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My magazine piece on a series of China-related clashes at the University of Rochester last fall—an interesting case study into some of the dynamics that have created tensions at many universities globally. #longreads scmp.com/magazines/post-maga…
A whole lot of bluster today. Not much clarification on exactly what checks and balances there were on Mao that invalidate the dictator label.
#Opinion: From the #Mbappé incident:
Maybe in some Western public opinion, history can be freely mocked,
founding leaders can be turned into offensive jokes,
anyone who objects that is a “fervent nationalist.”
But China’s collective memory, shaped by a century of suffering, doesn’t follow that logic.
globaltimes.cn/page/202610/1…
So under this analogy, Mao was, in fact, a dictator. Just like George Washington was in fact a slave owner. Some people might not like those respective leaders being reduced to those labels, but that doesn't mean they're not both completely accurate.
I know a lot of people in the West are baffled by the Mbappé-Mao storm in China - which in itself shows that Mbappé's ignorance doesn't come out of nowhere...
To understand it, here's the best analogy I could think of: imagine the biggest Chinese star in the NBA, with sponsorship deals all over the US. One day he's asked for his favorite meme of himself. He giggles: "the one where they put my face on some guy, I think he was an American slave owner." When the "some guy" in question is George Washington.
Whatever you think of the label, you know exactly how that would land in the US: an ungrateful foreigner getting rich off Americans, laughing at the country's founding father in an offensive way - at least to a big share of the population - without even knowing his name.
A founding father is the story a nation tells itself about where it comes from. Laugh at him as a foreigner while cashing in on that nation's consumers, and that's not going to go well in any country.
The label is also extremely un-nuanced: yes, all important historical figures have their share of darkness and Washington and Mao are no exception.
China actually recognizes this: the official line is that he was "70% right and 30% wrong," and the Party's 1981 resolution condemned how his "personal arbitrariness gradually undermined democratic centralism in Party life and the personality cult grew graver and graver" (marxists.org/subject/china/d…)
Same for Washington: it's officially acknowledged too. Or at least it was until this year: in January, the National Park Service tore down an exhibit in Philadelphia about the people Washington enslaved there, under a Trump executive order targeting content that "inappropriately disparage[s]" Americans (associationforpublicart.org/…). Which goes to show China isn't uniquely touchy about its founding father...
“Despite US-China tensions, the number of Chinese-origin researchers working in the US actually rose by 4 percentage points" compared to 3 years ago.
Pretty amazing that in spite of how hostile the US has been to Chinese researchers in recent years, they're numbers are still rising. Though as the piece notes, there's likely a delay effect--that hostility could take years to really squeeze the pipeline.
nytimes.com/2026/10/06/scien…
Anthropic report lists ways Claude has been misused this year. Cites several examples of "state-aligned actors" in China using it to aid in monitoring and "stability maintenance" domestically and abroad. anthropic.com/threat-intelli…
Excellent investigative piece on Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen--by the same reporter he tried to discredit 3 years ago for a different article, saying "The author is from communist China. What more do you need to know?"
nytimes.com/2026/09/09/us/ji…
Many saying this note is an example of China trying to bully/intimidate/coerce. Maybe. Or maybe it's just some feckless junior official who thought they needed to cover their own ass so nobody could accuse them of sitting idle while China was being rebuked teapawt.net/dndphl/status/20971843…
MAHIYA NAMAN KAYO | Secretary of National Defense Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. responded to a note from the Chinese side during the Seoul Defense Dialogue (SDD) 2026 in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
#DNDPHL #DiKaPasisiil #SDD2026
I hate when I open a Wall Street Journal article/video assuming it’s a serious piece by an excellent, reputable journalist, only to quickly realize I've inadvertently opened the dumpster that is the Wall Street Journal opinion section.
Eric Fish retweeted
I've written 70+ recommendation letters for students applying graduate programs in my career. This is the saddest one I have to redo.
// A former undergrad student got denial of entrance with a 5-year ban, when flying to the US for PhD study. As usual, no reason was given. I can't imagine what he have gone through.
Eric Fish retweeted
New SCCEI China Brief! As Chinese scientists working abroad increasingly return to China, the payoff for Chinese science has been deep and wide. Read the brief: sccei.fsi.stanford.edu/china…
Eric Fish retweeted
This chimes with previous breaking news stories I’ve seen and covered in China - yes, initial censorship on social media platforms (probs while they await direction from a govt department) and then it sometimes eases up - esp for content not politically sensitive. Tibet is, but a natural disaster isn’t.
This quoted post is unavailable.
