Hidden Harmonies China Blog

It seems apparent now that Bernie is becoming the Democratic candidate for president. He is becoming a target not just from the Republicans but from from the Democratic establishment themselves. Perhaps the best illustration of this is from Late Night comedy show.

While he is not my first choice of a candidate, I do see why he is so appealing and many democratic voters see him more appealing than many of the Democratic establishment candidates.

Yesterday 15/2-20 «France 24» news network, showed a video about Mr. Fangbin in Wuhan, who was interrogated by the police, after he had entered hospital areas and filmed patients and alleged body bags, and also posted his videos on Chinese social media platforms. (The videos were also posted by Jennifer Zeng @jenniferatntd at Twitter).
The videos are badly made and actually it’s just a stupid story, but France 24 has made it into a human rights issue, and also talks about all the support Mr. Fangbin has got on the internet. See his videos and France 24’s article at https://observers.france24.com/en/20200207-china-wuhan-coronavirus-Fangbin-shopkeeper-censorship-videos

One of France 24’s sources is an US-based group called «Chinese Human Rights Defender». And what sort of group is that? «Radio Free Asia» (Washington, D.C.) wrote in 2018 the following about their work: «Advocacy group China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) and a partner NGO, Equal Rights Initiative, said Friday that in the southern XUAR alone some 660,000 rural residents of Uyghur ethnicity may have been detained in the camps, while another up to 1.3 million may have been forced to attend mandatory day or evening re-education sessions in their villages or town centers.»
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/millions-08032018142025.html
From this one can see that «Radio Free Asia» surprisingly is using a tiny and almost unknown organization, called Chinese Human Rights Defenders, as a reliable source on Xinjiang.

The staff at Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) are «International Director» Renee Xia (Mandarin, English), +1 863 866 1012 (+1 is USA and 863 is Florida area code), and Frances Eve (English), +1 661 240 9177 (which is in California; Twitter: FrancesEveCHRD). At their website no street address is given, but a post-box: PO Box 1905. Washington, DC 20013 USA.

One may wonder who takes care of their postbox, since none of the two lives in Washington DC? Ajit Singh and Ben Norton at Grayzone has checked the US tax forms of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, and found rather shockingly that: «On its tax forms, CHRD lists its address as the Washington, DC office of Human Rights Watch.» https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/23/un-did-not-report-china-internment-camps-uighur-muslims/amp/

At the web-site of Chinese Human Rights Defenders they write about their mission: «CHRD operates a small emergency grants program which provides legal aid and emergency assistance to victims of human rights abuses.» https://www.nchrd.org/about-chinese-human-rights-defenders

Since such a small organization also is able to «empower grassroots activism in China», as they write, they need funding, and a list at Hidden Harmonies, https://blog.hiddenharmonies.org/2018/09/03/the-national-endowment-for-democracy-and-china/ shows that in 2017 Chinese Human Rights Defenders probably got $672,000 from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)! (The donations at NED’s web-site are called «Assistance for Human Rights Defenders: $272,000, «Capacity Building for Human Rights Defenders: $300,000», «Defending and Assisting Rights Defenders: $60,000», and «Humanitarian Assistance for Human Rights Defenders: $40,000»)

$672,000 was in 2017 around 4,5 million yuan – a huge sum in China, and CHRD has likely used parts of these money to fund opposition activists and anti-government projects inside China.

Sadly state-owned «France 24» television – with millions of viewers, is willing – without any reservation, to use this obvious anti-China group as a reliable source about what’s going on in Wuhan. That is journalism at a low level.

Nathan Rich has been putting out many incredible commentaries on China on Youtube for the last few years. And this most recent one on Dr. Li’s death certainly ranks among the best commentaries I have seen in English (or Chinese even) on Dr. Li’s death in Wuhan.

Dr. Li was one of the earliest doctors to notice a SARs like virus going around in Wuhan and had “tweeted” about it on his Weibo account. Local government officials would sanction him about it – asking him to sign some papers admitting what he did was wrong and not to do it again. Later when a concurrent government investigation revealed that a new virus was truly going around, the government retracted his sanctions. Dr. Li would go on to work on the front lines … but later – just a few days ago – die from the virus.

Some people have gone anti-government over this. In the Youtube commentary, Nathan Rich noted that he can understand how people thought Dr. Li was a “hero” and that the government has erred, however he also noted that the most critical thing now is to save lives and go forward, and not distract from the government’s valiant efforts. He posited for those who are angry: even had people listen to Dr. Li’s original (then unsubstantiated) claims, would we really be better off?

Yes, more people might have more masks in the initial days and more might have been more diligent about washing hands, etc. But almost certainly, judging by people’s behavior since the Wuhan quarantine, people would have fled Wuhan and tried to cover up the fact that they might be virus carriers. So, while, on a personal level, leaving town would have been the “human” thing to do, it most certainly would been the worst thing to do in terms of saving lives and reducing the spread of the virus.

Would we be better off today had people listened to Dr. Li (and others’) initial warnings … or much worse off?

