AmCham HK debunk US Government fake news on HK. Wow that’s very positive about HK in general and appears turning a deaf ear discreetly and politely toward Joe Biden’s fake news “warning”. 香港美國商會揭穿美國政府對香港的假新聞. 哇，總的來說，這對香港非常積極，似乎對喬拜登的假新聞“警告”謹慎而禮貌地置若罔聞.
AmCham Statement on Business Environment in Hong Kong
Hong Kong – July 16, 2021 – The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (“AmCham”) has been operating and thriving in Hong Kong for over 50 years. Our 1,400 members represent business sectors ranging from financial services to law to logistics and real estate. We have long been operating in Hong Kong, China and greater Asia and believe that this city has a crucial role to play as an international business hub.
AmCham is well aware of an increasingly complicated geopolitical environment and its risks; particularly those which have evolved in recent years. The environment is more complex and challenging. We are here to support our members to navigate those challenges and risks while also capturing the opportunities of doing business in this region. Hong Kong remains a critical and vibrant facilitator of trade and financial flow between the East and West. Hong Kong has one of the best developed infrastructures in Asia, it has an internationally recognized system of commercial law, it has a more open and sophisticated digital infrastructure than many of its Asian peers. Its financial market is among the top five in the world.
For these reasons, we believe it is important, perhaps more than ever, for AmCham to represent American businesses and to constructively work with our public and private stakeholders to build a Hong Kong for the future. AmCham has just purchased a new site in Central Hong Kong to foster dialogue, allow businesses to network, to share ideas and espouse the values of transparency, free flow of information, rule of law and good governance.
Video: Should China Manufacture All Kinds Of Chips now? The answer is “no”. 中國現在應該製造各種芯片嗎？ 答案是”不”. High-end chips using 5 nm technology or lower account for 5% of the market demand, but it demands billions of investment. China should not encourage hundreds of Chinese companies to invest in the niche repetitively. It is a trap China should avoid, instead. 採用5納米以下技術的高端芯片佔市場需求的5%，但需要數十億的投資。 中國不應鼓勵數百家中國公司重複投資於利基市場。 相反，這是中國應該避免的陷阱. https://vimeo.com/576077952 https://youtu.be/HLmrfdqOGk0 https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/530428218180508/?d=n
Why am I not surprised on US Department of Commerce illegal practices? Firstly, When I was appointed as Vice Chairman of Hawaii District Export Council for 2 terms, a total of 8 years by US Department of Commerce. Even in Hawaii you could feel the uneasiness. I was bypassed to become Chairman due to my Color. When I asked to get appointment for the 3rd term, the gatekeeper, the AngloSaxon US Commercial Officer in Hawaii rejected me as I am not one of his own. 為什麼我對美國商務部的非法行為並不感到驚訝？首先，當我被美國商務部任命為夏威夷地區出口委員會副主席時，兩屆，共 8 年。 即使在夏威夷，你也能感受到那種不安。 由於我的膚色，我被繞過成為主席。 當我要求獲得第三個任期的任命時，守門人，夏威夷的西人(盎格魯撒克遜)美國商務官員拒絕了我，因為我是有色人種!
Secondly, I became the National Winner of The Minority Business Champion by the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2008 to earn a trip to see President George Bush in the White House. You have to understand to become National Champion, one needs to beat the 49 States plus Guam and Puerto Rico. 其次，我在 2008 年成為小企業管理局 (SBA) 的全國少數族裔企業冠軍得主，以贏得在白宮會和喬治·布什總統會面。 你必須明白要成為全國冠軍，一個人需要擊敗 49 個州加上關島和波多黎各。
When I came back to Hawaii to celebrate, I became not even a 2nd best when an AngloSaxon lady in Hawaii only winning the Western Region under a different category as the real champion for the State of Hawaii. 當我回到夏威夷慶祝時，我什至沒有成為第二名，因為夏威夷的一位西人(盎格魯撒克遜)女士僅在不同類別下贏得西部地區冠軍，成為夏威夷州的真正冠軍.
