Tear Down This Wall

There have been lots of reporting and discussions of the 20^th anniversary of the fall of Berlin Wall (on Nov. 9^th, 1989). Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to surround the West Berlin and stop the escape of East German people from fleeing to the West. It was torn down 20 years ago that symbolized the collapse of Communism and end of the Cold War.

President Ronald Regan was a key figure in ending the cold war with Soviet Union. In his June 12 1987 historical speech at the Brandenburg Gate by the Berlin Wall, President Reagan openly challenged the supreme leader Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin Wall as a symbol for increasing freedom in the Eastern Bloc. He said: “… We welcome change and openness [note: this is referring to Gorbachev’s new 1986 “glasnost” policy after he came to power]; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!...”

Berlin Wall was 103 miles long and 12 feet high, complete with guard towers, anti-vehicle trenches and bed of nails, etc. In the 28 years of its existence, it did serve its purpose and made it extremely difficult for East German to escape using this route. More than 100 people were killed while trying to cross it to the west. To some extent it was an accident and a result of miscommunication by government officials that on Nov 9^th, instead of a later date, East German people demanded to cross the checkpoints of the Berlin Wall in such a mass that border soldiers weren’t able or dare to stop. Then people began to take down the wall, piece by piece.

The fall of Berlin Wall did not happen overnight. It wasn’t really due to any miraculous ideological conversion or armed rebellions by some. The reason was pure and simple – it is the well-being of the people. East Germany has had poor economic development under the Communist rule since end of WWII. The dissatisfication of its people reached the tipping point at late summer of 1989 that proved to be too much for any regime to bear.

Similar and parallel developments had taken places in other countries as well. Over 40 years of experimentation of communism in Russia, China, eastern Europe and so on had failed. Deng recognized it in China and began to reform in 1979; Gorbachev recognized it in Soviet Union and glasnost began in 1987. Poland’s Walesa recognized it and ignited the revolutions in 1989 of Central and Eastern Europe that reached East Germany in Nov, 1989. These leaders are now remembered in history as ones who contributed to the change for better. The hardliners who tried to hang onto their power, like East Germany’s Erich Honecker and Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu stood on the wrong side of the history and are remembered as such.

Less than a year later, west and east Germany reunited to become one Germany. Ironically, British and French leaders Margret Thatcher and François Mitterrand were against it since they feared a unified Germany would change the power balance and British and French interests in Europe and the world.

The reunification of two Germanys of course offered a very interesting model for countries like the two Koreas and two Chinas - China and Taiwan. There are some parallels. For instance, they were all one unified country of same culture and ethnicity before end of WWII (yes, I am ignoring the colonization period and attempt by Japan). Japan and U.S. have not been that interested in seeing it happen for similar reasons that French and British did not want to see one unified Germany. There are some significant differences however. When the two Germanys reunited, the ratio of their GDP (PPP) per capita were about 2 to 1 while the ratio of their populations was about 4 to 1. In comparison, the ratio of two Koreas’ GDP (PPP) per capital is 15 to 1 and the ratio of populations is 2 to 1. The ratio of Taiwan’s and China’s GDP (PPP) per capital is about 4 to 1 while the population ratio is about 1 to 60. I can certainly see possible unification of China and Taiwan in another decade or so, if China continues to prosper and becomes a more open and free society.

Of course, there are still physical walls around the world and some are being built as we speak. To give you few examples, there is the Israeli West-Bank barrier of a target length of over 400 miles and the Mexico – United States barrier of a target length of 700 miles. When will these walls be torn down? That would be anyone’s guess.

Talk to you soon!

Rocket Scientist

We sometimes hear the expressions that suggest something is simple or someone is simple-minded as “this is not rocket science” or "it doesn't take a rocket scientist". A brilliant rocket scientist had just died. On Oct 31^st, Qian Xuesen錢學森aka H.S. (Hsue-shen) Tsien passed away in Beijing, China, a month or so before his 98^th birthday. The news did not attract much public attention and reporting in U.S. but for Chinese and those who followed the development of aerospace science and engineering, it is big. Qian has been called the Father of Chinese Space and Missile programs and was named the person of the year in 2007 by the trade magazine Aviation Week.

Qian was born in HangZhou, China in 1911 and studied mechanical engineering in Shanghai JiaoTong University. He later went to MIT in summer 1935 and obtained his M.S. in aerospace engineering sponsored by the Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship庚子賠款獎學金. Incidentally, this scholarship program was established in 1907 under Theodore Roosevelt administration using the “excess” of the indemnity paid to U.S. under the Boxer Protocol or Treaty of 1901 between Eight-Nation Alliance and China (note U.S.’s share was about $0.5 billion dollars in today’s dollar or about twice of what U.S. had asked for; thus the "excess"). The reputed HsingHua University清華大學was started out of this fund and more than 1,000 students came to U.S. to study since 1909 under its sponsorship. Many of them became prominent leaders in their fields including philosopher Hu Shih胡適and Nobel Physics Laureate Chen-Ning Franklin Yang楊振寧 .