[A redacted and edited version of this article was published in the China Daily]

Nowhere is man freer than on the field of battle, where it is a matter of life and death, wrote Leo Tolstoy in War and Peace. One way of determining people’s morality is by observing their reactions during a crisis.

Western audiences have offered three types of reactions to the recent virus outbreak in China: Sympathy, Sinophobia, and Schadenfreude. Sane westerners, one hopes, empathized with the victims, wishing the outbreak ends soon. Racists took advantage of it to indulge in stereotypes and memes. The third category, the western media, was delighted with the opportunity to insult the Chinese government.

Right now many Chinese cities are on the lock down and at the epicenter of this outbreak at Wuhan people could not come in and leave the city. While I agree that there should be some preventative measures to stop this virus from spreading like cancelling public events, shutting down the city by shutting down transportation and schools are excessive.

Let’s step back to what is a coronavirus. According to this Harvard article:

Coronaviruses are an extremely common cause of colds and other upper respiratory infections. These viruses are zoonoses, which means they can infect certain animals and spread from one animal to another. A coronavirus can potentially spread to humans, particularly if certain mutations in the virus occur.

So yes, coronaviruses are common cold virus but this is a particular new strain which started in Wuhan. The problem with this virus is that many people who gotten this virus don’t show much symptoms and could be carrying the virus for days before we get sick. But to think about it, people don’t usually get really sick from the common cold either. For all we know, that this virus has spread far and wide already without knowing about it.

We also have to think about how many people who are infected vs the number people who actually died from this virus.

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-01-24/china-coronavirus-panic

https://www.livescience.com/56598-deadliest-viruses-on-earth.html

The Latest data is 4474 infected and 107 dead. That’s little more than 2%. To put that in perspective, many other viruses such as Ebola and smallpox outbreaks has been more higher mortality rates than this coronavirus. Heck, the common flu killed hundreds of thousands every year and there is no pandemic for this.

To put in perspective of the last coronavirus, SARS, I believe that this was also overblown. This virus eventually faded away because people had overcome and developed an immunity for this virus. This will happen to this coronavirus.

Chris Kanthan has just published an article called «Embracing Islamic terrorism». The article, together with 23 links, is a shocking and well-documented review on American foreign policy:

https://www.nationofchange.org/2017/05/28/embracing-islamic-terrorism/

• In link number 3 John Kerry, at that time US Secretary of State, says: «They (the Syrian government) are targeted by the opposition, who we are arming and training […] What we are trying to do is help Syrians to fight for their own country. And we have been spending a lot of money, a lot of effort to try to help do this.» Kerry’s comments came at a meeting that took place at the Dutch Mission to the United Nations on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2016.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdVa5qoh_80
  
• Link 7: What did American vice president Joe Biden say in 2015: «Our biggest problem is our allies … the Turks … the Saudis, the Emirates et cetera. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad … What did they do? They poured hundred of millions of dollars, ten thousand of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad. Except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra and al-Qaeda and extremist elements of jihadists coming from other parts of the world! So you think I am exaggerating?»: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOf7jzc7faY

• Link 9 (removed from YouTube) is a CNN interview with retired US army general Wesley Clark, there the American general says: «ISIS got started through funding from our friends and allies…» (17/2-2015). The video can still be found through archive.org, but loads slowly: http://web.archive.org/web/20170307120237/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHLqaSZPe98

• Link 10 is a telegram written by US Secretary of State 30/12-2009: «Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, LeT, and other terrorist groups, including Hamas, which probably raise millions of dollars annually from Saudi sources, often during Hajj and Ramadan.» LeT is Urdu for «Lashkar-e-Taiba», literally Army of Good, one of the most active Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09STATE131801_a.html

• Link 15 was a video with the title «Kill Shiites, Christians and Jews» – Textbooks for kids in Saudi Arabia (25/5-2017), but it can’t any longer be found at YouTube.

At the end of his article Chris Kanthan also mentions the problems with terrorism in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

When Trump ran for the Presidency, I openly supported him. I do not support him because of politics per se. I actually disagree with most of his policies. However, I do agree with him that the U.S. needs to put Americans first, start dismantling the U.S. Empire, and do what is best for the American people.

I knew that Trump might end up doing many foolhardy things. I am dismayed but actually not surprised about Trump’s trade and subsequent technology war on China. But I still firmly believed that in the end, Trump will do the right thing. An America that puts “America First” will ultimately be good for America … and the world alike.

However, I will not lie, through the last few years, I have been steadily disappointed. I’ve been disappointed with Trump’s lack of resolve on his core promises, and lack of foresight and leadership when it comes to major policies such as engaging China.

Financial Times recently published an article on how the Chinese government is trying to plan its economy to better adjust to an aging population that is expected to peak in 2050 with around 35% of population over 60. According to the article, this is a culmination of a series of policies actually started at the same time as when the one-child policy was enacted.

Compared to other Western articles that tend to demonize China’s one-child policy, the FT article offers an interesting read of China’s policy of population control. According to Chinese government estimates, today’s population would be 250-300 million larger were it not for its one-child policy.

