One can learn many things during those activities. This article contains excerpts from my book about many of those activities.

At the end of this article, the Table of Contents of my book will be included.

“Incident Happening in Hong Kong on “No Men’s Land” on Christmas Eve 1941″

This incident happened on Christmas Eve 1941, just before the Japanese army entered Hong Kong and took control of the city, and after the British army and the Hong Kong police had basically ended their responsibility of providing public security and safety on the streets of Hong Kong. On that evening, Hong Kong was known as “No Man’s Land,” when the streets were under the control of undesirables knocking on doors who tried to extract money from the ordinary people. This incident happened to our larger family in Hong Kong.

The undesirable gang leader took control of our apartment and seized the oldest man in that apartment, who was my father’s older brother, and told his gang “Take him outside and shoot him unless he gives us money.” We (especially my aunt were very concerned on hearing that comment). But before that action can be taking, my father told the gang leader to negotiate with him. After a couple of minutes of negotiation, my father handed him some money, American money which my father still carried occasionally from his earlier life living in the U.S., they left our apartment and that ended that incident.

Any person who wants to learn more on this incident can do so by reading Chap. 8 “No Man’s Land in Hong Kong.”

Interview of my father and grandfather at the Immigration Office on August 15, 1921

After my father took the trans Pacific voyage to the U.S. as a merchant’s son, he had to undergo an interrogation at the U.S. immigration office in Waltham, Massachusetts. During that interrogation, my father was asked 38 questions. A Brown University Asian Studies researcher retrieved the interrogation transcript for us from the National Archives Office in Waltham, Massachusetts. The inspectors asked many detailed questions, making it very difficult for a fake applicant to pass and very easy even for an honest applicant to fail. They asked questions such as: How many houses in your row on the street where you lived, is there any building opposite to your small door, who lives opposite your large door, how many houses in the 4th row, who lives in the 5th house in the 4th row, who lives in the 7th house in the 4th row, where did you get your drinking water? (The immigration office personnel got such information from other papers of other applicants, keeping in mind that at that time many of the Chinese immigrants came from that part of China, Taishan).

On the same day in a separate meeting with my grandfather, they asked 45 questions, with many similar questions. Any discrepancy between my father’s answers and my grandfather’s answers was grounds for rejection.

Any person who wants to learn more on the interrogation of my father and grandfather can do so by reading Chap. 2 “The Saga of My Father’s First Journey to the U.S.”

Grammar School Punishment in Hong Kong in 1950

When I was in 3rd grade in Hong Kong,, I forgot to bring my notebook to school. My punishment at school was to write 1,000 times the Chinese word “dig” which was the most difficult word to write in Chinese (鑿), although it is not the Chinese word with the most number of strokes. It takes about one minute to write this Chinese word once even if you write this Chinese word very fast. I don’t question the punishment, but I do question that type of punishment, when it was a harmless mistake that did not affect anyone else. Although I disagreed completely on that punishment, I have to acknowledge that I never forgot to bring my notebook again.

Any person who wants to learn more about this incident can do so by reading Chap. 13 “Reminiscenses of Early Childhood in Hong Kong.”

My 8-year old sister retrieving water while living in 2nd floor apartment in Taishan village during WWII

My 8-year-old sister Billie had to retrieve water from a nearby river on a daily basis to support the living necessity of our family when we were living in our 2nd floor apartment with no running water in our Taishan village during WWII . She had to do this on a daily basis by carrying a bamboo pole with a bucket of water at either end of the bamboo pole for several months.

Any person who wants to learn more on this incident can do by reading Chap. 10 “Escape from No Man’s Land in Hong Kong to Taishan, China.”

Mother winning the 50 meter dash several feet ahead of the 2nd place finisher at county track meet

My mother winning the 50 meter dash at the county track meet several feet ahead of the 2nd place finisher in this short track meet in her Zhongshan city. The distance of winning by several feet was very unusual for this short race of only 50 meters, when the usual finish was usually separated by inches (see photo).

Any person who wants to learn more about this incident can do so by reading Chap. 3 “Tale of My Mother and Her Family’s Origin.”

Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge after crossing the Pacific Ocean

This scene of seeing the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge was most memorable in our lives as our ocean crossing ship was near our journey of beginning our lives as Eagles on 10/27/1955 (see Chap. 15 for the picture of the Golden Gate Bridge and our rental house in Placerville). We were met in San Francisco by our father’s college roommate Mr. Harold S. Prescott. That was the beginning of our lives as Eagles.

Any person who wants to learn more on that incident can read Chap. 15 “Pulling Up Roots One More Time-Hong Kong to U.S.A.”

Fluctuation in Chinese currency in our Taishan village during WWII

During times of war, money fluctuated greatly. Sometimes our father was paid by pounds of rice when he taught high school in our Taishan village during WWII around 1944.

Any person who wants to learn more on this incident can do so by reading Chap. 11 “Victory from War-Return from Taishan to Guangzhou.”

Our first house in Placerville, CA in the winter of 1955-56

My father’s college dormitory roommate Mr. Harold Prescott rented an inexpensive house for us when we arrived in Placerville, CA in Oct. 1955. Mr. Prescott found an inexpensive house ($35/month) that is close to their house and within walking distance to their office. It was an excellent location and affordable, but it had its problems. That house had many leaks. When it rains, there were as many as two dozen leaks on the roof, and there were many bugs and slimy slugs inside our house from various holes and cracks from the sides and floors of the house. On a rainy day we had as many as 2 dozen cans inside the house catching roof leaks. Furthermore, on a cold, winter day, the water pipe in the kitchen was frozen until late morning when the external water pipe was warmed by the sun and the frozen ice thawed. At that time the frozen ice allows it expand along the pipe and didn’t crack the pipe.

Any person who wants to learn more on this incident can do so by reading Chap. 15 “Pulling Up Roots One More Time-Hong Kong to U.S.A.”

Some Early Observations of Discrimination in the U.S.

While growing up in Placerville, we were not discriminated against. However, we did observe discriminations in our high school when starting in my sophomore or junior year, a small number of black students started attending our high school. When they were in our school corridors where our lockers were, they would have their books knocked out of their arms by other students for no reason at all. I saw this happening many times. It was no use for them to complain the school, because they knew nothing significant would be done, except for a comment or two by the school authorities to the students that they should not do that again. But everyone knew that no real punishment would be taken against the offending students. This, of course, would not be allowable today, but in the late 1950s, this was represented of the racism exhibited against America’s black students.

During two summers when I worked at the Forest Service in Placerville, we were members of the engineering crew doing surveying on roads that would be built for lumber roads in the El Dorado National Forest. Our engineering crews of about half a dozen young men per crew would leave our Placerville office early on Monday morning and return on late Friday afternoon, and we would live overnight in trailers during the weekdays. Our crew of young men would chit-chat and drink beer every evening after dinner, until many of them were dead drunk by the time they went to bed. Since they drank so much beer and were drunk, they would pee all over their sleeping bags during the night. So, on many mornings, we would see several sleeping bags hung up on clothes lines around our trailers for drying. I just do not understand why such young men would spend so much of their time on such unproductive and unhealthy activities.

There is another incident related to our young engineering crew. One summer, we had a college student who was a foreign student from Iran working on our crew. Our American crew members would call
him using all kinds of derogatory names, such as camel jockeys. And one night, they sneaked a non-poisonous snake into his sleeping bag in his trailer. Again, I do not understand why any person would do
such nasty things to another person.

Anyone who wants to read more on these incidents can do so by reading Chapter 16 “Early Experiences in U.S.-Start of Tale of Two Cultures and Two Countries.”

What Triggered the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley in 1964

The University of California at Berkeley started the Free Speech Movement (FSM) in 1964. This movement triggered many similar free speech movements across many college campuses around that time. What triggered these movements at that time?

As difficult as it may be to believe, a lot of the freedom of speech activities that we now take for granted were actually not allowed on many college campuses in the U.S. about 60 years ago. Activities, such as advocacy for civil rights causes, recruitment of people to support off-campus activities like voter registration drives or religious missionary work, or solicitation of donations to combat hunger, are taken for granted by today’s college students everywhere in the U.S. However, in the fall of 1964, they were all forbidden activities at the University of California (UC) at Berkeley and many other college campuses in the U.S. At that time, students on campus could discuss these activities intellectually, but they were forbidden to advocate actions to support causes, no matter how noble those causes were.

That was the reason why students at UC Berkeley in the fall of 1964 started the Free Speech Movement (FSM) and triggered a new generation of student activism across the campuses of America. It is important to note that the initial protest had support from students across the political spectrum, not just the radical left, but also young democrats, young republicans, and religious organizations, as you can see from the dress attire of the protesters in the attached photo. Therefore, student activism in the 1960s helped to restore speech freedom guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Anyone who wants to read more on these activities can do so in Chapter 17 “Ten Years at Berkeley in the Turbulent 1960s Decade.”

Friend who went back to Hong Kong to start a free junior high school in remote fishing village of Tai O

A closed friend before finishing his Masters Degree in electrical engineering at UC Berkeley went back to Hong Kong to start a free junior high school in Tao O. He abandoned a bright future to offer the less fortunate the opportunity to continue education in Hong Kong. He and collaborators not only helped these less fortunate young people with continued education, but they also established temporary odd jobs to help their families financially.

Anyone who wants to read more on these activities can do so in Chapter 20 “The Shaping of the Life of a Fellow Student at UC Berkeley.”

Lessons Learned from My First College Teaching

When I taught first year physics at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 1977, I wanted to use the model I learned while taken similar courses at UC Berkeley in late 1961. At UC Berkeley It was a large class with 250 students with physics and engineering majors. At Texas it was also a large class with about 100 Engineering students (the physics students took a separate course). I planned the exam with an average of 40 or 50 with the highest grade in the 80s or 90s, and the lowest grade in the 20s or 30s. To my great surprise, the class average was only 19, although the highest score was in the high 70s, with many scores in the tens.

Right after that test, I could sense that the morale of the students in my course had dropped significantly. I thought very hard about what had happened. Even though I adjusted in my subsequent midterms when the class average was raised to the high 40s or low 50s, the damage to my students’ morale and interest was already done. I can sense that it is no longer the same as before, even though the students did not tell me so. Although I could figure out the reason for the significant drop in the score. Whatever the reason was, I learned the hard way in my first year of teaching. You have to teach and design the difficulty of your exams to match the type of students expected to be in your class. Otherwise, the students can be demoralized, and the interest and motivation they have for the course can quickly disappear. Unfortunately, I did not learn that lesson until it was too late.

Anyone who wants to read more on these activities can do so in Chapter 23 “Lessons from My First Year College Teaching.”

Lessons Learned from the Worldwide Diaoyu Islands Student Movement

We had discussed that the Diaoyu Islands belong to China, as part of the Taiwan Province. What changed n the 1950s? The case was very clear, and there shouldn’t have been any question about which country should have sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands. However, the international political environment changed with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) after the Chinese Communist Party won the civil war over the Chinese Kuomintang Party. If it weren’t for the military support of the U.S. for Chiang Kai-shek’s government in Taiwan, Taiwan would have been united with the rest of China. All of a sudden, China, instead of being an ally of the U.S., is now viewed as an archenemy that needs to be weakened, isolated, and plotted against. On the other hand, Japan, the country that bombed Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack and committed massive, unimaginable, inhumane atrocities in China and all over Asia, is now considered an ally of the U.S. to plot against China.

