China's leader, Mr. Xi Jinping, asserts every country's government is legitimate, even one like his that censors everything a person sees and says and uses facial recognition technology to monitor the activities of every citizen. There are numerous ramifications of acknowledging despotic governments that ignore human rights and theocratic governments that require all people to follow the same religious beliefs and practices deserve the same respect and fealty as governments founded on democratic principles.
Take the example of neurotechnologies capable of inserting electrodes into a brain to temporarily reduce the time it takes to memorize multiplication tables, a football playbook, or the codes and plans of a military enemy. Invasion into a brain also has other effects. Blood leakage into a brain's compartments from such an insert eventually reduces normal cell activities, such as memory and thinking. The impact on one brain function also can "cross talk" to impact other brain functions, such as the moral ability to discern right from wrong.
Some scientists devote themselves to technologies that enhance the individual, commercial, and military applications of human individuals, robots, and drones. Other humans use technology to binge-watch shows, socialize on smartphones, or order lipstick and mascara. Around the world, everyone has a stake in supporting governments devoted to: 1) promoting technologies that are good for society and 2) impeding the development and controlling the use of technologies that injure humans.
Showing posts with label Xi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xi. Show all posts
Monday, November 11, 2019
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Beijing Meets Its Match
Continuous protests begun in Hong Kong in early June, 2019, achieved results on September 4, 2019. The government withdrew a bill that would have required those charged with domestic crimes to be transferred to mainland China for trial. Nonetheless, Hong Kong's leader, Ms. Carrie Lam, failed to resign and protests could continue.
When China's President Xi Jinping visited Hong Kong for the first time in July, 2017, he said attempts to challenge Beijing's sovereignty, security, and power were "impermissible." On June 30, 2017, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry had said Beijing no longer considered itself bound by the 1984 Sino-British treaty that ended the UK's rule and prepared Hong Kong to become a semi-autonomous region of China for 50 years.
Under terms of a secret provisional agreement, on August 26, 2019, atheistic China allowed the Roman Catholic Pope, Francis I, to ordain Bishop Anthony Yao Shun of Jining in China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Bishop Stephen Xu Hongwei of Hanzhong in Shaanxi. Previously, Beijing claimed such appointments would be considered foreign interference with China's internal affairs.
When China's President Xi Jinping visited Hong Kong for the first time in July, 2017, he said attempts to challenge Beijing's sovereignty, security, and power were "impermissible." On June 30, 2017, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry had said Beijing no longer considered itself bound by the 1984 Sino-British treaty that ended the UK's rule and prepared Hong Kong to become a semi-autonomous region of China for 50 years.
Under terms of a secret provisional agreement, on August 26, 2019, atheistic China allowed the Roman Catholic Pope, Francis I, to ordain Bishop Anthony Yao Shun of Jining in China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Bishop Stephen Xu Hongwei of Hanzhong in Shaanxi. Previously, Beijing claimed such appointments would be considered foreign interference with China's internal affairs.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Winning Oscars and Making Money at the Movies
Oscar-nominated films highlight the international contributions of the movie industry's directors, actors, and technical experts. This year, on Sunday, Feb. 24, a film-maker from Mexico, Alfonso Cuaron, or Pawel Paiolikowski from Poland could win two Academy Awards, one for best director and the other for best foreign language film.
As in the past, international filmmakers frequently are nominated in the categories: animated and live action shorts. These movies are not shown in many movie theatres, and that is not a loss this year, because, except for two films, they portray depressing themes not suitable for young audiences. Adults and children would enjoy the funny Animal Behavior, however. In this Canadian entry, a dog psychiatrist tries to cure a pig, praying mantis, bird, and other animals of their most annoying habits. A gorilla with anger management issues takes exception to the person in front of him in the "10 or Less" line who wants to count the five bananas in his one bunch separately. He reacts by tearing up her bag of frozen peas and says, "Now, you have a thousand."