I did complained to a few people of unfairly discriminated against. My complaint was not welcomed by US Department of Commerce or the SBA and for that when my 3rd term was up. The Hawaii US Commercial Officer blocked it. 我確實向一些人抱怨過不公平的歧視。 我的投訴沒有受到美國商務部或 SBA 的歡迎，因此在我的第三個任期結束時。 夏威夷美國商務官員阻止了它。
In US, being Chinese and People of Color is and always will be a second class citizen. 在美國，身為中國人和有色人種永遠是二等公民。
New York Times: BREAKING NEWS – A security unit within the Commerce Department went “rogue,” using extreme tactics to monitor employees of color for years, a Senate report found. 紐約時報：突發新聞 – 參議院的一份報告發現，商務部內的一個安全部門“流氓”，多年來使用極端策略監控有色人種員工。Friday, July 16, 2021
The report found that the work of the office — consumed by concerns about rampant Chinese espionage in the United States — sometimes veered into racial profiling, and that its leaders used extreme tactics, such as sending masked agents to break into offices to search for incriminating evidence. 報告發現，由於擔心中國人在美國猖獗的間諜活動，該辦公室的工作有時會轉向種族定性，並且其領導人使用極端策略，例如派遣蒙面特工闖入辦公室尋找有罪證據 .
Professor Kiji Noh in San Francisco: The US is trying to appear stronger than it is by having these meetings (it usually levels sanctions right before or after as a way of humiliating the officials). It’s trying to gain a PR advantage. China is not obliging. 美國試圖通過召開這些會議來表現得比實際更強大（它通常會在之前或之後實施制裁，作為羞辱官員的一種方式). 美國正試圖獲得公關優勢。 中國沒有義務。
Tom Fowdy has a good analysis. https://www.rt.com/op-ed/529384-china-us-visit-snub/ Herein lies the strategic flaw in Biden’s policy. Just like Trump, he is doing nothing to reassure Beijing of America’s intentions. Already he has provoked it over Taiwan by landing military planes on the island – blunders which his ‘Asia czar’ Kurt Campbell attempted to row back on. This is obviously a very big red line for Beijing. And over the past month, he has engaged in a growing spree of sanctions over Xinjiang including a demand for businesses to leave the supply chain altogether, issuing a proposed business advisory targeting Hong Kong – which according to the South China Morning Post “shocked” American business leaders – and confirmed sanctions on China’s solar panel industries motivated by protectionism.
In this case, China has abruptly – but unsurprisingly – put its foot down on high-level dialogue with the US (but not its allies). Beijing does not want to provoke the US further or empower the worst China hawks, but it is increasingly making a rational calculation that, for the moment, an attempt to talk to the US is a waste of effort and even self-defeating.
Video: Chinese Vaccines Are Useless? Ask Thailand, Indonesia and Brazil. 中國疫苗沒用？ 問問泰國、印度尼西亞和巴西. It is not the virus that killed more than 4 million people. Instead, it is the impotent leaders and irresponsive governments that caused their deaths. 導致超過 400 萬人死亡的不是病毒。 相反，導致他們死亡的是無能的領導人和反應遲鈍的政府. https://youtu.be/2YJb12pGPCA https://vimeo.com/575713901 https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/529907671565896/?d=n China has 1.44 billion people, less than 5000 people died of the virus, and around 4600 deaths were in Wuhan. It means in the other 30 provinces, less than 300 people died. Still, there are over 3000 officials removed from their positions for the late response to the outbreak.
Cluster of infections at hotel in Japan sounds alarm for the upcoming Olympic Games by Xu Keyue and Cui Fandi Jul 15 2021
Photo taken on Nov. 10, 2020 shows the illuminated Olympic rings and the new National Stadium, the main venue for Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo is the capital and most populous prefecture of Japan. As you might expect from one of the world’s most bustling cities, Tokyo is phenomenally vibrant at night.
A cluster of COVID-19 infections at a hotel lodging dozens of Brazilian Olympic team members, sounded the alarm for possible additional infections at the Tokyo Olympic Games, as the Japanese capital reported on Wednesday the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases in almost six months.
Chinese medical experts stressed that the most basic criterion for epidemic prevention is to reduce gatherings. They suggested that the organizers of the Games could learn from previous large-scale events held during the epidemic, such as the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) tournament, by establishing an isolation perimeter to prevent any connection between the personnel of the events and the public.
According to city official, Yoshinobu Sawada, seven staff at the hotel in Hamamatsu city, southwest of Tokyo, tested positive for the coronavirus, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The cases were detected during a routine screening required before staff started work, said Sawada, noting that the unidentified hotel was now considered a COVID-19 cluster.
Reuters said the 31 members of the Brazilian Olympic delegation have not been infected and are in a “bubble” in the hotel separated from other guests .
The Olympic “bubbles,” imposed by Tokyo Olympic officials in an effort to ensure a COVID-19 free Games, were questioned by experts who indicated that they should be “completely tight” in order to work.