Therefore, as early as 1951, it was already fairly clear about the imperialistic intention of the U.S. toward China and their planting the seed to ally with Japan to cheat, contain, and weaken China. In 1970, the U.S. and Japan were planning for the transfer to Japan of the administrative control of the territory of the Ryukyu Islands, which, since the 1953 unilateral decision of the U.S., included the Diaoyu Islands. Both the PRC and the ROC objected to this agreement and argued that this agreement did not determine the sovereignty of the Diaoyu Islands. To the people who do not understand the historical Diaoyu Islands, this unilateral decision of the U.S. created some confusion why the U.S.’ Mutual Defense Treaty with Japan should be applicable to the Diaoyu Islands.

Anyone who wants to read more on these activities can do so in Chapter 19 “Experiencing the Worldwide Diaoyu Islands Student Movement.”

Lessons Learned from the Experience of Working in the Industry

Being an academic in the college environment, in 1980 when I switched to working in the industry by going to AT&T Bell Labs to work opened my eyes to the industrial world. I learned the interplay of academic research and the business world of making a profit. There were many things I learned and experienced in the industrial world, in this book I just want to mention three items.

The first one is that early on in my career at Bell Labs, when I had some communication problem with another fellow Member of Technical Staff (MTS, as most non-management technical workers were called), he automatically assumed that the communication problem was due to me and said that he would go talk to my supervisor. In reality I was the technical expert on that issue, and the communication problem was due to to the fact that he didn’t understand some of the technical issues related to the problem. It is perfectly normal that people may not understand fully the issues involved, and further discussion should be able to clarify the situation, but he automatically assumed that since I was not a native-born
American, the communication problem must be due to me. In reality, I have lived in the U.S. since I was 13, and I started learning English in 2nd grade, and both my spoken and written English were not inferior
to his (aside from the fact that I may speak with a little accent). It is an example of a person jumping to a conclusion based on the fact that I don’t look like him and may speak with a slight foreign accent, and therefore, any communication problem must be due to me. Later when he and I had the opportunity to discuss this issue, the issue was resolved.

Another is that the difference in promotion probability for Asian Americans is about a factor of four less than white males. The most obvious indicator of that is if you look at the ratio of Members of Technical Staff (MTS) over Managers, and you compared that ratio for Asian Americans to white males, you will find there is a factor of four difference for Asian Americans than for white males. This is a problem not only for Bell Labs, but for the industry as a whole. The usual explanation is that Asian Americans may be good technically, but they are not good on business issues, in spite of the fact that many Asian Americans are heading many companies solving those business issues.

Another experience I want to share is around 1983 just before the divestiture of AT&T became official, a colleague friend and I wrote a joint paper on Network Management to be published by the Bell
Labs Record on the work that he and I have been working on during the previous year or two. Another colleague who was not involved in that work suddenly suggested that his name should be added as a
3rd author. His argument is that Bell Labs Record will still be part of the new AT&T after divestiture, and I was leaving for Bellcore, and my friend was leaving for Western Electric, another component of the former Bell System and the equipment manufacturing arm, which will also be split off from AT&T because of divestiture. Since this other friend is remaining as part of the divested AT&T and the Bell Labs Record is a publication of AT&T, he argued that our paper should have an author who is part of the divested AT&T. Both my friend and I did not agree because this colleague had no contribution to the work of that paper and it is extremely common for authors of technical papers to leave the institution under which the original work was done. We did not agree to this unusual power play, although we were surprised by his actions and lack of consideration for fair play. Our paper was published without adding another author.

I also want to mention another experience encountered in my industrial career was the unwillingness to share information with colleagues. There were several occasions when I requested information from colleagues working on projects different from mine, but the information was not willingly shared. Although I was not working directly on those projects, those projects do have some relationship to the projects I was working on, and if we can relate those projects together, it will be extremely beneficial to everyone involved and for the company as a whole. Even after explaining the reason for my request, the information was not shared in spite of my requesting it more than once. On the other hand, when they were asking me for information on my projects, which may be useful to expand their projects, I was always willing to share with them the information they had requested. This is a very important issue, because the sharing of such information could be beneficial to the larger team or the company as a whole. I often wonder if sharing of information within a company is much more forthcoming, how much more growth it could mean to the company. We must always keep in mind that the free flow of information within the company helps to grow the company in unexpected ways. When this is applied to the whole country, its importance is even greater.

Anyone who wants to read more on these activities can do so in Chapter 24 “Experiencing of Working in Industry.”

Lessons Learned While Coaching Youth Soccer in the U.S.

How you coach youth soccer depends greatly on the age of the kids on your team. For example, if you are coaching small children (like 5-6 years old), you may want at kickoffs to kick the ball as far as you can to your opponent’s side, because your opponent team may also have trouble controlling the ball. So the end result may have your team controlling the ball, but now you are deep in your opponent’s side of the field. This is just an example of a strategy that is so contrary to the normal correct strategy.

Anyone who wants to read more on these activities can do so in Chapter 26 “Coaching Youth Soccer in the U.S.”

Great Lesson from My Son David’s Swim Lesson and Teaching My Granddaughter Kimberly a Lesson about Death

In the summer of 1987, my second son David was on the summer swim team, besides improving on the technique of each style, the swim team coaches also helped the members develop the stamina for swimming. They practice swimming back and forth, lap after lap, often swimming many laps at a time without taking breaks between laps. Basically, the technique just involved practicing swimming and more swimming, and gradually building up your stamina to swim more laps. At the same time, more importantly, you also develop the mentality in your mind that you can swim more and more laps even when you feel that you might have reached your exhaustion limit. David was then 7 and a half years old, and I was 46. When I saw how this 7 year-old, who had just learned to swim one year earlier, and now was swimming 10, 20 laps at a time without breaks, it forced me to ask myself, “Why could I not swim more than 3 laps at a time?” It finally dawned on me that there was no reason whatsoever that I couldn’t swim more than 3 laps. I concluded that the reason for that limitation must be mental and not physical. Once I convinced myself of that, it didn’t take long before I was able to increase the number of pools that I could swim from 3 to 5, then to 10, and then to 20 or more within a matter of a few weeks. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to remove, within a matter of a few weeks, this mental block of swimming no longer than 3 laps. This mental block has been with me for more than two decades. It was not the first time that I tried to overcome that problem. I know that I have tried several times before. But for some reason, I never succeeded. I guess that I did not have enough mental motivation until I saw how an 7-year-old could easily do something that I wasn’t able to do for decades. It was then that I convinced myself that my problem was mental. Once I convinced myself that I should be able to do it, then it became doable!

There was a lesson about death that I shared with my granddaughter Kimberly when she was 2-3 years old. One evening we were watching a video from the Middletown Library about the adventures of Balto, a sled dog in the northern part of the country. The episode we watched that evening was about a heroic, unselfish act displayed by Balto after a long, dangerous, and exhausting journey leading the sled dog team to bring back a critical supply of urgent vaccines needed by that community. Although the efforts of
Balto and his sled dog team saved the lives of a lot of people in that isolated community, the extremely exhausting and time-critical effort of Balto led to his death from exhaustion. The video ended with the
celebration of lives, but it did not elaborate on the sacrifice that it took for Balto’s life. The next day, after I explained to Kimberly the significance of that ending, it finally dawned on her its meaning, and she cried. She learned that a brave act may be the result of serious sacrifices.

Anyone who wants to read more on these activities can do so in Chapter 28 “He’d Grown Up Just Like Me.”

A Treatment from Qigong on My Damaged Finger from Soccer Injury

About 32 years ago (in 1931), I injured my left little finger while I was playing goalie in a soccer game. When I dove to block a shot at the goal, I landed on that finger in an awkward way and damaged its tendons and ligaments. That finger was swollen right away, and I felt a lot of pain. I left the game and went home. Since the finger did not improve after a night’s rest, the next day I went to see my orthopedic surgeon, who, after examination, referred me to see a specialist orthopedic surgeon who specializes in treating hand injuries. So, I immediately made an appointment and went to see that hand specialist orthopedic surgeon who put a splint on my finger and treated me with physical therapy on a weekly basis for six months. At the end of six months, he told me that he was finished treating me, even though when I closed my left hand, my little finger could not close completely, leaving a gap of about one-third of an inch from touching my palm. Another six months passed, or a year after the injury, a friend mentioned to me about a Chinese woman doctor, Dr. Su, in the East Brunswick area. Having nothing to lose, I went to see her. While in China, Dr. Su was trained both in Western medicine and in Chinese medicine, which included acupuncture treatment and acupressure treatment, and had worked in China as both a Western
doctor and a Chinese doctor. Since immigrating to the U.S., she has only practiced Chinese medicine, and in particular, at that time, only acupressure and herbal medicine.

Dr. Su treated me once per week with acupressure, during which she used her hands and fingers to apply pressure and massage my left little finger. Each treatment lasted 30-40 minutes. During each treatment,
I felt some pain when she pressed on my little finger. However, the finger felt better after each treatment, and it was able to bend a little closer to the palm. As a matter of fact, the more pain I felt during the treatment, the more the improvement afterward. After six such treatments, my little finger could close completely and touch my palm. Because these treatments didn’t start until a year after the injury, Dr. Su said that she couldn’t cure me completely, and that the finger is permanently slightly curved. Dr. Su told me that the difference between her treatment and the traditional western doctor’s treatment is that the latter would put a splint on my finger right away (which was exactly what my specialist orthopedic surgeon did), but if she were treating me from the very beginning, she would first massage and try to move my damaged tendons and ligaments back to their original positions before putting a splint on.

My regular orthopedic surgeon was an experienced orthopedic surgeon and was supposed to be part of a reputable orthopedic surgeon practice, since one of his senior partners was once the orthopedic surgeon
for a major New York professional sports team. So, the specialist orthopedic surgeon that he referred me to should also be a quality specialist. Being a Chinese American and having lived in both China/Hong Kong and the U.S., I of course had experience with Chinese medicine before, but I have reservations about Chinese medicine and had thought that Western medicine is better and may replace Chinese medicine completely with time. My own experience in this treatment using Western medical treatment and Chinese medical treatment completely changed that opinion, and now I have great respect toward Chinese medical treatments.

Anyone who wants to read more on these activities can do so in Chapter 31 “Myth or Reality”.

World War II Atrocities and the Heroic Activities of Tong Zeng and Tamaki Matsuoka

Throughout my adult life during the past 60+ years, I have been involved in many extracurricular activities, often via activities associated with several web sites (including websites like NJ-ALPHA, 10000 Cries for Justice, Coalition Peace Initiative, www.dontow.com). These activities are often related to atrocities committed against the Chinese during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945). Two people (Tong Zeng, who speaks for the voiceless) and (Tamaki Matsuoka, who acts as the Conscience of Japan) have done great deeds throughout their lives. Some of their deeds are described in Chapter 33 “More on Extracurricular Activities As a Dragon and an Eagle.”

Tong Zeng was the person who brought the deeds of the victims to the attention of China’s National People’s Congress and Tamaki Matsuoka was the person who acted as the concience of Japan and brought to light the many deadly deeds of the Japanese soldiers who had kept them secret from even their spouses and relatives. Their deeds are significant and have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Unfortunately, Tong Zeng recently passed away on 10/23/2025.

Anyone who wants to read more on the activities of Tong Zeng and Tamaki Matsuoka can do so in Chapter 34 “More on Extracurricular Activities As a Dragon and an Eagle”. More information on their activities can also be found in the June 2020 issue of my website www.dontow.com.

Can the American Dream Continued?

The U.S. has long been known as a country where, if you work and study hard, then you, or at least your children, will be able to get a good education, a good job, and live a reasonably comfortable life. This is known as the American Dream. Every year, especially after the end of WWII, thousands and thousands of people from all over the world have immigrated to this country (most legally, and some illegally) to seek and often achieve the American Dream.

