August 17, 1990
excerpt from the "Los Angeles Times"
excerpt from the "Daily Record" (Morristown, New Jersey)
August 17, 2020
excerpt from the "Los Angeles Times" and the "South China Morning Post"
link to the "Los Angeles Times" articles in today's digital edition:
https://enewspaper.latimes.com/desktop/latimes/default.aspx?edid=f207d02e-9ecb-43ff-a638-9c2939976581
L.A. auto legend spins out in a quest for riches in China
STEVE SALEEN, known for his souped-up Mustangs, says he’s become a cautionary tale. (Jae C. Hong Associated Press)
By Shashank Bengali
SINGAPORE — In July 2019, Steve Saleen, the Southern California designer of souped-up Ford Mustangs and eponymous supercars, walked onto a strobe-lighted stage at Beijing National Stadium to launch a new line of vehicles for the Chinese market.
During a 90-minute spectacle featuring techno beats, mesh-clad dancers and an appearance by British action star Jason Statham, Saleen introduced himself as an automotive legend whose partnership with Chinese state investors would inject “supercar DNA” into high-end sedans, coupes and a sport utility vehicle aimed at younger drivers.
A year later, that flashy vision has veered disastrously off track.
Saleen’s Chinese backers have accused his business partner of fraud and embezzlement and taken over the company, freezing its accounts and forcing hundreds of employees out of work. Police raided the sprawling new factory emblazoned with Saleen’s name. Two senior executives were detained, and a court order sealed its Shanghai showroom.
Saleen alleges the Chinese shareholders planned to steal his intellectual property and have filed for more than 500 Chinese patents for his designs and technology. Stories in China’s government-owned media offer a different account — one of a flailing start-up that squandered public funds on the launch while its first vehicle flopped, and whose technology was worth far less than the state shareholders had been led to believe.
The story of Saleen’s joint venture with the government of the eastern city of Rugao began with yet another American entrepreneur wading into China with dreams of building a lucrative global business.
That promise foundered on miscalculations, suspicions and the inexperience of a sports car guru who knew more about engine tuning than financial maneuverings. Saleen says he’s become a cautionary tale about dealing with China, where the alleged theft of foreign companies’ trade secrets — and an opaque legal system that favors China’s state-backed companies — has offered grist for the Trump administration’s deepening cold war with Beijing.
“What I’m trying to do is to bring to light how American companies will contribute IP, brands and know-how to the China market — and overnight they will change direction, kick you out and keep the IP,” Saleen said.
The dispute could go to arbitration in Hong Kong, where Saleen’s business partner — Chinese-born U.S. resident Charles Xiaolin Wang, who was investigated years earlier by U.S. authorities — has sued the Rugao government for breach of the joint venture agreement. In an interview, Wang denied the fraud allegations.
Whatever the outcome, Saleen’s bid to bring his high-powered cars to China has crashed, leaving the 71-year-old filled with regret.
“When it came to taking my brand on a global basis, it really seemed to offer me an opportunity that I could not refuse,” Saleen said. “In hindsight I realize the deal was too good to be true.”
Saleen, who was born in Inglewood and raced Ford Mustangs competitively in the 1970s and ’80s, made his name as a master modifier of the iconic American muscle car. Fitted with superior engines, suspensions and transmissions at his plant in Irvine, Saleen’s customized Mustangs frequently bested Porsche and Ferrari on the track and cost far less, putting high-performance race cars within reach of American enthusiasts.
In 2000 he launched the S7 — a two-seater with wing-like doors that went from 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds and soon became one of the world’s premier supercars.
His roster of celebrity clients grew to include Tom Cruise and Derek Jeter, but some dealers and contractors began to complain about missed deliveries and bounced checks. In September 2014, Saleen Automotive reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had just $7,261 cash on hand and owed more than $5.6 million to suppliers, banks and the IRS, raising “substantial doubt” that it could stay afloat.
A potential lifeline emerged in 2015 with a visit to Saleen’s factory in Corona by a delegation from Rugao, a city of 1.4 million in the Yangtze River delta, north of Shanghai. Officials told Saleen they dreamed of building “a mini-Detroit” and were looking for a big-name auto company to come in and create jobs.
The dealmaker was Wang, a Duke-educated lawyer and businessman with connections in China but a checkered history.
