A Chinese person proudly said: “From Chinese physicist Yu Min (于敏) to Chinese businessman Liang Wenfeng (梁文鋒) — back in the day, we developed hydrogen bombs. Today, we’ll do the same with AI.”
Who is Yu? He is known as “the father of the Chinese hydrogen bomb.” China’s first atomic bomb in October 1964 successfully detonated under Chinese physicist Deng Jiaxian (鄧稼先) and his team. Three years later, in October 1967, a research team led by Yu developed China’s first-ever hydrogen bomb. However, during the Cultural Revolution, the facility where those bombs were developed — Plant 221 in Qinghai Province — was politically persecuted, and Yu found himself in significant danger. He even faced death threats.
How did Yu survive? According to Deng’s wife, Xu Luxi (許鹿希), the relationship between China and the US was thawing at the time due to “ping-pong diplomacy.” Chinese theoretical physicist Frank Yang (楊振寧) in July 1971 returned from the US to China to visit his relatives and reunite with old friends, Deng being one of them. Then-Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來) summoned Deng to Beijing, and Yu was also fortunate enough to be called upon and saved from the Cultural Revolution. From that point on, the Red Guards were unable to persecute the scientists at Plant 221.
Although Deng invented China’s atomic bomb, his family and colleagues were persecuted by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. Deng, who had studied in the US, found himself in danger. Yu said that the so-called “Gang of Four”— Mao’s main radical allies at the time — had plans to eliminate all of the scientists involved in nuclear weapons development. Among them, explosives expert Qian Jin (錢晉) was persecuted and killed.
While the Chinese scientists were extremely intelligent and successful in the field of scientific research, they were clueless in the realm of politics and failed to see the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) malevolent nature.
In the words of physicist Albert Einstein, a man “must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise he — with his specialized knowledge — more closely resembles a well-trained dog.”
The same can be said for those Chinese scientists, because the “motherland” to which they are so loyal lacks freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law — the CCP’s regime is akin to that of a feudal dynasty. Therefore, it can be said that Liang — the founder of the Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek — also “resembles a well-trained dog.”
Teng Hon-yuan is a university professor.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on April 9 said that the first group of Indian workers could arrive as early as this year as part of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India and the India Taipei Association. Signed in February 2024, the MOU stipulates that Taipei would decide the number of migrant workers and which industries would employ them, while New Delhi would manage recruitment and training. Employment would be governed by the laws of both countries. Months after its signing, the two sides agreed that 1,000 migrant workers from India would
In recent weeks, Taiwan has witnessed a surge of public anxiety over the possible introduction of Indian migrant workers. What began as a policy signal from the Ministry of Labor quickly escalated into a broader controversy. Petitions gathered thousands of signatures within days, political figures issued strong warnings, and social media became saturated with concerns about public safety and social stability. At first glance, this appears to be a straightforward policy question: Should Taiwan introduce Indian migrant workers or not? However, this framing is misleading. The current debate is not fundamentally about India. It is about Taiwan’s labor system, its
On March 31, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs released declassified diplomatic records from 1995 that drew wide domestic media attention. One revelation stood out: North Korea had once raised the possibility of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. In a meeting with visiting Chinese officials in May 1995, as then-Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) prepared for a visit to South Korea, North Korean officials objected to Beijing’s growing ties with Seoul and raised Taiwan directly. According to the newly released records, North Korean officials asked why Pyongyang should refrain from developing relations with Taiwan while China and South Korea were expanding high-level
Japan’s imminent easing of arms export rules has sparked strong interest from Warsaw to Manila, Reuters reporting found, as US President Donald Trump wavers on security commitments to allies, and the wars in Iran and Ukraine strain US weapons supplies. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling party approved the changes this week as she tries to invigorate the pacifist country’s military industrial base. Her government would formally adopt the new rules as soon as this month, three Japanese government officials told Reuters. Despite largely isolating itself from global arms markets since World War II, Japan spends enough on its own
RSS