There are reasons for the American Dream. The U.S. is really unique in terms of geographic and natural opportunities during most of its existence. It offered a vast country with a very small native population. It offered good natural resources and vast land ideal for agriculture and cattle raising. Thus, there was always room to expand and enough resources to share, instead of being a zero-sum situation where one could gain only at the expense of someone else.

The country actually welcomed more newcomers to help develop the vast land. It was partially due to immigration to the U.S. of so many of the best and brightest from other countries that propelled the U.S. economic engine to become the richest and most powerful country in the world. The U.S. is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the East and the Pacific Ocean on the West, providing natural barriers from foreign aggressors. It is bordered on the north and the south by two relatively new countries also with a vast land of their own and a small native population. Until WWII, the U.S. was able to live relatively peacefully without worrying too much about the threat of foreign invasion. Thus it was able to focus its resources and energy internally to develop the country.

When a country has vast land and natural resources to share, adding more people does not create a problem, because there is plenty to share. Not only does it not introduce a problem, but it also helps the country to grow, because the U.S. can use the additional manpower and intelligence to cultivate the land, work in the factories, create new initiatives, etc. In its first 200 years of existence, the U.S. was basically
living in a continuing, expanding economy, and therefore could absorb and welcome lots of immigrants, especially when among the immigrants were the best and brightest from all over the world. However, starting near the end of the 20th century when the U.S. no longer has an almost unlimited amount of land and natural resources to share, it gradually changes from a “continuing expanding economy” to an almost “zero sum economy,” when giving more to one person may require a reduction for another person unless you can grow the size of the pie.

Therefore, now the U.S. is no longer in a “continuing expanding economy’, but in a “zero sum economy,” it needs to expand the economy for the American Dream to continue. That will determine whether the American Dream can be continued, and that will be the answer to the question of whether the American Dream can be continued.

Anyone who wants to read more on this issue can do so in Chapter 34 “The American Dream and Can It Be Continued?”.

Anson Burlingame – The only person who served as the U.S.’s Ambassador to China and as China’s Ambassador to the U.S.

In the 19th century, China was forced to sign many unequal treaties with various foreign powers, including the U.S. China was essentially partitioned so that it did not even have sovereignty over its own country. While he was the U.S. Ambassador to China, Burlingame took the American domestic abolitionist movement of the 1860s, and promoted the concept “equality of men.” He worked with Secretary of State William H. Seward to change the American foreign policy toward China to be based on the “equality of nations,” which in the long term was in the best interest of the U.S and China.

It was not an easy task to persuade the U.S. Senate to change a foreign policy of unequal treaties to a foreign policy based on the equality of nations. Using all his oratorical skills and working closely with
Secretary of State Seward, Burlingame was successful in persuading the U.S Senate to ratify what came to be known as the Burlingame Treaty, which President Andrew Johnson signed in 1868. This treaty
was based on the equality of nations and provided reciprocity in various foreign relationships between the U.S. and China.

Unfortunately, later while serving as China’s Ambassador to the U.S., Burlingame died in February 1870 while on a mission to Russia, and most of the Burlingame Treaty was never implemented, and no one would know what the U.S.-China relationship would be like today. Mark Twain wrote the following obituary for Burlingame: “In real greatness, ability, grandeur of character, and achievement, Anson Burlingame stood head and shoulders above all the Americans of today, save one or two … He was a good man, and a very great man. America lost a son, and all the world a servant, when he died.”

Anyone who wants to read more on this issue can do so in Chapter 36 “Anson Burlingame-A Most Unique Diplomat.”

I hope that you learned some things from these excerpts from my book.

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Table of Contents of Book (there are 38 chapters):

The Yin and Yang of the Dragon and the Eagle: Tale of Two Cultures and Two Countries

1. The Dragon and the Eagle – Tale of Two Cultures and Two Countries
2. The Saga of My Father’s First Journey to the U.S.
3. My Mother and Her Family’s Origin
4. Life As a Student in Providence and Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1920s
5. Starting Career and Family in Guangzhou in the 1930s
6. Tragedy and Running and Escaping from War
7. Escape from War:  From Guangzhou to Hong Kong
8. No Man’s Land in Hong Kong
9. Massacres and Atrocities in Hong Kong During WWII
10. Escape from No Man’s Land:  From Hong Kong to Taishan, China
11. Victory from War:  Return from Taishan to Guangzhou
12. Escape from War:  From Guangzhou to Hong Kong Again
13. Reminiscences of Early Childhood in Hong Kong
14. My Father’s Career in Hong Kong:  Building Churches and Refugee Housing
15. Pulling Up Roots One More time-Hong Kong to U.S.A., and Initial Observations of the U.S.
16. Early Experiences in U.S:  Start of Tale of Two Cultures and Two Countries
17. Ten Years at Berkeley in the Turbulent 1960 Decade
18. Living Through the UC Berkeley Free Speech Movement of 1964
19. Experiencing the Worldwide Diaoyu Islands Student Movement of the 1970s and Beyond
20. The Shaping of the Life of a Fellow Student at the University of California at Berkeley
21. From the Eyes of Grandma
22. Life in Paris:  1977-1978
23. Lesson from my First College Teaching
24. Experiences of Working in Industry
25. A Son Remembering His Father
26. Coaching Youth Soccer in the U.S.
27. Life As an Expatriate Working in Beijing:  1997-1999
28. He’d Grown Up Just Like Me
29. A Son Remembering His Mother
30. Taiji
31. Myth or Reality
32. Activism on Campus and Community
33. More on Extracurricular Activities As a Dragon and an Eagle
34. The American Dream and Can It Be Continued?
35. South China Sea Dispute:  Abuse of World Power
36. Anson Burlingame:  A Most Unique Diplomat
37. U.S.-China Relationship
38. Closing Comments on the “Yin and Yang of the Dragon and the Eagle”

1. My parents: King Tow and Kum Chu (Ching) Tow
2. Tong Zeng of Beijing, who passed away on 10/23/2025, and Tamaki Matsuoka of Japan
3. My older sister Billie Tow Dong, who passed away on 11/25/2025.

Also, at the end of this article, the Table of Contents (TOC) of my book will be included.

King Tow and Kum Chu (Ching) Tow:

King Tow and Kum Chu (Ching) Tow are members of the greater Tow family who have members who have lived part of their lives in China and part of their lives in the U. S. They formed the nucleus of the Tow/Ching family who are the dragons and eagles, which are the subjects of this book. My grandfather, Deep Sam Tow, came to the U.S. as a merchant in the restaurant business. He then applied for his son as a merchant’s son (which was allowed under the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act) to come to the U. S. to study high school and college.

My mother Kum Chu Ching’s great grandfather came to the U. S. as a worker in 1844. Her grandfather lived in San Francisco for several years. After returning to China for a visit, he got married, then he returned to the U.S. with his wife (again this was before the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act). They operated a Chinese herbal and grocery store on 724 Sacramento Street in San Francisco, with his wife working as the cashier. They had 3 daughters, and a son born in 1881 in San Francisco. That son was my mother’s father.

Therefore, on my mother’s side, not counting my mother, three generations have lived part of their lives in the U.S. , and part of their lives in China. They are dragons and eagles. Counting my mother and my brothers and sisters, five generations of the Tow/Ching family are dragons and eagles.

Tong Zeng and Tamaki Matsuoka:

Japan has done so many atrocities in the world, especially in Asia, such as the Nanking Massacre, and atrocities toward comfort women. Japan has never openly apologized to the world, as Germany did. Furthermore, the Japanese government has tried to deny their atrocities, and try to rewrite history by denying that these happenings never happened so that their younger generations will not know about this part of history. Furthermore, the U.S. has also tried to rewrite history, and is not setting a good example for Japan to follow.

However, Japan has committed so many massive atrocities all over Asia during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945), the world will never forget what happened. Tong Zeng was the person who initiated in China a nation-wide movement to help to remind the people of these atrocities, and served as its spokesperson. Unfortunately, he passed away on 10/23/2025.

While growing up in Japan, Tamaki Matsuoka heard so many versions of what Japan did in China, and what happened in China. So she wanted to find out herself of the truth of that part of history. While working as a school teacher and raising a family, she immersed herself in that part of history and spend basically her whole life finding out about what happened in China during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945), including talking and discussing with hundreds of Japanese soldiers who participated in that war and lived through that part of history. After gaining the confidence of these Japanese solders, they were willing to share with her what happened in China, on secrets that until then they were not willing to share with their families. She also discussed with the Chinese victims, who were willing to share with her on what happened to them, thus confirming the truth of what actually happened in China. She travelled to China numerous times, and wrote several books about what she learned about what happened in China. Tamaki Matsuoka is known as the conscience of Japan.

For more information about Tong Zeng and Tamaki Matsuoka, see Ref. 1 (“One Speaks for the Voiceless and One Is the Conscience of Japan”: https://www.dontow.com/2020/06/one-speaks-for-the-voiceless-and-one-is-the-conscience-of-japan/. Both Tong Zeng and Tamaki Matsuoka have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Billie Tow Dong:

For the part of the book describing individual actions like those of my older sister Billie (who passed away on 11/25/2025), we dedicate this book to her.  During WWII, we were living in our second-floor apartment with no running water in our ancestral village of Taishan in southern China.  Billie, as an almost eight year old, brought water on a daily basis from the nearby river (and sometimes from a slightly farther well) to help the Tow family to survive by bringing a bamboo pole with a bucket of water at either end of the bamboo pole to carry the water from the nearby river to our second-floor apartment.

My mother who just gave birth to me was not able to carry out that task. My oldest brother Tommie had a spinal problem that affected his normal growth, and was not able to carry that task. My 2nd older brother Jimmy who was six, two years younger than Billie, was not strong enough to carry that task. My other older brother Danny was not quite four years old, and obviously could not do the task. My father had to work to earn money to support the family. So Billie was the only one to carry that task.

So for at least several months or more, our family’s survival depended on the heroic efforts of this 8-year old child to carry the critically needed water from the nearby river to our 2nd floor apartment.

Table of Contents of Book (there are 38 chapters):

The Yin and Yang of the Dragon and the Eagle: Tale of Two Cultures and Two Countries

1. The Dragon and the Eagle – Tale of Two Cultures and Two Countries
2. The Saga of My Father’s First Journey to the U.S.
3. My Mother and Her Family’s Origin
4. Life As a Student in Providence and Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1920s
5. Starting Career and Family in Guangzhou in the 1930s
6. Tragedy and Running and Escaping from War
7. Escape from War:  From Guangzhou to Hong Kong
8. No Man’s Land in Hong Kong
9. Massacres and Atrocities in Hong Kong During WWII
10. Escape from No Man’s Land:  From Hong Kong to Taishan, China
11. Victory from War:  Return from Taishan to Guangzhou
12. Escape from War:  From Guangzhou to Hong Kong Again
13. Reminiscences of Early Childhood in Hong Kong
14. My Father’s Career in Hong Kong:  Building Churches and Refugee Housing
15. Pulling Up Roots One More time-Hong Kong to U.S.A., and Initial Observations of the U.S.
16. Early Experiences in U.S:  Start of Tale of Two Cultures and Two Countries
17. Ten Years at Berkeley in the Turbulent 1960 Decade
18. Living Through the UC Berkeley Free Speech Movement of 1964
19. Experiencing the Worldwide Diaoyu Islands Student Movement of the 1970s and Beyond
20. The Shaping of the Life of a Fellow Student at the University of California at Berkeley
21. From the Eyes of Grandma
22. Life in Paris:  1977-1978
23. Lesson from my First College Teaching
24. Experiences of Working in Industry
25. A Son Remembering His Father
26. Coaching Youth Soccer in the U.S.
27. Life As an Expatriate Working in Beijing:  1997-1999
28. He’d Grown Up Just Like Me
29. A Son Remembering His Mother
30. Taiji
31. Myth or Reality
32. Activism on Campus and Community
33. More on Extracurricular Activities As a Dragon and an Eagle
34. The American Dream and Can It Be Continued?
35. South China Sea Dispute:  Abuse of World Power
36. Anson Burlingame:  A Most Unique Diplomat
37. U.S.-China Relationship
38. Closing Comments on the “Yin and Yang of the Dragon and the Eagle”

The author came to the U.S. at age 13 is especially a mixture of a dragon and an eagle.  He exhibits traits of both, sometimes exhibiting more of one type than the other, and sometimes spontaneously transforming from one type to another, like yin and yang in Taiji.  The book recollects their experiences living through two decades of wars (The Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II, China’s Civil War).