Federal regulators had investigated Wang’s earlier auto venture — an electric car company, GreenTech, that was also backed by former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe — for alleged abuse of a program that solicited foreign investment in exchange for green cards. Although no charges were brought, GreenTech’s plans to build battery-powered vehicles at a plant in rural Mississippi fizzled.
Lawsuits by the state and unhappy Chinese investors followed. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
Saleen shrugged off the legal trouble, calling Wang, whom he’s known for a decade, “very honorable and straightforward.” The pair took a majority stake in the joint venture, dubbed Jiangsu Saleen Automotive Technology, with Wang as the chairman and Rugao pledging $1.1 billion in capital and loans. Saleen, the vice chairman, put up no cash, but the deal valued his expertise and technology at $800 million.
It was a staggering amount, especially given Saleen’s struggles in the U.S. Under the agreement, JSAT would pay his company tens of millions in fees to design and develop vehicles including the S1 — Saleen’s first all-new sports car in years — to be manufactured in Rugao for sale worldwide.
“Steve’s vehicle is different from all other mass-produced vehicles” in China, Wang said. “It’s high-performance and it requires a lot of technical specialty which, even today, nobody in China knows how to do.”
The deal helped Saleen’s U.S. company more than double its revenue, turning a $5.5-million loss in 2018 into a $2.5-million profit the following year, according to SEC filings. Saleen flew back and forth between the U.S. and China as JSAT opened a corporate office in Shanghai, built two production facilities in Rugao and hired about 1,000 employees.
Then came the July 2019 launch at the national stadium, the former Olympic venue dubbed the “Bird’s Nest,” on which Wang told Chinese media he spent more than $8 million. Besides the S1, Wang showed off three prototypes: a new S7, an SUV and a battery-powered two-seater called the Maimai, Saleen’s entry into an overcrowded Chinese electric vehicle market dominated by the deep-pocketed Tesla .
The first JSAT model to go on sale in China, the petite Maimai left commentators scratching their heads. Its 109-horsepower motor and toylike design — some prototypes featured happy-face emojis on the hood, others a cartoon child on a bike — hardly matched Saleen’s brawny brand.
In fact, the Maimai was an updated version of the MyCar, the low-speed vehicle that Wang had planned to build in Mississippi. Reaction to its shape, and hefty $22,000 price tag, was withering.
“There are numerous superior (in performance, range and practicality) options available in the Chinese market at comparable or lower price points,” a ChinaCarForums moderator concluded .
The car was a failure. Six months after its release only 27 Maimais were registered in the entire country, according to one state media report .
The trouble at JSAT burst into public view in April, when a former legal officer, Qiao Yudong, posted a lengthy statement online alleging that Wang had sold the Rugao investors inferior technology backed by fraudulent valuations and funneled cash to his wife and associates. Qiao said the Rugao government had spent close to $1 billion of public funds on a joint venture that had produced hardly any cars.
Wang rejected the allegations as the product of a disgruntled former employee, saying he had never controlled the company’s accounts.
After an audit by the government investor, Nantong Jiahe Technology Investment and Development, a district court in June ordered the closure of the factories and Shanghai office. Police raided the production plant, ordered workers to leave and detained the company’s German head of manufacturing, Frank Sterzer, for several hours until he was able to contact German diplomats to obtain his release. Sterzer, who remains in China, declined to comment.
The Chinese investors seized control of the board this month and have filed suit against Wang, who has been at home in the Washington area during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he has no plans to return to China, believing he won’t get a fair trial.
As this was going on, Wang said he learned that the joint venture had quietly applied for auto design and technology patents related to Saleen’s work in China, many not listing Saleen as the inventor. Saleen alleged his Chinese partners were plotting to push him out from the start.
But according to their agreement, any intellectual property that springs from Saleen’s work in China belongs to the joint venture. That could complicate his efforts to contest the patent filings, experts said.
“In a normal joint venture there is always some tech transfer,” said Tycho de Feijter, an expert on the Chinese auto industry, who described the joint venture as a costly mismatch of expectations.
“Steve Saleen saw a lot of gold at the end of the Chinese rainbow, didn’t do proper research into his partners and had no idea what he was getting into,” De Feijter said. “Similar story for the Chinese side. They too saw gold where there wasn’t any, had no experience in carmaking and no idea about what or who Saleen really was.”
Wang, 54, took responsibility for the joint venture’s collapse.