Under the shadow of the Delta strain raging around the world, the Japanese Olympic Committee is facing unprecedented challenges in the organization of sports events, medical experts pointed out.
Tokyo reported 1,149 cases on Wednesday, the highest number of new COVID-19 cases in almost six months, with the Olympic Games due to open in the capital in just about a week, Reuters reported.
The most basic criterion for epidemic prevention is to reduce gatherings, Wang Guangfa, a respiratory expert at the Peking University First Hospital, told the Global Times on Thursday. However, because the Games involve multiple team events, it is inevitable that athletes from various countries will gather, Wang warned.
He suggested that the Japanese Olympic Committee should increase the number of nucleic acid tests and deal with positive cases in a timely manner. “Athletes should be recommended to be vaccinated, unless there are special physical conditions and all Olympic staff should be vaccinated,” Wang said.
Except for the sport events, the committee should minimize gatherings as much as possible, Wang noted. “For example, at the opening ceremony, athletes can be required to wear masks, increase the distance and carry out safety precautions at the Olympic Village.”
Wang also suggested that the organizing committee could learn from the organizers of large-scale events been held during the epidemic, such as the NBA playoffs or the games of the Chinese Basketball Association and the Chinese Super League, to completely isolate the personnel of the events from the public, and use independent venues throughout the events.
48 countries send letters to WHO, calling for stopping politicizing virus origins probe by Global Times Jul 15 2021
File picture shows World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks at a daily briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 9, 2020.
48 countries have sent a joint letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) opposing the politicization of the probe on the origins of the virus, urging the organization to act according to the resolution made by the World Health Assembly (WHA) and push forward the global probe on the traceability of the virus, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday, stressing it shows that objective and fair justice still accounts for the majority.
The 48 countries who signed a joint letter to the director general of the WHO Tedros Adhanom, emphasized that virus is the common enemy humanity currently faces and it can only be conquered by the joint effort of the global community.
It pointed out that the WHO-China joint report on the virus origins should serve as foundation and guideline for global virus tracing. The letter pointed out that the probe on the origins of the virus is a scientific work and requires scientists to work in global scope, according to China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
The letter also stressed that this work should not be politicized and urged the WHO Secretariat to act according to the resolution of the WHA, cooperate with relevant member countries, and move forward with the virus origin probe.
In the joint letter, the vast number of developing countries gave an overwhelming voice to justice. This is in sharp contrast to the US coercion of a small number of countries to engage in political manipulation, oppose science and distort facts. It fully reflects justice in the international community and fully demonstrates that the majority of countries uphold fairness, objectivity and justice, said the spokesperson.
“We urge relevant parties to stop playing political games on the virus origins, to stop using the issue to pass the buck, to stop sabotaging international cooperation on virus origins research. It should adopt a truly responsible scientific attitude and work with the international community to contribute to the fight against the epidemic and the maintenance of human health and wellbeing.”
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has demonstrated a scientific, professional, serious and responsible attitude on the issue of traceability of the origins of the virus. China was the first to engage in cooperation with the WHO on the global virus origins tracing.
Since last year, China has invited WHO experts twice to conduct traceability research in China. At the beginning of this year, international experts from 10 countries, including the US, the UK, Japan, and Australia formed a joint expert group with Chinese experts to conduct a 28-day joint research in China. During their visit, they analyzed data, conducted field visits and communicated with peers.
They built up scientific consensus. With the joint efforts of China and the WHO, the research has achieved positive results and reached many important conclusions.
The WHO officially released a China-WHO joint research report on March 30. It follows the procedures of WHO, adopts scientific methods, embodies authority and science, and has been universally recognized and respected by the international community, laying a good foundation for global traceability work.
China’s open and transparent attitude on the issue of virus traceability has also been fully affirmed by international experts.
However, for some time, a few countries led by the US have been stigmatizing, labeling and politicizing the origins of the epidemic. They blatantly disregard the cooperative achievements of scientists and abandon science and truth for their own interests. They openly advocated that intelligence agencies conduct investigations, ignoring the truth and slandering China for “lack of transparency and cooperation” by all means.
These actions have seriously disrupted and undermined international cooperation in traceability research, created great difficulties and obstacles for countries to fight the epidemic and save lives, and aroused widespread dissatisfaction and opposition in the international community.