The book recollects the painful experience of the Tow family pulling up roots multiple times to escape from war:  (1) moving from Canton, China to Hong Kong in 1937, (2) from Hong Kong in 1941 to their ancestor village of Taishan near Canton, (3) from Taishan back to Canton when WWII ended in 1945, then (4) from Canton to Hong Kong in 1949 during China’s civil war, and (5) finally immigration to the U.S. in 1955 to a small town in Placerville (also known as Hangtown). 

It describes the heroic task assumed by his older sister Billie Tow Dong when our family was living in their ancestor village Taishan during the Second Sino Japanese War (unfortunately my older sister Billie passed away on 11/25/2025). It recollects the tragedy of losing his oldest brother and the impact it had on his mother emotionally. It also recollects the friendship between his father and his college freshman dormitory roommate, Mr. Harold S. Prescott, a friendship that lasted more than half a century, across thousands of miles of separation across the U.S. and across oceans.

It also recollects the author’s experiences living through the Free Speech Movement of 1963 at the University of California at Berkeley, the Civil Rights Movement, the Third World Movement, and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement in the decade of the 1960s. This decade resulted in many changes in the psyche of Americans, especially among students on American college campuses, as well as in the American society, as well as in other societies worldwide. It expanded their horizon and focus, paying much more attention to the social and economic conditions of their society, as well as the world as a whole.

This seismic change also affected our contemporaries. For example, a friend from the University of California at Berkeley while almost finishing his master degree in engineering in 1970 returned to Hong Kong and initiated a project to start teaching high school courses in a remote part of Hong Kong which at that time did not offer high schools.  His effort resulted in several other students joining that effort. This project lasted several years until a public high school was established in that remote part of Hong Kong, and what happened after that initiative can be found in Chapter 17.                                          

The worldwide Diaoyu Tiao Student Movement was also triggered in 1970 and 1971.  The impact of this movement is still going on, and is just as important now as it was 50+ years ago, because it is tied to the territorial sovereignty and involvement of the U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty with Japan, which is still to be seen how it would be fulfilled. 

This book discusses the many extracurricular activities that the author was involved in throughout his life over more than six decades..  Most of these activities have centered on injustices and atrocities, especially those injustices and atrocities that were experienced by the Chinese that occurred during WWII during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

It describes extracurricular activities that involve organizations like “The New Jersey Alliance for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (NJ-ALPHA)” and “Ten Thousand Cries for Justice (10,000 CFJ).” The latter activity involves especially two people:  Tong Zeng (童增) of China and Tamaki Matsuoka of Japan, which is described in Chapter 33 of this book.  Both Tong Zeng and Tamaki Matsuoka have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Unfortunately, Tong Zeng passed away on October 23, 2025.

The book also describes topics such as “Can the American Dream Be Continued?”, the “South China Sea Dispute,” “Anson Burlingame,” and “U.S.-China Relationship.”

The book is more than just one family’s memoir.  It is about the dynamic transformation and integration of one culture with another culture, which all immigrants undergo to one degree or another.

This assessment is based on our recent 2-week trip (10/13/2024 – 10/26/2024) to Xinjiang.  It was our second visit to Xinjiang.  Our first visit was in 2010, also for 2 weeks.

Xinjiang is very big.  It can be divided into 5 areas:

The Northern Highlands (the major mountain range in this area is the Altai Mountains, with average heights of approximately 4,500 feet (1,400 meters) above sea level)

The Jungge (Dzungarian) Basin (is bordered by the Altai Mountains on the northeast, the Tien Shan Mountain on the south, and the Zhongghar (Dzungarian) Alatau (Alataw) Mountains (principally of Kazakhstan) on the northwest).

The Tian Shan Mountain (occupies nearly one-fourth of the area of Xinjiang. These mountains stretch into the region from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan and run eastward from the border for about 1,000 miles (1,600 km).  The highest mountains rise to an elevation of approximately 24,500 feet (or 7,500 meters).

The Tian Shan Basin (sometimes also called the Tarim Basin-named after the Tarim River – an endorheic river, meaning a river that does not lead to an ocean or sea), a region of central Asia between the Tian Shan and Kunlun Mountains).

The Kunlun Mountains (one of the longest mountain chains and one of the most remote places on earth, and it is considered one of the toughest places in the world for humans to live).

Our trip in Xinjiang runs mostly in the regions 4 and 5, that is, in the Tian Shan Basin (with the Tian Shan Mountain in the background to the north) and in the region north of the Kunlun Mountains.

I want to report on the following places that we visited:

• Xinjiang’s ancient irrigation method in Turpan region
• Anjihai Sea Grand Canyon
• Sayram Lake (赛里木湖) – the largest and also the highest alpine lake in Xinjiang
• An unexpected roadside lunch
• Large Man-Made Lake Built on top of a Natural Lake (Baisha White Sand Mountain/Lake)
• Lin Zexu (林则徐) Memorial Hall in Yili
• View on China’s Economic and Financial Resources
• Comment on foreign reports on Xinjiang
• Three Additional comments
  • Comments on China’s Hotels
  • Comment on our Tour Guide
  • Xinjiang’s website

A. Xinjiang’s Ancient Irrigation Method

Xinjiang is high in elevation and in general does not have a lot of rain.  So the little rain that falls on the ground can quickly evaporate back into the air, which makes normal irrigation methods non-workable.  For many centuries, the people in Xinjiang used an ingenious method to irrigate their land to produce various vegetables and fruits.  This irrigation method is called the “karez system”, commonly found in the Turpan region.

It refers to an ancient underground irrigation system making use of the many high mountains (which can be found in various parts of Xinjiang), where a network of interconnected wells and underground canals collect water from the mountains and channel it to the surface for agricultural use.  Because the interconnected wells and underground canals are underground, the system can keep the water from being evaporated.  It is considered a remarkable feat of engineering that allows for cultivation in the arid desert environment of Xinjiang. 

Photos of the “karez system” can be found in the web under Xinjiang’s ancient irrigation method, e.g. at

https://www.farwestchina.com/travel/turpan/uyghur-karez-wells/

B. Anjihai Grand Canyon

This should be a fantastic site when it opens (probably in 2025).  We saw it in mid- October 2024 before it officially opens.  So what we saw is not the whole thing. 

The Anjihai Grand Canyon is located in the west of Anjihai Town, Shawan County. It originates from the Tianshan Mountains. Its special geological landforms have been featured in National Geographic magazine. The canyon here is breathtaking, the cliffs stand, and the bottom of the valley is up to 100 meters deep. Standing on the edge of the cliff, the cold wind surges straight up from the bottom of the ravine, making people tremble in the bottom of the ditch, and the legs are soft and numb.

It is worth tourists from all over the world. The Grand Canyon has landscapes such as Hongshan, Daiya, Qingfeng, Green Island, and clear water. It has different scenery throughout the year, becoming the most colorful Grand Canyon in the canyon group in China.  Known as “China’s Grand Canyon of Colorado”.

The landforms on both sides of the river in the Anjihai Grand Canyon are different. The west bank is the Gobi, which is relatively flat, and the east bank is the rolling hills, which form a sharp contrast and give people a unique feeling.

Anjihai Grand Canyon is about a 3-hour drive west of Urumqi.  You can find many photos of the magnificent Anjihai Grand Canyon on the web, e.g. at

The landforms on both sides of the river are different. The west bank is the Gobi, which is relatively flat, and the east bank is the rolling hills, which form a sharp contrast and give people a unique feeling.

C. Sayram Lake (赛里木湖)

Sayram Lake is located 120 km north of Yining and 90 km west of Bole, near the border to Kasakhstan.  It is an excellent spot to get a taste of the Tian Shan Mountain.  It is the largest and the highest alpine lake in Xinjiang.  It is known by many names, like Nation Scenic Spot, National Historical Site, A Pearl of the Ancient Silk Road, etc. It is most attractive with its breathtaking scenery, including dazzling sapphire-like lake, verdant forests, snow-capped peaks, thriving grassland, and most charming wild flowers in late spring to early autumn. The lake is especially colorful in June and July, when the alpine flowers are in full bloom.

Spectacular photos of the Sayram Lake can be found at: 

D, An Unexpected Roadside Lunch

Today because of some unexpected delay in trying to reach our next destination, we missed trying to reach our intended place for lunch.  So we had to find a roadside place for lunch.  We saw some roadside workers/people; so we askedthem.  One of themtold us his family has a nearby place that offers lunch.  Since that place is very nearby, he led us to his family’s nearby lunch site. And we had a quick lunch there, with him helping his family to serve us.  This was unplanned and everything just happened unexpectedly.  This is contrary to often reports by western media coverage for people being monitored and watched which was completely unfounded during our two-week trip in Xinjiang.

Unexpected roadside lunch.

On 10/21, a subgroup of us ended their tour of Xinjiang and in the morning flew from Yining to Urumqi and then flew from Urumqi to Shenzhen to Hong Kong, while the rest of the group flew in the afternoon from Yining to Sache and continue our exploration of Xinjiang.

E. Large Man-made Lake Built on Top of a Natural Lake (Baisha White Sand Mountain/Lake)

Baisha White Sand Mountain/Lake is located about 200 kilometers from the urban area of Kashgar. The Mountain and the Baisha White Sand Lake are located in the Karakoram Mountains at an altitude of about 3,300 meters.  Due to the long-term weathering here, the rocks on the top is sanded into powder, pouring down from the top, covering the mountain, so it is called White Sand Mountain.

Here is a short description of the Baisha White Sand Lake:

https://chinaexploration.com/TopAttractions/xinjiang-attractions/Baisha-White-Sand-Lake.html

The 3,300 meter lake is a man-made lake sitting on top of a smaller natural lake.  This lake can freeze during the winter.

F. Lin Zexu (林则徐) Memorial Hall in Yili

It is great that we visited a museum in Yili (or Yining) with information on Lin Zexu (林则徐), who was a pioneer Chinese political leader who was one of the earliest Chinese political leaders who pointed out and protested against the Opium War.  The British would sell opium to the Chinese people and got so many Chinese people addicted and became dis-functional.  When he burned the opium in a British ship in a southern Chinese harbor, the British protested and demanded compensation.  As a result, the weak Ching government removed Viceroy Lin Zexu from his post. Later he was sent to a much lower post in Xinjiang, where he continued to serve the Chinese people.

I am glad that the Chinese government later would recognize and honor him for his foresight and courage; so that Chinese people and the world would appreciate his contributions.