Children already may have seen the Oscar-nominated Bao, a Chinese word for dumpling, that Pixar screened before Incredibles 2. On her second try, Bao's director, Domee Shi, was hired by Pixar as an intern. She is now the first female director in its shorts department. At age two, Ms. Shi migrated with her family from Chongqing, China, to Toronto, Canada. Her father, a college professor of fine art and landscape painter, recognized her talent for drawing, and her mother's dumplings sparked the idea of using food as an entry into understanding another culture. Japanese anime films and manga comics and graphic novels also inspired Ms. Shi, as well as the Mexican theme of the animated feature, Coco, that won an Academy Award last year.
China is among the growing number of countries joining Hollywood, India's Bollywood, and Nigeria's Nollywood in the film and music video industries. By 2019, however, authoritarian control by Chinese authorities was causing film investors to flee. On the other hand, filmmakers in Nigeria aided government efforts, when suspicious circumstances delayed a presidential election in Nigeria. A drone camera was deployed to record singing Nigerian film stars urging voters to remain cool in a video shown on social media. Off the east coast on the other side of Africa, the island of Mauritius is using the advantage of year round good weather to attract job-creating firm-makers.
Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin of the Dalian Wanda Group had high hopes for the 400-acre, 30 sound stage, $8 billion Oriental Movie Metropolis he opened in the east coast port city of Qingdao three years ago. Although offering to pay film-makers 40% of their production costs, producers were wary of censoring by China's State Administration of Press Publications, Radio, Film and Television. Other setbacks included: the failure of China's big budget film tribute to Tibetan mythology, Asura; social media references to Chinese President Xi's resemblance to Disney's Winnie the Pooh; and the ill-advised joint U.S.-Chinese film, Great Wall, starring Matt Damon as a mercenary soldier fighting with a secret Chinese army defending the Great Wall of China from monsters.
Recent films produced for China's domestic market are generating higher box office returns. Dying to Survive opened with a $200 million weekend by telling the story of Lu Yong, who took on the high Chinese prices of Western medicine by importing illegal cancer drugs from India. The Wandering Earth, a sci-fi thriller about the expanding sun's threat to Earth, trapped in Jupiter's gravitational pull, netted $440 million during the first ten days of China's New Year of the Pig. By downplaying its Warner Bros. connection, the U.S.-Chinese co-production, The Meg, a film about a deep sea diver who saved a submersible disabled by a prehistoric Megalodon shark, earned $528 million globally.
As in the past, international filmmakers frequently are nominated in the categories: animated and live action shorts. These movies are not shown in many movie theatres, and that is not a loss this year, because, except for two films, they portray depressing themes not suitable for young audiences. Adults and children would enjoy the funny Animal Behavior, however. In this Canadian entry, a dog psychiatrist tries to cure a pig, praying mantis, bird, and other animals of their most annoying habits. A gorilla with anger management issues takes exception to the person in front of him in the "10 or Less" line who wants to count the five bananas in his one bunch separately. He reacts by tearing up her bag of frozen peas and says, "Now, you have a thousand."
Children already may have seen the Oscar-nominated Bao, a Chinese word for dumpling, that Pixar screened before Incredibles 2. On her second try, Bao's director, Domee Shi, was hired by Pixar as an intern. She is now the first female director in its shorts department. At age two, Ms. Shi migrated with her family from Chongqing, China, to Toronto, Canada. Her father, a college professor of fine art and landscape painter, recognized her talent for drawing, and her mother's dumplings sparked the idea of using food as an entry into understanding another culture. Japanese anime films and manga comics and graphic novels also inspired Ms. Shi, as well as the Mexican theme of the animated feature, Coco, that won an Academy Award last year.
China is among the growing number of countries joining Hollywood, India's Bollywood, and Nigeria's Nollywood in the film and music video industries. By 2019, however, authoritarian control by Chinese authorities was causing film investors to flee. On the other hand, filmmakers in Nigeria aided government efforts, when suspicious circumstances delayed a presidential election in Nigeria. A drone camera was deployed to record singing Nigerian film stars urging voters to remain cool in a video shown on social media. Off the east coast on the other side of Africa, the island of Mauritius is using the advantage of year round good weather to attract job-creating firm-makers.
Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin of the Dalian Wanda Group had high hopes for the 400-acre, 30 sound stage, $8 billion Oriental Movie Metropolis he opened in the east coast port city of Qingdao three years ago. Although offering to pay film-makers 40% of their production costs, producers were wary of censoring by China's State Administration of Press Publications, Radio, Film and Television. Other setbacks included: the failure of China's big budget film tribute to Tibetan mythology, Asura; social media references to Chinese President Xi's resemblance to Disney's Winnie the Pooh; and the ill-advised joint U.S.-Chinese film, Great Wall, starring Matt Damon as a mercenary soldier fighting with a secret Chinese army defending the Great Wall of China from monsters.
Recent films produced for China's domestic market are generating higher box office returns. Dying to Survive opened with a $200 million weekend by telling the story of Lu Yong, who took on the high Chinese prices of Western medicine by importing illegal cancer drugs from India. The Wandering Earth, a sci-fi thriller about the expanding sun's threat to Earth, trapped in Jupiter's gravitational pull, netted $440 million during the first ten days of China's New Year of the Pig. By downplaying its Warner Bros. connection, the U.S.-Chinese co-production, The Meg, a film about a deep sea diver who saved a submersible disabled by a prehistoric Megalodon shark, earned $528 million globally.
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Unmask Inscrutable Chinese Intentions
China has an uncanny ability to describe what the United States wants to hear while pursuing the future Beijing is determined to create.
At a 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Obama the Pacific Ocean was "broad enough to accommodate the development of both China and the United States." A year later, China declared it had no intention of militarizing its artificial islands in the South China Sea. Today, China has radar installations, reinforced concrete bunkers, and missiles on three of its artificial islands and claims "indisputable sovereignty" in their adjacent waters.
In 2017, the Taiwan-based Chinese company, Foxconn, arrived in Wisconsin offering to create 13,000 new jobs in a State, where then Republican Gov. Scott Walker had failed to deliver on a campaign promise to create 250,000. In return for the increase in employment and plant investment that Foxconn agreed to bring to Wisconsin, the State offered the company generous tax credits said to be anywhere from $3 billion to $4.5 billion.
During the past two years, Foxconni 's Technology Group changed its original plan to manufacture TV liquid crystal display panel screens in Wisconsin. While holding to its contractual obligation to employ 13,000, Foxconn now claims three-quarters of the jobs in Wisconsin's 6G "technology hub" will be in research, development, and design, rather than in blue collar manufacturing jobs.
In Manhattan, Mayor Bill de Blasio said any attempt to change the terms of the agreement that brought Amazon's second headquarters to the city would nullify the contract. How can Foxconn alter plans for its operation in Wisconsin without any consequences?
Whether there are 9,750 employees with skills to handle the 6G tasks Foxconn now expects to perform in Wisconsin is doubtful. In 2018, Foxconn did not qualify to receive any tax incentives, because the company only created 178 of the 260 positions it agreed to fulfill in that period. Were these 178 positions filled by Wisconsinites? Since an audit in December, 2018 found the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has a policy of awarding tax credits for employees who do not work in Wisconsin, it seems possible Foxconn even could receive tax credits for 6G jobs performed by Foxconn employees in China.
I do not pretend to know how a 6G (sixth generation) network works, but I doubt Gov. Tony Evers and the GOP legislature that approved the Foxconn contract do either. I do know 6G networks are designed to facilitate the IoT
(Internet of Things). If home appliances and office electronics with display panels instantly transmit everything they see, an advanced ultra-high frequency 6G network is needed to instantly transmit an enormous amount of data. And memory chips are essential to this technology.
By locating in the United States, Foxconn can purchase memory chips from U.S. companies, such as Qualcomm, and avoid the export ban that nearly put ZTE out of business in China, when Congress initially prohibited the exports it needed. (See the earlier post, "China's Domestic Economic Belt.")
Chinese scientists suggest how lovely it would be to use 6G technology to share a holiday dinner with friends and relatives thousands of miles away. Benign 6G applications in driverless cars, aviation, and medicine do seem beneficial. But you only need to imagine paying China for devices that allow Beijing to look into every home and business in the United States to recognize problems and the need for government regulation.
