On his 110th birthday, Prof C.K. Jen gets hometown honor

This piece first posted on Asia Times.

The crush of travelers for the week around China’s National Day on October 1 broke previous records again. This time, my wife, May, her younger sister, Linda, and I were part of the bustle. We took a three-hour, high-speed train from Beijing westward to Taiyuan and then drove south for three hours to Qinyuan to participate in the ceremony honoring the memory of Professor Chih-Kung (C.K.) Jen, my father-in-law.

Jen, also known as Ren Zhigong in pinyin, was born in one of the 1,000 plus villages that make up the Qinyuan County in southern part of Shanxi province. After elementary school at the local village, his father arranged for Jen to live with his uncle in Taiyuan, the provincial capital, in order to obtain superior quality of schooling.

When Jen turned 14, Tsinghua Preparatory School in Beijing, where he would study for 6 years, accepted him. When he was 20, the school used funds from the Boxer Indemnity to send him to America for further education. Within five years, Jen received his Bachelors from MIT, Masters from Penn and PhD from Harvard, either in electrical engineering or physics.

High School of Qinyuan and reflection on Qin river. Photo: George Koo

Returns to China to begin teaching at 27

After touring some of the higher institutions of learning in Germany, Jen returned to Beijing to begin teaching. On the day of his wedding, July 7, 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge incident took place between the Japanese troops and the Chinese soldiers guarding the bridge, which marked the beginning of China’s war with Japan. He barely made it through the city gate and back into the city of Beijing for his own wedding.

Shortly thereafter, he and his new wife had to abandon everything in their new home and make hasty plans to depart from the soon-to-be occupied Beijing. They made the long cross-country trek to join the faculty, first in Changsha and then on to the newly-formed Kunming, formed when the then-three most prestigious schools in China combined out of necessity.

The three universities were Peking University and Tsinghua University from Beijing and Nankai University from Tianjin. In order for China to continue to train its youth, these universities were asked to move south and combine forces. Thus, the awkwardly named National Southwestern Associated University was established in Kunming. Xinanlianda in Chinese was a more elegant and a better known name.

This university began with bare ground and farmers’ barns and homes on loan, operated under extreme hardship and faced regular bombing runs by the Japanese warplanes.

Yet in its eight years of existence from 1938 to 1946, the university accepted around 8,000 students and graduated slightly less than half.

Among the graduates were the first two future Chinese recipients of the Nobel Prize in physics, T.D. Lee and C.N. Yang, and many of the most influential scholars and intellectuals China has ever seen.

Jen’s role was to serve as the director of the Radio Research Institute, which came with a laboratory. From his memoir, he said of those War years in Kunming, where he was mugged and robbed twice, “my life was quite adventurous and probably the happiest period of my life, although the material environment was the hardest.”

He probably spoke for all the students and faculty who were tested by those challenging years.

The bronze bust of C.K. Jen unveiled during his 110th birthday. Photo: George Koo.

Leads first group of Chinese American scientists to China

In 1972, after Nixon went to China, Jen, at the time the deputy director of the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, immediately set about organizing a group of Chinese America scientists and academicians to visit China.

When this first Chinese American group arrived in Beijing, it was a news sensation. Premier Zhou Enlai greeted this group at the Great Hall and held a five-hour long conversation that kept the group past 2 am. Jen was to be remembered as the leader of the first group of Chinese Americans to visit China.

Between 1972 and 1986, he visited China nine times including two visits to his ancestral village. Each time, he spent roughly six months giving lectures at various universities. He spoke not only on his scientific specialty but also on the latest topics in physics. He saw that scientific knowledge in China had fallen badly behind the West and he wanted to help the Chinese catch up.

He took full advantage of his personal meeting with Deng Xiaoping to put an emphasis on teaching science in China and urge Deng to revive the physics department at Tsinghua, a wing that was disbanded during the Cultural Revolution. The department soon resumed classes and the faculty continued to express their gratitude for Jen’s energetic advocacy.

At the dedication of his bronze bust at the corner of the town square on the occasion of his 110th birthday, C.K. Jen was remembered as the native son who became an accomplished scientist with an international reputation and loved his motherland. His life story was told on display boards around the bust, intended to inspire future generations.

The idea of honoring my father-in-law came from another remarkable young man, also a native son. As a boy, David Wei heard stories about Jen and one day it occurred to him that honoring him would be a good way to inspire younger generations. He talked to his two close friends into agreeing to jointly fund the memorial. He contacted me for the Jen family’s support and access to the family archive. Then he convinced the leaders of the county of the merits of the project.