Photos and description of the Lin Zexu (林则徐) Memorial Hall in Yili can be found at:

G. View on Xinjiang’s Economic and Financial Resources

Xinjiang is rich in natural resources. 

Xinjiang has a lot of solar energy.  You can see major solar panels on the fields next to the highways.  We often saw large solar panels being driven in trucks driving next to our bus while we were on the highways.  We also saw large cotton fields next to the highways.

Solar panels.

Cotton fields.

Xinjiang is the leading producer of cotton in China, accounting for about 20% of the world’s cotton production and 80% of China’s domestic cotton production.

Xinjiang also grows a lot of fruits and vegetables.  We saw a lot of grapes, vegetables and fruits on various fields next to the highways or on the sides of highways after they have been cut and waiting to be picked up on the sides of roads and highways.

Carton balls. Veg in bags. Veg on roadside.

Tarim Basin, a major natural gas source in northwest China’s Xinjiang, has seen vigorous development with 12 new gas wells being put into operation in Tarim Oilfield since the beginning of 2024, elevating the gas supply capability in southern Xinjiang. With the establishment of Bozi natural gas processing plant in the southern parts of the Tian Shan mountains, the gas-bearing area is able to process over 30 million cubic meters of natural gas.  The area has proven oil and gas reserves reaching 3.5 billion tons of oil equivalent and has a total gas output of over 400 billion cubic meters.  Oil and gas exploration and production have driven high-quality socio-economic development in Xinjiang and have also helped ensure China’s energy security.

Although it has only about one-third of the world’s rare earth reserves, China now accounts for 60% of global rare earth mined production, 85% of rare earth processing capacity, and over 90% of high-strength rare earth permanent magnets manufactured. 

Rare earth elements form an integral part of the modern global economy. Rare earth elements play a critical role in developing new industries such as wind power generation, fuel cells, hydrogen storage and rechargeable batteries, as well as the permanent magnets used in electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. 

They are also used as phosphors in many consumer displays and lighting systems and are vital for many defense technologies, including precision-guided munitions, targeting lasers, communications systems, airframes and aerospace engines, radar systems, optical equipment, sonar, and electronic counter measures. 

Of the 17 rare earth elements, neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium are especially in demand, given their use in permanent magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines. 

Demand for rare earth elements has been increasing rapidly in recent years. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the global output of rare earth elements in 2021 was about 280,000 metric tons, more than doubling the global output five years ago in 2016, and was five times the amount produced thirty years ago. From 1994 to 2008, China’s share of the global output rose from 47% to 97%.

See Ref. 7 for a summary of Xinjiang or China’s rare earth element consolidation and power.

H. Comment on Foreign Reports on Xinjiang

There are many foreign reports on Xinjiang.  Unfortunately, most of them are false and purposely fabricated by foreign countries (including the U.S.) who are purposedly trying to be critical of China.

In my September 2024 issue of my website (dontow.com), I mentioned the UN’s Special Rapporteur Professor Alena Douhan recently just finished a 12-day visit to Xinjiang and concluded that numerous reports on the unilateral sanctions’ adverse impact and the consequent socio-economic implications affecting people’ lives. 

As a matter of fact, the UN rapporteur just declared on 9/13/2024 that all US, EU, British and Canadian sanctions on China over its human rights abuses constitute illegal “unilateral coercive measures” under international law.

I. Three Additional comments

I like to offer 3 smaller comments:

1. Comment on China’s Hotels:  Many of China’s hotels have many light switches controlling various lights.  I find them difficult to figure out their purposes.  I believe that they can be better defined and can simplify the cost of implementation and operation.  I often find it difficult to determine the light switch that can be left on at night to help me find the visible path to the bathroom.  As a matter of fact, I believe a small night light can easily serve that purpose, and it could save a lot of money in designing, installing, and operation.  I think an interior designer can make a better and less expensive design of many of these hotels.
2. Comment on our Main Tour Guide:  Our main tour guide does a wonderful job in providing us information on the places that we will be visiting.  One comment I have for him is that he will often give us the description in Chinese, but then would not provide the English translation for the several non-Chinese members of our group.  He thinks that his Chinese is not very good. In my opinion, his English is good enough, and he can give it a try.  If necessary. the local guide‘s English is pretty good and the local guide or Al Kwok (our main trip organizer) can provide the English translation.
3. Xinjiang’s website does not provide easy to find information on the location and description of the places we visited.  Providing such information on the locality and description of the local sites of visit would save us a lot of time trying to figure out where did we just visited.

References

[1]  Ancient China Greatest Water System Karez:  https://www.chinaexploration.com/TopAttractions/xinjiang-attractions/karez-kan-er-well.html.html.

[2] Anjihai Grand Canyon:  https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=anijiu+Sea+Canyon#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:70bb4ada,vid:ktKBWLtsiio,st:0

[3] Sayram Lake (赛里木湖):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayram_Lake.

[4] White Sand Mountain Lake:  https://www.chinaexploration.com/TopAttractions/xinjiang-attractions/Baisha-White-Sand-Lake.html

5] Lin Zexu (林则徐) Memorial Hall in Yil (or Yining): https://www.xinjiangtravel.org/yili/attraction/the-lin-zexu-museum.html

[6] World’s Biggest Solar Farm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrNTu1tIjGI

[7] China’s Rare Earth Metals Consolidation and Power:  https://www.fpri.org/article/2022/03/chinas-rare-earth-metals-consolidation-and-market-power/

[8] UN expert says unilateral sanctions must not be used as foreign policy tool and means of economic coercion:  https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/05/china-un-expert-says-unilateral-sanctions-must-not-be-used-foreign-policy

Recently we learned of a recently approved strategy named Nuclear Employment Guidance [1] that focuses on using nuclear weapons on China, as well as Russia and North Korea. The proposed strategy is supposed to prepare a hightened sense of security against a potential nuclear attack by the three countries of China, Russia, and North Korea.. China has been brought to the table of nuclear threats to the U.S.

One cannot criticize China for building up its military capability, including developing its nuclear arsenal so that if neessary, it can defend itself against potential enemies. If you look at the actions of China with respect to its military deployment, it has been extremely fair. Independent of the critical comments of the U.S., China is not using its military strength to bully other countries. It is really stretching the point, although completely consistent with what the U.S. governmwnt has been doing in the last 5-10 years, in adopting an extremely hostile attitude targeting and criticizing China, adopting all kinds of economic sanctions against China, and always demonizing China. The image publicized by the U.S. government and populated in the U.S. and world media on China is unwarranted and mostly fabricated. It is so contrary to the experience of the thousands of foreigners who have lived and worked in China for many years [Ref. 2]. As a matter of fact, one wonders why China is not doing more to counter the hostility and attitude toward China.

It is time for the U.S. government and the American people to reorient its attitude and image of China. The Chinese government and people have made great improvements in China, basically eliminating adverse poverty in China, and at the same time it has also helped many other countries to improve their standards of living, e.g, via the Belt and Road Initiative. It is time for the U.S. government to recognize the multipolar world, instead of focusing on the unipoloar world. It is time for the U.S. to remove all economic sanctions against China. Not only that these sanctions do not work, they do not hold back China, they also keep the U.S. from getting its fare share of economic benefits. These sanctions are counter protective,, they hurt China, they hurt the U.S., and they also hurt the rest of the world.

It is time not only to abandon the Nuclear Employment Guidance strategy putting China as the main nuclear threat. It is time for the U.S. and the world to focus their energy to work on the many important problems facing the world. It is time to see in what ways China can work collaborately with the U.S. to solve the many complex problems facing the world.

Let’s focus our attention on another important problem facing the U.S. This is related to two American astronauts who are currently stranded in the International Space Station (ISS).

Important U.S. Space Program

The U.S. has a very important space program called Starliner with two astronaults (Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams) who are temporarily stranded in space. The 15-foot-wide Boeing-made space capsule Starliner was launched, atop an Atlas V rocket, on June 6, 2024. But the spaceship has encountered some problems, including three helium leaks, including one leak that was known before flight, and two new ones after the spaceship was launched. Besides these leaks, the crew also had to troubleshoot failed control thrusters, though the crew was able to successfully dock the Starliner spaceship with the International Space Station (ISS). Being a Boeing-made spaceship, the Starliner was thought to provide a new way to get crews to and from the ISS. Witmore and Williams’ mission was supposed to last a mere eight days when they would test out aspects of Starliner and see how it operates with a human crew in space. However, due to complications experienced with Starliner, the two astronaults have to stay in the ISS much longer (Ref. 3).

With the technical problems facing the Starliner, NASA has been thinking of finding another method to bring the two stranded astronaults home to earth. So one method is to use the SpaceX, which is a private spaceflight company founded by Elon Musk. But SpaceX also has experienced failures and problems. A Falcon 9 rocket to launch SpaceX exploded on the launch pad in 2016, and in July a Falcon 9 rocket experienced a liquid oxygen leak and deployed its satellites in the wrong orbit. However, SpaceX also has more than 300 successful Falcon 9 flights to its credit.

NASA says that there is no rush to bring Wilmore and Williams home. The current plan is to launch another SpaceX to the ISS and bring Witmore and Williams home to earth. This is currrently scheduled for February 2025.

A Potential U.S.-China Collaborated Space Venture

Just for contingency planning, if the above plan to bring home Wilmore and Williams runs into more problems in the future, since China also has a space program (Tiangong space station) which is planning a national record 100 orbital launches in 2024. (Refs. 4 and 5). It would be a great collaborative effort for the U.S. and China to jointly launch a spaceship to the ISS to bring home the two U.S. astronauts Butch Whilmore and Suni Williams. Although China has many tasks for its space program (that is why it is planning about a 100 space launches in the next year or so), it should be a great effort for the U.S. and China to collaborrate on this highly valuable humanitarian effort. Who knows what could follow, and the icy relationship between the U.S. and China could thaw and give rise to more fruitful joint ventures to improve the world.

References

[1] David E. Sanger, “Biden Approved Secret Nuclear Strategy Refocusing on Chinese Threat,” the New York Times, 8/20/2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/20/us/politics/biden-nuclear-china-russia.html.

[2] See, video broadcasts by various foreigners who have lived and worked in China for many years, e.g., from American Cyrus Jannsen, Australian/British Jerry Grey, Columbian Fernando Munez Bernal, and many others. Their video broadcasts on China can easily be found in the web.

[3] See, e.g., Marcia Dunn, “Who are the two NASA astronauts stranded at the Intenational Space Station?”, https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international/who-are-the-two-nasa-astronauts-stranded-at-the-international-space-station/3370766/?os=..&ref=app#:~:text=The%20two%20astronauts%20who%20will%20spend%20extra%20time,and%20when%20%E2%80%94%20they%20would%20return%20to%20Earth.

[4] Astronauts Stranded in Space: How They’ll Be Rescued in 2025″, CNET, Sept. 5, 2024: https://www.cnet.com/science/astronauts-stranded-in-space-how-theyll-be-rescued-in-2025/.

[5] Andrew Jones, Space News, “China’s 2024 space plans include 100 launches and moon sample return mission,” February 26, 2024: https://spacenews.com/chinas-2024-space-plans-include-100-launches-and-moon-sample-return-mission/.

This talk “Quantum Physics: Path from Mysteries to Reality?” that I gave on 6/13/2024 at the Holmdel Library in Holmdel, New Jersey at the former Bell Labs building (new called Bell Works) can be considered as part of that celebration marking the contributions of Quantum Physics to the world. Bell Labs was the site where several great discoveries related to Quantum Physics were discovered in the 20th century that helped to revolutionize the world.