U.S. officials already indicate they consider the practices and equipment of China's telecom firms a national security threat. Huawei, which builds networks in 170 countries, is charged in the U.S. with flaunting sanctions forbidding exports of memory chips to Iran, stealing intellectual property, and improper banking disclosures. After Canada arrested Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, Washington asked for her extradition to the United States. To date, no evidence reveals Huawei's smartphones or networks have been used for spying, but the fear that they, or their 6G successors, could be used for that purpose persists. As long as Huawei offers good service at a lower price than competitors, U.S., European, and other companies will not shy away from buying their products. In China, President Xi is determined to eliminate dependence on, and influence related to, chips supplied by U.S. companies.
At a 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Obama the Pacific Ocean was "broad enough to accommodate the development of both China and the United States." A year later, China declared it had no intention of militarizing its artificial islands in the South China Sea. Today, China has radar installations, reinforced concrete bunkers, and missiles on three of its artificial islands and claims "indisputable sovereignty" in their adjacent waters.
In 2017, the Taiwan-based Chinese company, Foxconn, arrived in Wisconsin offering to create 13,000 new jobs in a State, where then Republican Gov. Scott Walker had failed to deliver on a campaign promise to create 250,000. In return for the increase in employment and plant investment that Foxconn agreed to bring to Wisconsin, the State offered the company generous tax credits said to be anywhere from $3 billion to $4.5 billion.
During the past two years, Foxconni 's Technology Group changed its original plan to manufacture TV liquid crystal display panel screens in Wisconsin. While holding to its contractual obligation to employ 13,000, Foxconn now claims three-quarters of the jobs in Wisconsin's 6G "technology hub" will be in research, development, and design, rather than in blue collar manufacturing jobs.
In Manhattan, Mayor Bill de Blasio said any attempt to change the terms of the agreement that brought Amazon's second headquarters to the city would nullify the contract. How can Foxconn alter plans for its operation in Wisconsin without any consequences?
Whether there are 9,750 employees with skills to handle the 6G tasks Foxconn now expects to perform in Wisconsin is doubtful. In 2018, Foxconn did not qualify to receive any tax incentives, because the company only created 178 of the 260 positions it agreed to fulfill in that period. Were these 178 positions filled by Wisconsinites? Since an audit in December, 2018 found the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has a policy of awarding tax credits for employees who do not work in Wisconsin, it seems possible Foxconn even could receive tax credits for 6G jobs performed by Foxconn employees in China.
I do not pretend to know how a 6G (sixth generation) network works, but I doubt Gov. Tony Evers and the GOP legislature that approved the Foxconn contract do either. I do know 6G networks are designed to facilitate the IoT
(Internet of Things). If home appliances and office electronics with display panels instantly transmit everything they see, an advanced ultra-high frequency 6G network is needed to instantly transmit an enormous amount of data. And memory chips are essential to this technology.
By locating in the United States, Foxconn can purchase memory chips from U.S. companies, such as Qualcomm, and avoid the export ban that nearly put ZTE out of business in China, when Congress initially prohibited the exports it needed. (See the earlier post, "China's Domestic Economic Belt.")
Chinese scientists suggest how lovely it would be to use 6G technology to share a holiday dinner with friends and relatives thousands of miles away. Benign 6G applications in driverless cars, aviation, and medicine do seem beneficial. But you only need to imagine paying China for devices that allow Beijing to look into every home and business in the United States to recognize problems and the need for government regulation.
U.S. officials already indicate they consider the practices and equipment of China's telecom firms a national security threat. Huawei, which builds networks in 170 countries, is charged in the U.S. with flaunting sanctions forbidding exports of memory chips to Iran, stealing intellectual property, and improper banking disclosures. After Canada arrested Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, Washington asked for her extradition to the United States. To date, no evidence reveals Huawei's smartphones or networks have been used for spying, but the fear that they, or their 6G successors, could be used for that purpose persists. As long as Huawei offers good service at a lower price than competitors, U.S., European, and other companies will not shy away from buying their products. In China, President Xi is determined to eliminate dependence on, and influence related to, chips supplied by U.S. companies.
Saturday, December 1, 2018
What Would Xi Do?
Today in China, President Xi Jinping expects his Thoughts to replace those of Confucius, Mao Zedong, Mohammed, and Jesus. But what are his Thoughts?