David had been a major contributor to the growth of Qinyuan’s economy. Until he came along, the Qinxin Group had been making high quality coke from the rich coal deposits but did not have anyone to sell the final product. Within the first week of his joining the company, he sold out the inventory and proceeded to book annual standing orders from steel mills around the world that justified a succession of plant capacity expansions.

C. K. Jen’s daughters May and Linda (left) with some schoolchildren and their teacher. Photo: George Koo.

The Qinyuan County today

Today’s Qinyuan County covers nearly 1,000 square miles, virtually all consisting of steep hills and mountains with deep gullies. Elevation runs from just under 1,000 meters to just over 2,500 meters. Less than 9% are considered arable farmland, all on sloping terrain. About two thirds of the county consists of forests, known for a wide variety of medicinal herbs, amazing assortment of wild mushroom and game. The population of the county is under 160,000 and about 90% live on the farmland.

We were surprised by what we saw, namely lush green forested mountainsides and blue skies. Being the headwater source of three rivers, Qinyuan also did not lack water. Mayor Lian explained to me that Qinyuan had been following the dictum from the central government in not allowing any polluting industries. Qinyuan’s only industry is extracting the coal from the mine and converting it into coke. Tailing from the washing and gas from the conversion are captured and burned to produce electricity. The residual ash has been used in cement for building material.

During WWII, Qinyuan was bitterly contested between the PLA and the Japanese. For two and half years, the two sides fought to a virtual standstill. The civilians paid the price. Periodically, the Japanese troops would wage a “three all” campaign. The troops would sweep into a village and loot all, burn all and kill all. That’s the reason when we visited the ancestral home in the Hexi village, our hosts could only show us a partial wall and one remaining doorway.

Happily, those evil days are long gone. Today Qinyuan is enjoying an economic boom but without the usual accompaniment of dirty air and dirty water. I am not familiar with the criteria for a model development in China but Qinyuan should qualify.

Qinyuan’s Vice mayor Sun at the unveiling ceremony of C.K. Jen’s bronze bust. Photo: George Koo.

China and the U.S.: Two different styles of world leadership

I re-wrote and expanded the piece first published in Asia Time and was posted here.

The recent spate of summit meetings for national leaders, first the G20 in Hangzhou and then ASEAN and East Asia Summit in Vientiane Laos, rather dramatically displayed the contrasting style of world leadership between China and the U.S. China President Xi’s message to the world was to propose cooperation and collaboration. Obama’s message was to suggest that the rest of the world should follow the lead of American exceptionalism.

The two leaders did agree to abide by the Paris Accord on limiting emission of greenhouse gases. Since China and the U.S. were world’s largest two emitting countries, this joint accord was an influential and important step in encouraging others to follow their lead. On other issues, the two countries took divergent paths.

As the host nation in Hangzhou, China got to set the agenda and gave the opening address. Xi’s said to the conference of leaders that China must no longer depend on old ways of achieving economic growth but must change its economic growth model by becoming a country of innovation and a leader in science and technology.

Having taken 700 million out of poverty within China, which represented about 70% of world’s poverty, Xi went on to say that China’s future economic growth would continue to contribute to the global fight against poverty. It wouldn’t just mean taking more Chinese from poverty but helping other peoples out of their state of poverty as well. That was the reason he launched the land and maritime Silk Road initiatives.

The so-called One Belt, One Road initiative was to improve the infrastructure along the way from East Asia to Western Europe and all points in between.  The Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank formed concurrent to the OBOR for the purpose of facilitating the launching such projects has already begun financing some of the projects.

Improving the infrastructure of the countries on the Silk Road would invariably improve the livelihood of the people in those countries. Xi observed, “It is meant to build not China’s own backyard garden but a garden shared by all countries.”

Xi’s stand on collaboration

Xi stood firmly on the side of open trade and investment in the age of economic globalization. Repeatedly, he emphasized that it will be essential to seek win-win models of global growth, that all nations large or small, rich or poor must be treated equally with respect. “The world will be a better place only when everyone is better off,” he said.

Because of conflicts and turmoil, a pandemic refugee crisis, climate change and terrorism, the world’s economy needs a new path for growth. Xi believes that path lies in technology innovation.

