Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
Switching first face-to-face gathering since G20 summit from Beijing sends message that ‘trade should be trade, and politics should be politics,’ analyst says
Trade representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are set to meet counterparts Vice-Premier Liu He and Commerce Minister Zhong Shan
Shanghai is China’s global financial hub, while Beijing is viewed as more of a political centre. Photo: Bloomberg
China’s decision to hold next week’s negotiations with the United States in Shanghai could be a fresh sign that Beijing is revising its strategy as it prepares for a protracted trade war, analysts said.
By choosing global financial hub Shanghai rather than the political centre of Beijing, China is trying to play down the political aspects of the talks and emphasise the commercial elements, analysts suggested.
The meeting will be the first face-to-face gathering of the two countries’ trade negotiators since talks collapsed in May without a deal as the US blamed China for renegading on earlier promises, while China blamed the US for being too demanding.
The trade teams have held two phone conversations in July, although neither Washington or Beijing have confirmed the venue or schedule for the talks next week.
Shen Jianguang, the chief economist at JD Digits and a veteran Chinese economy watcher, said China is changing the location of the talks to send a message that “trade should be trade, and politics should be politics”.
He added that the choice of Shanghai implies that China is trying to focus on the technical issues such as the US relaxation of sales restrictions to
and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are expected to lead the US delegation to meet their Chinese counterparts headed by Vice-Premier Liu He and Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, the South China MorningPostreported earlier this week.
The Shanghai talks will only result in a small stepShen Jianguang
Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the talks will take place in Shanghai, and a source confirmed the location to the Post. Hua Chunying, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, said on Wednesday that she had no information to provide on the location of the talks.
Chang Jian, chief China economist at Barclays, said that the choice of Shanghai is a sign that the initial goal of the talks would be “smaller”, focusing more on specific import and export arrangements rather than wholesale institutional changes in China’s economic model.
“It shows that China is preparing for a protracted trade talks for years to come,” Chang said. “For China, a precondition for a grand deal is that the US has to lift all tariffs, which the US will find very hard to do.”
Aidan Yao, a senior emerging Asia economist at AXA Investment Managers, said the fact that it took almost a month after the ceasefire agreement reached between President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Japan for a face-to-face meeting to take place is already a confirmation of “the deep divide” that remains.
“Without a clear strategy to tackle them, I doubt anyone should hold their breath for a breakthrough” despite certain goodwill gestures in recent days, Yao said.
Without a clear strategy to tackle them, I doubt anyone should hold their breath for a breakthroughAidan Yao
The initial arrangements for the meeting came after the US announced that it would offer exemptions to 110 Chinese products, including medical equipment and key electronic components, from import tariffs. China, meanwhile, said that several companies would buy American agricultural products having already applied for exemptions from the tariffs imposed by Beijing.
Liao Qun, the chief economist at China Citic Bank International, said a change of location could pump “fresh air” into the talks.
“Shanghai is the window of China’s reform and opening up and the country’s economic heart,” Liao said. “It could be a positive change”.
Larry Hu, chief China economist of Macquarie Capital, noted that Shanghai has played a unique role in US-China relations.
“The important Shanghai Communiqué was inked in the city,” Hu said, referring to the diplomatic document signed between China and US in 1972 during president Richard Nixon’s visit to China to meet Chinese chairman Mao Zedong.
The document, which is part of the Three Joint Communiqués, paved the way for Beijing and Washington to establish official diplomatic relationships later that decade.
The Three Joint Communiqués are a collection of joint statements made by the governments of the US and China from 1972, 1979 and 1982.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption India wants to move to 30% electric cars by 2030
India is making a big push for electric vehicles, signalling a turning point in its clean energy policy, writes energy writer Vandana Gombar.
In 2017, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari shocked the automobile industry (and the world) when he announced that he intended for India to move to 100% electric cars by 2030.
“I am going to do this, whether you like it or not. And I am not going to ask you. I will bulldoze it,” he said at an industry conference.
That was an ambitious target given that even the UK and France were hoping to phase out conventional combustion-engine cars only by 2040.
Mr Gadkari and his Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP-led government eventually diluted their plans for electric passenger cars – from 100% the target is now down to 30%.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption India has some of the world’s most polluted cities, including Delhi
A pushback by the industry and the fear of job losses were among the reasons for the government to do so.