At last year's 19th Communist Party Congress, President Xi announced China entered a new era of "Socialism with Chinese characteristics." Since then, many have tried to attach actionable meaning to President Xi's vague dictum. University professors lecture on the Chinese characteristics of socialism; party cells attempt to study a 355-page book on the subject; major companies, libraries, and community centers set aside space for Thought study.
Much to President Xi's annoyance, since Deng Xiaoping's 1978 emphasis on full tilt economic and scientific progress creeps into discussions, some claim "socialism with Chinese characteristics" really is "capitalism with Chinese characteristics." Maybe President Xi is a little jealous of Deng, who is glorified for beginning China's 40-year economic transformation, while he is left to stifle constitutional, democratic, and religious rumblings from Hong Kong to Tibet. Just to add to the confusion, one of Deng's sons, Deng Pufang, who was paralyzed when Maoist radicals threw him off a building during the Cultural Revolution, disagrees with the aggressive foreign policy and "world class" army Xi's Thought seems to espouse.
Judging from what is rewarded at China's universities, STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) subjects are consistent with the Thoughts of Xi. Students receive financial rewards for STEM papers published in the Scopius catalog of abstracts. Some oppose the tendency of students to play it safe with incremental research rather than aiming for breakthrough innovations, especially with meaningful engineering discoveries that advance modernization or with new social science theories about human behavior. In his new book, Blueprint, genetics psychologist, Robert Plomin, also exposes some of the defects in papers published in scientific journals. He observed researchers are tempted to report only the most novel results, the best story, even though their experiments did not gain the same results every time. In other words, results could not be replicated.
The Chinese Party definitely agrees with what Xi's Thought prohibits: 1) belief in universal values, such as human rights and freedom of speech and assembly, even though China's constitution allows these rights, 2) an independent judiciary free of government interference and open to public scrutiny, and 3) criticism of past Communist Party mistakes.
Recently, Western ambassadors, however, have not been reluctant to criticize the mass detentions and surveillance of Muslim Uighurs in western China's Xinjiang province. According to an article in the Financial Times, China uses facial recognition technology to track at least 2.5 million people in the province. Foreign reporters who recently visited the camps were shown those in detention happily singing in English. They also found Beijing's re-education strategy seemed to have reduced the Uighur Muslims' religious devotion.
At last year's 19th Communist Party Congress, President Xi announced China entered a new era of "Socialism with Chinese characteristics." Since then, many have tried to attach actionable meaning to President Xi's vague dictum. University professors lecture on the Chinese characteristics of socialism; party cells attempt to study a 355-page book on the subject; major companies, libraries, and community centers set aside space for Thought study.
Much to President Xi's annoyance, since Deng Xiaoping's 1978 emphasis on full tilt economic and scientific progress creeps into discussions, some claim "socialism with Chinese characteristics" really is "capitalism with Chinese characteristics." Maybe President Xi is a little jealous of Deng, who is glorified for beginning China's 40-year economic transformation, while he is left to stifle constitutional, democratic, and religious rumblings from Hong Kong to Tibet. Just to add to the confusion, one of Deng's sons, Deng Pufang, who was paralyzed when Maoist radicals threw him off a building during the Cultural Revolution, disagrees with the aggressive foreign policy and "world class" army Xi's Thought seems to espouse.
Judging from what is rewarded at China's universities, STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) subjects are consistent with the Thoughts of Xi. Students receive financial rewards for STEM papers published in the Scopius catalog of abstracts. Some oppose the tendency of students to play it safe with incremental research rather than aiming for breakthrough innovations, especially with meaningful engineering discoveries that advance modernization or with new social science theories about human behavior. In his new book, Blueprint, genetics psychologist, Robert Plomin, also exposes some of the defects in papers published in scientific journals. He observed researchers are tempted to report only the most novel results, the best story, even though their experiments did not gain the same results every time. In other words, results could not be replicated.
The Chinese Party definitely agrees with what Xi's Thought prohibits: 1) belief in universal values, such as human rights and freedom of speech and assembly, even though China's constitution allows these rights, 2) an independent judiciary free of government interference and open to public scrutiny, and 3) criticism of past Communist Party mistakes.