I usually cringe when I hear people categorically attacking China’s population control policies. While the one-child policy is well known throughout the world, China actually has had enacted other policies in its history, including its “late, long, few” initiative which promoted people to have children later in life and to lengthen the times between pregnancies.

Since the mid 1960’s, China’s birthrate has consistently dropped. Is it a coincidence that since the mid 1960’s, China’s economic growth has also consistently grown?

Before the “Fake News” became “popular,” we were here. This blog was started to counter anti-China fake news created and spread by Western establishments in the lead up to the 2008 Olympics. We were created during the days of ANTI-CNN – now defunct …. and part of April Media according to Wikipedia.

In light of the previous posts by Charles Liu and Rolf, I thought I would revisit our roots again … by republishing a 2017 article by a Chinese journalist who had worked for a Dutch newspaper … and quit. The article described firsthand how ugly “fake news” was made.

It is saddening and enraging to read this article because we know things haven’t changed since 2017. If anything, things have gotten even worse. Also, we know that Fake News matter. It had lead to death and riots in Lhasa in 2008, and has led to more death and riots in Hong Kong in 2019.

Without much adieu, below is the article by Zhang Chaoqun.

When Yours Truly first saw this news, I’m reminded of Washington DC’s full frontal assault on Beijing Olympics by coordinating protests from Tibet, Xinjiang, Falun Gong – remember Chen Yonglin’s “1000 spies in Australia” allegation that failed to secure Chen political asylum?

Here’s a quick run-down on Wang Liqiang:

• Initially Australian media were eager to rush on this FUD: https://www.smh.com.au/national/defecting-chinese-spy-offers-information-trove-to-australian-government-20191122-p53d1l.html

• Then Chinese netter quickly spotted some problem with this guy. Apparently Wang Liqiang was convicted of fraud in 2016 and subsequently confirmed by relevant agency that Wang escaped to Hong Kong early 2019 after a new fraud proceeding against him began:

• Couple weeks later the other shoe dropped – Wang’s spy allegations start to fall apart: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3039819/explosive-claims-chinese-spy-wang-liqiang-seem-more-fiction-fact

But as usual, facts don’t matter when it comes to Western media’s Official Narrative on China – all you have to do is Google to see how far from reality the dominate message is.

Note: This is an update of a previous post, which can be found here.

Over this past Summer and Fall, I watched with heightened interest (and much dismay and sadness) the violence that has besieged Hong Kong. Instead of arguing and shouting (there is too much of that already on the streets), I aim to bring you some facts and context about the situation … as reported by news organizations around the world. There is way much disinformation about the Hong Kong riots. I hope the links below will provide you some insights and sanity.

The Sydney Morning Herald published an Editorial Titled “Rare bipartisan consensus on right to privacy” today. It reads in part:

Wrote this piece for the SCMP. Some minor differences between version below and at SCMP because of space imitation and other minor editorial issues…

On China’s Indignant Response to Morey’s Tweet and Apple’s release of HKmap.live.

Over the last week or so, there has been a strong reaction in China against Apple for releasing an App called HKmap.live as well as NBA’s apparent official support for the “protesters.” From SCMP:

Chinese state media on Tuesday accused Apple Inc of protecting “rioters” in Hong Kong and enabling illegal behaviour, after the US-based technology giant listed on its app store an application that tracks police activity in the city.

Apple had previously rejected the app, called HKmap.live, but reversed its decision on Friday and made the programme available for download from the iOS App Store on Saturday, according to the program’s developer.

…

The app relies on crowdsourced information to track the location of police presence in the city, alerting users to police vehicles, armed officers and incidents in which people have been injured. The app — a website version is also active — displays hotspots on a map of the city that is continuously updated as users report incidents.

“By allowing its platform to clear the way for an app that incites illegal behaviour, [does Apple] not worry about damaging its reputation and hurting the feelings of consumers?” said a bellicose commentary published on the app of People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece.

…

Such outcry echoed the recent vitriol against the NBA and, in particular, the Houston Rockets. Daryl Morey, general manager of the Rockets, tweeted an image that read “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong” – a slogan frequently used by the protesters – on Saturday before quickly deleting it.

The post drew outrage from the Chinese public, government officials and Chinese business partners of the league, and prompted the Chinese Basketball Association to suspend ties with the Rockets.

As the NBA scrambled to distance itself from Morey’s post, the league came under fire at home, with scores of US lawmakers accusing the association of sacrificing principle for profit. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has since sought to assuage such concerns, saying at a Tuesday news conference in Tokyo that the league supported Morey’s right to freedom of speech.

So here we go again, Americans waiving the flag of “freedom” to dismiss Chinese national (security, social cohesion, and otherwise) concerns.

Would Apple or Google release apps or other platforms that are used to evade police and to conspire violence? Would Apple or Google release an App to help violent rioters such as certain “white supremacists” or “antifa” people commit crimes against fellow citizens and police?