The government has now decided to focus on the segment below cars: two-wheelers, where sales are much higher, and three-wheelers (largely auto-rickshaws).
In the financial year that ended in March, about 3.4 million passenger cars were sold in the country against 21.2 million two-wheelers, according to data released by Indian automobile manufacturers. The number of three-wheelers sold totalled 0.7 million.
The new proposal is to have only electric three-wheelers operating in the country by 2023, and only electric two-wheelers by 2025.
The government seems to have two dominant objectives – to control pollution and take the lead in an emerging industry.
Media caption How an electric car can make money
India wants to become a “global hub of manufacturing of electric vehicles”, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech earlier this month. The Economic Survey, a government forecast, released a day before the budget envisaged an Indian city possibly emerging as the “Detroit of electric vehicles” in the future.
But it will be a challenge to create a competitive advantage in electric vehicle manufacturing, or even a market for them, given that India does not have the infrastructure or deep pockets that the world’s current leader in electric mobility, China, has.
The American electric carmaker, Tesla, is setting up a manufacturing plant in Shanghai that is expected to be operational by the end of 2019.
India can perhaps learn a few lessons from China. The authorities there spurred sales partly by placing caps on the number of conventional combustion vehicles that can be sold in its most congested and polluted cities. Beijing has also limited the number of electric vehicles that can be sold. Further, car manufacturers now have to ensure that a specified share of their production is of so-called zero emission vehicles.
Another inspiration for India could be Norway, where electric vehicles accounted for half of last year’s total car sales. A phase-out of combustion vehicles in the country is planned by 2025.
Media caption Why is Norway the land of electric cars?
But there are many encouraging signs in India too.
For one, charging stations are being built at government offices, malls and even within neighbourhoods. Government-owned power companies such as Bharat Heavy Electricals and Energy Efficiency Services plan to begin rolling out charging stations soon. The latter is looking at 10,000 stations over the next two years.
Second, electric vehicle models are proliferating. Hyundai launched its electric Kona car in India in July and Nissan is expected to launch its Leaf model soon. Indian carmakers Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors both sell electric cars.
There are already several models of electric two-wheelers, and bike-sharing companies like Bounce are also going electric. Electric buses too can be spotted in many cities, partly fuelled by incentives. India’s capital, Delhi, is expected to have 1,000 electric buses running on its roads soon.
Even taxi-hailing apps and home delivery services have taken to ferrying parcels and passengers on electric bikes. After a pilot run with electric cabs, Indian ride-hailing giant Ola is now focussing on electric bikes and three-wheelers.
Instead of charging batteries, which could be a time-consuming task, it intends to opt for a battery swapping model where a fully charged battery would quickly replace the discharged one at swapping stations. Bounce too is experimenting with battery swaps.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption India sold 3.4 million passenger cars this past financial year
The government is also planning to offer incentives for manufacturing electric vehicles and batteries to boost economic growth and encourage local manufacturing under its Make in India initiative.
The falling cost of batteries could boost India’s electric mobility plans, and make it that much easier for electric vehicles to be competitive with those running on other fuels. And there is the added bonus of cleaner air.
That would push India towards electric mobility in its own unique style and at its own unique pace.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Beijing, capital of China, July 21, 2019. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)
BEIJING, July 21 (Xinhua) — Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), here Sunday.
Hailing the UAE as China’s important and reliable partner in the Middle East, Wang said China stands ready to work with the UAE to implement the consensus reached by the two countries’ leaders, deepen their partnership under the Belt and Road Initiative, promote cooperation in various fields, enhance people-to-people exchanges, strengthen cooperation on anti-terrorism and law enforcement, and bring the China-UAE comprehensive strategic partnership to higher levels.
Sheikh Abdullah said the UAE is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in trade, investment, energy, culture, education and third-market cooperation, and to work for closer coordination within the United Nations and in regional affairs.
Huang Kunming (R), a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, holds talks with Vo Van Thuong, head of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee’s Communication and Education Commission, before the fifteenth theory seminar between the CPC and the CPV in Guiyang, capital of southwest China’s Guizhou Province, on July 21, 2019. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)
GUIYANG, July 21 (Xinhua) — The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) held their fifteenth theory seminar on Sunday in Guiyang, southwest China’s Guizhou Province.
The seminar focused on exploring laws of socialist modernization in China and Vietnam.