China is of course already a successful example of sustaining economic growth via technology innovation. China has 20,000 km of high-speed rail, the world’s largest network, and the longest open water bridges (nearly 100 miles long). These are some of the indicators of technological innovation and development.

On its own, China has sent man into outer space, put a lander to roam the moon and built its own space station. Just recently, China launched the world’s first ever quantum communications satellite. China has also developed its submersible technology such that they can now explore the ocean floor deeper than 4 miles below as well as outer space.

For six years in a row, the world’s fastest super computer belongs to China. China now leads the world in new applications for the mobile phone and new uses via the Internet. China’s economy no longer depends on sweatshops. On the technology muscle beach, China is not the 97-pound weakling.

Rumor on South China Sea

China’s netizens have been having some fun circulating a speculation that the U.S. Navy withdrew from the South China Sea in July for a very good reason. They claimed that the Beijing government had quietly informed Pentagon that China’s missile firing submarines had their radar locked in on the American carriers and strongly suggested that the American fleet vacate the area.

The Pentagon asked the American fleet command for confirmation and the command was amazed to discover that indeed some radar had locked in on the carriers. However, the American on-board finder could not locate where the locking radar was coming from. Thus they quietly hightailed out of the South China Sea.

Imaginative and fanciful perhaps, but if true, this incident is entirely consistent with China’s practice of Sun Zi’s Art of War, namely, the best way to win a battle is not having to fire a shot. I do know that nearly 20 years earlier China did follow another dictum from the Art of War, namely know yourself and know your adversary—albeit in this case China was helping America practice the art of war.

Thomas Reed, an expert on nuclear weapons and former Secretary of Air Force, reported in September 2008 issue of Physics Today, that China in mid-1990’s had intentionally sought out and invited Danny Stillman of Los Alamos to tour China’s nuclear research facilities, which he then did on a number of visits to China.

China’s nuclear scientists while visiting the U.S. found out that Stillman was responsible for gathering intelligence on China’s capability on nuclear weapon development and was thus the contact China wanted. Then Stillman got his book on China’s state of nuclear weapon technology ready for publication but the U.S. government quashed it.

At the time, the Clinton Administration was busy prosecuting Dr. Wen Ho Lee of Los Alamos alleging that he stole weapon related secrets for China. Publication of Stillman’s book would have been, at minimum, “inconvenient.” Poor Stillman had to settle for telling the story to Reed years later.

Obama came up empty in Hangzhou

President Obama as he headed to Hangzhou China for the G20 conference had planned on several one-on-one meetings on the sideline with other leaders, in addition to the high profile tea with President Xi. Consistent with his mission as defender of human rights, he was planning to express his concerns to Philippines President Duterte over the thousands of extra-judicial executions of drug lords.

Upon hearing of Obama’s intention, Duterte flew into a rage saying among other things that Philippines is a sovereign nation and no longer a lap-dog of the U.S. As for human rights, he asked rhetorically, what about the hundreds of thousands of civilians massacred by the American soldiers when the U.S. forcibly took over from the Spanish and became the colonial master of Philippines?

Duterte also called Obama the “son of a whore.”  Thanks to the Colbert Report, we now know that Duterte was not the first to use such indelicate language. Another exceptional U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, had called Gorbachev then leader of USSR the same name in his moments of extreme emotion.

Obama’s meeting with Turkey’s President Erdogan also did not go well. Erdogan in front of the foreign press aired his difference with Obama including naming a Kurdish group that the U.S. supports but Turkey considers a terrorist organization. (Of course, Asia Times has reported on numerous occasions that rebel groups fighting Syria’s Assad with U.S. support also fights for Islamic State.)

Perhaps not wishing for another Duterte-like confrontation, and perhaps the price of offending Turkey would be too dear, Obama did not raise questions of human rights in Turkey with Erdogan—human rights issues such as crackdown of the press and the mass arrests that followed the unsuccessful coup.

Obama then proceeded to Laos to attend the ASEAN Summit. He was the first U.S. president to visit Laos and he formally apologized for the “secret” war America inflicted on Laos during the Vietnam conflict. At the time, the Pentagon thought that the North Vietnamese was transiting their supplies through Laos to reach their troops and the Viet Cong in the south. The thinking was that the carpet bombing of Laos would put a stop to the flow of supplies.