We know Twitter, Facebook, Google and everyone else remove posts and apps that “violate” their terms of policy, including platforms that promote “hate speech,” “untrustworthy” information, “promotion” or “incitement” of “violence,” etc. Would they ever openly justify aiding and abetting violence in the U.S. or its allies? No way! But I guess when it comes to China, social and national concerns can have no legitimate place, only shrill calls for “freedom”…

It seems that Trump has really screwed up this time. I’m not going to go details of this but unlike the first ‘election interference’ with Russia during the 2016 elections which doesn’t seem to gel, this one seems so blatant and so clear, his fellow Republicans didn’t really defend him this time.

It is very likely that the Democratic Led House will push through the articles of Impeachment before the end of the year but the firewall is the Republican Led Senate is the only thing holding him back from Impeachment. This is very different from Clinton’s Impeachment when Clinton tries to lie his way to cover up his affair, but more like Nixon’s Impeachment on Watergate.

The problem with Trump is that he is not a true blooded Republican, as he previously supported many New York Democrats and many Republicans don’t like his spending or Tariffs. So with little love from his fellow Republicans, what will happen with his supporters in the Republican Senate? Will they throw Trump under the bus in order to save themselves?

Let’s say if Trump do get impeached, Pence will become president. Pence is not an idiot compared to Trump and Pence won’t gain favors within China. I’ve said that Trump is the best thing to China since Nixon because of his idiotic foreign policies but Pence will not be the same. So I am kind of hoping that Trump staying in office for another year until he gets elected out but you will never know.

P.S. My bet is that Bolton is the whistleblower.

I have read in in so many places how putting Huawei on the Entity List on “national security grounds” makes no sense. I ran into this article on Asia Times by David Goldman – a U.S. patriot / stooge – that finally and honestly explains the real reason.

For those with a head: the danger posed by Huawei 5G has never been of China snooping others, but of the king of snoop – the U.S. and the five eyes – loosing its ability to snoop around the world. Yet the U.S. has the gall to declare to the world: please stop buying Huawei 5G because you don’t want to be snooped. Buy our stuffs … err.. when they are ready … so you are safe from being snooped…

So its nice to see a U.S. patriot admit the true in splendid detail – while also acknowledging that Chinese have – finally(!) – invented something new…

Here are Links on the unrest and riots in Hong Kong… If China or any other nation sponsors this kind of terrorism on the U.S., there would be WWIII. Appreciate the restraint being exercised in Hong Kong, as well as in Beijing…

The central theme of Trump’s president is “America First.” Most Americans understand that to mean putting American interests, American prosperity, American well being first above all else.

As an American, I personally have no quarrel with this. In fact, as a world citizen, I think if every nation can look primarily after itself and not after other nations (which in basically every case have proven to be a false flag for carrying out illicit interventions because “there is never free lunch” as they say), the world will be a much, much better place.

But over the last few years, it is turning out that this talk about “America First” is nothing else than another false flag. America is as involved in war and warmongering throughout the world as ever, and with the current irrational trade war, it looks like the Trump administration is also about putting its special interests constituencies first … screw all others … just like all the other previous administrations.

It is an open secret that historically America has been an oligarchy, not a democracy. That means it is not a government of the people for the people … but rather a government of special interests for the special interests … no different than many other governments around the world and throughout time.

But things are about to change. At least that was the promise.

In his inauguration speech, with outgoing president Obama visibly grimacing, Trump portrayed himself as a messiah coming to America’s rescue:

[This piece was initially published on global research.]

Trump started his trade war with China over a year ago.  After a year of escalations, two high-profile G20 meetings and months of on-off-on again negotiations, the trade war has the world tittering on the edge of a global recession.

In the run-up to last month’s G20 meeting, Trump had boasted that “it’s me right now that’s holding up” a deal with China.  Rejecting Beijing’s pleas for a “balanced” deal, Trump’s top trade advisor Lighthizer declared that any deal must involve China making up for its’ “past transgressions.” ¹

The notion that the U.S. has long been the victim of unfair trade practices, especially at the hand of China, thus is no longer just election rhetoric, but the raison d’être of America’s trade war. 

Now the Western media has quiet down on events from Hong Kong I would like to put in my 2 cents from a totally different perspective. I have lived in Hong Kong for 2 years from 59′ to 61′ before immigrated to U.S.. I guess those demonstrators will continue to make noises to a dwindling audiences without any real objective other than the total withdrawal of the extradition bill and/or resignation of Carrie Lam. Many have applauded the success of democracy and implied rebut to China, but probably secretly polished their passports to Canada or Australia.
When Deng designed the 1 country/2 systems and 50 years transition he was hoping that China will develop and Hong Kong will converge with China mainland gradually. In the 22 years China has developed beyond anyone’s dream and many cities in China has surpassed Hong Kong economically. Yet Hong Kong has remained trying to move away from China. From the China’s view point, the extradition bill is not that important, it’s nice to have for those who committed economic crimes like embezzlement be returned to China which has frequently occurred from Europe and other parts of Asia. Hong Kong being the gateway to Western financial center has gradually eroded in importance, and China likes to integrate Hong Kong with other areas in Pearl River Delta as Shanghai did in Yangtze River Delta. Many in Hong Kong relish their role like India’s Brahmans being under their colonial lords yet much above the peons from China’s interior. Their resistance to using Mandarin as official language to educational reform placing more emphasis of Chinese history and patriotism to insults to Chinese anthem and flag, incidents like against Chinese purchase of baby milk products to negative reactions to some tourist behaviors from China. Yet the clock is ticking toward 2039 and anxiety is rising in Hong Kong. Do they really think China will allow the crossing of red line of allowing HK independence party? Of course they use the noble concepts like democracy and rule of law to cloak their nebulous unease and lack of future choices. Their choice of being Hong Kongers and not Chinese only reveal their colonial heritage.
The governor of Hong Kong is essentially a caretaker with limited power. Hong Kong is dominated by the real estate tycoons that need to keep the price of housing high and unaffordable to most. The young people know that limits their prospective in life and are rebellious, yet they don’t know what they can do other than rebel against the Big Authority, not the real powers behind the scene. Hong Kong government can use some of the surplus to construct more public housing instead wasting it on periodic dividends of a few thousand dollars to everyone. Hong Kong is one of the lowest taxed city in the world. The high cost of housing means those who have an apartment of their own costing up to millions of dollars have invested on the concept of high housing price and will resist any proposal to lower the price. If those students really studied their quandary and start to demonstrate for affordable housing I am sure they will really hit on the nail on the head.