“Steve is a genuine automotive guy; all he wants to do is make great cars,” Wang said. “He may not want to hear me say this — I don’t think he’s a very sophisticated, cunning sort of businessman. His whole world is simply making cars. And I got him into this mess. I feel sorry for that.”
Saleen said it was too soon to judge the effect on his storied brand. But Saleen Automotive’s most recent annual report to the SEC paints a dire picture, stating that the joint venture accounted for more than three-quarters of its income and that “any reduction in business with JSAT would likely cause our revenues to materially decrease.”
With negotiations over a U.S.-China Phase 2 trade agreement stalled, Saleen said his experience should persuade Washington to enact tougher protections for U.S. investors, deny Chinese firms that steal trade secrets access to capital markets and prohibit the use of Chinese asset valuations that could be subject to manipulation.
“It’s too late for me,” he said. “What I do hope is that all American companies learn from my bad experience.”
"Los Angeles Times"
Hong Kong media choked by China
Authorities use a new security law to step up their efforts to silence critical reporting.
MEDIA TYCOON Jimmy Lai acknowledges his supporters after being bailed out Wednesday in Hong Kong. Officials arrested him, his sons and colleagues during a raid last week under a security law imposed by China. (Photographs byKin Cheung Associated Press) LOCALLY, FEW outlets have done more than Apple Daily to keep the powerful honest. Its founder, Lai, has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese government.
By Rachel Cheung and David Pierson
HONG KONG — Once known for fierce independence and exposes on the misdeeds of the political elite, iCable has had the sting taken out of its reporting as the Chinese Communist Party tightens its grip on this city by arresting journalists and raiding newsrooms.
The broadcaster’s new director of news, Oscar Lee, is best known for being a television anchor and a parenting influencer. He was widely mocked on social media after a recent interview with the police chief, which critics said was overly fawning and deferential.
That is China’s intent as investigative journalists are threatened and top news executives shoved aside. Since the arrest last week of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, reporters and editors have been hiding their notes, protecting contacts on encrypted messaging apps, and contemplating how much jail time they could get for violating Hong Kong’s new national security law.
“It would probably be three to five years, but if I plead guilty in court and have good conduct, I will likely get a sentence reduction,” said a reporter at Apple Daily surnamed Chan, who declined to use his full name for fear of retribution.
Such are the calculations in a disturbing new era. The chilling scene of Lai’s arrest, which was livestreamed across the world, showed police rummaging through reporters’ desks and shouting at the paper’s chief editor after he asked to see a search warrant. Outside Apple Daily’s offices, police limited media access to only those that backed the mainland Chinese government.
In the stepped-up assault on Hong Kong’s freedoms after a year of pro-democracy protests, the raid on Apple Daily marked a new phase in China’s bid to silence critical reporting in a city with a vibrant history of independent journalism.
Unlike the mainland, where media are essentially the propaganda arm of the rulingCommunist Party, semiautonomous Hong Kong has a commercial news industry, which is guaranteed freedom of press under the territory’s constitution.
Those rights have been harder to defend. Since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 by Britain, the number of outlets willing to report critically on the local and mainland governments has shrunk under political and economic pressure. Newsrooms are often censored by owners who have business interests in China.
What remains of those independent voices is expected to dwindle even further with the introduction six weeks ago of a national security law that criminalizes dissenting views of Beijing and calls for greater management and regulation of the news business.
Hong Kong’s sizable foreign press corps also faces an uncertain future. Correspondents’ visa requests have been delayed and expectations are growing that Hong Kong will impose the same strict accreditation process used in the mainland.
“The protest movement in Hong Kong would not have had as much international awareness and attention if Hong Kong wasn’t a free and welcoming place for international journalists,” said Gwyneth Ho, a former local television journalist who was recently disqualified from running for Hong Kong’s legislature for opposing the national security law. “If they’re forced out, then the world will not know what will happen next.”
Locally, few outlets have done more to keep the powerful honest than Apple Daily, which was founded in 1995 by Lai after he made a fortune in the clothing business.
An outspoken critic of the Chinese government since Beijing’s deadly crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989, Lai has been labeled by state media as a “true race traitor” and is accused of colluding with foreign forces by urging the United States to support Hong Kong’s autonomy. He remains free on bail.
“He is a tragedy in which he, as a Chinese, picked the wrong side and walked on the wrong path,” read an editorial in the Global Times after his arrest.