Long after the end of the Vietnam War, Laos continues to suffer from the aftermath of the massive carpet-bombing by the U.S. Air Force. Decades later, millions of unexploded cluster bombs remain in the countryside. When unwitting farmers and their children accidentally detonate these, the flying shrapnel and projectile have the same deadly affect as landmines and antipersonnel bombs.

Obama’s offer of $30 million per year for three years would barely scratch the surface of the kind of effort that would render Laos’ countryside safe for farming and allow Laos to begin economic recovery. But that’s the oft-repeated tragic consequences of innocent countries and people that got too close to America’s exceptionalism.

To date, the United States has refused to halt the use of cluster bombs. The U.S. reserves the right to kill and maim and at the same time make obscene profits from it.  As Christina Lin pointed out in Asia Times, the U.S. even today has been selling cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia to drop on Yemen. Unexploded cluster bombs will someday bedevil the civilians of Yemen as another Laos.

It’s the ultimate irony that the great defender of human rights is also the dominant purveyor and user of lethal takers of human life.  The conscience salving token donations to compensate for the past atrocities and human suffering is a drop in the bucket compared to the profits made on the victims’ bone piles.

Obama went home empty

Obama went to Vientiane to convince the ASEAN countries to take a united stand on South China Sea against China’s position. As New York Times reported, Obama wanted to “put the long-simmering dispute in the South Chin Sea front and center on the agenda at the regional summit.” The ASEAN summit ignored his request and made no mention of South China Sea in their closing statement.

Just the opposite took place. The two leading statements of the concluding Vientiane Declaration from the East Asia Summit read as follows:

“Acknowledging that efficient and sustainable infrastructure development in ASEAN is essential for trade, investment and service competitiveness in the Asia Pacific region; 

“Recognizing that infrastructure decisions and investments made in coming years will be vital to efforts to meet our shared objectives to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty….”

These statements virtually mirror the sentiments expressed by Xi at the G20 and represented a vote of confidence in Xi’s idea of infrastructure investments. The member states were not being swayed by Xi’s eloquence. They became believers of the benefit of collaborating with China because of what they have seen. They have already seen China’s hand in railway projects in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar and separately in Indonesia, hydropower project in Pakistan, port improvement project in Sri Lanka, and revitalization of port of Piraeus in Greece.

Except for South Korea, whose President Pak apparently preferred Obama’s offer of high altitude missile umbrella defense over the benefits of economic cooperation with China, other Asian countries do not see it that way. They see that the American involvement in the Middle East has not left any country better off. Rather they see that the European countries through no fault of their own having to deal with a refugee crisis of gigantic proportions. They see that the American interference in Libya has destabilized that region and left the Italians having to fish drowning refugees out of the sea every day.

The distinction is clear. Xi Jinping offers cooperation and collaboration on a path for common prosperity, no military alliance required nor offered. Obama offers umbrella of missile defense protection and a path to death and destruction, no economic benefits on the table because Uncle Sam is plain broke.

Lessons from G20 Summit: Two different routes to the future

This first appeared in Asia Times.

The just concluded G20 summit had on display the contrasting style of world leadership between China and the U.S. as exhibited by their leaders, Xi Jinping and Barack Obama.

Xi’s message to the world was based on cooperation and collaboration. Obama’s message was for the world to follow the lead of American exceptionalism.

As the host nation, China got to set the agenda and had the advantage of giving the opening remarks. Xi’s opening address was to announce that China must embark on changing its economic growth model by becoming a country of innovation and a leader in science and technology.

Having taken 700 million out of poverty within China, Xi went on to say that China would continue to contribute to the global fight against poverty. That was the reason he launched the land and maritime Silk Road initiatives.

The so-called one belt, one road initiative was to improve the infrastructure along the way from East Asia to Western Europe and all points in between.  The Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank formed concurrent to the OBOR has already begun financing some of the projects.

Improving the infrastructure of the countries on the Silk Road would inevitably improve the livelihood of the people in those countries. Xi observed, “It is meant to build not China’s own backyard garden but a garden shared by all countries.”

Xi stood firmly on the side of open trade and investment in the age of economic globalization. Repeatedly, he emphasized that it will be essential to seek win-win models of global growth, that all nations large or small, rich or poor must be treated equally with respect.

“The world will be a better place only when everyone is better off,” he said.

Because of conflicts and turmoil, a pandemic refugee crisis, climate change and terrorism, the world’s economy needs a new path for growth. Xi believes that path lies in technology innovation.