When Trump raised tariffs and blame China for the impasse, China waste no time in issuing the “White Paper” in defending her position during the negotiation, and even CGTN anchor went on ” Fox Business report ” to debate Trisha Regan. Now this time of the year roll around with Western media trope out the usual suspects to attack China, the only response is silence. I understand why China consider harmonious society of paramount importance, yet why abandon the high ground to the enemies when China has a legitimate case to be made and history has validated the choice Deng and the leadership made?
Certainly the political turmoil ( Note, not a counter-revolution ) of June 4, 89 was a tragedy of Shakespearian proportion. It’s incorrect that Chinese government has not accounted for this event. Immediately afterward there were accountings of about more than 30 Chinese PLA soldiers killed by the rampaging mobs and hundreds of civilians killed in the suburbs, with pictures of burned military vehicles with bodies of soldiers in them. The thousands of students in the squares were unharmed and a negotiated withdrawal was effected. It was just that Western propaganda was so effective that Chinese government decided against any dialog and kept silent since. Historical events don’t happen without underlining causes even if the immediate trigger maybe spontaneous. Arab Spring was triggered by the self immolation in Tunisia, while student protest in Beijing was due to the death of Hu Yaobang and corruptions people perceived since his removal. Yet the Arab Spring now is more like Arab Winter, and China has move hundreds of millions of people out of poverty into middle class, which is a story never happened in history and West is desperately trying to erase from any narrative. Certainly the fear of another Cultural Revolution colored the official response to the student protest of 89, and the consensus that the lack of forceful response and division worsen the situation cause the forceful response to any protests afterwards. I do hope China is self confident to revisit history and make adjustments.

Despite the nasty trade wars and the recent Huawei ban that is going on, I still think that Trump is the best thing to China since Nixon. Let me explain. One glaring thing about the Huawei ban is that other countries didn’t join on it, instead there’s more of the wait-and-see attitude. Thanks to Trump’s America First policy, he has essentially abandoned America’s leadership in the world, and some of the leadership has been taken over by China. Trump trade wars is not just going after China, but to many of its allies as well. Even when Trump’s nuclear option to start banning Chinese companies to do business in the US, Wall Street did not react thinking that Trump would make some kind of deal by the end of this year. This is more like a negotiation tactic to get favorable concessions from China instead of outright destroying China.

Before Trump, many people within China has high regards to the US and its place in the world. I think Xi’s message to its people about the Long March is a mission is to displace the US because they are no longer a competent global hegemon. The Chinese with its self-determination no longer rely on the US for support. Thanks to its China’s belt and road policy, other non-western countries will be more favorable to China than the US and looks to China for leadership.

I believe that either a Republican or Democratic president will be elected, both of them will be anti-China. Let’s say that Hillary Clinton had won the presidency instead of Trump. The TPP will be enacted against China. Clinton would probably make up some excuse to restrict Chinese companies like Huawei anyways, but the US will get support of other countries also. Many see China’s rise is a threat, but I think US’ decline is a bigger threat than China’s rise and we are seeing that this is being played out.

Since Huawei has been put in the “entities list,” by the US government, many US based companies has stopped doing business with Huawei including Xilinx, Qualcomm, Google, and Intel. Unlike last year’s fiasco with ZTE because of issues with ZTE doing business with Iran, this is nothing to do with Huawei’s wrongdoing by the US government. Since the news of ZTE broke has year, Huawei has developed solutions to mitigate this problem.

