GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
04 FEBRUARY 2026. CHINA POST #611
CHINA AND THE FOREIGN MEDIA
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#1 TRUMP WARNS STARMER ON CHINA
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
#2 CHINA AND ‘GENIUS’ CLASSES
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
#3 CHINA AND JACK PERRY – PART 32
THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION – A BIG NEGATIVE
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EXTRACT #1
TRUMP WARNS STARMER ON CHINA
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
President Trump has warned Sir Keir Starmer that it is “real dangerous” for the UK to trade with China, in a blow to the prime minister’s attempts to navigate a path between the world’s two largest economies.
Asked what he made of Starmer’s trip, Trump said: “Well, it’s real dangerous for them to do that.”
Referencing the recent visit by Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, to China, he added: “It’s even more dangerous I think for Canada.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
Some believe that Trump’s comments on Carney suggest he might impose tariffs on the UK as a consequence of Starmer’s visit to Beijing. Sticking my neck out but – No Way. Trump needs China because of Rare Earths. He is not in absolute control of the China-U.S. relationship and, if he messes with the UK, Trump will meet head-on confrontation with Xi – which Trump does not want at present. Maybe in the future but not for today when he needs Rare Earths and China holds all the cards.
People view in China in different ways – Some only see Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong protests and the Uyghurs; Some only see a Business Breakthrough – a golden bonanza of trade and investment; Some only see 800 million Chinese lifted out of poverty and 200 million travelling overseas in 2030; Some only see Belt and Road and Chinese investment across the globe; And some see China as Orwell’s 1984 – a Police State
On this topic Starmer said that “President Xi told the story of blind men being presented with an elephant. One touches the leg and thinks it’s a pillow, another feels the belly and thinks it’s a wall.” People with good eyesight need to see the whole elephant and understand his history, his make-up and his norms of behaviour.
Xi also quoted a Chinese proverb: “Range far your eye over long distances.” and added: “As long as we take a broad perspective, rise above differences and respect each other, then we will prove ourselves able to stand the test of history.”
See the Big Picture.
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EXTRACT #2
CHINA AND GENIUS CLASSES
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
“About three years ago, Stacey Tang, a manager in a pharmaceuticals company in Beijing, received a peculiar phone call. A voice speaking from an unknown landline number instructed her to send her 15-year-old son to take a qualification test for the “genius class” at one of the city’s elite high schools.
It was November 2022, at the peak of Beijing’s Covid-19 lockdowns. Schools were mostly closed and any in-person contact was discouraged. Even so, the test setting sounded bizarre: a moving van that would drive the boy through the streets of the capital for an hour while he tackled college-level maths problems.
Some parents might have baulked at the idea, but not Tang. “In any other country, you would immediately suspect an abduction plot or simple lunacy,” she said, grinning at me through the steam from her Starbucks latte. “Instead, I was weeping with joy, and sent my boy right away. I understood this for what it was: his golden ticket to the best educational resources in China.”
Tang’s son was one of an estimated 100,000 talented Chinese teenagers selected every year to enter a network of science-focused talent streams run across the country’s top high schools.
The genius classes, also called “experiment” or “competition” classes, coach gifted students to compete in international competitions in maths, physics, chemistry, biology and computer science.
Tang was on the genius path herself almost 30 years ago, in her home city of Chengdu in south-western China. It helped her move to Beijing to study at the prestigious Peking University, and secure a well-paid job. For decades, genius classes have been turning out the leading lights of China’s science and technology sectors. It is hard to overstate how essential they have been to the development of the companies now challenging US tech dominance, especially in AI, robotics and advanced manufacturing. “
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
Hitherto the West has been stereotyped in its reaction and assessment to developments in China. In the main, reports have rejected the evidence of a new approach to building a modern society. It is part of the suspicion about China associated with its “Communist Experiment”. This will change as more evidence emerges of significant differences between the West’s concept of progress and China’s concept of progress.
A year ago, when the Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek shocked the world with the launch of its high-performing large language model, R1, at a fraction of the cost of its international rivals, many western observers wondered how a small team of Chinese researchers could be in a position to challenge American AI supremacy. The Genius Class is a big part of the answer.
Products of the Genius Class include;-
- the founder of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and the core developers behind its powerful content recommendation algorithm.
- Both leaders of China’s two biggest ecommerce platforms, Taobao and PDD, came from the genius stream, as did the billionaire who started the food delivery “super-app” Meituan.
- The two brothers behind the chipmaker Cambricon, now one of the leading Chinese rivals to Nvidia, were in genius classes.
