Theory No More, Part Two: How to Turn Catastrophe Into Opportunity
It really is all connected by one economic belt and one silk road.
This is a continuation in a series on one piece of the source of the current madness in the world. Fair warning:
The End of True Liberty
With the passage of the 2005 USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization, Congress added (and further codified new) caveats that would (as predicted) be used to circumvent long-held precedents and interpretations of civil liberties and citizens’ fundamental Rights in the name of “national security.”
The first PATRIOT Act was a huge stink among those who knew already, and was passed amid an Anthrax panic that was later determined to somehow have been sourced from Fort Detrick, Maryland.
It was passed with no full, complete copies in print, with no review, and in the course of about 3 days with an evacuated Capitol Hill.
The passage of the 2005 reauthorization remains the root of all of the federal government’s current overreach and has served as the mechanism to merge state and corporation at an existential level since 2005.
The teeth of the sweeping, massive law are found in its secrecy dressed up as protections for a target’s identity.
In fact, the removal of Constitutional requirements to identify targets and the crimes of which they are accused has (again, as predicted) been abused by federal law enforcement, and with the public’s awareness.
These types of searches have been the foundational, legal impetus for the type of data collection that controversial NSA whistleblower of which Edward Snowden alerted the American people in 2013.
The ACLU does a refreshing job of a detailed analysis of the USA PATRIOT Act here.
PATRIOT Act Interim Period: 2001-2005
The United Nations was discussing a “Digital Silk Road” since at least 2001, when an agreement was signed as a result of the Tokyo Symposium for Digital Silk Roads, sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The Tokyo Symposium for DSR featured exclusive access to adversaries of the United States, namely the People’s Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
NATO had been working toward building a “virtual silk highway” in conjunction with the Soros Foundation as far back as 2002 as well.
There are recurring, glaring examples of involvement with hostile nations in intimate environments, creating interesting wrinkles in the geopolitical space throughout this series.
By 2003, the Tokyo Symposium signed on support for the newly democratized nations Iraq and Afghanistan, both historically along the Silk Road (future Belt and Road).
Finally, in 2004, an agreement was signed between 23 Asian countries to build and upgrade roads to, “start in Tokyo and terminate in Istanbul, passing though North and South Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Armenia along the way.”
Along with the permanent re-up of the PATRIOT Act in 2005, the U.S. Air Force published a report (product of contract F49642-01-C-0003) on the rise of China and the People’s Liberation Army’s capabilities entitled, “A New Direction for China's Defense Industry.”
Nestled in page 76 of the 332-page report, the RAND Corporation said in no uncertain terms that the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) carried out the bulk of the Chinese military’s missile R&D, and with assistance from Tsinghua University in Beijing.
They were also identified by the U.S. Air Force-funded to be “important institutions for training scientists and engineers…” and though this report was focused mainly on military aviation, the principle remains true across all development sectors.
SARS and Dangerous Pathogens
Meanwhile in 2005 Ukraine, The U.S. signed a $15 million agreement to partner with Ukraine on managing and developing dangerous pathogens.
Just before this went through, the NSF and NIH began funding a study for Zhengli Shi with the CAS involving other bats in some different caves in 2004.
Notice the Australian involvement as well. Australia and their fate has been indubiously linked with America for generations through residual ties to imperial remnants.
These marked the beginnings of U.S. involvement in the very program that would later help enrich the Biden family, and was a continuation of the increased attention placed on infectious diseases by organizations like the Gates Foundation.
The Birth of Climatism U.
After President Bill Clinton ushered China into the World Trade Organization in 1999, the communist nation began modernizing its own government.
The People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) never fully accounted for its tragically long list of human rights violations at the time of its acceptance. This is a truth still unresolved even now, and even more astonishingly, a truth that still not many fully realize.
In 1998, the 1st PAGES Open Science Meeting was held in London, U.K.
Past Global Changes (PAGES) encouraged paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate research efforts directed at securing a quantitative understanding of natural and human-induced variations of the Earth system in the past, in order to make informed predictions of future climate, ecosystems and sustainability.