1. Huawei has https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3010507/huaweis-day-reckoning-arrives-it-has-been-preparing-almost-year stockpiled on American made parts ahead of this notice for up to 12 months. So Huawei’s 5g equipment disruption won’t be affected in the short term.
2. Huawei has made substantial mitigation in terms of keeping smartphone business alive. Huawei has developed its own Kirin SOC’s for their smartphones and had developed HongMeng OS to replace Android OS as a replacement. HongMeng OS was developed as an Open platform of Android much like Amazon’s Fire OS on its devices. However, being locked out from google’s play store doesn’t mean that you cannot install play store in its OS much like how you can do it on Fire OS. Furthermore, ARM holdings has developed a JV with
   Hou An Innovation Fund so it allows Chinese manufacturers to develop its own version of ARM chips in the future.
3. Huawei’s Matebook’s future is uncertain as Intel has joined the blockade. AMD-China joint venture has produced Hygon Dhyana CPU’s along with Via-China joint venture produced the ZhaoXin CPU’s might come up in the future. As Microsoft did not join in the blockade as of this moment, Huawei can still sell Windows PC on one of these types of CPU’s.

Made in China 2025 policy is designed because they want to reduce on foreign technologies in case of situations like this would occur. It would only further China to re-double efforts for China to ween away from American technology. The only question is would the Chinese government do if trade talks if China and US would further break down.

On the eve of US Commerce Department’s ban on Huawei and 70 affiliates from sourcing U.S. components, He Tingo, the CEO of Huawei’s chip fabrication arm HiSilicon, sent a letter to her employees (original follows translation):

Esteemed HiSilicon Colleagues:

Right now, you may well know Huawei has been listed on BIS’ entity list.

Years ago, while the water is calm, we have evaluated extreme scenarios for the company’s survival; anticipating one day losing access to America’s advanced chip technologies yet still continue to serve our customers. While assuming the day will never come, thousands of HiSilicon employees embarked on the most solemn technological long march in our history in order to create a “spare tire” for the company’s survival. Given the wide range of Huawei products, technology and equipment used, we faced thousands of sleepless nights, countless failures, but never giving up.

In the following years, as we step out of the fog, seeing hope yet with unresolved feeling that many of the chips will never be produced, only to become backup plans locked in a vault.

Today, fate has brought an extremely dark moment. A superpower made an insane decision to ruthlessly cut off a cooperative global technology and production system; without a shred of evidence, placed Huawei on the entity list.

Today, chosen by history, all of our backup plans became “plans” overnight! In a day, years of blood sweat tears became ticket to continuing our promise to our customers. Yes, our hard work will safeguard the strategic safety of majority of the company’s products; majority of our product supply continues! Today, this darkest day, is a day that define the ordinary heroics of HiSilicon employees!

It is Huawei’s mission to create a connected digital world and bring it to everyone, every family, every organization, and that mission continues. To realize this ideal, we need to innovate and more importantly achieve technology independence! The road ahead will no longer have another 10 years to create spare tires, as the buffer have disappeared. Every new product will need to lock step with “technology independence” initiative.

The road is arduous, thru courage intelligence perseverance, under the extreme pressure we will forge ahead! True color of a hero shines under distress; Noah’s Arc was made for difficulty.

He Tingbo

May 17th, 2019

尊敬的海思全體同事們：

此刻，估計您已得知華為被列入美國商務部工業和安全局(BIS)的實體名單(entity list)。

多年前，還是雲淡風輕的季節，公司做出了極限生存的假設，預計有一天，所有美國的先進芯片和技術將不可獲得，而華為仍將持續為客戶服務。為了這個以為永遠不會發生的假設，數千海思兒女，走上了科技史上最為悲壯的長征，為公司的生存打造「備胎」。數千個日夜中，我們星夜兼程，艱苦前行。華為的產品領域是如此廣闊，所用技術與器件是如此多元，面對數以千計的科技難題，我們無數次失敗過，困惑過，但是從來沒有放棄過。

後來的年頭裡，當我們逐步走出迷茫，看到希望，又難免一絲絲失落和不甘，擔心許多芯片永遠不會被啓用，成為一直壓在保密櫃裡面的備胎。

今天，命運的年輪轉到這個極限而黑暗的時刻，超級大國毫不留情地中斷全球合作的技術與產業體系，做出了最瘋狂的決定，在毫無依據的條件下，把華為公司放入了實體名單。

今天，是歷史的選擇，所有我們曾經打造的備胎，一夜之間全部轉「正」！多年心血，在一夜之間兌現為公司對於客戶持續服務的承諾。是的，這些努力，已經連成一片，輓狂瀾於既倒，確保了公司大部分產品的戰略安全，大部分產品的連續供應！今天，這個至暗的日子，是每一位海思的平凡兒女成為時代英雄的日子！

華為立志，將數字世界帶給每個人、每個家庭、每個組織，構建萬物互聯的智能世界，我們仍將如此。今後，為實現這一理想，我們不僅要保持開放創新，更要實現科技自立！今後的路，不會再有另一個十年來打造備胎然後再換胎了，緩衝區已經消失，每一個新產品一出生，將必須同步「科技自立」的方案。

