Chinascope – Page 214

Huawei to Recruit More Foreign Talent for Research

Ren Zhengfei, the founder of the Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei, proposed that the company would hire more foreign talent and turn its U.S. R&D centers into “recruitment agencies.” He also stated that Huawei’s R&D centers in other countries should also step up talent recruitment.

Huawei made an announcement on September 28, 2021. It stated that Ren made the above remarks on August 12, 2021, at a Huawei meeting on how to recruit foreign talent.

At that meeting, Ren pointed out that Huawei is at a critical stage of strategic survival and development. It must be more active in acquiring the best talent in the world. In addition to recruiting the top talent in China, it must increase the recruitment of overseas Chinese students. More importantly, Huawei should step up its efforts to hire foreign talent and increase the budget for Huawei’s overseas R&D centers.

He expressed that the United States imposes restrictions on some Master’s and Ph.D. student visa applications. Chinese students returning from studying in the United States will gradually decrease in the future. Therefore, Huawei must find ways to attract talent from other countries who are studying and working in Europe and the United States.

Ren asked that Huawei’s overseas R&D centers take responsibility and carry out the mission of recruiting talent. “It is necessary to turn the North American R&D centers into talent recruitment agencies.” Ren emphasized that all overseas R&D centers must do the same in order to build a global talent network for Huawei.

Ren said, “We need to recruit some ‘high noses’ [foreigners] that know how to use ‘foreign guns and cannons.’ It may take three to five years to move gradually from the approach of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) army [against Japan in World War II] to an internationalized approach. In particular, we must attract outstanding talent from other countries who have studied or worked in the United States and Europe to work in China.”

Ren further stated that overseas R&D centers are primarily for research, not product development and that Huawei should encourage those currently engaged in product development to work in China for some time.

Ren believed that it is necessary to support some outstanding Ph.D. candidates to join Huawei in China and do post-Doctoral studies in coordination with Chinese universities.

Source: Huawei, September 28, 2021
http://xinsheng.huawei.com/cn/index.php?app=forum&mod=Detail&act=index&id=6466593

Briefings | | October 6, 2021 | Economy/Resources

Anti-American Movie Entertains during Chinese National Day Holiday

The Chinese melodrama Chosin Reservoir, which is based on a battle during the Korean War, hit the box office bringing in revenue of over 2 billion yuan (US$0.3 billion) within five days of its release amid the Chinese government’s propaganda and heightened anti-American sentiment.

It has been a tradition of the Chinese film industry to release “patriotic” blockbusters during the National Day holiday period. Since 2019, the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, it has become standard to release three films at once for the holiday. Chosin Reservoir was the most eye-catching of the three this year. It depicts the battle in November of 1950 during the Korean War, where the Chinese army suffered heavy casualties due to the assault of the U.S.-led United Nations forces and the cold weather.

The three-hour war drama, costing up to 1.3 billion yuan (US$0.2 billion), with a total staff of over 12,000 people, was shot over a period of 180 days. Schools and workplaces organized students and employees to see the movie. Stories of emotional viewers have flooded China’s social media. Many audience members said they walked out of the theater with tears in their eyes.

There were critical reviews of the film, but they were soon taken down from the Internet.

Source: Central News Agency, October 5, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202110050150.aspx

Briefings | | October 5, 2021 | Government/Politics

Beijing Orders Inspections of 25 Financial Institutions

On September 26, 2021, the CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will conduct political inspections of 25 financial institutions.

Zhao Leji, a CCP politburo standing committee member and head of the CCDI, stressed, during a conference ahead of the inspections, that it will be a thorough disciplinary inspection of the 25 financial institutions. He said that the inspections are to ensure political supervision and serve as a means of “tightening the rule of the Party.” The inspections will be conducted from a political perspective. He called for in-depth reviews to uncover any political deviations by CCP organizations at these financial institutions.

The 25 financial institutions include state-owned banks, stock exchanges, regulatory commissions, insurance companies, asset management companies, and other financial institutions that invest in private companies. The complete list follows: People’s Bank of China, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Administration of Foreign Exchange, China Investment Corporation, China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China, the Agricultural Development Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, China Construction Bank, the Bank of Communications, CITIC Group, the Everbright Group, the People’s Insurance Group of China, China Life Insurance, China Taiping Insurance Group, China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, China Huarong, China Great Wall Asset Management, China Orient Asset Management, and China Cinda Asset Management.

Last month, on August 17, 2021, Xi Jinping presided over the tenth meeting of the CCP Central Finance and Economics Committee and emphasized that it is necessary to coordinate the prevention and resolution of significant financial risks, punish financial corruption, and prevent and control financial risks.

