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July 6, 2007
Becoming Bill Gates' right-hand man
 
Showing signs of genius even as a young boy,
it was perhaps not surprising that Dr Zhang Yaqin would rise to become a
right-hand man of the world's most powerful billionaire. At the tender age of 7,
Zhang left his home in Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi Province, to attend school.
In 1978, aged 12, he entered the University of Science and Technology of China,
in East China's Anhui Province. With a master's degree in electrical engineering
under his belt by the age of 18, Zhang left for the United States.
The ensuing years saw him bestowed with a slew of other academic honors, and in
1999, he joined Microsoft, bringing with him a wealth of technical knowledge. In
2004, Bill Gates announced the appointment of Zhang, then aged 38, as
Microsoft's global vice-president. Now leading the company's research and
development group in China, Zhang and his team are driving Microsoft's bold new
vision for the vast Asian market. On April 21, Gates revealed his ambitious
plans for China, with research and development parks to be built in its two
biggest cities.
"We are initiating a great campus in Beijing and Shanghai that will more than
double the capacity to bring great R&D people to those locations," Gates said at
the Bo'ao Asia Forum, in South China's Hainan Province. Last year, Zhang
returned to China, integrating Microsoft's various research institutes here into
a Beijing-based powerhouse with an annual budget of more than $100 million. The
group comprised Microsoft Research Asia, Microsoft Advanced Technology Center,
Microsoft China Technology Center and other research institutes in Beijing,
Shanghai and Shenzhen. China R&D Group has become Microsoft's biggest overseas
research base. More than 100 innovations from teams here count among Microsoft's
critical products, such as the next generation of the Microsoft Windows desktop
operating system and the outlook mobile service for Office 2007.
"We had nearly 700 full-time employees last year, and the number has doubled. We
have world-class scientists and talented graduates from top universities," Zhang
said. He joined the company as associate dean of Microsoft Research China, with
four members. Now, with 1,400 full-time employees under him, Zhang is ready to
act on his personal motto: "Chinese wisdom benefits the globe". Like Gates,
Zhang had been labeled a genius long before joining Microsoft. He learned the
value of independence and striving to be stronger than other children. Then,
when he was 5 years old, his father died. His mother, who raised him alone,
encouraged him to turn his mind towards his future career. Even now, Zhang often
asks himself what it is that distinguishes him from others.
Zhang owes much of his success to a deep-seated thirst for knowledge. As an
eager freshman, he once squeezed his way to the front row of Stephen Hawking's
1985 lecture on black holes. On another occasion, he sat through hours of a
Japanese speech, hoping - albeit in vain - to glean at least something from the
talk. On choosing his major, Zhang was again inspired by a speech and moved into
the fields of wireless, mobile communications, networking, digital videos and
multimedia technology instead of mathematics.
After he got his master's degree in electrical engineering at the age of 18, a
deeper desire for the unknown took him to the United States. He enrolled in
George Washington University as an electrical engineering major in 1985.
However, when Zhang arrived in September, he was totally at a loss. Nobody
picked him up from the airport and his pre-enrollment record didn't seem to
exist. Zhang had to spend his first weekend in this new world with a
kind-hearted overseas Chinese family. He later learned that the university had
planned him to enroll in the next semester. But the letter didn't arrive in
time.
However, the 19-year-old Zhang took his fate into his own hands. Early in the
morning on the third day of his arrival, he found his way to the International
Services office of the university, which was several blocks away form the main
campus. He convinced the staff that he already had the language skills necessary
for his PhD courses. He was enrolled immediately, circumventing the
language-course requirements. Raymond Pickholtz, Zhang's teacher and professor
emeritus of engineering, had taught electrical engineering and computer science
at George Washington University for more than 30 years before his retirement in
2004.
However, Zhang once kept Professor Pickholtz waiting for four hours. He
encountered a procession on the way to meet the professor and learned that it
was comprised of activists protesting against the US invasion of Panama. The
young man joined the parade, because, "they were reasonable in my mind".
Zhang participated in Pickholtz's research projects before he was recommended to
GTE Laboratories Inc. Zhang was nominated as the youngest Fellow of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) at the age of 31 because of his achievements in
GTE laboratories. IEEE is the world's leading nonprofit professional association
for the advancement of technology and has more than 365,000 members in more than
150 countries and regions.
Zhang was the youngest Chinese to join the IEEE. "I was lucky, because I met a
good teacher who guided my PhD study to be well organized; I was lucky that I
could concentrate on the five years of hard research in GTE without
distractions." But more importantly, Zhang believes that his achievements come
from the fast growth of the industry, which wields great potential in the areas
of Internet and mobile communications. Gates, both a colleague and a friend, has
influenced him greatly, Zhang said. After joining Microsoft Research Asia as its
chief scientist in 1999, he was promoted to the post of chairman in July of
2000.