Once known for its sensational headlines, Apple Daily has long irritated authorities for its criticism and investigative reporting, exposing abuse of public funds and shoddy work at public construction projects.
That’s made it a target of the pro-Beijing establishment. Advertising revenue has plummeted in recent years after businesses were pressured to boycott the company. For weeks last year, Hong Kong’s former chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, shamed businesses on social media that placed ads in the paper.
Journalists at the company also have been harassed.
In December, Chan was among 132 staff members who were doxxed and had their personal details — including birth dates and photos — exposed online. By tracing the personal data to its source, the paper’s investigative team found that the information was leaked by national security agencies, which have access to data collected by the authorities when reporters apply for mainland travel permits.
In September, a co-worker who reported on the protests was assaulted by four masked men while having dinner at a restaurant.
“If you have one to two daring outlets still breaking news, then all the others have to follow,” said Francis Lee, director of the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “You can’t pretend a story’s not out there. It creates a dynamic that ensures sensitive stories still get circulated. That’s the reason why the Chinese government is targeting Apple Daily.”
While the public’s attention was mostly fixed on the purge at Apple Daily, a shake-up was taking place at iCable, where executives were replaced and Oscar Lee was named news director.
The sudden turnover is emblematic of the way Chinese authorities have gradually exerted control over local press through behind-the-scenes changes in ownership, personnel appointments and budget cuts.
“The purpose is to control the highest authority in the newsroom and leverage that power to influence the direction and agenda of news coverage,” said Allan Au, a media and political commentator in Hong Kong.
Observers say iCable’s decline began after it was sold in 2017 to investors: real estate moguls Henry Cheng Kar-shun and David Chiu Tat-cheong, both of whom have close business ties with mainland China.
The broadcaster soon diverted resources to focus on business news in mainland China. Sensitive topics started appearing less. Pressure from the owners was felt in the newsroom. Two former staff members said they witnessed the news director getting angry calls from the company’s board, which had never occurred in the past.
During this year’s anniversary of the June 4, 1989, crackdown on protesters, an iCable interview with Zhang Xianling, the mother of a 19-year-old who was killed in the Tiananmen Square protests, was shortened to remove her comments on Hong Kong’s national security law and similarities to restrictions in China.
A New Year’s Eve segment was edited to exclude the chanting of a popular protest slogan by demonstrators: “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time.” In its place, an editor added the sound of a New Year’s countdown taken from archival footage.
Reporters, some earning a little more than $25,000 a year, started leaving iCable.
“Even if they don’t aggressively censor,” said a reporter who recently left, “we still could not maintain our old journalistic standards because the worsening media environment has led to an exodus of talent.”
Those who have decided to stay face journalism of limited impact and shrinking freedoms.
“It feels very draining when most of your time is spent on a futile fight resisting the collapse of the institution instead of doing actual journalism,” a reporter at the broadcaster said. “I feel like I am fighting alone. I would also like to leave, but with similar scenes playing out across newsrooms in Hong Kong, where else can I go?”
Some Hong Kongers have supported beleaguered media companies. Tens of thousands more copies of Apple Daily were sold last week. Activists briefly pumped up the stock value of the paper’s parent company.
Chan and other journalists at Apple Daily are accustomed to the intensifying battle over telling their stories. He has been pepper-sprayed and struck by tear gas canisters and rubber bullets during street protests.
“In our role, we see a lot of people getting injured and making sacrifices,” he said of the protesters. “They are things they should not have suffered. But at the same time, we have to admit there is nothing we can do to save them and that is where we feel the most powerless.”
Chan spent the hours after the police raid on Apple Daily seated by his colleagues, typing and filing his story before midnight.
At 1 a.m., as thousands watched the paper roll off the printing press on a livestream, Chan took deep breaths and tried to check his emotions.