- The core engineers behind leading large language models at DeepSeek and Alibaba’s Qwen,
- Tencent’s celebrated new chief scientist, poached from OpenAI late last year.
China’s genius classes differ in important ways from talent streams in the West;-
First, the system dwarfs its international competitors in scale. Second, it is state-driven.
China graduates around five million majors in science, technology, engineering and maths every year, according to the state media Xinhua, compared with about half a million in the US. Tens of thousands of these graduates are genius-class students, taken out of regular classes for an intense period of study between the ages of 16-18. While others swot for China’s feared college admissions exams, the gaokao, those on the genius path have the chance to bypass that fate altogether, bagging places at top universities before they are out of high school, depending on their results in starry international competitions.
When Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s Taiwanese-American CEO, called Chinese AI researchers “world-class” last year, he was likely thinking of the genius-class grads who are building the country’s tech powerhouses such as DeepSeek and Huawei, as well as AI companies internationally. “You walk up and down the aisles of Anthropic or OpenAI or [Google] DeepMind,” said Huang last May, “there’s a whole bunch of AI researchers there, and they are from China . . . They are extraordinary and so the fact that they do extraordinary work is not surprising to me.”
The China approach is a challenge to the West and reflects the Government’s determination “to pull itself by its bootstraps”. Talent is identified, selected, and educated in the fast track. It works -. China produces the highest number of new PhDs in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The individuals will benefit, if they work hard, and justify the faith placed in them by teachers briefed by the State to identify the special talent. The Nation benefits as well – big time, See DeepSeek and Huawei and there is more to come.
Some may disapprove and see the system as elitist and there are elements in a system which identifies clever pupils at a young age and offers them a speedy route to the top and to that extent there is an element of “Them and Us”. The chosen few are identified at a young age and put on the path to success. It is not a soft ride and the education will be intense but there are rewards.
The talented Few are fast tracked and to that extent the system confers benefits and wealth. But there is a bigger picture as well – the benefit to China as a whole. The system works in that Science grows, develops, pushes back frontiers and contributes significantly to the well being and material development of China.
Egalitarians will disapprove. Their focus is on the bottom up and not the top down. They will resist the process of early identification of a select few because it rewards skill and condemns ordinariness. In China today there are wage differentials and Billionaires and there will be those, who have special talents who will benefit more significantly than those without such talents whose access to a better life is restricted.
Elsewhere in this China Post there is an evaluation of the Cultural Revolution when the issue of egalitarianism, of equality of opportunity, of levels of reward and remuneration was put to the test. The Gang of Four worked hard to introduce an ideal Socialist State based on equality – equality of opportunity and equality of income. The experiment failed. Socialism was discredited and forced onto the back foot.
We will return to this theme of opportunity and reward because it is a major topic. And it should be noted that those few in number who are identified for accelerated scientific education do enjoy reward and benefits. But it is not all one way because they also assume a responsibility to put their talents to the service of the country. This is where the role of the Party becomes an active part of the Chinese system which combines personal reward with the obligation to use individual talents to serve Two Masters – Self and Society
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EXTRACT 3
CHINA AND JACK PERRY – PART 32
HOW DAMAGED WAS CHINA BY THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION?
PART 31 CONCLUDED AS FOLLOWS;-
“So there were two elements leading to the commencement of the Cultural Revolution – first, the need to give the young people the opportunity to radicalise themselves through direct political action and, second, to give Mao the opportunity to reset his Maoist political agenda and to remove from leading positions in the Party, members who stood in his way. The blue touch paper was well and truly lit on 1 May 1966 when the People’s Daily announced the beginning of the so-called ‘Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”
At first sight the Cultural Revolution seemed like a good idea. The Revolution would lose its momentum – the idealists argued – if young people were not imbued with the spirit of the Long March and the strong sense of sacrifice that motivated ordinary peasants and workers to support Mao and the Communist Party of China in the struggle to defeat two enemies – the Nationalists (the KMT) and the Japanese Invader.
A younger generation, born after 1949, were removed from the day-to-day experience of service to the national effort. They did not know about the hardships of revolution that shaped a world outlook. Whilst life was not easy in China in the 1950s – food was scarce, clothes were basic, money in short supply – it was far removed from war, battles, conflict and death that characterised the years 1927 to 1949. It was essential, thought Mao, to ensure that the people were not corrupted by a softer life. Mao concluded that the young people – named Red Guards (who were they guarding?) – needed to acquire their own experience of struggle and to make their own investigations. So school was suspended as the Red Guards, clutching at the Little Red Book of Mao’s exhortations, travelled the length and breadth of China finding out for themselves how the Chinese Revolution had succeeded. Why then did the Cultural Revolution fail? And why was there great rejoicing in November 1976 when the Gang of Four were arrested?
