Excellent point, Lee.
To wit, Annalee Saxenian said something similar of Chinese and Indian
immigrant engineers to Silicon Valley:
When local technologists claim that 'Silicon Valley is built on
ICs' they refer not to the integrated circuit but to Indian and
Chinese engineers.
[...]
The entrepreneurial contributions of these skilled immigrants are
impressive. In 1998, Chinese and Indian engineers, most of whom
arrived in the United States after 1970 to pursue graduate
studies, were senior executives at one-quarter of Silicon Valley’s
new technology businesses. These immigrant-run companies
collectively accounted for more than $16.8 billion in sales and
58,282 jobs in 1998. Moreover, Chinese and Indian immigrants
started companies at an accelerating rate in the 1990s.
[...]
...they have created a rich fabric of professional and
associational activities that facilitate immigrant job search,
information exchange, access to capital and managerial knowhow,
and the creation of shared ethnic identities. The region’s most
successful Chinese and Indian entrepreneurs rely heavily on such
ethnic resources while simultaneously integrating into the
mainstream technology economy.
These networks are not simply local. Silicon Valley’s new
immigrant entrepreneurs are building far-reaching professional and
business ties to
regions in Asia. They are uniquely positioned because their
language skills and technical and cultural know-how allow them to
function
effectively in the business culture of their home countries as
well as in Silicon Valley. ... In this process, Silicon
Valley–based entrepreneurs benefit from the significant flows of
capital that these immigrants coordinate, as well as from the
privileged access that they provide to Asian markets and to
Taiwan’s flexible, state-of-the-art semiconductor and personal
computer manufacturing capabilities.
Saxenian warned:
Restricting the immigration of skilled workers, for example, could
have substantially more far-reaching consequences for economic
development than most policymakers recognize, affecting not only
the supply of skilled workers but also the rate of
entrepreneurship, the level of international investment and trade,
and California’s economic growth.
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On Wed, May 27, 2020 9:29 PM, Lee Alley [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> wrote:
I have to admit I really, REALLY sympathise with the urge to *do
something* and undermine, hack, bypass, route around the damage
and capabilities of the PLA and friends. But can I add one bit of
perspective?
Firstly, despite huge ongoing protests before the Covid, China
decided to go ahead with this anyway. They've upped the ante and
they have (most of) the power, including the will to act contrary
to world opinion.
Secondly, and more importantly, Something the PRC leadership seem
to have forgotten is the entirety of the value-add of HK walks
home from the cars, buses and subways in leather shoes every night
and is literally contained between the ears of every HK resident
in the province. What HK'ers know and are capable of doing doesn't
necessarily have to be done there as the diasporas of Vancouver
and London have proven. They are the precious commodity; not the
rock they live on.
In my opinion, urging our leaders to adopt an open-door policy to
any resident of Hong Kong that wants to emigrate would be the most
effective way to concentrate the minds of the PRC leadership. A
Pyrrhic victory of winning a few buildings on a rock with some
sycophants that stayed behind is not the look Chairman Xi can
successfully take back to the National People's Congress.
I may be wrong, but if we welcomed the Anabaptists and Jews and
Huguenots and many others backintheday and gave them space to
become some of the most creative and productive people in their
adopted lands, we can be prepared to do the same for the people of
Hong Kong today. Maggie Thatcher didn't give them passports
because she believed China was serious about wanting to make the 1
country/2 systems thing work and that HK would end up influencing
China to the extent HK would be happy to be united with the
mainland. Clearly China (ironically) didn't have the patience.
I know this isn't The Way to some on the list; it isn't clever
code; it's not a great hack on the Great Firewall; it's not a
heroic Neo-like denouement to save the Gates of Zion, but it's a
solution that gives them positive optionality and it shows a huge,
whopping-great bully he's at his weakest when he flexes his
muscles towards the vulnerable.
Maybe I'm a dreamer or a hopeless idealist, but the politics of
appeasement haven't worked and outright attack would be met with
the same with HK being collateral political damage. But this way
seems to tick all the boxes without violence and with little
downside. I've read everyone's ideas with interest and happy to
listen to any others (preferably lacking the word "should" eg.
"China should respect HK..." Yes. We know.)
Thanks for listening,
Lee
(....and back to lurk mode!)
On 27/05/2020 19:56, Yosem Companys wrote:
This is an excellent follow up. Thank you. I will bring up to the
topic with the folks in Hong Kong and pose these questions to
them as well.
On Wed, May 27, 2020 6:32 PM, Robert Mathews (OSIA)
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> wrote:
On 5/26/20 6:00 AM, [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> wrote:
From:
Yosem Companys <[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]>
Date:
5/25/20, 6:55 PM
To:
Eric FU <[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected]>
CC:
LT <[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]>
Of course. But this is not a push model. Local actors have
already asked for our help. They have asked we brainstorm
ways in which Liberationtech could help them do things that
have not been done in the past.