前路更為艱辛，我們將以勇氣、智慧和毅力，在極限施壓下挺直脊梁，奮力前行！滔天巨浪方顯英雄本色，艱難困苦鑄造諾亞方舟。

何庭波

2019年5月17日凌晨

When 2016 election was in full swing I wrote that Hillary will be a good manager for the decline of U.S. while I fear Trump was unpredictable and fear war with Iran and North Korea. Instead now we have possible war with Iran and trade war with China. As most Chinese can predict that Liu He will not surrender to Trump demands and the full effect of tariff rise will be in effect tomorrow unless Trump has one of his unpredictable Tweet storms.
Most observers agree the trade war will hurt both U.S. and China but it will hurt China more and U.S. can withstand the effects easily. I beg to differ here and suggest possible retaliation China can take. I do not take lightly the effects will have on Chinese economy, but I think China will be able to overcome the adversity and come out stronger. The 200 billion tariffs will go up from 10 to 25%. It will mostly affect those high tech intermediate machine parts that firm like Cummin Engine use to assemble diesel engines. Those company will not be able to re-source their supplies to alternative supplies in U.S. or Europe and have to pay the tariffs and raise prices. Of course long term they can close their factories in China and try to move them to places like Vietnam, but that will force them to lose their investments in China and initial investments will be huge. If Trump raise tariffs for the remaining 300 billion, he will cause problems for Apple phones and Walmarts and affect consumers and inflation in U.S..
As for China the worry about labor shortage and population aging will be alleviated by the closing of those supplying U.S. productions and transition to a service economy. Although China doesn’t have as much imports from U.S. as exports for tariff retaliation, China can be creative in semiconductors like memory chips forcing manufacturers using make in China and shut out those from U.S.. China can impose surcharges like 50% ticket price for Hollywood films to reduce the soft power influences of Western values. This may violate WTO rules but if it’s retaliation probably will be allowed. As for financial and insurance China can shut out Wall street and allow European firms in reciprocal equal dealings. As for the 2 trillion holdings in dollars, China can gradually allow the bonds to expire and redeem them rather than sell them but convert them to resource assets from around the globe. China still has plenty of infrastructure works that can mobilize excess capacities of labor, for example the diversion of water from the Himalayas toward Xinjiang and North China for agriculture. With the coming climate crisis China can prepare well ahead of the curve.

Yesterday was the centennial for the May 4th movement. China commemorates it with celebration and Xi’s speech, and everybody else tried to lay claim to be successor for it, even NYT has an article trying to belittle China’s achievement by saying today’s China reminds him of warlords of 1920s China. So we as Chinese whether be in China or overseas Chinese culturally attached to her have to answer the question asked by the leaders of that movement, “Where is China heading?”. We have the hindsight of the history of last 100 years to answer affirmatively when we sing the “Ode to Dear Motherland” that China is heading toward prosperity and peace.
Professor Zhang Wei-wei in his TV program “China Today” repeatedly stated we should have self confidence in facing West in equal term, and not trying to hide behind like Yao Ming crouching behind a short person. The “Belt and Road” initiative is a counter to Trump’s tariff war whatever the outcome of the negotiation. The attack on Huawei and 5G is failing in Europe and elsewhere. The visa restriction of Chinese scientists visiting U.S., not only in physical sciences, but social sciences speaks more on the desperation felt in Washington than any real spying. It’s true both parties in U.S. are increasing hostile toward China because of the increasing economic power of China and influence in the world today. The question on “Mr. Science” is obviously answered. On the question on “Mr. Democracy” quite a few people are still trying to badger China especially some intellectuals. Yet we only have to look at Washington today to see the falsity of pseudo democracy on what people want and the road blocks on real democracy, from gerrymandering to denial of Florida voters will for former convicts’ right to vote, from electoral college with minority candidate winning the presidency to influence of money in politics. From the U.S. dominance of international institutions such as U.N. or World Bank. Yet the Trump withdrawal and wall signals the decline of this monopoly power.

Coming back to New York from a vacation in Europe reading about all the firing of top people from Homeland Securities, first rank people from border enforcement and customs, and the confusion near the Mexican border. We ourselves were caught by long line of total mismanagement that drag passport control in JFK to near 2 hours. Unlike those in Europe or China where facial recognition software and fingerprinting make an efficient entry to simple stamping your passport. We waited nearly 20 minutes after landing to be able to dragged to an open gate to unload, walking 15 minutes through long empty corridors we manage to get to passport control, where 1/2 dozen workers line us up against 25 machines to scan out passports and taking our picture. Yet soon all those machine stood empty while we still wait on line for our examination. I saw a dozen gates mostly said closed with 2 open for us citizens and 2 for foreigners. I assume this should be pro forma as surely computer has already did their work, but no, the examiners repeatedly have to escort charges to see their superiors. Finally a lady examiner on the other line seeing our bedraggled condition nodded for us to get on her line to wave us through.
U.S. immigration policies were always part of her foreign policy. From the Cuban refugees, Russian Jews, and dissidents from other countries. It was always a scam that if you can afford to payoff a lawyer you can probably get in. Although myself an immigrant I find the birth/citizen policy ridiculous with all those pregnant women from China waiting to give birth here. The 1 child policy and religious persecution gave wide latitude for green card.
The election of Trump give all the resentments against those policies visibility and if democrats are not careful more fuels. As a nation the border issue is important sovereignty issue, but if U.S. is to maintain as an empire, then they will be subservient to so called human rights, rule of laws rubric. Trump wants to maintain the U.S. Empire, being number 1 for him is important, but he also wants to have absolute control on barring those unfortunate refugees. U.S. has 2 oceans preventing all those refugees from Africa and Asia, and sufficient controls over those Central American banana republics from causing problem, but with the internet age, the allure and the coming climate refugees will force a decision by Washington whether to close border to become a nation state rather than an empire.

