Disclaimer: Long, Chinese-centric, somewhat humorous
Followed by: a video of things you probably have not seen nor heard in English before. True/False, doesn't matter, it is for provoking thought and/or eliciting vulgarities.
In 2000, two of my BD's (a Chinese PhD from Stanford & the other a Harvard/Wharton biz grad) and I were in Shenzhen to meet with Huawei & later in Beijing to meet with China Telecom. In general, the larger cities (at least the ones that I have visited) in China have have a physical boundary around them maintained by the military. Inside this boundary is referred to as the "economic zone", while outside of it is simply referred to as "outside the economic zone". At that time, and now as well, Shenzen was to China as Palo Alto is/was to the US for technology development, particularly hardware & software and all that implies.
We met the Hwawei company bus and headed for what I thought was a short ride to one of the many skyscrapers there. After about 45-minutes we are in rural China passing farms & small businesses that I could not identify. Soon after we arrive at the gate which is packed on the other side with hundreds of peasants & children in horrible condition. We were taken off the "bus" and our briefcases literally dumped out into a plastic tub for inspection, including zippered pockets. No problem, I have been to this rodeo in other places so my bag was very vanilla.
They line us up to re-board and just before you got the the 1st step the demanded that you hand over your passport. NO NO NO NO NO, "danger Will Robinson". This is the one thing I had only done once before in Riyadh and then with great trepidation. My Chinese BD asked about options to surrendering our passports and was told in no uncertain terms (to him at least) that our option would be to wait here in the sun while and catch the bus when it returned. Not really an option in doing business with Huawei. BTW, this is several years before the US sanctions Huawei severely for "spying" followed by them kicking out about 50-IBM, Accenture & Oracle consultants on site at their facility there. This facility does not show up on Google Earth even though it is approximately 2-sq. miles under one roof. After another 30-minutes or so of driving through absolute squalor & stench we get to the Huawei pristine "palace".
Enough background. We have our meeting with the head of technology and their financial officer to present & demonstrate our software. On the way out a new guy comes into the room just as we are leaving. Everyone defers (bows) to him and then they summon my Chinese BD and usher him out of the room. I try to follow but am politely restrained and guided to the check-out desk to wait. When he finally shows up, this eternally jovial and fun loving guy I have travelled the world with is kind of pasty-looking and very eager to get outside. We stop about a hundred yards from the bus with nobody in earshot and he tells us that this company wants him to sell them the software personally and they will "accommodate him accordingly and that he should "consider this a very serious offer".
And now, finally I arrive at the end of this winding road of a story to make my point. At the bus, our Huawei "guide" asks if our meetings were "meaningful" & "significant". We all look at each other just wanting to get back to Shenzen, and all agree that it was "fine". The guide then turns to us and says to us "may you live in interesting times". This is the first time I have heard this and really don't ponder it too much. On the bus, my BD leans over and asks if we know what the meaning of it was. Nope. Turns out that this is a very ambiguous but very serious curse-like admonition "warning of bad luck or danger ahead" for the recipients.
All I could think of was getting my passport back at the gate and getting on to Beijing the next day, which we ultimately did. More about China trips later if requested.
The following is what you have not, nor will hear from the mainstream media. It doesn't mean it is not happening. Some of you will find it interesting, others will call me names, no problem. It's about 30-minutes long and is machine-read. As always, do your own research & use a very good VPN.
theusmilitarynews.com
Followed by: a video of things you probably have not seen nor heard in English before. True/False, doesn't matter, it is for provoking thought and/or eliciting vulgarities.
In 2000, two of my BD's (a Chinese PhD from Stanford & the other a Harvard/Wharton biz grad) and I were in Shenzhen to meet with Huawei & later in Beijing to meet with China Telecom. In general, the larger cities (at least the ones that I have visited) in China have have a physical boundary around them maintained by the military. Inside this boundary is referred to as the "economic zone", while outside of it is simply referred to as "outside the economic zone". At that time, and now as well, Shenzen was to China as Palo Alto is/was to the US for technology development, particularly hardware & software and all that implies.
We met the Hwawei company bus and headed for what I thought was a short ride to one of the many skyscrapers there. After about 45-minutes we are in rural China passing farms & small businesses that I could not identify. Soon after we arrive at the gate which is packed on the other side with hundreds of peasants & children in horrible condition. We were taken off the "bus" and our briefcases literally dumped out into a plastic tub for inspection, including zippered pockets. No problem, I have been to this rodeo in other places so my bag was very vanilla.
They line us up to re-board and just before you got the the 1st step the demanded that you hand over your passport. NO NO NO NO NO, "danger Will Robinson". This is the one thing I had only done once before in Riyadh and then with great trepidation. My Chinese BD asked about options to surrendering our passports and was told in no uncertain terms (to him at least) that our option would be to wait here in the sun while and catch the bus when it returned. Not really an option in doing business with Huawei. BTW, this is several years before the US sanctions Huawei severely for "spying" followed by them kicking out about 50-IBM, Accenture & Oracle consultants on site at their facility there. This facility does not show up on Google Earth even though it is approximately 2-sq. miles under one roof. After another 30-minutes or so of driving through absolute squalor & stench we get to the Huawei pristine "palace".
Enough background. We have our meeting with the head of technology and their financial officer to present & demonstrate our software. On the way out a new guy comes into the room just as we are leaving. Everyone defers (bows) to him and then they summon my Chinese BD and usher him out of the room. I try to follow but am politely restrained and guided to the check-out desk to wait. When he finally shows up, this eternally jovial and fun loving guy I have travelled the world with is kind of pasty-looking and very eager to get outside. We stop about a hundred yards from the bus with nobody in earshot and he tells us that this company wants him to sell them the software personally and they will "accommodate him accordingly and that he should "consider this a very serious offer".
And now, finally I arrive at the end of this winding road of a story to make my point. At the bus, our Huawei "guide" asks if our meetings were "meaningful" & "significant". We all look at each other just wanting to get back to Shenzen, and all agree that it was "fine". The guide then turns to us and says to us "may you live in interesting times". This is the first time I have heard this and really don't ponder it too much. On the bus, my BD leans over and asks if we know what the meaning of it was. Nope. Turns out that this is a very ambiguous but very serious curse-like admonition "warning of bad luck or danger ahead" for the recipients.
All I could think of was getting my passport back at the gate and getting on to Beijing the next day, which we ultimately did. More about China trips later if requested.
The following is what you have not, nor will hear from the mainstream media. It doesn't mean it is not happening. Some of you will find it interesting, others will call me names, no problem. It's about 30-minutes long and is machine-read. As always, do your own research & use a very good VPN.

Restored Republic via a GCR: Update as of December 11, 2024
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