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Chi Lin Nunnery 志蓮淨苑 and adjoining Nan Lian Garden 南蓮園池

Completely re-built in 1990 in authentic Tang Dynasty (AD 610-970) architecture without using concrete, metal support or a single nail, Hong Kong's Chi Lin nunnery stands as the world's largest hand-made wooden building complex. It is modeled on Kyoto's best Tang Dynasty temples which were deliberately spared from Allied bombing during the Second World War. It was constructed and hand-crafted using ancient techniques by selected traditional wood craftsmen from Mainland China. The nunnery contains a permanent hall of shrines where lies my family's ancestral plaque among others. 

The following are some photos capturing the Nunnery's elegant classical buildings and landscaped gardens. 

View this photo (1)  View this photo (2)  View this photo (3)  View this photo (4)  View this photo (5)  View this photo (Leung family ancestral plaque) (6)  View this photo (7)  View this photo (8)  View this photo (9) View this photo (10)  View this photo (11)  View this photo (12)  View this photo (13)  View this photo (14) 

US-led Asia-Pacific Re-balance 2025 and prospects for stable relations with China

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think-tank based in Washington D.C., released a 275-page independent review of US Defense Strategy in the Asia-Pacific in January, 2016. The comprehensive report takes into account China's growing multi-directional assertiveness as a rising power, her rapidly increasing military capabilities, particularly A2/AD (Anti-Access and Area Denial), as well as other threats in the region, including North Korea and Russia.

Download Washington DC -based CSIS, 2016 - Asia Pacific Rebalance 2025 - an Independent Review of US Defence Strategy in the Asia-Pacific

The Report delves into building a stronger security architecture in the Asia-Pacific underpinned by the United States military and its regional allies, in preparation for a high degree of readiness for possible air and naval conflict with a peer-competitor (code for China), a ground battle on the Korean Peninsular, as well as regional nuclear rivalry and other state and non-state threats including natural catastrophes. 

Various military concepts are examined, such as "Joint Concept for Access and Manoeuvre in the Global Commons", "Air Superiority and Global Strike", "Freedom from Attack and Freedom to Attack", "Strategic Mobility Infrastructure", the agility of "Places not Bases", and "Joint Mission Defense with Allies".

Reference is made to the development of the "Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B)", missile defense systems such as "THAAD- ER (Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense - Extended Range)" with 9-12 times the range and anti-hypersonic-delivery characteristics, "Directed Energy" (laser) and "Electromagnetic Rail Guns" technologies, as well as unmanned and space-based assets. It covers a gamut of scenarios including cyber and electronic warfare and examines Russian and Chinese strategic interests in the Arctic. 

In sustaining the Re-balance, the Report recommends -

1. Align Asia strategy within the US government and with Allies and Partners;
2. Strength Allies' and Partners' capability. capacity, resilience and inter-operability;
3. Sustain and expand US military presence;
4. Accelerate development of innovative capabilities and concepts. 

President Xi Jinping of China has recently adorned a new US-styled title of Commander-in-Chief as head of a newly-reorganized Joint Battle Command. This follows on the heels of a revamped 2015 Military Strategy, a complete re-structuring of China's defense forces, including the development of a blue-water navy, a new Rocket (Missile) Force, a more centralized command, and reorganization into "battle zones". Click here On 12 April, China test-fired DF-4, a 12,000-km range Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capable of reaching all of the United States. These developments suggest that China, too, is alive to and gets prepared for risks of military conflict in the region, including an all-out war. 

What does it take to manage the increasing geopolitical rivalry between the United States as the existing global superpower and its perceived challenger? In a TV interview with CCTV in Beijing, Kevin Rudd, President of the Asia Society Policy Institute, a China expert and former Prime Minister of Australia, argues for "Constructive Realism", isolating the red-line issues that cannot be resolved and working on developing trust or cooperation for the rest. Whether this will work remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, while deepening awareness of military risks acts to propel a spiraling of a classic "security dilemma", it also incentivises both sides to enhance mechanisms to manage mutual relations and to avert unwanted escalations. 

China’s Economic Transition: Separating Fact from Fiction

At a business seminar in Hong Kong on 19 April, 2016, the following presentations of IHS, a global business-strategic consultancy firm based in Colorado, United States, throw some light on challenges facing China's economic restructuring and the country's energy oversupply and reform agenda. 

Download China's Economic Transition-Separating Fact from Fiction - Brian-Jackson-HK

Download China-New-Energy-Reality-Oversupply as Catalyst for Reforms-Xizhou-Zhou- HK

 

Seeing through the fog of Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

Asia Society Policy Institute President Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia, conducted an interview in Washington DC on 13 April, 2016 with Mr Jin Liqun, President of Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). 