I present my apologies in advance for *this quick penning,*
and for presenting the following multi-dimensional content to
the group -- in the way that I estimate the content must be,
and has been presented below.
The question in the 'subject-line' of the original message
Yosem had dispatched to the list read: "What could we at
Liberationtech do to help pro-democracy HK activists protest
China's new security law?" Subsequently, Yosem shared more
information in a message to Eric Fu, stating, "They have
asked we brainstorm ways in which Liberationtech could help
them do things that have not been done in the past."
To this, some clarification might benefit all. WHAT is the
problem "in reality," that Liberationtech could assist
brainstorm-on, and possibly as a "crowd-resource"? Is it,
to reveal more effective ways of "demonstrating" the
opposition's position, or are there "other"
implied/undeclared objectives upon which a "brainstorming"
must be had?
I present the following open-source media reporting as a
basis for asking the aforementioned questions. Permit me to
further highlight the issues "on the ground", as reported.
Since 9/11, police forces around the world have increasingly
become para-militarized. Consequentially, in this and other
instances, when established instruments of "power-systems"
meet/confront citizens-on-the-street (as it has in Hong
Kong), on such matters as the seemingly 'inexorable'
political condition there (as the *AFP* story indicates
below), the confrontations with Police forces will
increasingly become brutal and destructive. But, this is NOT
just a post 9/11 condition, it is historical. *(**Comments
Continue below the link)*
*Hong Kong police stamp out national anthem law protests*
AFP
27 MAY 2020
https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/hong-kong-police-stamp-out-national-anthem-law-protests-doc-1sa9dv7
--->
Also, considering that the U.S. State Department has
"hurriedly communicated" to US Congress that conditions in
Hong Kong are no longer tenable/in compliance with findings
and declarations under "22 USC Ch. 66 - Subchapter 1 - Policy
(United States-Hong Kong Policy)" [
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title22/chapter66&edition=prelim
AND
https://www.state.gov/prc-national-peoples-congress-proposal-on-hong-kong-national-security-legislation/
] and therefore, recommending that the standing US policy be
revoked, only complicates matters *(enormously)* for ALL
residents of Hong Kong.
Adjacently, in media reporting from the Sub-Continent, NDTV
has noted the sentiments of a Hotel Manager and a female
protester as follows:
/"I'm scared ... if you don't come out today, you'll
never be able to come out. This is legislation that
directly affects us," said Ryan Tsang, a hotel manager.//
//
/AND/
//
//"Although you're afraid inside your heart, you need to
speak out," said Chang, 29, a clerk and protester dressed
in black with a helmet respirator and goggles in her
backpack.//
/
Street demonstrations aside, how are the residents of Hong
Kong to productively determine their future, and can they? Is
"showing-up" on the street, the adequate measure to be taken?
*(**Comments Continue below the link)*
*Riot Police Deployed In Hong Kong Over Protests Against
Chinese Anthem Bill*
The anthem bill is set for a second reading on Wednesday and
is expected to become law next month.
NDTV
May 27, 2020 11:37 am IST
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/riot-police-deployed-in-hong-kong-over-protests-against-chinese-anthem-bill-2235785
--->
Given the escalations we are witnessing, what is the strategy
(if any) of/for residents and their political future in Hong
Kong? What, if anything, can Liberatontech do to support in
that regard, is a question that could - more concretely - be
posed.... (personal view)... External to that, WHAT
precisely must/can Liberationtech 'brainstorm', and with what
goal for Hong Kong in mind?
A few more recent open-source media reports that might bre
more informational for the membership....
*Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing defends China's plans
for security law*
CNN Digital Rebranding 2013
By Michelle Toh,
CNN Business
Updated 8:08 AM ET, Wed May 27, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/27/business/li-ka-shing-hong-kong-intl-hnk/index.html
-->
*China's Hong Kong law set to bar foreign judges from
national security cases: sources*
Yew Lun Tian
REUTERS
MAY 26, 2020
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-parliament-hongkong-security/chinas-hong-kong-law-set-to-bar-foreign-judges-from-national-security-cases-sources-idUSKBN2321CW
BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing’s planned national security
legislation for Hong Kong is set to block its foreign judges
from handling national security trials, people familiar with
the matter said, which would exacerbate concerns about the
city’s judicial independence.
--
/Dr. Robert Mathews, D.Phil.
Principal Technologist &
//Distinguished Senior Research Scholar//
//Office of Scientific Inquiry & Applications (OSIA)//
//University of Hawai'i/