Times staff writer Pierson reported from Singapore and special correspondent Cheung from Hong Kong.
excerpts from the "South China Morning Post" (scmp.com)
The new rules are meant to prevent Huawei from evading US export controls by obtaining electronic parts through third parties. Photo: Getty Images/TNS
excerpt from the "Los Angeles Times"
excerpt from the "Daily Record" (Morristown, New Jersey)
August 17, 2020
excerpt from the "Los Angeles Times" and the "South China Morning Post"
link to the "Los Angeles Times" articles in today's digital edition:
https://enewspaper.latimes.com/desktop/latimes/default.aspx?edid=f207d02e-9ecb-43ff-a638-9c2939976581
L.A. auto legend spins out in a quest for riches in China
STEVE SALEEN, known for his souped-up Mustangs, says he’s become a cautionary tale. (Jae C. Hong Associated Press)
By Shashank Bengali
SINGAPORE — In July 2019, Steve Saleen, the Southern California designer of souped-up Ford Mustangs and eponymous supercars, walked onto a strobe-lighted stage at Beijing National Stadium to launch a new line of vehicles for the Chinese market.
During a 90-minute spectacle featuring techno beats, mesh-clad dancers and an appearance by British action star Jason Statham, Saleen introduced himself as an automotive legend whose partnership with Chinese state investors would inject “supercar DNA” into high-end sedans, coupes and a sport utility vehicle aimed at younger drivers.
A year later, that flashy vision has veered disastrously off track.
Saleen’s Chinese backers have accused his business partner of fraud and embezzlement and taken over the company, freezing its accounts and forcing hundreds of employees out of work. Police raided the sprawling new factory emblazoned with Saleen’s name. Two senior executives were detained, and a court order sealed its Shanghai showroom.
Saleen alleges the Chinese shareholders planned to steal his intellectual property and have filed for more than 500 Chinese patents for his designs and technology. Stories in China’s government-owned media offer a different account — one of a flailing start-up that squandered public funds on the launch while its first vehicle flopped, and whose technology was worth far less than the state shareholders had been led to believe.
The story of Saleen’s joint venture with the government of the eastern city of Rugao began with yet another American entrepreneur wading into China with dreams of building a lucrative global business.
That promise foundered on miscalculations, suspicions and the inexperience of a sports car guru who knew more about engine tuning than financial maneuverings. Saleen says he’s become a cautionary tale about dealing with China, where the alleged theft of foreign companies’ trade secrets — and an opaque legal system that favors China’s state-backed companies — has offered grist for the Trump administration’s deepening cold war with Beijing.
“What I’m trying to do is to bring to light how American companies will contribute IP, brands and know-how to the China market — and overnight they will change direction, kick you out and keep the IP,” Saleen said.
The dispute could go to arbitration in Hong Kong, where Saleen’s business partner — Chinese-born U.S. resident Charles Xiaolin Wang, who was investigated years earlier by U.S. authorities — has sued the Rugao government for breach of the joint venture agreement. In an interview, Wang denied the fraud allegations.
Whatever the outcome, Saleen’s bid to bring his high-powered cars to China has crashed, leaving the 71-year-old filled with regret.
“When it came to taking my brand on a global basis, it really seemed to offer me an opportunity that I could not refuse,” Saleen said. “In hindsight I realize the deal was too good to be true.”
Saleen, who was born in Inglewood and raced Ford Mustangs competitively in the 1970s and ’80s, made his name as a master modifier of the iconic American muscle car. Fitted with superior engines, suspensions and transmissions at his plant in Irvine, Saleen’s customized Mustangs frequently bested Porsche and Ferrari on the track and cost far less, putting high-performance race cars within reach of American enthusiasts.
In 2000 he launched the S7 — a two-seater with wing-like doors that went from 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds and soon became one of the world’s premier supercars.
His roster of celebrity clients grew to include Tom Cruise and Derek Jeter, but some dealers and contractors began to complain about missed deliveries and bounced checks. In September 2014, Saleen Automotive reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had just $7,261 cash on hand and owed more than $5.6 million to suppliers, banks and the IRS, raising “substantial doubt” that it could stay afloat.
A potential lifeline emerged in 2015 with a visit to Saleen’s factory in Corona by a delegation from Rugao, a city of 1.4 million in the Yangtze River delta, north of Shanghai. Officials told Saleen they dreamed of building “a mini-Detroit” and were looking for a big-name auto company to come in and create jobs.
The dealmaker was Wang, a Duke-educated lawyer and businessman with connections in China but a checkered history.
Federal regulators had investigated Wang’s earlier auto venture — an electric car company, GreenTech, that was also backed by former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe — for alleged abuse of a program that solicited foreign investment in exchange for green cards. Although no charges were brought, GreenTech’s plans to build battery-powered vehicles at a plant in rural Mississippi fizzled.