It was among the first major climate change joint-task forces sponsored by both American and Chinese science establishments. It listed major sponsors including the CAS and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).
It also demanded the need for a global high speed research network.
Birth of a Technocracy
Since the UK’s 99-year lease of Hong Kong from China was also set to expire in 1999, the PRC’s top priority was always geared toward integration with global markets and creating economic havens of relaxed business guidelines in certain strategic areas.
The first of these in the technology sector was inside a 100-square mile area called the Zongguan Village in northwestern Beijing, launched in 1998.
I wrote about this in some detail here:
Could 2023 Be The Year It All Finally Changes?
The Beijing Municipal government began discussing the village’s transition into its current tech hub while George H.W. Bush was destroying Michael Dukakis in 1988 (the same George H.W. Bush who was CIA Director for Operation Condor and built the logistical framework for the Iran-Contra Affairs).
The decade was marked by a shift toward a global economy during the 1990’s. Elizabeth the Punisher Dove has a remarkable series on the worlds’ power brokers — including state governments and foreign countries.
READ:
A formal transition was ordered by the Municipal government, and the Village and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) reorganized in 1999.
MOST renamed the new development area to “Zhongguan Village Technology Park” in 1999 as the first “park” in a succession of many to come in China — and the world.
MOST is also the parent body of CAS — the most important detail for this section in the series.
MOST ushered the PRC into the analog-digital transitional era with a 64K satellite data connection on China Science and Technology Network (CSTNET), later upgraded and renamed CERNET.
I covered this early in my writing, and can be found here:
The Wrong Place For Keys To The Kingdom
Lionel Ni From The Start
An integral part to the future of China’s data networks was a concept at the time known as “internet emulation.”
Former Chair Professor in the Michigan State University (MSU) Computer Science and Engineering Department, Lionel Ni was a 49% shareholder through “CC&T Technologies” in a Chinese State-run company called Zhuhai Sruijie Network Engineering Service, or “3Jet E&S,” founded in 1998.
3Jet E&S were the manufacturer of the EMIP-1 Internet Emulator that was onboard all of Konnech’s initial products.
The majority shareholder of 3Jet E&S was the Chinese fully State-owned aviation company known as CASIC, which has long been headquartered nearby the Zongguancun District in Beijing.
This was previously covered here:
Konnech, The Cloud, & 3-Letter Tramps
Lionel Ni was the Director of the NSF Micro Systems Architecture Program from 1995 to 1996. He founded one of the very first VoIP companies ever upon his departure.
Now, recall back to the RAND Corporation report to the U.S. Air Force highlighting the PLA’s use of CAS to further its missile development program.
American Zhu Khezhen Education Foundation (AZKEF)
AZKEF is an American-based group founded in 1995 by Zhejiang University alumni, and serves to promote Chinese achievement in America and blending Chinese and American societies.
As made apparent through their archived site, they were decidedly connected to Zhejiang University.
The owner of the Michigan-based election company called Konnech, Eugene Yu, was a member listed with his work email address from Prudential Financial on their website in 2001.
Yu worked with Lionel Ni’s PhD. student, Xipeng Xiao through AZKEF at the time of Konnech’s conception in 2001 (LJ Connection), and shows a wider network in operation.
Xipeng Xiao would move on to become Director Emeritus of the Foundation while working in some capacity for IEEE.
In 2002, the Foundation flew CAS foreign member and Harvard professor Charles Lieber to Zhejiang University for a lecture. Lieber was convicted in 2020 of hiding his Chinese dealings and helped the Chinese secure nuclear technologies.
Eugene Yu and Lionel Ni’s PhD. student, Xipeng Xiao both served on the AZKEF Fundraising Committee together at the time.