The opening ceremony of the seminar was attended by Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and also a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and Vo Van Thuong, head of the CPV Central Committee’s Communication and Education Commission.
Huang said in his keynote speech that the CPC has led the Chinese people in successfully creating the road of modernization construction with Chinese characteristics that has promoted the fast development of the country, based on the national conditions and by adhering to putting the people first, taking the economic construction as the central task and adhering to the reform and opening up.
Prior to the seminar, Huang, who is also head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, held talks with Thuong. They exchanged views on deepening relations between the two parties and two countries and on enhancing media exchanges and cooperation.
Growth in Shandong, China’s third largest provincial economy, slowed in the first quarter due to cuts in inefficient industrial capacity
Shandong government aims to cut capacity in traditional sectors to boost ‘new’ industries, as well as reduce pollution
Shandong’s gross domestic product growth accelerated to 6.4 per cent last year from 5.7 per cent in 2017, but slipped back to 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019. Photo: AP
Shandong province, a manufacturing heavyweight in eastern China, will press ahead with plans to cut capacity in inefficient “old” industries, even though it will hurt short-term growth, the provincial party chief said on Tuesday.
Like many provinces that still rely heavily on traditional industries, Shandong’s growth has slowed recently, in part due to the effect of the trade war with the United States.
While its gross domestic product (GDP) growth accelerated to 6.4 per cent last year from 5.7 per cent in 2017, it slipped back to 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, according to to Liu Jiayi, the secretary of Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The primary reason for the slowdown in growth was a plunge in production in “backward” industries at the start of the year, due in part to cuts already made to reduce production capacity, said Liu. He added that the capacity cutting measures will help the province reduce air pollution, one of the central government’s priorities for 2019.
“The quality of development is changing [in Shandong],” said Liu, who referred to the fact that Shandong’s industrial sectors dominate the economy and that 70 per cent of this heavy industry is in the chemicals sector. “As a result, our economic volume is large, but the quality of development is not very high.”
According to statistics from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), Shandong’s industrial output has been dominated by heavy industry, which accounted for about 67.1 per cent of the gross industrial output in 2017. Within that, raw chemical materials and chemical products had the biggest share of all value-added industrial output, at 9.7 per cent, according to the HKTDC.
“This decline [in first quarter growth] was in exchange for our development of high-quality [production], because our traditional and backward production capacity has declined,” Liu added.
Shandong, the third largest provincial economy in China, will continue to reduce its reliance on chemicals production, while also cutting the use of coal for power, heating and fuelling heavy trucks for transport, all of which are major contributors to regional pollution, according to Gong Zheng, the governor of Shandong.
Shandong’s gross domestic product growth accelerated to 6.4 per cent last year from 5.7 per cent in 2017, but slipped back to 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019. Photo: AFP
“We have stepped up our efforts [to cut pollution] and have refused to allow it to rebound, and we will do this well,” said Gong.
The central government launched a campaign to tackle pollution in 2014 as it sought to reverse the severe damage done to the environment after decades of breakneck industrial growth.
However, the rising costs of doing business in China – including higher wages and the costs of pollution control – have forced some manufacturing out of China. That process has been accelerated by firms searching for an alternative production base to avoid
implemented as part of the trade war, which has made a severe dent in China’s investor and consumer confidence.China’s GDP growth slid to 6.2 per cent in the second quarter, the lowest reading since records began in the first quarter of 1992, and below the levels reported during the global financial crisis, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
However, Shandong party chief Liu, the former head of the National Audit Office who led the nationwide investigation into local government debt in 2014, said he was not concerned with GDP growth in Shandong.
“Now our GDP growth rate has dropped a little, and the growth rate for fixed asset investment has dropped a little,” said Liu. “Some people worry that the growth of Shandong is slipping. I can tell you responsibly, not only [growth] will not slip, we have to take a step back these years in exchange for the healthy development of the next few years.”
Zhang Lin, a Beijing-based independent political economy commentator, questions why returnees are becoming ardent supporters of the government-directed model
China’s economic boom offers returnees far more advantages than Western societies could upon their graduation
The number of Chinese students studying in the US and European schools soared, offering fresh hope that returnees with an overseas educational background would facilitate China’s transformation into a society that resembled the west. Photo: Xinhua
At the turn of the century, many people foresaw a “westernisation” process taking place in China – the development of a market economy and a freer society – especially after China joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001 with a clear commitment to reform its state-owned enterprises.