Recently, Western ambassadors, however, have not been reluctant to criticize the mass detentions and surveillance of Muslim Uighurs in western China's Xinjiang province. According to an article in the Financial Times, China uses facial recognition technology to track at least 2.5 million people in the province. Foreign reporters who recently visited the camps were shown those in detention happily singing in English. They also found Beijing's re-education strategy seemed to have reduced the Uighur Muslims' religious devotion.
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
China's Domestic Economic Belt
Less well known on the world stage than China's land and sea "One Belt, One Road" and "Maritime Silk Road" is China's Domestic Economic Belt along the Yangtze River from densely-populated and heavily-polluted Shanghai, west to the lake region around Wuhan (where COVID-19 originated), and still farther southwest to Chongqing, population over 30 million, larger than Shanghai and Beijing (home to OneSpace, China's solid-fueled commercial spacecraft industry, specializing in launching small satellites) and Chengdu, where police just raided an underground church about to commemorate the June, 1989 democracy demonstration in Tiananmen Square. (This is an opportunity for students to trace the Yangtze River on a map of China.)
Attention to ecology along this Yangtze River route is a priority in China. It entails:
Attention to ecology along this Yangtze River route is a priority in China. It entails:
- Closing polluting chemical plants
- Restoration of lakes and wetlands
- Sewage treatment
- Regulating the fishing industry
- Developing clean air technology (See earlier post,"How to Meet the Clean Air Challenge.")
- Integrating non-polluting energy sources into the existing power grid'
- Building new eco-friendly communities (See earlier post, "Priority: Eliminate generating electricity from fossil fuels.")
A new project in China's far western reaches demonstrates Beijing's focus on developing non-polluting energy sources. Where the Yangtze is known as the Jinsha Jiang River, the new Lawa hydroelectric dam will generate two billion watts of power, the same energy supplied by the U.S. Hoover Dam, on the border between Sichuan and the Tibetan Plateau.
Development along the Yangtze also indicates China's interest in technological progress. Economic assistance is going to the Donghu New Technology Development Zone east of Wuhan. The zone houses the FiberHome Technology Group, an optic fiber communications center, and the Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation. Producing memory chips for China's semiconductor industry has become a personal priority of President Xi Jinping.
The U.S. Commerce Department's April, 2018 7-year ban on sales of chips to ZTE, the high-tech firm in China's integrated circuit and Smartphone industry, exposed dependence on exports from Qualcomm in California. Once again the consequences of cheating played a part. False statements and missing export records showed ZTE violated a 2017 settlement by illegally using U.S. chips in telecommunications equipment shipped to Iran and North Korea. Although ZTE had settled the 2017 case by paying a $1.2 billion penalty and promising disciplinary actions against 39 employees involved in illegal conduct, ZTE took no personnel measures. To restore Qualcomm's sales to ZTE, the company agreed to install a new management team and to let the U.S. staff a compliance unit that would report to the U.S. Commerce Department for the next ten years. At first the US Congress still rejected the plan, until President Trump and Chinese President Xi reached a separate agreement.
Violations of the original ZTE technology agreement and other cases of Chinese infringement on intellectual property rights concern the U.S. about China's interest in stealing chip research, development, and manufacturing know-how, not only how work in these areas is progressing at the zone in Donghu. With nearly 350,000 Chinese students in the United States, universities are warned to lock their labs, and legal interns from China are being kept away from sensitive antitrust cases. (See the post concerning Foxconn's intended facility in Wisconsin in the later post, "Unmask Inscrutable Chinese Intentions.")
Monday, May 21, 2018
China Beyond the Headlines
Much is made of the contrast between the corruption overlooked in Russia and the crackdown on corruption in China. But other Chinese behaviors and practices deserve examination.
Stealing is rampant in China; the country's prohibition on tax evasion and gambling is evaded; and a form of discrimination is legal. Foreign companies expect their intellectual property rights to be ignored. Chinese companies contracted to manufacture products for foreign firms readily produce knock-offs of those same products. Even exchange students find they have to keep a sharp eye on their belongings or they will disappear. An engineering student from a U.S. Ivy League college, who planned to stay in China for a couple of months, left after a week when her caliper was stolen.