Eric Fish retweeted
THE UNITED STATES’ A.I. REVOLUTION is powered by a strategy of giving massive pay packets to scientists born and educated in China, statistics show.
The US is running a costly brain-drain operation to grab China’s AI skills—and many Chinese are taking up the offers.
“Only 11% of top China-educated AI researchers remain working in China — down from 16% in 2019,” said a report by Marco Polo Talent Tracker. They've been lured to the US.
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AI MIRACLE 'IMPORTED'
For specialists, salaries range from a million US dollars a year to 100 times that. One China-born researcher, Tony Wu Yuhuai, recently spent US$70 million on a “mega-mansion” in California.
“Of China-educated AI researchers, 72% now work at institutions in the United States. America's AI advantage isn't homegrown — it's imported,” the study said. (Link provided.)
The US’s dominance in AI is not based on technological ability, but cash—the ability to buy talent born and educated in China.
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MINORITY FROM U.S.
Only 24% of people in AI research in the US are from the US, while 38% are from China, said the study, which tracked the origins of scientists making breakthrough research in the AI field. The actual figure would be higher if ethnic Chinese who are first generation migrants to the US were included.
The US is using its wealth to create an AI brain drain in China. “The brain drain continues despite massive domestic investment,” the report said.
While most Chinese students at US universities return to their homeland, the same is not true in the AI field, thanks to financial inducements from US employers.
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CURIOUS FAILURE OF BRAIN DRAIN EFFORT
However, the costly program has failed to kill China’s AI efforts.
The most talked-about rising stars of AI worldwide, including Z. ai, DeepSeek, Qwen and Kimi, are all created by Chinese staff born and based in China.
While staff may be paid a fraction of what they would earn in the US, other factors come into play. Compared to the safe, calm societies of China, the US is a dangerous, gun-ridden place with a dysfunctional society overseen by a rogue government creating conflicts worldwide.
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CLUES TO THE FUTURE
Furthermore, the US tech scene is based on a bubble expected to burst at any moment.
Then there’s the open hostility of the US government aimed directly towards the Chinese students that California needs to keep its tech companies going. The China-hate efforts now running in Congress make the legendarily vicious Joe McCarthy of 1950s fame look tolerant.
One tech specialist who is staying in China told this reporter: “Smart players don’t look just at what’s happening today. We focus on the future.”
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Rare used book sellers have been seeing weird sales spikes via bulk orders of totally unrelated titles. They're likely being bought up for AI companies’ "insatiable need for new content," landing in facilities where they're sliced up, scanned & destroyed. wsj.com/articles/ais-need-fo…
"Why the World’s Largest Megaproject Collapsed."
Spoiler: As any sane person who spent 30 seconds looking at the plans should realize, the project was completely absurd from the beginning. youtube.com/watch?v=GbB3vFfi…
North Korea tried for decades to get a summit with a sitting US president, until Trump became the first to indulge them in 2018. Apparently the tables have turned now. “Kim Jong Un is having the best days of his life right now unfortunately.” wsj.com/world/asia/trump-wan…
An experimental maglev train in China just broke the acceleration record (it also previously held), going from 0 to 800km per hour (497 mph) in 5.3 seconds. That's nearly the cruising speed of a commercial airliner...in 5 seconds. the-independent.com/tech/chi…
Pretty wild documentary (with a treasure trove of leaked data/videos WSJ got) on how North Koreans are getting remote jobs in the United States, sometimes with the help of knowing Americans, sometimes by stealing identities. wsj.com/business/media/insid…
Ah yes, Western journalists and politicians: famously unwilling to portray China in a negative light.
My latest op-Ed:
“The key reason China looks better to the world than the USA is Western media, Hollywood, journalists, multinational corporations, sports leagues, politicians, & cultural institutions have been unable to portray China in negative light.” realclearpolitics.com/articl…
MORE American students are able to get these positions BECAUSE Chinese students subsidize these programs and keep the lights on. This is not something I "believe". This is what the data tells us:
- highereddive.com/news/chines…
- sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
- papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.…
Are you an American student, postdoctoral researcher, or academic who believes you were denied a research position, laboratory opportunity, or postdoctoral appointment because preference was given to applicants from China?
@ChinaSelect wants to hear from you. If you have firsthand information or supporting documentation, please contact the Committee through our whistleblower email at [email protected].
Postgrad programs struggling to recruit enough qualified students from ANY country to sustain themselves is a big and growing problem. Having to turn away qualified students because there aren't enough spots, much less so. You can probably dig up anecdotes here and there of US students who think they got rejected for a spot in favor of a Chinese student. But on the whole, there are many more of these positions available for Americans BECAUSE Chinese students make them viable.