During the interview, Mr Jin, an expert international banker and aficionado of Shakespeare and history, was very upfront that the AIIB wanted to learn and partner with Bretton Woods institutions like the World Bank, the IMF and the Asian Development Bank and to develop a new lean, clean and green global financial institution with shared accountability and inclusive partnerships with all stakeholders, including the United States. 

China's State Grid Corp's $50 trillion Plan to harness Arctic winds and equatorial sunlight

According to articles in The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News , China's State Grid Corp, already dominating the electricity grid market in the world's second largest economy, has big plans for a Global Power Grid: a $50 trillion global power network that harnesses Arctic winds and equatorial sunlight, capitalizing on advances in renewable power and transmission technology.

"The $50 trillion estimated price is nearly twice the economic output of the U.S. and China combined."

"Doubts aside, State Grid’s vision has piqued the curiosity of the global energy sector. Among those who showed up at the conference State Grid organized to lay out its vision included Fatih Birol, head of the Paris-based International Energy Administration, and Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Japan conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp".

"Rather than far-fetched, the State Grid plan is straightforward and much of it is technically feasible, some experts said. “Most of its premises are fundamentally correct,” said David Sandalow, a former U.S. acting undersecretary of energy who has spoken with Mr. Liu about State Grid’s proposal and attended Wednesday’s conference."

Whether or not feasible eventually, this ambitious idea at least serves to concentrate minds on thinking globally and collectively (rather than selfishly) for long-term solutions to Climate Change on what is essentially One Earth.

As for finance, the idea comes hot on the heels of China's epochal One Belt, One Road initiative, supported by a newly formed Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank (AIIB) with 57 Founding Member Countries (and a waiting list of more than 30 countries) and a Silk Road Fund of $40 billion. Together with the renamed New Development Bank (the former BRICS Bank) and public-private partnership, at least a small part of this gigantic vision may well be possible to be kick-started for the future of the Planet.  

Indeed, connectivity, not sovereignty, is beginning to emerge as the defining feature of the 21st century. Of this, infrastructural connectivity between mega-cities around the globe is destined to play a vital role. Click here  

The Panama papers Tax Scandal

My live TV interview with The World on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) on 4 April, 2016. 

China-Hong Kong Economic and Trading International Association - Harbin-Hong Kong-Russia business co-operation

As newly-elected Honorary President of the China-Hong Kong Economic and Trading International Association, I delivered an Opening Speech on the above topic on 31 March, 2016 at a special seminar attended by a visiting economic and trade delegation led by Harbin Mayor Song Xibin and Russian Consul-Generals Alexander Kozlov in Hong Kong and Sergey Y Paltov in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. 

Download 31日早上交流论坛中國香港國際經貿合作協會名誉会长梁建邦院士欢迎辞 (Opening Speech in Chinese) 

Download Opening Speech at the exchange forum on cooperation with Russa (Opening Speech in English) 

The Association is a non-profit business network of entrepreneurs and business and scholarly elites, with over 1,000 Members including 31 listed enterprises with a total market capitalization over HK$1.2 trillion. It was incorporated in Hong Kong in 1995 to promote economic, trade, investment and related exchanges between Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and the Chinese Mainland and their outreach to overseas countries and markets. The Association stays at the forefront of changing global dynamics and proactively promotes cooperation, friendship and understanding between China and the rest of the world. 

The Association has 15 specialized sub-groups, each with a sub-group chair, representing various business sectors including Investment, Finance, Creative Industries, Gold and Jewelry, Medical and Healthcare, Education and Training, One Belt, One Road, Cross-Strait Cultural Exchange, Chinese Cuisine, Outstanding Women, Property Development, Manufacturing and Technology, Tourism, Green Foods, and Modern Logistics. The Association is thus well placed to assist in trade and investments in markets along the One Belt, One Road overland trans-Eurasian route and its maritime "Silk Road". 

Since inception, the Association has organized 23 promotional delegations visiting overseas countries 50 times, including Europe, the Americas, and Africa. Visits covering various provinces in Mainland China total over 100, resulting in more than 300 signed investment or cooperation projects. Over the years, the Association has received over 100 visiting Chinese delegations from Mainland China and other overseas entities, organizing and conducting over 80 seminars. With wide-ranging connections and economic and trading resources, the Association provides regular updates for its Members and helps build an invaluable business network across the globe.

Download 中國香港國際經貿合作協會簡介和組織架構 (The Association's background and organizational structure)