There had been more than 100 new technologies transferred to core products of
Microsoft during the four years before he was promoted as Microsoft's
vice-president in 2004. During this time, Zhang established the Microsoft
Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Beijing with current ATC chairman Zhang
Hongjiang. In 2004, Zhang was promoted as vice president of Microsoft in
Microsoft's US headquarters to take charge of research of mobile communication
and global development affairs of its embedded system - an artificial system
providing interactive functions for electronic products, such as PDAs, digital
TVs, the Internet and elevators. It became more feasible for him to knock on
Bill's gate and provided Zhang more chances to get to know him better.
"Besides his exceedingly high IQ, Bill impressed me much on his business
acumen," he said. "Bill can be very technical in front of technicians, can be
product architectural when talking with product staff and can also be profound
when talking on the level of the whole industry. He integrates them cohesively
with his unique capability." As Gates said in Bo'ao Asia Forum this April, more
than 60 percent of Microsoft R&D's base will migrate to Asia because of the
continent's increasing importance to the company's operation, which is largely
grounded in the size of its population.
China, in particular, is rising as one of the most important places in the
world. "I feel so good for me to be back here to exert my influence on such a
stage and contribute to global technology and better people's lives. I enjoy the
role of being the captain of the big ship of Microsoft China R&D Group," Zhang
said. As the fastest growing research base of Microsoft outside the United
States, Microsoft China R&D Group plans to recruit 600 new research staffers and
more than 110 interns from universities over the next year.
June 8, 2007
Democracy is not a
cure-all, says Tung - Nations with votes for all still not perfect: ex-leader
Universal suffrage is not the solution to all of Hong Kong's problems, former
chief executive Tung Chee-hwa has said. "I can name many, many countries where
there is universal suffrage but the tension between the executive and the
legislative branches is enormous. "So I would not like to say that universal
suffrage is a solution to every problem," said Mr. Tung from the new office for
former chief executives on Kennedy Road, Central, which cost HK$2.8 million to
refurbish.
Mr. Tung, now a vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference - a position that puts him among the ranks of state leaders - was
speaking during a wide-ranging interview with the South China Morning Post (SEHK:
0583, announcements, news).
It was the first time he had spoken on post-handover affairs since stepping down
as chief executive in 2005. Apart from openly endorsing his successor's handling
of the question of universal suffrage, Mr. Tung also commented on relations
between the opposition and Beijing and the ministerial system. The shipping
tycoon-turned-politician was selected as the first post-handover leader in 1996,
after years of bickering between the mainland and Britain over the changeover
from London's to Beijing's rule. Mr. Tung's eight years as chief executive were
not short of controversies, partly a result of his lacklustre political skills
and partly because of events that were beyond Hong Kong's control. In the
interview, Mr. Tung said he had no qualms about his conservative outlook on
democratization.
"Hong Kong has gone through a great deal of difficulty over the last few years,"
he said, citing the implementation of the "one country, two systems" doctrine
and the Asian financial crisis.
"These massive changes created a situation here in Hong Kong which has not been
faced before. And these are really difficult issues. So the question we ask
ourselves very often is, `Would universal suffrage have solved these problems?'
They may, but equally, they may not.
"You know I am a conservative person. But I agree with Chief Executive Donald
Tsang Yam-kuen's suggestion for a good way forward. So let's work through this
and see how it works. We will go towards universal suffrage, but we have to do
it in accordance with the Basic Law."
Mr Tung, who introduced the ministerial or "accountability" system in 2002,
which took policymaking from the civil service and gave it to political
appointees, said the system was maturing. "Hong Kong has a wonderful civil
service. They're good, efficient, dedicated. We cannot be more lucky. The
accountability system gives them the opportunities to move further along in
political life." Asked if he thought the opposition would resolve its
differences with Beijing, Mr. Tung said: "The doors of communication are always
there. It is a question of really making an effort to understand what is
happening on the mainland."
He said the last 10 years had been a wonderful time for him.
"Hong Kong people have been wonderful in giving me this opportunity. The
mainland has been wonderful to give me this opportunity to serve as the chief
executive. "And to be able to implement `one country, two systems', and to be
able to overcome all the challenges of Asian financial turmoil, the bursting of
the asset bubble, then Sars. And to see the economy moving forward so well."