The Powerpoint viewgraphs shown at this talk is the content of this article.

The flyer for the 6/13/2024 Holmdel Library seminar is shown below:

An earlier version of this talk was given by me on 12/8/2022 at the INK Fellowship. For a while it was sometimes mentioned that the 12/8/2022 talk was not recorded. It was recorded, but the recording was not widely presented until now. This recording can be summarized by various comments in the most recent 6/13/2024 talk. The 12/8/2022 recording is presented now mostly for historical purposes.

This article is my personal view of the most important discoveries in Physics. However, in light of some of the great mysteries mentioned at the end of this article, I believe that perhaps the greatest discoveries in physics are yet to be discovered. There are of course other items that could easily been included in this list, e.g., Dmitri Mendeleev of the Periodic Table and major discoveries regarding the origin and development of the universe.

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I – Mechanical Laws of Motion:  The study of how objects move or do not move when forces act upon them is known as mechanics.  In 1687 Isaac Newton published his three laws of motion in the “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.”  Newton’s First Law of Motion: an object’s motion will not change unless there is an external force on it. (2) Newton’s Second Law of Motion: the force on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration. (3) Newton’s Third Law of Motion: when two objects interact, they apply forces to each other of equal magnitude and opposite direction.

Newton’s Mechanical Laws of Motions describes mechanics completely and correctly for over 200 years until the early 1900s when Albert Einstein proposed his Theory of Relativity that led to some corrections to Newton’s classical theory of mechanics when objects are moving very rapidly (closed to the speed of light).

Besides Newton, other key contributors included Galileo Galilei,

II – Theory of Gravitation:  Because of an object’s mass, every object affects all other objects.  Because of their masses, predicting how do these objects affect each other is known as gravitation theory.  Newton created the theory of gravity around 1666 by proposing that every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with a force that is directly proportional to the product of the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Just like Newton’s mechanical laws of motion, Newton’s classical theory of gravitation described the physical world very accurately for over 200 years until Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (in particular, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity) that require some modifications when massive objects are involved.

Besides Newton, key contributors include Johannes Kepler and Nicolaus Copenicus.

III – Thermodynamics:  Thermodynamics is the study of the relations between heat, work, temperature, and energy. The laws of thermodynamics describe how the energy in a system changes and whether the system can perform useful work on its surroundings.

First law of thermodynamics: one of the most fundamental laws of nature is the conservation of energy principle. It simply states that during an interaction, energy can change from one form to another but the total amount of energy remains constant.

One such scientist was Sadi Carnot, the “father of thermodynamics”, who in 1824 published “Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire,” a discourse on heat, power, and engine efficiency. Most cite this book as the starting point for thermodynamics as a modern science.

Entropy is a scientific concept that is most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept entropy are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynamics where it was first recognized, to the microscopic description of nature in statistical physics, and to the principles of information theory. It has found far-ranging applications in chemistry and physics, in biological systems and their relation to life, in cosmology, economics, sociology, weather science, climate change, and information systems including the transmission of information in telecommunication.

Besides the first law of thermodynamics, there are several other laws of thermodynamics, such as the second law of thermodynamics that states that the entropy of a system always increases, or heat does not spontaneously pass from a colder to a hotter body. or the third law of thermodynamics that states that a system’s entropy approaches a constant value as its temperature approaches absolute zero.

Key contributors to thermodynamics include Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, Sadi Carnot, Rudolf Clausius, Lars Onsager, Benjamin Thompson, and others.

IV – Electrodynamics or Theory of Electricity and Magnetism:  Before the invention of electromagnetism, people or scientists used to think electricity and magnetism are two different topics. The view has changed after James Clerk Maxwell published A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in the year 1873. The publication states that the interaction of positive and negative charges is mediated by one force. This observation laid a foundation for Electromagnetism which describes electrodynamics by Maxwell’s four equations.

Classical electrodynamics can be completely described by the four Maxwell’s equations which can be found in any undergraduate textbook on electrodynamics or electricity and magnetism.

Beside James Clerk Maxwell, other contributors to electrodynamics include Andre-Marie Ampere, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, Michael Faraday, Hans Christian Oersted, Alexandro Volta.

This is now known as Classical Electrodynamics, which describes electrodynamics accurately until we have to take into account quantum mechanical impacts when we consider electrodynamics involving subatomic particles.

At the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century, we have seen two revolutionary developments which have completely revolutionized physics, and that is the development of Quantum Mechanics (or Quantum Physics) and Theory of Relativity.  We will discuss Theory of Relativity in Item 5 and Quantum Physics in Item 7.

V – Theory of Relativity:  Special Theory and General Theory:  The Theory of Relativity has two parts:  The Special Theory of Relativity that does not take into account the gravitation force, and the General Theory of Relativity takes into account the gravitation force. 

In Newtonian physics, different observers in different reference frames may observe different laws, but in the Special Theory of Relativity, the same laws of physics hold true in all reference frames; furthermore, the speed of light is the same for all observers, which is different from classical mechanics that states that it depends on  the speed of the observers doing the measurement.  One of the consequences of the Theory of Special Relativity is that the mass of an observer depends on the velocity of the object, and there is a relation between the energy of an object of mass m and its velocity v via the famous relationship of E = mc².

Because the mass of an object increases with increasing velocity and it will take an infinite amount of energy to increase its velocity to pass the speed of light, the speed of light is the maximum speed of any object.

In the Theory of General Relativity where gravitation is taken into account, it states that any object will distort the geometry around that object by creating a geometric field around that object, the force that is around that object follows the geometry of the field created by that object.

There have been many confirmations of the predictions of General Relativity. The earliest ones were done in 1919 by Arthur Eddington during the solar eclipse of the sun on the bending of light due to the sun’s gravitation.

The Theory of General Relativity has deep significance in determining the behavior of objects, especially involving very massive objects involving large velocities.  That is why there are many significant implications in astronomy and massive objects such as neutron stars and back holes.

Besides Albert Einstein, other contributors to Theory of Relativity include Peter Bergmann, Herman Bondi, Arthur Eddington, Marcel Grossman, Steve Hawking, Leopold Infeld, Albert Michalson, Hendrik Lorentz, Herman Minkowski, Edward Morley, Robert Oppenheimer, Roger Penrose, Max Planck, Henri Poincare, Karl Schwarzschild, John Wheeler.

VI – Theory of the Nucleus and the Atoms:  The theory of the atom and the nucleus involved several discoveries.  It was John Alton who proposed that matter is made up of indivisible small atoms and all atoms of the same element are identical.  It was Ernest Rutherford who proposed that the core of an atom is made up of a nucleus consisted of electrically positive protons and electrically neutral neutrons.  It was Niels Bohr who proposed a theory of the hydrogen atom based on quantum theory that electrons move around a nucleus, but only in prescribed orbits, and If electrons jump to a lower-energy orbit, the difference is sent out as radiation.

Key contributors include: John Alton, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Max Planck.

VII – Quantum Physics:  A big revolution occurred at the end of the 19^th century  and the beginning of the 20^th century with the discovery and formulation of Quantum Physics.  In 1900 Max Planck first proposed that atoms and molecules can emit or absorb energy in discrete quantities only. The smallest amount of energy that can be emitted or absorbed in the form of electromagnetic radiation is known as quantum. Then in 1913 Niels Bohr made use of Planck’s idea that some physical quantities only take discrete values, and electrons move around a nucleus, but only in prescribed orbits, and If electrons jump to a lower-energy orbit, the difference is sent out as radiation.

Several other people built on the quantum idea and made additional discoveries that led to the full development of quantum physics that revolutionized the world with all kinds of electronic gadgets build on quantum physics, such as the transistors, radar, computers, worldwide web.

Although Quantum Physics revolutionized physics, science, and introduced many wonders to the world, at the same time, Quantum Physics also introduced many mysteries to the world, such as wave-particle duality, the uncertainty principle, the act of observing nature can change what is being observed, the probability interpretation instead of the deterministic interpretation in classical physics.  Many people question whether Quantum Physics can be the real theory describing the world.

Besides Max Planck and Niels Bohr, there were many major contributors to Quantum Physics, including Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Erwin Schrödinger, Paul Dirac, Arthur Compton, Clinton Davisson, Lester Germer, George Paget Thomson, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley, John Wheeler.

VIII – Quantum Electrodynamics (QED):  QED is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum physics and special relativity is achieved. QED mathematically describes all phenomena involving electrically charged particles interacting by means of exchange of photons and represents the quantum counterpart of classical electromagnetism giving a complete account of matter and light interaction.  QED has made the theoretical prediction of the magnetic moment of the electron to an accuracy of about one part in a trillion,making QED the most accurate theory in the history of science.

Key contributors to Quantum Electrodynamics include:  Paul Dirac, Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, Shinichiro Tomonaga, Freeman Dyson.

IX – Discovery of the Weak Force and Formulation of the Electroweak Force:  The weak force is the force that is involved in radioactive decay such as when a neutron inside an atomic nucleus undergoing an interactive decay and transforms into a proton plus an electron and an anti-neutrino. The weak force was discovered by Enrico Fermi in 1933 based on earlier work by Marie Curie. Weak interactions were involved in most of the reactions in the very early Universe by which particles changed from one sort to another. They are therefore largely responsible for the overall mixture of particles from which the current Universe is made.

in the mid-1950s, T. D. Lee and C. N. Yang proposed that weak interaction does not conserve parity, which shortly after was confirmed experimentally by C. S. Wu.  In the 1960s, Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg unified the electromagnetic force and the weak force by showing them to be two aspects of a single force, now termed the electroweak force.

Key contributors include Marie Curie, Enrico Fermi, T. D. Lee, C. N. Yang, C. S. Wu, Yoichiro Nambu, Sheldon Glashow, Leon Lederman, Martin Perl, Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg, Gerardus ’t Hooft , Martinus J. G. Veltman.

X – Building Blocks of Matter:  This isa long standing problem for physicists.  However, great progress seems tp have been achieved in the last half century plus, both theoretically and experimentally.  It is somewhat premature to claim that this is among the greatest discoveries in Physics until they have been completely proven.  At this time we only declare that this Item 10 and the next Item 11 “Standard Model of Particle Physics” to be potential candidates to be included as part of the greatest discoveries in Physics.  One reason our current understanding is incomplete is because the so-called “Standard Model of Particle Physics” (see next Item 11) addresses only the 3 forces (the strong force, the weak force, and the electromagnetic force), but it does not address the gravitation force.

Our current understanding is that matter is made up of atoms, consisting of a nucleus and electrons orbiting the nucleus.  The nucleus is made up of protons and neutrons.  Protons and neutrons are made up of quarks, and there are 6 quarks:  up quark (u), down quark (d), strange quark (s), charm quark (c), top quark (t), and bottom quark (b). The nuclear matter made up of quarks interact with each other by:

• exchanging gluons when interacting via the strong force
• exchanging photons when interacting via the electromagnetic force,
• exchanging the W-boson or the Z-boson when interacting via the weak force.

Besides the electron neutrino, there are also the muon neutrino, and the tau neutrino.

A missing piece of the building block of matter is the Higgs boson, which was proposed in 1964 as a mechanism for some particles acquiring mass, and was finally discovered in 2012.

Key contributors include Murray Gell Mann, George Zweig, Yuval Ne’eman, Robert Brout-François Englert-Peter Higgs, Gerald Guralnik-Carl Hagen-Tom Kibble, Leo Lederman, Martin Perl, Federick Federick Reines, Melvin Schwartz, Jack Steinberger, Burton Richter, Samuel C. C. Ting, and many others (especially experimentalists).