The number of Chinese students studying in the US and European schools soared, offering fresh hope that returnees with an overseas educational background would facilitate China’s transformation into a society that resembled the west.
But it has not turned out as expected, with more and more returnees who graduated from Western universities becoming ardent and vocal supporters of the Chinese government-directed model. It seems strange on the surface that young Chinese people, who have several years’ first-hand experience of Western democracy and freedom, would become big fans of an intrusive state.
One explanation is that the overseas students who worship the Western lifestyle never return to China.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Chinese students who studied abroad did not rely on wealth or family background, but excellent academic achievement, and most of the students who went abroad were funded by China’s Ministry of Education. After experiencing the huge gaps between China and the West at that time in terms of living standards and social development, many chose to stay after graduation.
China’s overseas study policy at that time dictated that these students needed to return back within five years, or else their families could have faced punishment. Despite this, according to statistics from 2002, 92 per cent of Chinese students who obtained doctorate degrees in the United States during the 1990s choose not to return to their homeland.
Things began to change in the late 1990s. China’s private businesses started to boom after Deng Xiaoping’s “southern tour” in 1992, with many government officials and local leaders quitting their public jobs to pursue private wealth, in a trend dubbed “smashing their and jumping into the sea”. Blessed by their connections to the state apparatus, many of them became filthy rich in the process.
These Chinese nouveau riche could suddenly afford foreign university tuition fees and started sending their children to study abroad. The Chinese government also relaxed its policy on overseas education, and most overseas Chinese students became “second generation” rich and powerful.
At the same time, western universities particularly in the US and Britain opened their arms to the flow of Chinese students who were willing to pay hefty tuition fees and sometimes willing to make sizeable donations.
Most of these returnees, whose families have made significant gains from China’s state-led market economy, were beneficiaries of the Chinese model
According to statistics from the “Report on the Survey of Overseas Students” covering the years 2000 to 2011, 1.9 million Chinese students studied abroad, with 91.3 per cent of them “self-funded”. By 2014, the proportion of overseas students who returned to China had risen to 51.4 per cent, according to the “2015 China Returnees Development Report”.
This report also pointed out that 32 per cent of returnees were willing to work for the government.
Most of these returnees, whose families have made significant gains from China’s state-led market economy, were beneficiaries of the Chinese model. The experience of studying abroad, ironically, only enhanced their understanding of their advantages and privileges back home.
China’s economic boom offered far more chances for this well-educated, and well-connected, group than Western societies could, upon their graduation. If they chose to stay in the Western country where they studied, they were faced with the prospect of starting from scratch, but if they chose to go back China, they could get a better job, probably earn more money, inherit the wealth of the previous generation and live as a member of the elite.
That China’s overseas returnees are supporters of the Chinese model indicates that the Western concept of freedom is not always a powerful incentive. If competition between countries is competition between elite groups, conflicts between the Chinese model and the US model may last for several generations and spread to more countries.
Schoolboy learned to taxi aircraft by watching repair crews
Stunt won him admiration of pilots and prospect of learning to fly
A Chinese teenager’s efforts to fly a plane ended with a costly crash but might have set him on the path to becoming a pilot. Photo: Weibo
A Chinese teenager who crashed a seaplane into a railing at a lakeside car park in eastern Zhejiang province may have pranked his way into a career as a pilot.
The 13-year-old was caught on camera as he took two planes from their Taihu Lake hangar under cover of darkness on Monday morning, Dushi Express reported on Friday.
The schoolboy, from nearby Huzhou city, spent part of last weekend watching staff at the SeaRey base work on repairs and maintenance. Security camera footage showed him arriving there on an electric bike just after midnight on Sunday.
He then dragged a 450kg (990lbs) plane from its hangar, jumped into the cockpit, started the engine and drove it across a car park, hitting a crash barrier as he tried to make a turn.
The boy gained access to the plane under the cover of darkness. Photo: Weibo
Abandoning the plane, he went back to the hangar and took another for three circuits of the car park before fleeing on his bike.
The teenager caused 8,000 yuan (US$1,200) worth of damage to the 1.88 million-yuan seaplane, the report said.
His parents only learned of their son’s trip when police called on Monday evening and a payment of 2,000 yuan towards the repair bill was negotiated, it said.
