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A short note on CCP fear of CCP members in Hubei Province –From several sources comes information that Hubei Provincial CCP is demanding to hold passports from midlevel CCP members and above, even long after retirement. Current retirement age for men is 60; 55 for women. Lots of CCP members have family or kids in the US. If they cannot get approval to seek a visa, they can never see their families. That’s a long time to be barred from direct family contact.An 80 year-old CCP member was recently denied his passport to see his son in Hong Kong, presumably for fear that the man would then leave China permanently once in Hong Kong.It has been customary for more than a decade now for the human resources department to hold passports for midlevel CCP members, and the zuzhibu organization department to hold passports for higher level leaders. Any relevant department could object to giving a passport back to the individual, but generally that has not been a problem. Hubei right now is different.Related is a story, also from Hubei, of a CCP member whose daughter just had a baby in the US. The grandmother has been in Florida for a …

A brief note on choice of dates … and choice of policies. I don’t think CCP and GOP are directly coordinating policy, but they have constructed curiously sympatico … and apparently similarly timed … programs for major world restructuring. One economic and technological, one political and radically reactionary.CCP uber allesMade in China 2025 is a national strategic plan and industrial policy. The key objective of the Made in China 2025 program is to identify key technologies, grow companies that can be national champions, secure market share domestically within China, and ultimately capture foreign markets globally. It is the Chinese world economic domination strategy. Progress in the last ten years has been impressive. Policies and funding are directed toward 1) New advanced information technology; 2) Automated machine tools & robotics; 3) Aerospace and aeronautical equipment; 4) Maritime equipment and high-tech shipping; 5) Modern rail transport equipment; 6) New-energy vehicles and equipment; 7) Power equipment; 8) Agricultural equipment; 9) New materials; and 10) Biopharma and advanced medical products.One can certainly quibble about whether this plan is feasible or fundable in its totality. But there is no doubt CCP is making big plans.The plans are clearly international in scope. Just one example – from Scott Kennedy …

William Kirby is a renowned China scholar at Harvard. He has written a dozen books on Chinese history and our relations with China. He has a long list of accomplishments at the highest levels of international academia and professional societies.When he writes about superior universities in Germany and the US and China, I can only marvel at the scope of his erudition. So I feel a bit out of my element commenting on his latest book Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China.Kirby writes that on academic engagement with China the educational resurgence is much less a threat than an opportunity for American and other international universities…. American research universities have been strengthened enormously by recruiting Chinese doctoral students, themselves largely graduates of Chinese universities, who are admitted exclusively on the basis of merit. Our faculty ranks, too, are augmented by extraordinary Chinese scholars. We restrict these students and colleagues at our own peril. Today, any research university that is not open to talent from around the globe is on a glide path to decline. True enough. Kirby is familiar with the finest research universities and students in China and the world. Some Chinese students go on to excel in …

Governor DeSantis is quite clearly fond of CCP policies and regulations. Many of his GOP fellow travelers are in thrall as well. Ridiculous? To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.He has signed legislation encouraging students to record and report teachers who espouse views unacceptable to DeSantis and the GOP. Just like CCP – see Monkey See, Monkey Do and more.He acknowledges higher goals than simply “grow GDP,” now pushing Disney out of a billion dollar Florida investment. CCP apparently taught DeSantis how to do that, with its recent crackdowns on tech, tutoring, and real estate – China’s Economic Needs May Take a Back Seat to Security – The New York Times. The only fundamental truth is power.DeSantis has worked hard to identify enemies of the people. He takes a hint from CCP and identifies whole industries or groups of people as class enemies – not just Disney. This from the DeSantis May, 2021 law that prohibits censoring of hate speech or fever-swamp lunacy online –This session, we took action to ensure that ‘We the People’ — real Floridians across the Sunshine State — are guaranteed protection against the Silicon Valley elites. Many in our state have experienced censorship and other …

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From the Daily Beast, a wowser of a scoop – Berkeley’s $220M Mistake Exposed in Massive Deal With China
 from the article – “U.C. Berkeley takes the matter of undue foreign government influence seriously,” he said. That much is quite clear. Berkeley can clearly undercut the businessman in selling CCP the rope. Go Golden Bears! And as with lots of scandals, the flaw may not be in the deal but in the avoidance of reporting. Again and again, whatever happened to avoiding the hint of impropriety?  Answer – when you lose civil society or public morality, all that is left is the finely parsed letter of the law. https://www.thedailybeast.com/uc-berkeley-failed-to-disclose-dollar220m-tech-deal-with-china-to-us-government?ref=scroll Berkeley’s $220M Mistake Exposed in Massive Deal With China OOPS!U.C. Berkeley repeatedly neglected to disclose its deal with China to the U.S. government.Yuichiro KakutaniUpdated May. 22, 2023 7:18AM ET Published May. 22, 2023 4:59AM ET  U.C. Berkeley has failed to disclose to the U.S. government massive Chinese state funding for a highly sensitive $240 million joint tech venture in China that has been running for the last eight years.The Californian university has not registered with the U.S. government that it received huge financial support from the city of Shenzhen for a tech project inside China, which also included partnerships with Chinese companies that have since been sanctioned by the U.S. or …

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Change Management 1/3
Change Management 2/3
Change Management 3/3China has changed dramatically in the last forty years. Business writer and thought leader Bob Yovovich tells us that China urbanized in half the time it took the US and with ten times the number of relocations. Such rapid change must have induced complex interlocking social shifts and costs – customs broken, institutions abandoned, social ties destroyed. Now, wither China? Wither CCP?Three questions in three posts. This is post #3.Thesis #3  Will Mr. Democracy eventually overpower Mr. Science in Chinese culture? A democratic future must come with modernizationBelow –     Evidence for the coming of Mr. Democracy      Antithesis #3   No evidence for democracy anytime soon            What holds Chinese back?            We few … we unhappy few …            But maybe really … self-harm            Trusting in leadership by the best
            Democracy and capitalism united            Hear as the people hear
            What do we want
            The artistry of power
            Locally …
            AdaptationScience is about a search for truth. It is logical and precise. But science – as reflected in logic and precision – can only take society so far. Democracies and freedoms are much more complex than science, but people need that complexity to live meaningful lives.Democracies and freedoms come in many flavors. As much as CCP tries to keep China pure – free …