As a Chinese American who’s an obsessive reader of anything about China and a reader of New York Times for over 50 years I find it surprising that there are more Chinese on the pages of opinion writers and editorial pages recently, the only unsurprising thing is it’s still anti-China to a large extent. Obviously it represents the liberal view points of democracy, human rights, and rule of law that represent the antithesis of Chinese narrative. It certainly is not difficult to find those Chinese who left China and embrace Western values to take on anti-China positions as marketplace will attract those with affinity to Voice of America propaganda views. I suspect CIA financed think tanks spent millions trying to understand China would have done better by reading columns like mine or Shanghai based program by Professor Zhang Weiwei “China Today” which is on the 9th weekly installments available free on YouTube.
The TV program is about 40 minutes long each, and Professor Zhang of Fudan University and his associates discuss topics about recent political developments and then a TED like talk to young university audiences and take questions from audiences. There is no taboo questions and they touch on various topics from analysis of Chinese society, minority areas, history, and even term limit. Professor Zhang asked the young people to be self confident and confront West with his answers direct and up to the point. For example he answered the question westerns asked him about why China didn’t have a color revolution by quoting a Chinese student showing 2 pictures of Bond from Shanghai, 1 from 1990, and another from 2010s. The pictures are self explanatory.
The program is shown on Monday night Shanghai time, and usually posted on YouTube by Monday evening or Tuesday morning Eastern time in U.S.. These shows are a powerful tools and shows China’s soft power. The main criticism I have is it is a Chinese show and is on Mandarin. I wish they are translated to English and other languages so it can be disseminated all around the world. Since the program is still ongoing, I will not be critical but suggestion on the other taboo questions. It is more than 50 years since Cultural Revolution and 30 years since TAM incident. When I visited museum of Chinese Communist Party founding in Shanghai, there were many pictures of the founding members of the Chinese Communist Party, including those who defected, exiled, or even surrendered to Japanese. It gave a biographical sketch of their accomplishments, whether martyred or betrayed the cause, even a Russian who was executed wrongly by Stalin. These are the histories and China is not afraid to face them. China did say Mao made errors from the Cultural Revolution and gave him a grade of 70% versus 30 % errors. It is past time to examine the cause and lessons from Cultural Revolution, both positive and negative.

I with my son last Sunday went to the AMC on Time Square to see “Wandering Earth”. Figuring with 3 screens showing the movie we wouldn’t have trouble, but we were wrong with all the tickets sold out. With Chinese internet ablaze with different viewpoints talking about the movie I would like to put in my 2 cents even before I have a chance to see the movie. As a Si-Fi fan even though I haven’t seen the movie yet, I am familiar with the story line and read about the debates.
Those who are against the movie are mostly Chinese whom are western oriented liberal persuasion. They have a sense of inferiority complex toward West, anti-nationalists to the point of taking positions against any government initiative. The criticisms on esthetic, technical, or comparing to other western Si-Fi movies are rather irrelevant as it’s to the taste of each individual, but the real reason is to the core of value system the movie portrays. That’s also the reason Chinese government likes this movie although it was privately produced and was somewhat ambivalent toward the author and Si-Fi in general. It’s the value of Socialism versus Capitalism, of society against individual, whether individual rights have absolute priority against societal needs. That question has been answered by Chinese in their choice of votes with tickets to see this movie.

As you know, elections won’t happen until for at least 21 months from now but I am slightly more optimistic towards voting for Democratic nominees. Though most of the candidates seem to serve the corporate interests thus why many people including myself who don’t serve in the people’s interests. Here’s what I think of some of these candidates. This is the weakness of the Hillary Clinton during the 2016 elections. I’m sorry to say that most of these Democrats/Independent candidates would make Ronald Reagan proud.

1) Howard Schultz – This guy is fiscally conservative but progressive on “moral causes.” He reminds me of some Libertarian.
2) Tulsi Gabbard – She claims that she is anti war but received 100k from defense contractors.
3) Cory Booker – He is so corrupt and claims that he will fight for the ordinary people. Come on, I can see through his BS.
4) Pete Buttgieg – Who is this guy?
5) Julian Castro, John Delaney, Kirsten Gillibrand – All “Moderate” candidates of the likes of Clinton.
6) Kamala Harris – I’m not positive about her. She received alot of corporate donations but now she is running as a progressive. Doesn’t fool me.

So it comes to the last Candidate Elizabeth Warren. She seems to be the only genuine progressive who goes after big banks with a populist message. The problem with the 2016 election was that the Democrats pushed out the populist candidate Bernie Sanders. Can Warren prevail against the corrupt Democratic Machine? With the popular message of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez taxing the rich, maybe we can get a true progressive candidate as a Democrat in the 2020 elections.