Chinese pranksters’ subway landmine stunt blows up in their faces
The SeaRey base director, surnamed He, was quoted as saying that starting and taxiing the plane involved a few simple steps, but that it would have been impossible for the boy to fly it as that required professional piloting skills and 30 hours of training on the flying boat itself.
But he praised the teenager for being observant.
“We pilots all admired him,” the director said, adding that he would like the boy to train at the base and become a pilot.
China has inflated its population data so much that its status as the world’s most populous country may be false
This happens so provinces can get education subsidies and Beijing can hide the results of decades of family planning
Children in Xianghe county, Hebei province, learn the traditional art of paper-cutting during their summer vacation. The over-reporting of student in enrolment in Chinese schools points to a bigger problem with obtaining an accurate population count. Photo: Xinhua
China’s official demographic figures, including the now-cliched “country of 1.4 billion people”, seriously misrepresent the country’s real population landscape. The real size of China’s population could be 115 million fewer than the official number, putting China behind India in terms of population.
This massive error, equal to the combined populations of the United Kingdom and Spain, is a product of China’s rigged population statistics system, influenced by the vested interests of China’s family planning authority.
To start with, the raw data of China’s population figures were “adjusted”. China’s total fertility rate, or the number of kids per woman throughout her life, dropped below the watershed level of 2.1 in 1991, from which moment the population size of the next generation would be smaller than the current one, and the average total fertility rate was 1.36 in 1994-2018, according to data from census and surveys. However, the family planning authority in charge of the country’s population control refused to believe the numbers and “adjusted” the rate to 1.6-1.8 and, accordingly, the official population size.
For instance, the real total fertility rate in 2000 was 1.22, according to a census result, but the government revised it to 1.8. Accordingly, the country had 14.1 million new births in 2000, but the government revised the figure by 26 per cent to 17.7 million. A census, which is conducted every 10 years, should provide the truest picture of China’s demographic situation. But for the 2000 census, the government was unhappy about the original finding of 1.24 billion and revised it up to 1.27 billion.
One incentive to inflate population size is that China’s family planning authority needs to present a picture of a “rapidly growing population” to justify the country’s brutal family control policies and even the very existence of the birth control apparatus.
The basis for these adjustments, according to the Chinese government, is the size of primary school enrolment. For the official statisticians, the primary school enrolment data should be reliable because public education covers every Chinese child. They were wrong, however, because primary school enrolment data in China is often inflated so that local authorities can claim more education subsidies from Beijing.
China should simply adapt to having fewer babies
In 2012, one school in Anhui was found over-reporting its student size by 42 per cent to claim subsidies, and another school in Hubei province was discovered in the same year over-reporting student size by more than 300 per cent – and these two cases are the tip of an iceberg.
According to a report by CCTV on January 7, 2012, the Jieshou city in Anhui province reported 51,586 primary school students, when the actual number was only 36,234, allowing them to extract an additional 10.63 million yuan (about US$1.54 million) in state funding. On June 4, 2012, China Youth Daily reported that a middle school in Yangxin county, Hubei province reported 3,000 students, while the actual number was only 700.
The latest census in 2010 also shows the tendency of over-reporting. For example, the original aggregated population of Fujian province was only 33.29 million, which was revised to 36.89 million. China’s government claimed it found 1.34 billion people during the census, but there were inconsistencies. For instance, government data showed that China had 366 million new births in 1991-2010, but the group aged 0-19 in 2010 census was only 321 million.
The official number of births in 2011-2018 is also overestimated by 40 million. While Beijing is overestimating new births, it is underreporting the other end of population change – death. Some Chinese families have a tendency of not reporting deaths to the government in order to keep receiving social welfare.
Also, according to UN data, there was a net international emigration of 8 million from China in 1991-2018. But Chinese officials ignored this data.
China’s population to peak in 2023, five years earlier than official estimates
It’s not an easy job to get a country’s population number right. This is especially true in China, where the territory is vast and domestic migration is frequent.
But Beijing’s mishandling of the country’s population figures has been clumsy and easy to spot. China’s real population in 2018 should be 1.280 billion, instead of the officially announced 1.395 billion. China’s economic, social, political, educational and diplomatic policies are all based on false demographic data. After decades of brutal implementation of birth control, often involving forced abortions and hefty fines, maybe it’s time for China to review its population figures carefully to take stock of the economic and social costs of this controversial demographic experiment.