China is of course already a successful example of sustaining economic growth via technology innovation. Having in China the world’s largest network of high-speed rail and the longest open water bridges (nearly 100 miles long) are some of the indicators.

On its own, China has sent man into outer space, put a lander to roam the moon and built its own space station.

Just recently, China launched the world’s first ever quantum communications satellite.

China has developed its submersible technology such that they can now explore the ocean floor deeper than 4 miles below.

For six years in a row, China owns the world’s fastest super computer, leads in new applications for the mobile phone and new uses via the Internet. China’s economy is clearly no longer dependent on sweatshops. On the technology muscle beach, China is not the 97-pound weakling.

There is a fascinating and unconfirmed rumor circulating on China’s Internet that the US Navy withdrew from the South China Sea in July for a very practical reason.

Beijing government had quietly informed Pentagon that their missile firing submarines had their radar locked in on the American carriers and strongly suggested that the American fleet withdraw from the area.

The Pentagon asked the American fleet command for confirmation and the command was amazed to discover that indeed some radar had locked in on the carriers. However the American on-board finder could not locate where the locking radar was coming from. Thus they quietly hightailed out of the South China Sea.

If true, this incident is entirely consistent with China’s practice of Sun Zi’s Art of War, namely, the best way to win a battle is not having to fire a shot. A similar tactic was used nearly 20 years earlier.

Thomas Reed, an expert on nuclear weapons and former Secretary of Air Force, reported in September 2008 issue of Physics Today, that China in mid-1990’s had intentionally invited Danny Stillman of Los Alamos to tour China’s nuclear research facilities, which he did on numerous occasions.

Stillman was responsible for gathering intelligence on China’s nuclear weapon development capability and was the contact China wanted. Stillman got his book on China’s state of nuclear weapon technology ready for publication but the U.S. government quashed it.

At the time, the Clinton Administration was busy prosecuting Dr. Wen Ho Lee of Los Alamos alleging that he stole weapon related secrets for China. Publication of Stillman’s book would have been, at minimum, awkward. Stillman had to settle for telling the story to Reed later on.

President Obama as he headed to Hangzhou China for the G20 conference had planned on several one-on-one meetings on the sideline with other leaders, in addition to the high profile tea with President Xi.

Consistent with his mission as defender of human rights, he was planning to express his concerns to Philippines President Duterte over the thousands of extra-judicial executions of drug lords.

Upon hearing of Obama’s intention, Duterte flew into a rage saying among other things that Philippines is a sovereign nation and no longer a lap-dog of the U.S. He also asked rhetorically, what about the hundreds of thousands of civilians massacred by the Americans when they were the colonial masters of Philippines?

Duterte also called Obama the “son of a whore.”  Thanks to the Colbert Report, we now know that Duterte was not the first to use such indelicate language. Another exceptional U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, had called Gorbachev then leader of USSR the same name in his moments of extreme emotion.

Obama’s meeting with Turkey’s President Erdogan also did not go well. Erdogan in front of the foreign press aired his difference with Obama including naming a Kurdish group that the U.S. supports but Turkey considers a terrorist organization. (Of course, Asia Times has reported on numerous occasions that rebel groups fighting Syria’s Assad with U.S. support also fights for ISIS.)

Perhaps not wishing for another Duterte-like confrontation, and perhaps the price of offending Turkey would be too dear, Obama did not raise questions of human rights in Turkey with Erdogan—human rights issues such as crackdown of the press and the mass arrests that followed the unsuccessful coup.

Obama then proceeded to Laos to attend the ASEAN Summit. He was the first U.S. president to visit Laos and he formally apologized for the “secret” war America inflicted on Laos during the Vietnam conflict.

Reported elsewhere in Asia Times, Laos continues to suffer the aftermath consequences of carpet-bombing by the U.S. Air Force. Decades later there remain millions of unexploded cluster bombs in the countryside. These were accidentally detonated by unwitting farmers and their children with dismaying regularity.

Obama’s offer of $30 million per year for three years would barely scratch the surface for rendering Laos’ countryside safe for farming and allowing Laos to begin economic recovery.

Unlike hundreds of other nations, United States has never agreed to halt the use of landmines, antipersonnel and cluster bombs. The U.S. reserves the right to kill and maim and at the same time make obscene profits from it.

It’s no small irony that the great defender of human rights is also the dominant purveyor and user of these lethal takers of human life.  