I remember the moment very clearly. The Chinese Embassy held one of its six-monthly get togethers to which were invited people who identified themselves as Friends of China. It was an opportunity to discuss developments in China. On this occasion the Political Counsellor, Mr Hu Tingyi (subsequently the Ambassador) addressed us. This is an accurate summary of his words.
“Tonight we meet for one of our regular get-togethers but this one is different. Tonight we here at the Embassy are very happy. The Gang of Four have been arrested. The Cultural Revolution is over and we are celebrating. I can see from your faces that you are confused and I understand that. The changes that have taken place in China are momentous and far reaching but unclear to our foreign friends. In the weeks and months ahead, we will meet and talk and we can address your questions – there will be many. For the present let me assure you that this is a big day for the people of China. A second Liberation.”
Mr Hu was so happy. And it was quite genuine. This was not diplomacy. It was clear to us from his words, and those of his wife, Mme Ching He, that something quite profound had happened in China. Just how profound we were to find out in the weeks, months and years ahead.
The Cultural Revolution was a failure and not a success. What looked like a brave and far-sighted educational experiment to fast forward the spirit of the Revolution and to accelerate the political education of the people of China – young and old – had, in fact, led to chaos, economic dislocation, and social unrest. A diet of Far-Left Marxist Politics which was intended to accelerate the progress of Socialism in China had damaged China to the core as political debate and discussion descended into armed warfare and pitched battles. Many people had been persecuted by the Red Guards, called to account for trumped up charges and condemned to mob trial with significant loss of life. Extremism had taken control and the politics of China was dominated by an intolerant Left-Leaning understanding of the nature of Revolution. Anarchy replaced Order. Rule by the Red Guards had led China to the brink of collapse.
The key figure was Mao and, in discussions about the Leader that the Chinese had portrayed as a God, we came across the new assessment of Mao as being 70% Good and 30% Bad. In time the numbers would change to 30% Good and 70% Bad.
So what had gone wrong? A Left Line had taken control and their goal was to accelerate the change to Socialism. Landlords and Capitalists were barriers to the growth of Socialism in China. They must be removed from power and influence. But it went further and sought to expose, unmask, and humiliate those in positions of authority that stood in the way of the acceleration of Marxist Maoist education – teachers, academics, government functionaries, Party members who did not embrace the fast track to Socialism needed to be cast aside. The process was informal, rough, intimidatory and often involved individual humiliation, assault, arrest and death. And it was impossible to separate Mao from the extremities of the Cultural Revolution.
We knew friends who were arrested and I recall asking one Foreign Expert – David Crook – about his imprisonment. He said it was very harsh. He was reluctant to go into detail but he said enough for me to realise that he had undergone physical maltreatment. Others were the same. And yet they remained loyal to China. When order returned and adjustments and compensations had been made for the hardship they had suffered, they all chose to stay in China. They all struggled to believe that Mao had sat on top of the whole campaign but as much as they tried to separate him from the work of the Gang of Four the friends of China who were resident in Beijing realised that Mao could not be protected from blame and responsibility. China paid a heavy price for the madness of the Maoists and the madness of Mao.
Uppermost in the minds of China’s leaders today is the possibility of a return to the turbulent days of the early 1970’s when “Politics Was In Command” and The Little Red Book became a mistaken badge of honour. The Left was beaten. The Gang were imprisoned for life. Mao’s reputation took a justified knock but Leftists remain alert and alive in China and they have an agenda which warns of the influence of the Billionaires, the 9-9-6 work hours, and the widening wage differentials. They may be biding their time but they will be hoping for a second chance to blow present day China off course.
A final word – why does Mao’s portrait still appear prominently in Tiananmin Square in Beijing. I quote again the brief but tidy summary of recent Chinese History. “Mao saved the Country; Deng saved the Economy and Xi saved the Party”. Mao’s role in the Cultural Revolution is a Big Negative but his role in leading the Revolution to success with the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 is a Big Plus and for that considerable achievement he is accorded prominence and respect – if not love.
GRAHAM PERRY
Questions are being asked about the changes in the Chinese military and the demotion of senior Generals. This subject will be addressed in China Post #612.
GP
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