Sun Ling became a cyber star in China after she responded to an online question: how can you get an overseas education if you are dirt poor?
‘I just put my story out there to show there is a possibility in your life even if you have a low starting point,’ the 29-year-old says
Sun Ling works as a contract software engineer at Google in New York. Photo: Sun Ling
To get where she is today, Sun Ling has beaten very long odds.
Born in a rural hamlet in central China’s Hunan province, Sun shot to Chinese social media stardom for her rags-to-relative-comfort career trajectory. Her story begins in a household of such modest means that her mother had to sell blood to make ends meet and a primary school education interrupted by the need for her hands in the family’s fields.
She has no fancy college degree, having gone to work on the assembly line at a Shenzhen factory directly from high school.
Yet today, the 29-year-old works as a contract software engineer at Google in New York, coding on workdays and playing frisbee on weekends, with an annual salary of about US$120,000.
Sun Ling with her parents, brother, niece and nephews in China. Photo: Sun Ling
Sun’s journey from factory worker to high-paid software engineer has garnered Chinese social media headlines such as “the most inspiring story of all times”, and internet users have applauded her as a “positive energy girl”.
But others have not been as flattering, with some questioning the credibility of her story and saying what she has accomplished is almost too difficult to be true amid growing concern about the lack of opportunity and social mobility in China.
“I don’t consider myself a success and I have no intention to become a role model,” Sun told the South China Morning Post on Thursday. “I just put my story out there to show there is a possibility in your life even if you have a low starting point.”
A look inside Google’s new campus outside Silicon Valley
Her story became known in China after she posted an answer on Zhihu, the Chinese version of Quora, responding a question: how can you get an overseas education if you are dirt poor?
In the answer she posted earlier last month, Sun detailed her 10-year journey in making the seemingly impossible possible.
“It is not the orthodox way of studying overseas, just for your reference,” Sun wrote in the post, which has received nearly 35,000 likes on Zhihu. The answer was picked up by other social media; one of her most popular stories, which is circulating on WeChat, has been viewed more than 100,000 times.
Sun said her story was not a textbook “American dream” or “Chinese dream comes true” experience, but rather one driven by the simple motivation to forge a better life.
I just put my story out there to show there is a possibility in your life even if you have a low starting point Sun Ling
When Sun was born in 1990, her parents were farmers in a small village about a 2½-hour drive from Hunan province’s capital city, Changsha. Growing up in a place where a middle school education was considered good enough for a girl, Sun was forced to temporarily drop out of school when she was about 13 to ease the financial burden on her parents, who favoured her brother, the only son in the family.
“I begged and begged till my father allowed me to return to school,” she said. “But to be honest, my strong desire to stay at school at the moment was mainly because farming was too hard. The work got calluses on my hands.”
Sun in her home village in Hunan province in 2013. Photo: Sun Ling
Among her 11 village friends, she was the only one who completed high school. But the education she received at the rural school failed to get her into any college in China. So, like her peers in the village, she went to Shenzhen to become a factory worker.
But the routine of shifts spent examining the quality of batteries bored her. “I have no idea what kind of life I want to live, even today. But I am very certain about the life I don’t want to live,” Sun said.
She quit the factory job after eight months and enrolled in a computer training programme to learn what she regarded as the must-have skills to leave the blue-collar life behind.
That is the thing I like about America: they value what you are able to do more than where you come fromSun Ling
To have enough money to complete the training to become an entry-level software engineer, she worked three part-time jobs, including sending out fliers and waitressing at restaurants, and lived on three credit cards.
After more than a year of training and a debt of 10,000 yuan (US$1,450), in September 2011 she was hired as a software engineer by a Shenzhen company responsible for developing an online payroll system. With her own cubicle, a monthly salary of 4,000 yuan and weekends for herself, the job met all of Sun’s expectation as a “white-collar office lady”.
But the excitement of the new life didn’t last. She started to feel small in a big city where “everyone else is so excellent, with fancy degrees”.
To overcome her educational disadvantage, she signed up for an English training programme and a long-distance programme that allowed her to earn a degree from Shenzhen University. All of this took place while she maintained her software engineering job.