The conscience salving donations to compensate for the past atrocities and human suffering is a drop in the bucket compared to the profits made on the victims’ bone piles. And as Christina Lin pointed out in Asia Times, the U.S. has made no efforts to stop the cycle of killing and profits, human rights be damned.

The distinction is clear. Xi Jinping offers cooperation and collaboration on a path for common prosperity. Obama offers umbrella of missile defense protection and a path to death and destruction.

Chinese Women Volleyball is Beautiful to Watch

On the last day of the Rio Olympics, China’s women volleyball team played Serbia for the gold. It was the most watched event in China as well over half of the TV sets in the country were tuned on the outcome.

When China won, it was the only gold of the three major team sports that China won from Rio, having fallen far short in basketball and football. Thus all of China was ready to fall in love with this sport all over again.

It was not easy. Chinese team qualified last in their pool play and had to face the top seed from the other pool. The top seed was Brazil, the defending Olympics champion of two previous Olympics in Beijing and London.

After beating Brazil in the fifth set, China had to face Netherlands, second seed and had beaten China in the preliminary play. After Netherlands, Serbia, China’s opponent in the gold medal round, had also beaten China in the preliminary round.

The United States team that beat Netherlands for the bronze medal had also beaten China in the pool play. U.S. was top seed after pool play but was upset by Serbia in the semifinal round. In other words, China was the underdog every step along the way.

Curiously, volleyball was least funded of the major Olympics teams in China. In fact one of the volleyball player complained about being poorly paid. “What we get as salary for a year is about what the basketball player gets in one game,” she said.

Coach Lang Ping was transformed from villain eight years ago to acclaimed hero of Rio Olympics. At the Beijing Olympics, Lang Ping coached the U.S. team that defeated China in the semifinal and went on a silver medal, losing to Brazil in the gold medal round.

Lang Ping, after leading China to the gold at the LA Olympics in 1984 as the MVP striker, left China to study sports management in the U.S. After graduation she became a coach for professional volleyball teams in the U.S., Japan and Italy.

Fans in China were unhappy with Lang for not coaching in China, not taking into account the lack of a level of compensation that would be competitive with the international market.

Lang was persuaded to return and accept the coaching role with the stipulation that she would run the team with total control and no interference from the sporting authorities and government officials.

Since taking over China’s national team in 2013, Lang has been the mother to the team. She even bought protein supplement from the U.S., out of her own pocket, to give to the players while in training to boost their nutritional in take and supplement an indifferent training table.

Her captain, Hui Ruoqi, had to miss several months of practice and workout as she underwent surgery to correct a heart condition. When Hui returned to the team, Lang monitored her conditions daily. Happily, Hui struck the match-ending kill for the gold.

When assembling the national team, Lang noticed that Zhu Ting was missing from the list of candidates. She had seen Zhu played previously and remembered her and asked about her.

Zhu had been relegated to second tier level for regional competition before Lang rescued her. At the Olympics, Zhu was voted the most valuable player, as was Lang in LA. In the just the gold medal round, the 6 foot four inch Zhu notched 25 kills against Serbia.

(By the way, Zhu was not the tallest player on the team. All except for the libero—the defensive specialist that spend a lot of time rolling on the floor digging for balls to keep them in play—were over six foot including 6-5 and 6-6. They must have gotten proper nutrition from somewhere.)

After Rio, Zhu will be going to Turkey to play professional ball. Coach Lang felt that Zhu, at age 21, needed to play at the highest international level to continue to improve. So she introduced Zhu to a team she knew and more importantly the Dutch coach that had Lang’s confidence.

China’s sports leadership has always measured Olympics success by the number of gold medals won. Many projected wins did not come through at Rio and they were bracing for a disappointed Olympics. Women’s volleyball saved the day.

How will China perform in 2020 Tokyo? This team is young and talented. As Xinhua News noted, the team members are vivacious and some are as beautiful as runway models. They are made to be sports ambassadors for China.

The key is whether Beijing will elevate the importance of volleyball to be closer to that of football and basketball and properly nurture the current and next generation of athletes.

Before the team arrived in Rio, a classmate of Lang and ardent volleyball fan sent her one million renminbi to subsidize the team expenses. Upon winning, the now successful businessman congratulated the team with another gift of five million yuan.

China’s sports authority can’t afford to depend on fans and donors popping up to the rescue.  Beijing needs to show the Super Mario of Tokyo (masquerading as prime minister) that Chinese women volleyball will continue to rule.