In Retrospect: Deng Xiaoping's Great Leap Outward (Time, 1979)

Shortly after the U.S. announced its rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China last December after nearly 30 years of bone-deep hostility, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance declared: “A new era is upon us.” But the idea of “a new era” is a hard one to grasp, and despite acres of newsprint, miles of film footage and endless commentaries, nothing is likely to drive home the reality of it all more effectively than the tableau that is to unfold this week: a diminutive (barely 5 ft.), elderly (74 years) Chinese gentleman alighting from a white Boeing 707 at an airport near Washington and plunging into a hectic, week-long visit to the U.S.

The visit of China’s spry, shrewd Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-p’ing is the stunning climax of the Great Leap Outward that he conceived, planned and executed for China after decades of xenophobic isolation. It marks the first official visit to the U.S. by a top-level Chinese leader since the Communist takeover in 1949. Nearly five years ago, when he was China’s Deputy Premier, Teng flew to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly, but he was not an official visitor; Washington and Peking did not have full diplomatic relations. 

This time Teng rates the complete ceremonial treatment. He is to spend at least five hours with President Carter during three sessions at the White House. He meets tout Washington in a dizzying three-day whirl of breakfasts and banquets, sightseeing tours and working lunches. He then embarks on a four-day cross-country fiesta that offers him additional fetes, factory tours, press conferences and even barbecue and wild West shows—plus an unequaled public forum for airing China’s views.

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Where the Malan Blooms: 60 Years After the First Chinese Nuclear Bomb

Like many children in 1990s China, every day when the bell rang for recess, my friends and I would rush out of the classroom and onto the playground. Our favorite activity was "tiao pijin", a form of jump rope using elastic. It was a team sport. Two of us secured the elastic on either end so it formed a long loop, and the rest hopped in and out of it. To keep up the pace and count our steps, we recited a song: “The malan blooms. It’s twenty-one! Two-five-six, two-five-seven, two-eight-two-nine thirty-one!”

The rhyming verse formed an enduring soundtrack of my childhood. What I did not know at the time was how the lyrics could be read to contain a hidden message. Malan, a type of iris, is also the name of China’s only nuclear arms testing base, and 21 was its military unit number. Situated on the northwestern edge of Lop Nur in Xinjiang, it’s named after the eponymous plant common in the arid landscape. The Chinese government formally acknowledged the site in 1987. Since then, the blossoming of the malan has become a euphemism for the Chinese nuclear weapons program, inscribed in military ballads and school plays.

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Why China will blockade, not invade, Taiwan

China’s October 14 “Joint Sword 2024B” military exercise, the fourth large exercise near Taiwan in the last two years, reconfirmed Beijing’s vow to use force if necessary to compel Taiwan to join the People’s Republic of China (PRC) against the will of Taiwan’s people. PRC officials and media said the exercise was a reaction to an allegedly provocative Republic of China National Day speech given by Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te. That claim was clearly bogus.

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US investigates whether TSMC has really cut ties with Huawei

The United States Commerce Department has reportedly started an investigation into whether Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has violated US export rules to make chips for the sanctioned Huawei Technologies. A key focus of the investigation is the Kirin 9000S chips found inside Huawei’s Mate60 smartphones, which were launched in late August 2023 during US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s China trip. The question is whether these chips were made by TSMC, and whether they were shipped after a 2020 deadline for halting shipments to Huawei.

The investigation will also check whether TSMC is making Huawei’s Ascend processors. TSMC, the world’s biggest chip contract manufacturer, said in a statement that it is a “law abiding company,” which is committed to complying with laws and regulations, as well as US export controls.

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Hong Kong plans patriotic events to boost nationalism

Hong Kong’s government wants to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II next year, a sign that the administration of Chief Executive John Lee may further step up efforts to spread patriotic fervor among the city’s seven million residents, commentators said. “Next year is the 80th anniversary of victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression,” Lee told lawmakers during his 2024 Policy Address at the Legislative Council on Wednesday. “The government will hold commemorative activities to enhance patriotism.”

The government would also launch a new program of “patriotic education” in primary and secondary schools, stepping up the teaching of Chinese history and geography “increasing patriotic historical elements in exchanges with mainland China,” Lee said. Lee’s second-in-command, Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki, added in a later comment: “Patriotic education is the foundation for safeguarding national security.”

He said the activities were intended “to enhance patriotic spirit.”

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China builds spy base on disputed island: think tank

China is developing one of the contested Paracel Islands into a major intelligence base in the northern part of the South China Sea, new satellite images analyzed by a British think tank revealed. A new report by Chatham House found that Beijing has been building a massive new radar system on Triton – the westernmost and southernmost island in the Paracel archipelago, less than 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Vietnam’s coast.

Vietnam and Taiwan also claim sovereignty over the Paracels but China controls the entire island chain after seizing it from the South Vietnam government in 1974. Beijing’s deployment of a drilling platform near Triton island in May 2014 led to a serious standoff with Hanoi and triggered an unprecedented wave of anti-China protests in Vietnam.

Triton Island, called Zhongjian Dao in Chinese, also serves as a base point that China uses to draw a straight baseline to claim its territorial waters around the Paracel Islands. A U.N. arbitration tribunal in 2016 rejected this claim and the United States challenges it with its freedom-of-navigation operations in the area.

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