To practise her English, in 2014 she picked up ultimate frisbee, a game where in Shenzhen at the time, most of the players were expats. With a different circle of friends, most of whom had overseas experience, Sun started to dream of a life outside China’s borders.
Sun was born in a rural hamlet in central China’s Hunan province. Photo: Sun Ling
In early 2017, she discovered a master’s programme at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, which features a controversial “consciousness-based education” system that includes the practice of meditation.
Sun applied and was accepted into the university’s computer science programme.
According to her, its design fit her well as it allowed students to have internships or jobs on a work-study visa after months of attending classes on campus. The rest of the programme could be completed remotely.
After nine months studying on campus and 60 job interviews, Sun received a job offer from EPAM Systems, a vendor for Google, late last year.
Google moving some hardware production out of China
Of her work as a contract software engineer at Google’s Manhattan headquarters, Sun said she was very “lucky” since many of her colleagues had a PhD or studied at top-tier American universities.
“But none of them treat me like I don’t deserve all of this,” she said. “That is the thing I like about America: they value what you are able to do more than where you come from.”
However, her story has not been without controversy in China’s cyber world.
Supporters have sent an increasing number of messages from various online channels, thanking her for an inspiring story and seeking her advice on life decisions. Sceptics claim she just got lucky, and some have accused her of being an advertising tool for Maharishi University of Management.
Chinese family paid US$1.2 million for Yale spot. Why weren’t they charged?
“At first, I got really angry,” Sun said. “I don’t think I deserve all the criticism for simply sharing my real life experience. But then I realised that not everyone has the same attitude in life.”
“I had no resources and I had very few options,” she said. “It is natural that people think it is difficult or even impossible to do. But for me it is actually not that difficult. Just keep learning and keep trying new things step by step, day by day.”
Her journey continues. Sun has been practising English and trying to fit better into her life in the US by doing short video interviews on the streets of New York streets. She has also taken courses about artificial intelligence online.
“My next goal is to become an in-house Google software engineer,” she said. “It won’t be easy. But your life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
City’s richest person was ‘very pleased’ to have bumped into group of youngsters in Hokkaido, mother says on social media
Li has a personal fortune of US$31.7 billion and is known for his charitable acts
The youngsters from Shanghai got a wonderful surprise when they met billionaire Li Ka-shing at an airport in Japan. Photo: Weibo
Christmas came early for a group of children from Shanghai on Tuesday when they met Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing at an airport in Japan while en route to a dance competition and he offered to pay for their trip … and buy them each a gift.
The 45 youngsters and their teachers from the Little Pigeon Dancing Group in the east China metropolis were passing through New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, when the serendipitous meeting happened, according to social media posts.
“The children bumped into Mr Li Ka-shing at the airport, who looked very pleased and volunteered to take pictures with the children,” Zhang Zhuo wrote on Weibo – China’s Twitter-like platform – on Thursday, adding that she was the mother of one of the dancers.
“Today a staff member from the Li Ka Shing Foundation contacted the dance group and offered to sponsor the trip to Japan,” she said. “The children shot a video to wish him good health,” she said.
Li met the youngsters from the Little Pigeon Dancing Group in Hokkaido. Photo: Weibo
One of the dance teachers wrote on Weibo that Li was “so pleased after seeing the children at the airport that he decided to sponsor for the trip”.
“So rich and generous, charitable and loving,” she said.
It was not clear exactly how much Li donated, but based on a post by another of the teachers, the cost of the trip was 18,840 yuan (US$2,700) per child, so it would appear to have been in excess of US$120,000.
As part of the offer, the foundation said also that the children should treat themselves to a gift.
Zhang said her daughter treated herself to an eraser, as it was something she wanted to buy before the trip.
“It is not about how expensive the gift is. It’s happiness that counts. We must know to be grateful and moderate,” she wrote.
Li’s influence at Shantou University under threat
Born in 1928 near Shantou in south China’s Guangdong province, Li moved to Hong Kong as a child. According to the latest Forbes list he is richest person in Hong Kong and 28th richest in the world, with a personal fortune of US$31.7 billion.
In 1981 he helped to establish Shantou University and since then the Li Ka Shing Foundation has donated more than 10 billion yuan to support its development.
Last month, the university announced that starting this autumn, for the next four years all new intakes will have the entire cost of their university education paid for by the foundation – a donation of about 100 million yuan a year.
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