China is not exempt from tax dodgers. There is the revenue a company makes, the amount it reports for tax purposes, and the difference deposited in overseas banks or in Khorgos, an out-of-the-way Central Asian Chinese town on the Kazakhstan border. Along with film studios, media outlets, financial services, and over 14,000 other companies, Chinese movie star, Fan Bingbing, who earned $43 million in 2017, registered her company in Khorgos. Ever since China began a probe into tax evasion on June 3, 2018, Miss Bingbing has not been seen in public, and she has been fined $129 million. Her 62 million followers on social media correctly speculated she was caught in the Communist Party's anti-corruption, tax evasion campaign. She also might be a victim of President Xi Jinping's new morality crackdown on culture and behavior not in line with socialist values.
Gambling is illegal on the Chinese mainland. Beijing stopped approving new gaming apps created by China's Tencent tech leader and pressured Apple to remove gambling apps in its Chinese App Store. But casinos attract Chinese gamblers to Macau, a Special Administrative Region of China, and Chinese travelers freely gamble on overseas trips. "Justify," the winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes is owned by the China Horse Club, as is "Audible," the horse that came in third in the Kentucky Derby. No doubt Chinese handicappers won plenty of cash, when "Justify" won all three legs of the Triple Crown.
Finally, the U.S. State Department's annual report on religious freedom called attention to the million Uighur Muslims China holds in secret re-education camps. In another example of discrimination in China, members of China's poor underclass, unskilled rural transplants earning little in city jobs, find they are victims of the hukou system. They are shut out of health care, housing, and quality educations in state-run schools. They also have been shut out of watching some short-form videos on Douyin, the app Chinese authorities find shallow and addictive and monitor for illegal or morally questionable content contrary to socialist values. Young Chinese viewers say they enjoy watching good-looking amateurs tell jokes, sing, and perform imaginative stunts on Douyin; it's fun and relaxing.
Stealing is rampant in China; the country's prohibition on tax evasion and gambling is evaded; and a form of discrimination is legal. Foreign companies expect their intellectual property rights to be ignored. Chinese companies contracted to manufacture products for foreign firms readily produce knock-offs of those same products. Even exchange students find they have to keep a sharp eye on their belongings or they will disappear. An engineering student from a U.S. Ivy League college, who planned to stay in China for a couple of months, left after a week when her caliper was stolen.
China is not exempt from tax dodgers. There is the revenue a company makes, the amount it reports for tax purposes, and the difference deposited in overseas banks or in Khorgos, an out-of-the-way Central Asian Chinese town on the Kazakhstan border. Along with film studios, media outlets, financial services, and over 14,000 other companies, Chinese movie star, Fan Bingbing, who earned $43 million in 2017, registered her company in Khorgos. Ever since China began a probe into tax evasion on June 3, 2018, Miss Bingbing has not been seen in public, and she has been fined $129 million. Her 62 million followers on social media correctly speculated she was caught in the Communist Party's anti-corruption, tax evasion campaign. She also might be a victim of President Xi Jinping's new morality crackdown on culture and behavior not in line with socialist values.
Gambling is illegal on the Chinese mainland. Beijing stopped approving new gaming apps created by China's Tencent tech leader and pressured Apple to remove gambling apps in its Chinese App Store. But casinos attract Chinese gamblers to Macau, a Special Administrative Region of China, and Chinese travelers freely gamble on overseas trips. "Justify," the winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes is owned by the China Horse Club, as is "Audible," the horse that came in third in the Kentucky Derby. No doubt Chinese handicappers won plenty of cash, when "Justify" won all three legs of the Triple Crown.
Finally, the U.S. State Department's annual report on religious freedom called attention to the million Uighur Muslims China holds in secret re-education camps. In another example of discrimination in China, members of China's poor underclass, unskilled rural transplants earning little in city jobs, find they are victims of the hukou system. They are shut out of health care, housing, and quality educations in state-run schools. They also have been shut out of watching some short-form videos on Douyin, the app Chinese authorities find shallow and addictive and monitor for illegal or morally questionable content contrary to socialist values. Young Chinese viewers say they enjoy watching good-looking amateurs tell jokes, sing, and perform imaginative stunts on Douyin; it's fun and relaxing.
(Also see the earlier posts,"China's Plan for World Domination" and "China Stretches a Napoleon-Style Belt.")
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