XI – Standard Model of Particle Physics:  The strong force was proposed in 1935 by Hideki Yukawa, that governs the interaction of protons and neutrons inside an atomic nucleus (or interactions between different quarks which are the components of protons and neutrons).

The current theory of strong interactions is described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), which describes how particles called quarks (which are constituents of protons and neutrons) and leptons (which include electrons) interact to make up matter. It also explains how force carrying particles, which belong to a broader group of bosons influence the quarks and leptons.  QCD has two features:  One called “Asymptotic Freedom” which says that at high energies (or short distances) the interaction of quarks are essentially free, another called “Color confinement” that says that when the quarks are separated by large distances, there is a force confining them so that they cannot be separated, i.e. individual quarks cannot be found in nature.” 

The Standard Model of Particle Physics refers to the combination of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and the Electroweak Force theory of Glashow-Salam-Wainberg (as discussed in Section 9), and is used to explain three of the four fundamental forces of nature that govern the universe: electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force.

Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons.  The strong force, which is carried by gluons, binds together atomic nuclei to make them stable.  The strong force also governs the interactions inside a sun known as nuclear fusion. It is nuclear fusion that creates the energy from the sun that governs our solar system and the whole universe.  The weak force, carried by W and Z bosons, causes nuclear reactions that have powered our Sun and other stars for billions of years.  Electromagnetism is carried by photons and involves the interaction of electric fields and magnetic fields. The fourth fundamental force is gravity, but it is not adequately explained by the Standard Model of Particle Physics.

Both the Electroweak Theory and Quantum Chromodynamics belong to a type of quantum field theory that is based on the Yang-Mills non-Abelian gauge theory first proposed by C. N. Yang and Robert Mills in 1954.

Key contributors include Hideki Yukawa, Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam, Steve Wainberg, David Gross, David Politzer, Frank Wilczek, Robert Mills, C. N. Yang, the people mentioned in Item 10 “Building Blocks of Matter,” and many others, especially experimentalists (since modern experiments are carried out by large experimental teams).

XII – Bell’s Theorem and Experimental Confirmation of Quantum Physics:  Because of many mysteries surrounding Quantum Physics (QP), many people believe that Quantum Physics cannot be correct and it will be replaced in the future by a more realistic theory.  These people included Einstein, who made remarks like God does not play dice, or spooky action at a distance.   Many people thought that a “local hidden variable theory” (LHVT) will replace Quantum Physics.  However, in 1964 James Bell proved a very remarkable theorem that shows any LHVT cannot always have the same prediction as Quantum Physics, thus allowing experiments to determine whether QP or LHVT is correct.

Many experiments in the last half a century have been done, and they have all shown that QP is correct, and LHVT is incorrect, thus confirming that QP may be correct in spite of all its mysteries.

This has led to the beginning of building quantum computers, which with its fantastic speed of calculation, will revolutionize computers and lead to another revolution in industry and in our daily lives just like Quantum Physics revolutionized our world in the 20^th century.

Albert Einstein, Edwin Schrodinger, Alan Aspect, John Clauser, Stuart Freedman, Antonio Zeilinger, John Wheeler, and others.

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In spite of all the discoveries in the last half century, however, there are still several major mysteries:

• Dark matter:  Dark matter is matter in our universe which cannot be seen, because they don’t interact electromagnetically, and they don’t interact through the strong force and maybe also through the weak force, but they interact through the gravitational force.  Ordinary matter make up only about 5% of the universe, but dark matter consist of about 27%.

• Dark energy:  Dark energy is a theoretical repulsive force that counteracts gravity and causes the universe to expand at an accelerating rate, and it makes up 68% of our universe.

• Matter-antimatter asymmetry:  Almost all of the matter we see in the universe is made up of matter, but matter and antimatter should have been created in equal amounts when the original universe is made up of energy.

Therefore, major discoveries are waiting to be discovered to answer these questions.

• China’s governing constitutional instruments specify that the mainland and Taiwan are one country;
• And so does the constitutional document of Taiwan, Republic of China – it ALSO specifies that the two entities are a single, indivisible country;
• To this day, the ROC Constitution ostensibly applies not just to Taiwan but to the whole of China, indicating the Taipei-based government’s control over Tibet and other parts;
• China’s “Nine Dash Line” under which the country claims a large portion of the South China Sea is actually a reduced version of Taiwan’s “Eleven Dash Line”, which Taiwan still applies to the same waters;
• Journalists correctly mention that some countries (193) legally support China while others (13) legally support Taiwan; but they omit the key fact that both groups (read the small print) legally support the principle that mainland China and Taiwan are a single country;
• While some in Taiwan’s DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) openly push for independence, the party would have to rip up or massively amend Taiwan’s own constitutional document to do so.

Professor of Law Richard Cullen reports on the actual legal situation, and how it evolved, to clear up the widely circulated myths about the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan.

AMIDST THE ACUTE geopolitical debate about the status of Taiwan, the clear constitutional consensus that there is One China, which includes Taiwan, is largely overlooked. 

We need to examine some key historical developments in order to comprehend how this has come to pass; and why this agreement endures. 

It will also become plain, as we investigate these events, why certain parties, today, find this agreed cross-strait fundamental legal perspective to be a notably awkward component of the foundations that lie beneath the acrimonious geopolitical debate.

THREE CENTURIES AGO

Taiwan was formally established as a part of China well over 300 years ago, in 1684, when the Manchu, Qing Dynasty annexed Taiwan, following the Manchu defeat of the Ming Dynasty.

Taiwan is close to the province of Fujian.

Subsequently, Taiwan was absorbed as a colony within the rapidly emerging new Japanese Empire, as a war prize, after Japan defeated Qing Dynasty China in 1895, in the First Sino-Japanese War. 

After the dropping of American atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.  One consequence of this surrender was that Japan’s imperial rule over Taiwan was essentially terminated with immediate effect (subject to the completion of handover procedures) in August 1945. 

THE RE-OCCUPATION OF TAIWAN ISLAND

By October 1945, the then globally recognized Chinese Government – the Republic of China (ROC) Kuomintang (KMT) Government – began to re-occupy Taiwan.  By May, 1947 the KMT had established, in accord with the ROC Constitution, a Province of Taiwan Government in Taipei.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taiwan. Image by Rovin Ferrer/ Unsplash.

By late 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC) had defeated the KMT in the Chinese Civil War, which re-commenced in 1945-46, once it was clear that Japan faced defeat in the Second Sino Japanese War (and WW2).  The People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established by the CPC on October 1, 1949.  The KMT – and, thus, the ROC – meanwhile, retreated to Taiwan. 

Staunch American support – including the threat of using atomic weapons against the PRC – helped ensured that the CPC was prevented from taking over Taiwan in the 1950s.  But it also became clear that the KMT aim to make China one, again (including Taiwan) under the ROC Constitution, was not going to happen.

THE ROC CONSTITUTION

But what were the origins and fundamental scope of that ROC Constitution?

Following the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, the Republic of China was established in 1912, when a Provisional Constitution for the ROC was drawn up.  Further Provisional Constitutions were promulgated, including one in 1931.  After extensive drafting and debate, the original version of the current ROC Constitution took effect on December 25, 1947, almost two years before the defeat of the KMT in the Chinese Civil War.

Page one of the original constitution, drafted 1946, ratified 1947.

Since then, the ROC Constitution has been amended a number of times, but its essential structure has not been altered in the sense that it remains, to this day, a constitution that ostensibly applies not just to Taiwan but to all of China.  Given that when this constitution was first applied, the KMT was globally recognized as the government of all of China (including Taiwan), this is not surprising.

TAIWAN’S CONSTITUTION SAYS IT INCLUDES TIBET, FOR EXAMPLE

Thus, within the ROC Constitution, as it currently applies, there are repeated references to the geographical-political constituent parts of China, including Provinces, Mongolian Leagues and Banners and Tibet.  Meanwhile, Article 4 states that the territory of the ROC cannot be altered except by resolution of the National Assembly. 

In fact, the list of ROC, nominal, territorial disputes with jurisdictions on the Asian mainland (including, Afghanistan, India, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and the USSR) remained quite extensive for some decades after 1949.

Taiwan’s documents assume leadership over all China, including Tibet. Photo by Daniele Salutari on Unsplash.

The PRC, meanwhile, resolved most of its continental, international territorial disputes, with India being the key exception.  (The PRC negotiated treaties settling these border disputes on behalf of China were typically not recognized as legitimate by the ROC (which maintained Taipei’s claim to represent all of China.))

NINE-DASH LINE IS ‘REDUCED’ VERSION

Both the ROC and the PRC maintain largely overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea and the East China Sea.  Thus, the contested “Nine Dash Line”, which underpins PRC claims to extensive jurisdiction of large parts of the South China Sea is, in fact, a reduced (in favour of Vietnam) version of the earlier ROC, “Eleven Dash Line”, which Taiwan still applies. 

Both the PRC and the ROC also strongly contest Japanese control of the Diaoyu (or Senkaku) Islands in the East China Sea.

This Taiwanese military emblem shows the island, not as a separate country, but as part of the whole.

TAIWAN HAD TWO GOVERNMENTS IN TAIPEI

A further indicative aspect of how the ROC Constitution has been applied (within Taiwan controlled territory) since 1949 is that until 1998, the Taiwanese governing system comprised a National Government based in Taipei – and a separate Province of Taiwan Government – with each government essentially having jurisdiction over the same geographical area. 

From 1957 to 2018, this was the Taiwan Provincial Government. Image: Vegafish/ Wikimedia Commons.

The ROC on Taiwan also once supported a separate, operating but largely nominal Province of Fujian Government, which came into existence due to the KMT maintaining political control over certain small offshore island groups (Kinmen and Matsu) geographically part of Fujian Province on the Mainland.  (These islands are located in the Taiwan Strait very close to the Mainland.)

Until late 1971, the claimed but nominal ROC jurisdiction over all of China was widely recognized internationally – and especially by the United Nations.  The ROC, representing China, became one of the Five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council (holding a veto power), along with Britain, France, the US and the USSR (now Russia). 

Eventually the geopolitical tectonic plates shifted, however, and, in late 1971, the United Nations voted by a large margin to stop recognizing the KMT Government in Taiwan as the government of all of China and switch that recognition to the PRC Government based in Beijing.

Subsequently, many countries began to accept that the sole legitimate government of China was based in Beijing, including Australia in 1972 and the US in 1979. 

OVERWHELMING MAJORITY

Today, Beijing maintains full diplomatic relations, on this same basis, with the overwhelming majority of UN Member States.  The ROC on Taiwan now retains full diplomatic relations with just 12 of the 193 UN Member States – plus the Holy See, which governs Vatican City.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is the current governing party in Taiwan and Tsai Ing-wen is the DPP President of Taiwan.  The Voice of America recently confirmed, the DPP favours independence for Taiwan.  

THIS IS AWKWARD

Awkwardly, as we have seen above, the ROC Constitution, under which the DPP governs Taiwan, insistently supports the unity of all of China – including Taiwan.  Indeed, the ROC Constitution would require massive amendment if it were to be transformed into a constitution which could provide a Basic Law for a constitutionally independent Taiwan.  Any such move would, in turn, cross a critically bright, PRC political red-line, triggering plainly foreseeable, grave consequences.

The agreement that Taiwan is part of China is universally acknowledged.

Taiwan’s own constitution, the ROC Constitution, has, thus, created an entrenched, major formal deterrent to any reckless political action aimed at undermining the shared, cross-strait constitutional consensus that there is only One China – including Taiwan.