Lawsuits by the state and unhappy Chinese investors followed. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
Saleen shrugged off the legal trouble, calling Wang, whom he’s known for a decade, “very honorable and straightforward.” The pair took a majority stake in the joint venture, dubbed Jiangsu Saleen Automotive Technology, with Wang as the chairman and Rugao pledging $1.1 billion in capital and loans. Saleen, the vice chairman, put up no cash, but the deal valued his expertise and technology at $800 million.
It was a staggering amount, especially given Saleen’s struggles in the U.S. Under the agreement, JSAT would pay his company tens of millions in fees to design and develop vehicles including the S1 — Saleen’s first all-new sports car in years — to be manufactured in Rugao for sale worldwide.
“Steve’s vehicle is different from all other mass-produced vehicles” in China, Wang said. “It’s high-performance and it requires a lot of technical specialty which, even today, nobody in China knows how to do.”
The deal helped Saleen’s U.S. company more than double its revenue, turning a $5.5-million loss in 2018 into a $2.5-million profit the following year, according to SEC filings. Saleen flew back and forth between the U.S. and China as JSAT opened a corporate office in Shanghai, built two production facilities in Rugao and hired about 1,000 employees.
Then came the July 2019 launch at the national stadium, the former Olympic venue dubbed the “Bird’s Nest,” on which Wang told Chinese media he spent more than $8 million. Besides the S1, Wang showed off three prototypes: a new S7, an SUV and a battery-powered two-seater called the Maimai, Saleen’s entry into an overcrowded Chinese electric vehicle market dominated by the deep-pocketed Tesla .
The first JSAT model to go on sale in China, the petite Maimai left commentators scratching their heads. Its 109-horsepower motor and toylike design — some prototypes featured happy-face emojis on the hood, others a cartoon child on a bike — hardly matched Saleen’s brawny brand.
In fact, the Maimai was an updated version of the MyCar, the low-speed vehicle that Wang had planned to build in Mississippi. Reaction to its shape, and hefty $22,000 price tag, was withering.
“There are numerous superior (in performance, range and practicality) options available in the Chinese market at comparable or lower price points,” a ChinaCarForums moderator concluded .
The car was a failure. Six months after its release only 27 Maimais were registered in the entire country, according to one state media report .
The trouble at JSAT burst into public view in April, when a former legal officer, Qiao Yudong, posted a lengthy statement online alleging that Wang had sold the Rugao investors inferior technology backed by fraudulent valuations and funneled cash to his wife and associates. Qiao said the Rugao government had spent close to $1 billion of public funds on a joint venture that had produced hardly any cars.
Wang rejected the allegations as the product of a disgruntled former employee, saying he had never controlled the company’s accounts.
After an audit by the government investor, Nantong Jiahe Technology Investment and Development, a district court in June ordered the closure of the factories and Shanghai office. Police raided the production plant, ordered workers to leave and detained the company’s German head of manufacturing, Frank Sterzer, for several hours until he was able to contact German diplomats to obtain his release. Sterzer, who remains in China, declined to comment.
The Chinese investors seized control of the board this month and have filed suit against Wang, who has been at home in the Washington area during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he has no plans to return to China, believing he won’t get a fair trial.
As this was going on, Wang said he learned that the joint venture had quietly applied for auto design and technology patents related to Saleen’s work in China, many not listing Saleen as the inventor. Saleen alleged his Chinese partners were plotting to push him out from the start.
But according to their agreement, any intellectual property that springs from Saleen’s work in China belongs to the joint venture. That could complicate his efforts to contest the patent filings, experts said.
“In a normal joint venture there is always some tech transfer,” said Tycho de Feijter, an expert on the Chinese auto industry, who described the joint venture as a costly mismatch of expectations.
“Steve Saleen saw a lot of gold at the end of the Chinese rainbow, didn’t do proper research into his partners and had no idea what he was getting into,” De Feijter said. “Similar story for the Chinese side. They too saw gold where there wasn’t any, had no experience in carmaking and no idea about what or who Saleen really was.”
Wang, 54, took responsibility for the joint venture’s collapse.
“Steve is a genuine automotive guy; all he wants to do is make great cars,” Wang said. “He may not want to hear me say this — I don’t think he’s a very sophisticated, cunning sort of businessman. His whole world is simply making cars. And I got him into this mess. I feel sorry for that.”