Qian went to Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in 1936 and received his Ph.D. in 1939 under the preeminent aerodynamics scientist Theodore von Karman, a Hungarian-American, who had called him as “an undisputed genius”. Qian was a member of the 6 person "suicide squad” led by another Karman’s graduate student Frank Malina that designed and conducted many rocket experiments. As the program matured, they became the founding members of now world renown JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center) with Frank Malina as its first director. As WWII intensified in Europe and the German rocket and missile capabilities advanced, one can imagine the importance of their work to U.S. government and the Ally. In fact Qian was sent to Germany after the war to interrogate key Nazi scientists including Wernher von Braun who designed the German V-2 rocket. Later, von Braun helped U.S. develop its Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and led the development of NASA’s Saturn V booster rocket that put first men on the moon. Some have called Von Braun the Father of U.S. space program.

Qian’s stardom career in U.S. took a drastic turn in 1950 during the second Red Scare (the first one took place in 1917-1920 after the Bolshevik Russian Revolution of 1917). He was accused of being a member of a subversive organization, arrested and put in jail for two weeks by Immigration Authority (he was in the process of applying for citizenship at the time) before his colleagues and friends got him out. His security clearance was revoked and he could no longer participate in those critical programs. The only “evidences” cited against him appeared to be that he had gone to one social gathering (at the invitation of Frank Malina) of some alleged communist sympathizers and that his name was mentioned in an American Communist Party document. The sensitive and secret documents and data he was alleged to have packed and brought to China in his planned visit of his family turned out to be public domain data like a logarithm table.

Despite efforts to clear his name by him, his colleagues and Caltech, Qian remained under partial house arrest for subsequent years. He tried his best to continue his unclassified research at home and at Caltech. While it was not totally clear the timeline of various events, Qian did declare his intent to return to China early on during the investigation and prosecution. The action was most likely due to that he was so upset with the accusation and treatment and that he saw his future in U.S. had been ruined. All along it appeared that he had all the intention to stay and work in U.S. Indeed there wasn’t any indication that Qian was ever active in politics or subscribed to any particular ideology.

Of course, U.S. government would not let Qian leave the country under the circumstances, knowing his ability, knowledge, and previous critical involvement of military applications of rocketry. It wasn’t till Sept 1955 when U.S. government released him and allowed him and his family to go to China as a part of post Korea War negotiation for the release and exchange of some American prisoners held by China. The rest is history. China has since developed ballistic missiles of all ranges over the years. It now launches commercial satellites regularly for the western countries including U.S. China has also just completed its first space walk in 2008 and is busy moving ahead for manned space missions. Qian was unquestionably the key figure in China’s quest of missile and space technology in last five decades.

Well, we rarely learn from history. Qian’s story was only one of many examples that took place under McCarthyism-like practices in many countries and societies; it incubates and looks for opportunities to germinate from time to time. As recent as 1998, U.S. House of Representatives had formed a committee to look into military/commercial concerns with China. The final Cox Report included some controversial statements that repeated the allegation of Qian being a Chinese spy without any proof. At about the same time, WenHo Lee 李文和, a Taiwan-born Chinese American scientist who worked at the Los Alamos National Lab, was falsely accused of being a spy for Chinese government. Eventually all the initial sensationalization and exaggeration proved to be just that. Federal government dropped finally dropped 58 out of the 59 charges and settled the case with Lee’s guilty plea to the sole felony charge of improper handling of restricted data.

I am not suggesting a country or an entity should not protect its own interest. Being the most developed country who owns so much advanced commercial and military technologies, U.S. must assume that there are countries and organizations, friends or foe, out there who would like to get their hands on those data. One must devise and implement safeguards to maximize the competitive advantage for business as well as for national security. But let us not forget that the real unique asset and advantage America has is its people including the talented and motivated immigrants.

Thankfully, people in U.S. are blessed with a pretty good judicial system and a strong journalistic tradition, protected under the First Amendment (freedom of speech) and laws like Freedom of Information Act. White terror and mass hysteria sometimes may override logic and reason temporarily for some periods. With persistent pursuits of facts and truth however, justice does usually prevail. Even a powerful and fearful figure like Senator Joe McCarthy was eventually brought down by public opinion with help from transparent proceedings offered by TV broadcast and critical examination of conscientious journalists like Ed Murrow of CBS. However we must be vigilant. We must make sure that immigrants are treated fairly and justly. Incidents like Qian's must not be allowed to happen again.

Talk to you soon!