The misleading “western lens” view is pushed by many journalists critical of China, including some in Hong Kong.

This has established a thorny underlying, ultimately geopolitical problem for the DPP – and for Washington (along with other China Threat devotees) even as the US continues to play the Taiwan card as part of its massive project to try and contain the rise of China.

ONE CHINA POLICY REMAINS UNIVERSALLY ENDORSED

Although it is most unlikely that the then ROC President, Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT could have envisaged, in 1947, the particular, impulse-controlling – and unifying – influence of the remarkable ROC Constitution over 75 years later, we can surely be thankful that it continues to have this constructive, long-term impact. 

Richard Cullen is a Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong and a popular writer on public affairs.

• Reprint of article by Richard Cullen, who is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. This article was published in “Fridayeveryday” on June 28, 2023.

About three and a half years ago, we posted an article “Some Thoughts on How We can Experience and Learn from the Past Virtually” in which we raised the question “Whether we can make use of the information from the past, not only to relive past events, but also to make use of that information to learn from it.” The idea is whether we can make use of Artificial Intelligence” (AI) to learn from the information in the past and then creatively built on that to lead to new scientific discoveries. The current article provides some specific thoughts on that proposal.

Instead of debating for hours on creativity and whether computers can have the creativity to come up with outstanding discoveries or inventions, below we discuss some specific examples from physics which with the help of leading questions to AI computers could lead to significant scientific discoveries.

Some Specific Thoughts on Making Use of AI in Physics: The idea is to choose a good topic, compile the knowledge we currently know about this topic, including, e.g., who are the major thought leaders on that topic, what are the major thoughts of lead investigators on this topic, formulate some key questions to ask about that topic, and gather relevant data related to that topic. Then provide this information as input to AI-capable computers.  Then utilize artificial intelligence to help us to investigate that topic.  As part of asking the computer to do AI work, we could also ask the computer to carry out a virtual discussion or brainstorm with a group of scientific researchers on a difficult problem that they might all have researched on previously.  (If we do that, then we may need to provide the computer with information about the background of such lead investigators, not only their technical background, but also information on the type of person they are, on their personality and their methods of thinking, etc.)

The idea is definitely not new.  As a matter of fact, many people probably have thought about this idea, and many people probably have also dismissed the idea because they argue that a major discovery will require great intelligence and creativity that are beyond the reach of our current computers.  This leads to the question of creativity, and whether computers can have that kind of creativity to come up with outstanding discoveries or inventions. 

Examples of Possible Leads as Input to AI-Enabled Computers: We probably can discuss for hours on the definition of creativity and wouldn’t be able to come to agreement on its definition and whether computers can exhibit that.  However, let’s not talk in abstract, and actually look at some of the discoveries in the last 50-100 years that were considered to be important discoveries.  In particular, consider the field of high energy physics, or elementary particle physics.  In my opinion, some of those discoveries could have come from computers with suitable questions or inputs from a knowledgeable researcher or a team of knowledgeable researchers, then with the help of AI-capable computer(s), some leads suggested to the computer could enable the computer and/or researcher(s) to make a new discovery.  Here are a few examples:

• For the asymptotic freedom theory (leading to Quantum Chromodynamics or QCD, the current theory of strong interactions of quarks and gluons) of Yang-Mills gauge theory from the work of Politzer, and Gross and Wilczek in 1972-1973 that resulted in their 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, it turned out that two-three years earlier Anthony Zee investigated several theories for this asymptotic freedom property.  Unfortunately for him, one of the few theories that he didn’t investigate was Yang-Mills gauge theory.  If he did, he probably would have discovered it.  So if someone in 1970-1971 had fed this information to an AI-enabled computer and asked the computer the question what other theories they could have investigated for this property, the computer might have suggested Yang-Mills gauge theory for investigation and then the researcher would have discovered it. 
• Even parity violation of Lee and Yang for their 1956 work with respect to weak interactions.  If someone had fed the information to a smart computer that there were strong experimental data to support conservation of parity in strong and electromagnetic interactions, and had asked a smart computer to search for evidence of conservation of parity in weak interactions, the computer would have answered that there was not much evidence, and they could have proposed non-conservation of parity in weak interactions before Lee and Yang, which was what Lee and Yang did.
• Even on the question of the expansion of the universe originally discovered by Hubble in the 1920s (Hubble didn’t get the Nobel Prize in Physics because at that time astronomy was not considered part of physics) and the more recent accelerated expansion discovery of the universe by Perlmutter/Schmidt/Riess (Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011), a computer with the right inputs and the right questions could have discovered or led to discover that.
• Three-degree cosmic background radiation that got Penzias and Wilson of Bell Labs for their work in the mid 1960s leading to the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics could have been discovered by a smart computer with the right questions and inputs, instead of the accidental discovery of Penzias and Wilson (at first, they didn’t even know what they discovered), even though at that time a group at Princeton was looking for that kind of astrological evidence), but they didn’t have smart computer with AI in the early-mid 1960s. This means that more groups might have looked into this area of research around the time of discovery of Penzias and Wilson.

I think if we work on it, we could come up with many other previous new ideas or discoveries not only in physics, but also in other fields, that could have been made or led researchers to by computers with AI, as long as appropriate questions and relevant data are input to the AI-enabled computers.  Of course, this may be an iterative process, meaning there could be going back and forth with the computers before a meaningful new idea or discovery, or before leading to a new idea or discovery, will emerge.

This is not taking away any credit for the people who achieved these past achievements.

I also do agree that certain discoveries such as from Newton’s gravitation theory to Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity may require such a great leap of creativity that it is unlikely that currently anticipated AI-enabled computers could have come up with that discovery or invention, or saying it in another way, it is unlikely that the persons feeding the computers could have come up with the right questions and feed the computers with the appropriate inputs.

Other Important Topics in Physics: In the physics field, other examples of possible topics for AI-enabled computers to attack include:

• What is dark energy?
• What is dark matter?
• Why is there so much asymmetry between matter and antimatter?
• Deep paradoxes of Quantum Physics, e.g, collapse of the wavefunction and quantum entanglement

These are all important and well-known problems.  The key is to figure out the next deeper level of questions and appropriate data to feed and interact with the computers.  So it is not that we just assign a problem to the computers, like assigning it as a Ph.D. thesis topic to one or more graduate students, but we have to work closely with the computers, like often with the Ph.D.-seeking graduate students, and through what could be a long, difficult, and creative collaborative process before some meaningful results, or before some new leads, can come out. As far as the above list of topics, I think that we need to probe to one or two levels deeper to come up with suitable questions to ask the AI-enabled computers.

Closing Thoughts: Even though the idea discussed here is very simple, I think probing AI-enabled computers with field-specific knowledge-based questions and then working closely with AI-enabled computers has lots of potential, across all fields (whether it is science, engineering, biology, medical, economical, social, political, etc.). I am sure that more and more people will work in this area and make progress along this line of reasoning, especially as AI becomes more sophisticated and more creative. 

This article provides a review of the movie “The Wandering Earth II” which revolves around a science fiction theme that in the future an aging sun has become a red giant that will engulf the earth and destroy all the people of the world. The people of the world through the United Earth Government (UEG) is trying to adopt an approach to address this most important problem. In the meantime, the earth has also been undergoing changes experiencing a series of natural disasters that has destroyed much of the population of the earth, and results in a large percentage of the earth’s people moving underground to live and survive. With facing these natural disasters as well as other man-made problems, undoubtedly there is a variety of opinions on what approach or approaches should the UEG adopt to attempt to solve these problems. The approach that the UEG seems to have adopted is called the Move Mountain Project (MMP), which is a plan to make a series of nuclear explosions on the surface of the moon that would move the moon away so that earth is not under the gravitational environment of the moon, and then kick the earth out of the orbit of the sun, and let it travel into another distant sun that could provide a livable environment for the people of earth.

Of course, facing these monumental problems to try to figure solutions that determine the life and death of all the people of this world will undoubtedly generate different opinions.  The approach that the UEG has adopted is called the Moving Mountain Project (MMP).  Not only that there is great opposition to the MMP approach that the EUG has adopted. There are large and violent protests and sabotages around the world against the MMP.  Many people favor taking the approach of the Digital Life Project (DLP) that develops mind-loading technologies into Artificial Intelligent (AI) robots so that humans will be replaced by AI smart robots.  In this approach, although humans will not survive and humanity will only manifest itself in AI robots, but the human minds will continue to exist in the brains of AI smart robots.  Although the DLP was not the approach adopted by the UEG, AI smart robots will definitely be involved in this future society.  At the end of the movie, it mentions an interesting twist indicating that these smart AI robots may have their own malicious intent to take over the world, i.e., these smart robots may not always follow the original commands of their human creators.

The ideas discussed in this movie are all very interesting and soul searching.  The problems facing humanity are complex.  There are no easy solutions.  Independent of the MMP or DLP approach chosen by the UEG, the involvement of AI smart robots will become more and more in the lives of humans, and whether humans can always be in command of AI smart robots, especially in the future when humans may all die out, is an open question.  I must compliment the people involved in making this movie for their valiant and creative attempt to address this problem.  As you can understand, it is not easy to convey this complicated and complex problem for the audience in a movie to understand and be able to follow the different happenings in the movie.  This leads to my most important critique of the movie.  In spite of the movie being almost three hours long, “The Wandering Earth II” just doesn’t provide adequate explanations to help the audience to be able to follow and understand what is happening in front of their eyes.  You need a constant guidebook to explain to you the different twists and developments in the movie.  To be honest with you, at times I felt completely lost in the movie.  For me, this problem was enlarged when all the dialogues are in Chinese Mandarin, and only English is shown in the subtitles.  This reminds me of the feelings I had (and many other people also had) when watching the classic “2001:  A Space Odyssey,” a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick.  I should also add that the involvement of AI smart robots, including their malicious attempt to take over the world, was also discussed in the 1968 classic “2001:  A Space Odyssey.”

“The Wandering Earth II” also offers impressive high-tech scenes that go along with the high tech subject matters, and therefore watching it in a big screen in a movie theater would be better than watching it in a small computer or TV screen.

There are several major characters in the movie.  One is the famous HK actor and singer Andy Lau who plays the computer scientist Tu Hengyu and plays a critical role in the AI-related event at the end of the movie.  The other is Wu Jing, the popular martial artist and the star of an extremely best selling action war movie “Wolf Warrior,” who plays the astronaut Liu Peiqiang.  An actress Han Duoduo (played by Wang Zhi), is the wife of Wu Jing.  Zhou Zhezhi (played by Li Xuejian) is the Chinese ambassador to UEG.  Another actress is Hao Xiaoxi (played by Zhu Yanmanzi), who is the Chinese UEG ambassador’s personal assistant.  The director and screenplay writer is Frant Gwo.  The producer is Gong Ge’er, and the movie is based on the original writing of Li Cixin.

In spite of my earlier critique of this movie, I recommend strongly to people to see this movie, for its soul searching theme, and how humanity collectively mobilizes the world to address the critical end-of-the-world problems.  Let me conclude this review by noting how the movie industry has reviewed this movie.  The Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 70%, a relatively high rating (e.g., the movies “Avatar:  The Way or Water” and “Batman:  The Doom That Came to Gotham” were rated at 76%).  Metascore gave it a score of 56, a reasonably good score.  The movie critic Roger Ebert gave it a score of 75.  But New York Times gave it a low score of 30, but that could be politically driven because it is a blockbuster made in China, and not in the U.S., and it was China who played a major and decisive role in the UEG.