Asia Times: Rules of ‘international order’ as defined by Blinken – The answer is obvious: International order is whatever Uncle Sam wants it to be 亞洲時報：布林肯定義的“國際秩序”規則 – 答案顯而易見：國際秩序是美帝國想要的樣子 By GEORGE KOO JULY 15, 2021
The Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi (center), director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office, and Wang Yi (second left), China’s foreign minister, speak with their US counterparts at the opening session of US-China talks in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 18, 2021. China’s actions ‘threaten the rules-based order that maintains global stability,’ US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Photo: AFP / Frederic J Brown / Pool What a difference a few months can make in the rocky relations between the US and China. At the meeting in March in Anchorage, Alaska, Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a blistering lecture in front of the Western media to the Chinese delegation that Beijing needs to behave in a way consistent with the rules of international order.
China’s most senior diplomat at this summit was Yang Jiechi. He basically responded by telling Blinken to mind his manners and, not incidentally, asked what he was talking about.
Since that meeting, Blinken has gone around the world recruiting allies to oppose China on the basis that it does not follow the rules of international order.
Some Western countries grudgingly yielded to the pressure and signed on with Blinken, but they were befuddled by what he means by “international order.” After all, it has been China that works within the confines of the United Nations while the US has often acted unilaterally.
Apparently, for China to expand its economy and threaten to overtake the US is in violation of “international order.”
For China to install fifth-generation (5G) telecommunication technology around the world while the US has to import 4G technology is not acceptable behavior in accordance with “international order.”
For China to take more than 800 million of its citizens out of poverty and “brainwash” more than 90% of the Chinese people into approving and accepting one-party rule is not consistent with “international order.” Instead, keeping its poor people poor, as the US does, is consistent.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative helping countries in Latin America and Africa finance and build their infrastructure is clearly outside the strictures of “international order.”
The Taliban are inviting China to Afghanistan to help build its infrastructure and revitalize the economy. China has expressed interest in bringing Afghanistan into its BRI and, incidentally, thumb its nose at the “international order.”
Installing missile batteries onshore in China and offshore in the South China Sea to threaten US naval flotillas exercising their freedom of navigation off the coast of China is clearly outside the “international order.”
America’s Western allies may well be confused by all this, and wondering: “What is international order?” The answer is obvious: International order is whatever Uncle Sam wants it to be.
Ever since the end of World War II, the unwritten rule has been for Uncle Sam to say to the world: “Don’t do what I do but do what I tell you.”
Australia obeys
Australia has been one of the most faithful followers of America’s version of international order. No sooner than Scott Morrison was elected prime minister in August 2018, he became Donald Trump’s lead attack dog against China.
Morrison attacks China on unfair trade practices, on human-rights abuse, and on South China Sea tensions, and he even initiated the charge to reopen the investigation on the origin of the virus that causes Covid-19.
China had been Australia’s leading trading partner, accounting for more than one-third of Australia’s exports. Not surprisingly, a displeased China has stopped buying from Down Under.
Morrison promptly cried foul. Apparently, China is supposed to absorb the nasty rhetoric, act like nothing has changed and keep doing business as usual.
At the recent Group of Seven summit, Morrison went around seeking reassurance from the allies for their support for confronting China. The US gave him an “attaboy” but is happy to sell coal, wheat and lobsters to China in place of Australia. France did likewise and is happy to supply China’s red-wine market.
Unlike Morrison, the premier of Western Australia has questioned the current situation with China. Mark McGowan asked last October, “How is it in our interests to be reckless with trading relationships that fund and drive our prosperity and our nation forward?”
Can we talk?
US President Joe Biden may also be having second thoughts. He has quietly let it be known that he would be interested in a summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Blinken has been trying to get Foreign Minister Wang Yi to return his phone calls to discuss such a summit and for permission by lower-ranking officials to visit Beijing to plan for it.
If the White House expected Beijing to shout hooray and act grateful for the prospects of making nice, it must be disappointed.
The official response from Beijing has been that there is no rush to meet, especially if the Americans are only interested in more opportunities to harangue. If Washington is interested in renewing friendship, then sure we can talk, says Beijing.
This week, the South China Morning Post reported that Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will meet with her counterpart, Vice-Foreign Minister Xie Feng, in Tianjin. They are supposed to explore a possible meeting between Blinken and Wang Yi, presumably behind closed doors without the presence of media.
Sherman has been quoted as saying that the bilateral relationship is about mutual respect. She seems to presage a less confrontational meeting than the one led by her boss in Anchorage.