Lionel Ni also began his Head Professorship at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 2002. In Part One of this series, it was noted that HKUST was a partner of the Maritime Silk Road Society — a key steering force behind Bejing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Ye Jianming’s Future Partner, Jonathan KS Choi
At the exact same time that China was retooling its technology industries to a global market, and while MSU’s Lionel Ni began cashing in on his new product through CASIC, CAS was simultaneously urging its officers to get in on the action.
In 1998, the President of the Academy urged one of his economic advisors, billionaire seafood tycoon Jonathan Choi to literally capitalize on his position by “industrializing some scientific research results,” much in the same manner that Lionel Ni was doing.
I covered Dr. Choi in depth previously found here:
It's All True, They're Already Here...The CCP
The “Eugene Yu Crew”
Eugene Yu started LJ Connection (later “Konnech”) with MSU professor Lionel Ni’s technology, most likely by way of Xipeng Xiao, as Lionel Ni left Michigan and the U.S. full time for HKUST.
Together, Xipeng Xiao and Eugene Yu flew CAS member and convicted criminal Charles Lieber to China for a lecture through AZKEF in 2002.
CAS moved Eugene Yu’s China-facing operation into its science park in Jinhua City in 2005 called Jinhua Yulian Network Company, or Jinhua Konnech.
The CAS president’s financial advisor Jonathan Choi funded MSU $5 million in 2005, which inevitably went to Eugene Yu and Konnech to build a Confucius Institute website in 2006.
Choi started a U.S.-China education program at MSU and 3e International School as a counterpart-partner in Beijing.
Choi was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from MSU.
By the end of 2006, Lionel Ni was working for:
Xinjiang University
University of Science and Technology of China
Fudan University
Institute of Computing Technology (CAS)
Beihang University
Sun Yat-sen University
Asia University (Taiwan)
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
National Tsinghua University (Taiwan)
South China Institute of Software Engineering (Guangzhou University)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (direct)
WebEx/HKUST Information Technology Institute (HKUST)
National Basic Research Program of China (MOST, 973 Program)
(Jonathan Choi’s) HKUST Fok Ying Tung Graduate School (Guangzhou)
Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE)
and Microsoft Research Asia.
(These 77 words count as 10)
After a year in business in Zhejiang Province as Jinhua Konnech, the Michigan-facing Konnech had begun developing their flagship “Pollchief” election management platform in 2006.
This was all happening within China’s new science park framework during China’s Tenth “Five-Year Plan.”
These two concepts in more instances will be explored in this series yet.
I use GlobalSecurity.org as a quick reference and resource for this and many other topics in regards to geopolitics. A resource on the following section is found here: https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/fyp-10.htm
China’s Tenth “Five-Year Plan”
“The government manages the country’s economy through five-year economic and social development plans. Each five-year plan establishes the general framework of the country’s agricultural, industrial, financial and other economic and social policy during the five-year period. Although the central government’s plans provide the guidelines for overall economic development, local governments have considerable autonomy with respect to the development of some sectors.”
The tenth of these plans for 2001-2005 was drafted in 2000, just after China’s retooling a district in Beijing to serve as a tech incubator for its scientific developments to access world markets.
The state-run financial arm known as Chinese Academy of Sciences Holdings, or CASH, was established under the Tenth Five-Year Plan in 2002. CASH is wholly administrated through MOST by way of CAS.
Also in 2002, The State-Owned Assets Administration of the PRC established China Electronics Technology Group Co. (CETC) as their “state-owned backbone enterprise…” for military electronics, national networking industry, and as a “strategic” scientific force in China.
Read more about the specific significance of CETC to this story here:
It's Not Christmas Anymore, But Santa Is Still BFF With The CCP
Under this Plan, CAS and the PRC began their part in the full-scale institutional infiltration of American society.
The Institutional Infrastructure in 500 Words
Following the return of Hong Kong to China, China’s acceptance to the WTO, and China’s establishing the economic framework to market their latest technological products, global institutions like the Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Open Society Foundation, IREX, Microsoft, and universities took full advantage of the new influx of capital.
The individuals steering these foundations would also soon be steering government programs and directing billions of dollars of taxpayer resources in appointed positions.
