2nd Anniversary of Xi's Big Cyber Speech; ZTE Fallout; US-China Trade; CCP Cells In US Universities; AI And 6 Billion Cockroaches Might Do Some Good

There is no question ZTE violated the agreement with the US government and deserved punishment. But was an effective corporate death sentence proportional to the violations, or was it imposed in part due to political considerations around the deepening US-China trade conflict? Some ZTE investors seem to have hope the US will reconsider and lessen the punishment, but I would not bet on that.

The ZTE smackdown has real propaganda value to Beijing. The timing of the announcement, right before the second anniversary of Xi’s April 19, 2016 speech at the very important Work Conference for Cybersecurity and Informatization, only serves to strengthen the point Xi and the Party have been making about the need to reduce reliance on foreign, and especially American, technologies. They can not do that overnight but they are closer than they were two years ago, and the ZTE decision, especially in the context of the worsening structural problems in the US-China relationship, will lead to a redoublin…