Recently, the CCP investigated and disciplined several CCP officials from financial institutions at the central level, including the China Development Bank, the Agricultural Development Bank of China, and the Bank of Communications.

It is noted that China’s financial system has traditionally been controlled by the CCP “princelings,” the second generation of the CCP’s top families. This includes former president Jiang Zemin and his faction.

This inspection is the eighth round of inspections and the largest financial inspection since Xi Jinping took office as the CCP General Secretary of the 18th National Congress. The previous seven rounds of inspections occurred in February 2018, October 2018, April 2019, September 2019, May 2020, October 2020, and May 2021.

Sources:

CCP Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, September 26, 2021

https://www.ccdi.gov.cn/toutiao/202109/t20210926_251273.html,
https://www.ccdi.gov.cn/toutiao/202109/t20210926_251271.html

Briefings | | October 5, 2021 | Government/Politics

China’s Leading AI Company Bypassed U.S. Restrictions

SenseTime is a prominent Chinese tech company and an industrial leader in artificial intelligence and facial recognition. In October 2019, the U.S. Commerce Department added SenseTime to its Entity List, which effectively prevents listed entities from obtaining many U.S. tech items. The Department states SenseTime was among a list of Chinese companies that were “implicated in human rights violations and abuses in China’s campaign targeting Uighurs and other predominately Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.”

In 2020, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security made a subtle tweak to the designation. The company on the Entity List was changed from SenseTime generally to Beijing SenseTime, one of its subsidiaries. As a result, the firm says it can “continue to source” items as long as it doesn’t use its Beijing SenseTime subsidiary.

According to the company, the designation “has not had any material adverse impact on the [parent company’s] business.” It recently told this to potential investors.

Prior to the sanctions, SenseTime was widely referred to as “Beijing SenseTime” and most of the firm’s key patents and trademarks are still owned by Beijing SenseTime while Beijing has the most SenseTime workers listed on LinkedIn.

However, SenseTime’s current ownership chart shows Beijing SenseTime to be an isolated subsidiary. SenseTime’s website no longer lists Beijing SenseTime in its footer, but now lists Shanghai SenseTime.

In April 2019, the New York Times reported that the company had provided facial recognition software to Chinese authorities who then used the software to monitor Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Source: IPVM, September 28, 2021
https://ipvm.com/reports/sensetime-sanctions
Axios, September 29, 2021
https://www.axios.com/chinese-tech-firm-sidesteps-sanctions-de43feaf-7df5-46ad-85bd-8a37ab468e2e.html

Briefings | | October 5, 2021 | US-China Relations

2000 Weibo Supervisors: What Is the Job Description? What Are the Rewards?

{Editor’s Note: Weibo (新浪微博) is a Chinese microblogging website that Sina Corporation launched on August 14, 2009. It is a major social media Continue reading →

Reports | | October 5, 2021 | Information/Technology

Xinhua: China Started to Have 24-Hour Training Capabilities for Carrier Fighter Pilots

Xinhua recently reported that, according to the head of the Training Group of the Naval Aviation University, China has successfully completed the day-and-night carrier landing qualification certifications for carrier-based fighter pilots. The Chinese Navy also achieved multi-batch takeoffs and landings of carrier-based fighter jets. China has now started to have 24-hour full-time training capabilities for carrier-based fighter pilots. Since China’s second aircraft carrier completed its first maritime trial mission in April 2018, it has since trained carrier fighter pilots on a large scale. However, the training work faced “five challenges: a lack of instructors, a lack of teaching materials, a lack of supporting materials, a lack of standards and specifications, and a lack of experience. There was an urgent need for a complete, professional, large-scale, and standardized training system. In less than a year, the Naval Aviation University of China had its first group of carrier fighter pilots independently trained and they obtained the aircraft carrier flight qualification. Starting in 2019, China began to train carrier fighter pilots recruited directly from high schools, and the first group of pilots trained under this model became qualified in November 2020.

Source: Xinhua, October 2, 2021
http://m.news.cn/2021-10/02/c_1127926161.htm

Briefings | | October 5, 2021 | Defense/Military

China’s Reaction to Trump’s Election Win

Xinhua Commentary Series: Spotlight on the U.S. Presidential Election

Wu Guoguang: Xi Jinping’s Reversal of the Course, Will China’s Transition be Peaceful or Marked with Bloodshed?

Cheng Xiaonong: U.S.-China Strategic Relations Have Crystallized