June 5, 2007
China's favorite daughter
Sun Yat-sen's wife Soong Ching- ling
continues to be missed and remembered decades after her death. Her adopted child
explains why to Dinah Gardner. Time stands still at number 46 Houhai Beiyan. For
this is the home of Soong Ching-ling, the "mother of modern China," and the
clocks have been stopped at 8.18pm and calendars stay fixed on May 29, 1981 -
the moment and day she died.
Her modest mansion, set in beautiful grounds in the middle of Beijing, is a
fitting memorial to the woman who married Sun Yat-sen, the man who helped
overthrow China's final dynasty. Soong died 16 years ago last Tuesday aged 88.
As testament to her popularity, more than 10,000 mourners turned up for her
state funeral. Then leader Deng Xiaoping delivering the eulogy. She is one of
China's most enduring female figures; witness, and sometimes party, to the
nation's major upheavals over the last century - multiple revolutions and civil
and world wars. She stood next to Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square when he
proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic on October 1, 1949.
The second oldest of the famous Soong sisters was known as the "one who loved
China." After Sun's death in 1925, she supported the communists whom she saw as
upholding her late husband's revolutionary ideals. Her younger sister, Mei-ling,
who wed Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, became the sister "who loved power"
while the oldest, Ai-ling, the wife of Kong Xiangxi, Chiang's minister of
finance, was the "one who loved
money." So what kind of person is this "mother of modern China?" And why, almost
20 years after her death, is she still so widely loved?
Soong inherited instant kudos from marrying Sun in 1915. She was also strikingly
beautiful. Western writers, meeting her in 1927, when she was in her mid-30s,
described her as "China's Joan of Arc," "a fierce Bolshevik two- gun Annie," and
"an exquisite apparition, so fragile and timorous, the most celebrated woman
revolutionary in the world." After Sun's death, in 1925, Soong stood by his
ideals. Her loyalty to him and her work in fighting for women's rights and
bringing medical help to war victims - she set up the China Defense League in
the late 1930s to help distribute aid to forces battling the invading Japanese -
endeared her to many.
Her adopted daughter, actress Sui Yongqing, told the Weekend Standard that Soong
was: "a very caring but strong woman. She had a very big heart. She led a very
simple life although she had a high status in government." Soong's passion was
for children and she was a fierce campaigner throughout her life for their
welfare and education. After a miscarriage in June 1922, likely caused when she
had to escape, with "bullets brushing past her temple" from an attack by warlord
Chen Jiongming, she was told she could never have children of her own.
"Because Soong didn't have any children she was always asking to see her
employee's children," says Sui. "She'd buy them presents and spend a lot of time
playing with them. But it's fate that Soong chose to adopt me." Sui's father was
one of Soong's bodyguards in the 1950s. "When I was just born the ayi (helper)
would bring me upstairs so Soong could play with me. One day she went back
downstairs empty-handed and told my father that Soong was going to look after me
from now onwards. I was less than a month old." And Sui's real mother? "There
are a lot of stories about my real mother. One of them is that she died giving
birth to me. I only know I have never seen her." Her father remarried and two
years later Soong also informally adopted his second daughter.
"She treated me like a princess and shielded me from the bad things in the
world, so I grew up a bit naive," says Sui. "But she also taught me to be fair.
She said everyone is equal. She said you have all these servants who work for
you but they are just as important as you so treat them well."
Soong herself grew up in a privileged family. Her father, Charlie Soong, a
Methodist preacher and businessman, sent her to school in the United States - it
was rare at that time for daughters to get a chance to study overseas. After she
graduated, Soong went to Japan to work as Sun's secretary - Sun was a friend of
the family. He had a lot of enemies, and according to Soong's biographer and
close friend, Israel Epstein, as Sun's wife, she shared in the dangers, dodging
death threats and hiding from spies. After his death, she chose to live modestly
and often criticized her sisters for their extravagant lifestyles. She preferred
wearing uniforms, kept pigeons, liked to dance, paint flowers and enjoyed
cooking - "she did not accept gifts - but cookbooks were exceptions," says
Epstein. Her former residence is richly furnished but not lavish. There are
piles of books, magazines - Time included - and portraits of Sun and her own
childlike paintings hang on the walls.
Although Soong was busy being the "human face" of communist China - as Sun's
widow her visible support gave the regime a legitimacy and she was frequently
wheeled out to meet foreign dignitaries. Sui says Soong would always find time
for her and often took her along to official functions. Sui describes the one
time she met Mao. "He was not that impressive," she laughs. "One day Mao came to
see my mother and my father told me to stay away from the house," she says.