Future USAID Paige Alexander and IREX
Paige Alexander was hired by The International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) as a Senior Vice President in 2001.
IREX hosted its very first lecture on, "Silk Road Security Issues: Concerns for the Regional and International Communities" in April.
Un-ironically, the event hosted a University of Michigan professor and another figure from the very group who would publish the Air Force report in 2005.
The event was held just over four months before the worst attack on America in history.
Just after 9/11 came the deadline for the IREX China Resident Fellows Program (CRF) which already included a former director for the CAS and required Chinese citizenship, with a preference for candidates without professional experience in the U.S.
In 2005, the U.S. State Department started the International Educators Program (IEP) through which IREX partnered with New York City’s Starr Foundation, who gave Yale University $50 million in 2006 for collaborations with China.
Future USAID Rajiv Shah and The Gates Foundation
University of Michigan graduate Rajiv Shah joined the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2001. His work focused on Africa, agriculture, vaccines, and color revolutions.
The Gates Foundation’s Rajiv Shah was in the Center for Global Development Advance Market Commitment Working Group who published a report in 2005 titled, ”Making Markets for Vaccines.”
The Gates Foundation published their 2005 annual report which leaned heavily on their vaccine programs in Africa.
New Parks, New Friends
Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP)
HKSTP has been active in Hong Kong academia and “free-ish market” State-capitalism for considerably longer than its Mainland China counterparts.
Here are some clips from their past in just 2003 when Lionel Ni had just begun his full-time tenure at HKUST, and while he was still faculty at MSU.
Lionel Ni’s HKUST were a direct partner of HKSTP when Lionel Ni showed up in 2002. The blue and gold lantern emblem above is their official logo.
The HKSTP incubator’s IC (computer chip) design center also opened in 2003.
By 2006, the park also laid claim to housing names like Nestle, Nissin, and Miracle Foods, and South China Morning Post.
Lionel Ni and HKUST just so also happened to have landed right between global capital markets and the People’s Liberation Army.
HKSTP partnered with Harbin University of Technology, Zhejiang University (remember AZKEF and Eugene Yu), and Lionel Ni’s HKUST to expand semiconductor intellectual property globally.
The agreement was announced days before Eugene Yu’s Jinhua Konnech was formally established in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province.
Raycom Infotech Park
Raycom Infotech Park was officially launched in the Zongguan development area in 2001. It housed offices of CASH, Lenovo, Legend Holdings (connected to Sequoia Capital), and many more American tech powerhouses and global capital brokers, as you’ll see later.
Raycom Infotech Park was built by the Lenovo Group for CAS and is connected directly to the China Telecom internet backbone.
In 2003, Beijing Telecom d.b.a. China Telecom signed an agreement with a UN subsidiary to provide its Beijing internet access.
By Christmas of 2003, Bank of China (yep, the same Hunter Biden-Bohai Harvest “Bank of China”), Sony, Hitachi, and China’s civil aviation company, TravelSky had made it onboard at Raycom and into the annual newsletter.
On October 24, 2005, AMD officially opened its “Greater China” headquarters at Raycom Infotech Park.
Suppose for a moment the story ended there. It might would seem that the United States’ future leaders had their fingers on the pulse of the Chinese technology market all along. It might would later seem they were moving the market in a direction that inevitably paid their former colleagues abroad.
But the story doesn’t end there. In fact, the larger story really actually just got started.
Once the new hub was established, the NSF moved in for its share of the pie with its publicly espoused frien-emy.
SVB
In 2004, Silicon Valley Bank Angel Fund had Google in its Angel I and Angel II portfolios.
By 2019, Google had an office in Beijing’s own Silicon Valley inside the public-facing “storefront” of the People’s Liberation Army.
But they wouldn’t be the only ones with a shoe in the door.
It would only take one more Five-Year Plan before the US government merged the government hedge fund of USAID with NSF in 2011 and turbocharged global development (among other things).
And we’ll cover that next chunk of time...next time.