized a series of cultural tourism exchange activities, including “Knowing China · Jiangsu Cultural Week,” the Lancang-Mekong River Cultural Tourism Exchange, the China-Lao-Cambodia Historical Sites Self-Driving Tour, and the 4th China-Cambodia Excellent Film Tour. At the same time, the Cambodian National Museum went to China to participate in the “Exhibition of Treasures from National Museums along the Silk Road” and the “Joint Exhibition of Asian Civilizations.”

Source: People’s Daily, December 29, 2019
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2019-12/29/nw.D110000renmrb_20191229_1-03.htm