Saleen said it was too soon to judge the effect on his storied brand. But Saleen Automotive’s most recent annual report to the SEC paints a dire picture, stating that the joint venture accounted for more than three-quarters of its income and that “any reduction in business with JSAT would likely cause our revenues to materially decrease.”
With negotiations over a U.S.-China Phase 2 trade agreement stalled, Saleen said his experience should persuade Washington to enact tougher protections for U.S. investors, deny Chinese firms that steal trade secrets access to capital markets and prohibit the use of Chinese asset valuations that could be subject to manipulation.
“It’s too late for me,” he said. “What I do hope is that all American companies learn from my bad experience.”
"Los Angeles Times"
Hong Kong media choked by China
Authorities use a new security law to step up their efforts to silence critical reporting.
MEDIA TYCOON Jimmy Lai acknowledges his supporters after being bailed out Wednesday in Hong Kong. Officials arrested him, his sons and colleagues during a raid last week under a security law imposed by China. (Photographs byKin Cheung Associated Press) LOCALLY, FEW outlets have done more than Apple Daily to keep the powerful honest. Its founder, Lai, has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese government.
By Rachel Cheung and David Pierson
HONG KONG — Once known for fierce independence and exposes on the misdeeds of the political elite, iCable has had the sting taken out of its reporting as the Chinese Communist Party tightens its grip on this city by arresting journalists and raiding newsrooms.
The broadcaster’s new director of news, Oscar Lee, is best known for being a television anchor and a parenting influencer. He was widely mocked on social media after a recent interview with the police chief, which critics said was overly fawning and deferential.
That is China’s intent as investigative journalists are threatened and top news executives shoved aside. Since the arrest last week of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, reporters and editors have been hiding their notes, protecting contacts on encrypted messaging apps, and contemplating how much jail time they could get for violating Hong Kong’s new national security law.
“It would probably be three to five years, but if I plead guilty in court and have good conduct, I will likely get a sentence reduction,” said a reporter at Apple Daily surnamed Chan, who declined to use his full name for fear of retribution.
Such are the calculations in a disturbing new era. The chilling scene of Lai’s arrest, which was livestreamed across the world, showed police rummaging through reporters’ desks and shouting at the paper’s chief editor after he asked to see a search warrant. Outside Apple Daily’s offices, police limited media access to only those that backed the mainland Chinese government.
In the stepped-up assault on Hong Kong’s freedoms after a year of pro-democracy protests, the raid on Apple Daily marked a new phase in China’s bid to silence critical reporting in a city with a vibrant history of independent journalism.
Unlike the mainland, where media are essentially the propaganda arm of the rulingCommunist Party, semiautonomous Hong Kong has a commercial news industry, which is guaranteed freedom of press under the territory’s constitution.
Those rights have been harder to defend. Since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 by Britain, the number of outlets willing to report critically on the local and mainland governments has shrunk under political and economic pressure. Newsrooms are often censored by owners who have business interests in China.
What remains of those independent voices is expected to dwindle even further with the introduction six weeks ago of a national security law that criminalizes dissenting views of Beijing and calls for greater management and regulation of the news business.
Hong Kong’s sizable foreign press corps also faces an uncertain future. Correspondents’ visa requests have been delayed and expectations are growing that Hong Kong will impose the same strict accreditation process used in the mainland.
“The protest movement in Hong Kong would not have had as much international awareness and attention if Hong Kong wasn’t a free and welcoming place for international journalists,” said Gwyneth Ho, a former local television journalist who was recently disqualified from running for Hong Kong’s legislature for opposing the national security law. “If they’re forced out, then the world will not know what will happen next.”
Locally, few outlets have done more to keep the powerful honest than Apple Daily, which was founded in 1995 by Lai after he made a fortune in the clothing business.
An outspoken critic of the Chinese government since Beijing’s deadly crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989, Lai has been labeled by state media as a “true race traitor” and is accused of colluding with foreign forces by urging the United States to support Hong Kong’s autonomy. He remains free on bail.
“He is a tragedy in which he, as a Chinese, picked the wrong side and walked on the wrong path,” read an editorial in the Global Times after his arrest.
Once known for its sensational headlines, Apple Daily has long irritated authorities for its criticism and investigative reporting, exposing abuse of public funds and shoddy work at public construction projects.
That’s made it a target of the pro-Beijing establishment. Advertising revenue has plummeted in recent years after businesses were pressured to boycott the company. For weeks last year, Hong Kong’s former chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, shamed businesses on social media that placed ads in the paper.