"Normally I would give flowers to my mother's guests but this time my father
said there's no need to give flowers today. But you know, I was a bit spoiled
that time - I was four - and so I ran out into the garden and yelled at the top
of my voice `I want to see Mao! I want to see Mao!' My mother heard me and took
me in to meet the chairman."
Soong was loyal to Mao and the Chinese Communist Party until her death from
leukemia in 1981. Less than two weeks before she died she was made a Party
member - something she had long asked for - and honorary chairman of the
People's Republic. But she didn't give blanket approval to all of Mao's
policies. While she supported China's fight alongside North Korea against the
US-backed south in the Korean War and, at least in the beginning, Mao's "Great
Leap Forward" agrarian reforms of the late 1950s, she was distressed by the
purging of old revolutionaries and allies of the party at the end of that
decade, says Epstein.
She was closest to premier Zhou Enlai, who used his influence to protect her
during the Cultural Revolution, says Sui.
"At that time some Red Guards campaigned to get my mother to cut her hair," Sui
says. "She used to wear it long and tied in a bun and they wanted all women to
have their hair short. My mother thought it was ridiculous - what has hair got
to do with revolution and politics, she said. So she went to see Zhou Enlai and
he issued a special order to protect her. At that time I was in school in
Shanghai. My mother moved into Zhongnanhai (government headquarters) in Beijing
for safety." When Sui wrote to her mother she would address it to "Lin Tai" to
keep Soong's location a secret, she added.
In Beijing, Red Guard factions vandalized a statue of Sun and plastered big
character posters over Soong's residence calling for her to be sacked from her
government post. But it was the ransacking of her parents' grave in Shanghai
that reduced the usually steadfast Soong to tears, says Epstein. Zhou ordered it
restored.
"It [the Cultural Revolution] battered but did not break her spirit and faith,"
says Epstein. She was, however, furious with Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, whom many
later blamed for engineering the 10 years of turmoil. "That shameless slut Jiang
Qing," Soong is cited as saying. Sui has a photograph of her teenage self
sitting alongside her mother looking steely, dated 1976. "When this photo was
taken she was so angry with Madam Mao," smiles Sui. "I spent a lot of time
comforting her." To her death, Soong appears to have stayed faithful to Sun - a
man, who, when she married him, was old enough to be her father and who had
already been married 30 years to a woman with bound feet. Her parents fiercely
objected to the union - but for the strong- minded Soong it was love and "hero
worship." Sun got a divorce and they got married.
"She didn't talk to me much about Sun Yat-sen," remembers Sui. "But she did have
one rule in the house about him. Every morning when I came into her bedroom I
had to bow in front of his picture and greet him. She wouldn't talk to me or
answer me until I had done that."
She adds later, "When I started having boyfriends she told me it doesn't matter
if the man is rich or powerful, all that matters is that he is loyal."
Soong's enemies - Chiang and anti- communist groups in the US, says Epstein,
frequently spread rumors that she had lovers or was getting remarried. "They've
had me in affairs with all these men, and I've never had a moment's pleasure out
of any of it," he cites her as joking.
She would never forgive her sister for marrying Chiang, the man who betrayed her
late husband's ideals by kicking the communists out of the Nationalist Party in
the late 1920s. She described it as "marriage of opportunism on both sides."
After 1949, the two sisters never saw each other again. Sui says her mother sent
her to see Mei-ling in the US a few years before she died.
"My mother really missed Mei-ling although they had very different politics. So
I went secretly with a diplomatic officer to America to see her. We chatted for
a bit about my mother just the one time. That time my mother wasn't allowed to
write or call her because of the political situation here." Mei-ling - who died
fours years ago in New York aged 105 - was invited to Soong's funeral. She
didn't attend. Sui says she often thinks about her mother.
"I miss her kindness," she smiles. "Since I was 12 years old I always lived with
her. I could feel she was very lonely so I always wanted to be with her. At 16 I
started dancing for a military group and so was away during the week. I would
rush home as fast as I could on Friday nights and delay going to work as late as
I could on Monday morning just to be with her." Sui acted in major propaganda
movies as well as several overseas feature films including The Last Emperor -
where she played a Japanese lesbian spy - and Farewell My Concubine as Gong Li's
mamasan.
Even after death, Soong continues to play a big part in Sui's life. Now 50, Sui
is enduring battle with cancer. The doctors found tumors in her womb 10 years
ago. Sitting beside her, her 23-year-old son, Wang Hua, says his mother has
found strength from Soong's memory. "I think one thing that holds her must be
the spirit of Soong," he says. "If she didn't have such strong love for Soong
she wouldn't be able to fight this cancer." Sui smiles. "She's the most
important person in my life."
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