If and when the two parties were to reach rapprochement, it would leave Australia embarrassingly lonesome. If one of the smartest former American presidents were to visit Australia again, he surely would remind Morrison, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
George Koo recently retired from a global advisory services firm where he advised clients on their China strategies and business operations. Educated at MIT, Stevens Institute and Santa Clara University, he is the founder and former managing director of International Strategic Alliances. He is currently a board member of Freschfield’s, a novel green building platform.
What is Native Americans human rights progress in US? China releases 8th white paper detailing human rights progress in Xinjiang 美國原住民人權進展如何？中國發布第八份白皮書 詳述新疆人權進展by Liu Xin Jul 14 2021
White Paper: Women’s and Children’s Rights in Xinjiang White Paper: People’s well-being in Xinjiang Graphic
China released on Wednesday a white paper detailing the country’s progress in protecting the rights of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the eighth white paper to introduce the progress on human rights in the region from all aspects since 2016. It also signals China’s increasing openness and transparency in displaying the achievements in the region, refuting rumors and lies made by the US-led campaign.
For more than 70 years since 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government have upheld a people-centered approach to human rights protection, treating the rights to subsistence and development as the primary human rights and with all efforts that have been made, human rights have got steady progress in Xinjiang region, said the white paper, titled “Respecting and Protecting the Rights of All Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang.”
Being released by the State Council Information Office on Wednesday, the white paper introduces local residents’ rights on seven fields, including their civil rights, political rights, economic and cultural rights and freedom of religious belief.
This is the eighth white paper released by the State Council and previously ones are on the progress on human rights, cultural preservation, Xinjiang’s anti-terrorism measures, the vocational training and education centers, freedom of religious belief, historical matters concerning Xinjiang and employment and labor rights.
All these white papers on Xinjiang showed the international community with data and examples that the Chinese government is taking concrete measures in promoting human right of all the ethnic minorities in every aspect Xinjiang, Mao Junxiang, executive director and professor at the Human Rights Studies Center at Central South University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Mao said that telling the truth about Xinjiang is especially important amid current anti-China campaign led by the US and the battles on China’s Xinjiang topics at the 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. “These white papers would help refute rumors and dismiss misunderstandings.”
The Wednesday white paper starts with how civil rights have been protected in Xinjiang with anti-terrorist measures being taken to crack down on acts that had seriously endangered the lives of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang and trampled on human dignity.
Xinjiang has carried out preventive counter-terrorism measures, including the establishment of vocational education and training centers, to protect basic rights. For more than four years since the end of 2016 there has been no terrorist incident in Xinjiang. “The infiltration of extremism has been effectively curbed, and the right to life of people of all ethnic groups has been fully protected,” read the white paper.
The core of China’s policies in Xinjiang is about to fight against terrorism, which has made achievements in recent years together with progress in other fields and these have been presented in the white paper, said Xu Jianying, a research fellow at Chinese Borderland Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Xu told the Global Times that China’s measures on anti-terrorism and de-radicalization are preventive ones and are in accordance with the country’s laws and the UN’s regulations. These ideas have been well presented in each white paper. Moreover, these white papers also offered authoritative explaining on polices and data and examples to refute lies and rumors made and spread by the US and some Western countries.
For example, the Wednesday white paper clearly showed the social and economic developments in the region for the past decades by listing the changes on Xinjiang’s GDP from 1955 to 2020 – Xinjiang’s GDP soared from 1.2 billion yuan to 1.4 trillion yuan, and its per capita GDP rose from 241 yuan to 53,593 yuan, a notable increase of about 160 times and 30 times at constant prices.
“Lies would be easily poked when facing the solid data and truth,” said Xu.
Another example is how the right to work of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang has been well protected. The white paper noted that from 2014 to 2020, the total employed population in Xinjiang grew from 11.4 million to 13.6 million, up by nearly 20 percent. The urban employed population grew by an annual average of 470,000, of which 149,000, or nearly 32 percent, were in southern Xinjiang. An average of 2.8 million urban job opportunities were provided annually to the surplus rural workforce, of which 1.7 million, or more than 60 percent, were offered to those in southern Xinjiang.
Mao also said that “frequently releasing white papers on Xinjiang, holding press conferences to introduce the situation of the region, having online meetings with foreign diplomats and media and inviting foreign diplomats, media and scholars to visit Xinjiang… all these have showed the Chinese government is more confident and transparent in showing the real Xinjiang region to the world with nothing to hide.”
Johnson Choi Biz 