Journalists at the company also have been harassed.
In December, Chan was among 132 staff members who were doxxed and had their personal details — including birth dates and photos — exposed online. By tracing the personal data to its source, the paper’s investigative team found that the information was leaked by national security agencies, which have access to data collected by the authorities when reporters apply for mainland travel permits.
In September, a co-worker who reported on the protests was assaulted by four masked men while having dinner at a restaurant.
“If you have one to two daring outlets still breaking news, then all the others have to follow,” said Francis Lee, director of the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “You can’t pretend a story’s not out there. It creates a dynamic that ensures sensitive stories still get circulated. That’s the reason why the Chinese government is targeting Apple Daily.”
While the public’s attention was mostly fixed on the purge at Apple Daily, a shake-up was taking place at iCable, where executives were replaced and Oscar Lee was named news director.
The sudden turnover is emblematic of the way Chinese authorities have gradually exerted control over local press through behind-the-scenes changes in ownership, personnel appointments and budget cuts.
“The purpose is to control the highest authority in the newsroom and leverage that power to influence the direction and agenda of news coverage,” said Allan Au, a media and political commentator in Hong Kong.
Observers say iCable’s decline began after it was sold in 2017 to investors: real estate moguls Henry Cheng Kar-shun and David Chiu Tat-cheong, both of whom have close business ties with mainland China.
The broadcaster soon diverted resources to focus on business news in mainland China. Sensitive topics started appearing less. Pressure from the owners was felt in the newsroom. Two former staff members said they witnessed the news director getting angry calls from the company’s board, which had never occurred in the past.
During this year’s anniversary of the June 4, 1989, crackdown on protesters, an iCable interview with Zhang Xianling, the mother of a 19-year-old who was killed in the Tiananmen Square protests, was shortened to remove her comments on Hong Kong’s national security law and similarities to restrictions in China.
A New Year’s Eve segment was edited to exclude the chanting of a popular protest slogan by demonstrators: “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our time.” In its place, an editor added the sound of a New Year’s countdown taken from archival footage.
Reporters, some earning a little more than $25,000 a year, started leaving iCable.
“Even if they don’t aggressively censor,” said a reporter who recently left, “we still could not maintain our old journalistic standards because the worsening media environment has led to an exodus of talent.”
Those who have decided to stay face journalism of limited impact and shrinking freedoms.
“It feels very draining when most of your time is spent on a futile fight resisting the collapse of the institution instead of doing actual journalism,” a reporter at the broadcaster said. “I feel like I am fighting alone. I would also like to leave, but with similar scenes playing out across newsrooms in Hong Kong, where else can I go?”
Some Hong Kongers have supported beleaguered media companies. Tens of thousands more copies of Apple Daily were sold last week. Activists briefly pumped up the stock value of the paper’s parent company.
Chan and other journalists at Apple Daily are accustomed to the intensifying battle over telling their stories. He has been pepper-sprayed and struck by tear gas canisters and rubber bullets during street protests.
“In our role, we see a lot of people getting injured and making sacrifices,” he said of the protesters. “They are things they should not have suffered. But at the same time, we have to admit there is nothing we can do to save them and that is where we feel the most powerless.”
Chan spent the hours after the police raid on Apple Daily seated by his colleagues, typing and filing his story before midnight.
At 1 a.m., as thousands watched the paper roll off the printing press on a livestream, Chan took deep breaths and tried to check his emotions.
Times staff writer Pierson reported from Singapore and special correspondent Cheung from Hong Kong.
excerpts from the "South China Morning Post" (scmp.com)
The new rules are meant to prevent Huawei from evading US export controls by obtaining electronic parts through third parties. Photo: Getty Images/TNS
- Under new rules issued by the Commerce Department, any company that sells Huawei any products made anywhere with US technology will require a licence
- The Trump administration has also pressured other governments to restrict Huawei from building their 5G networks
Self-ruled island had been hoping to join the two-week RIMPAC that began on Monday as an observer.
July saw a record 1,232 cargo trains travel from Chinese cities to European destinations as exporters turn to railway transport to offset difficulties in making shipments by air and sea during the pandemic.
Strict vetting applies to Hong Kong and Macau residents who are mainland citizens and have worked in mainland Chinese government, political party and military posts.
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