The billionaire who owns the fastest electric car racing team on earth

This week the tech world has been wondering if Huawei — the phone and telecommunications company that is in Washington, D.C.’s crosshairs — has managed to innovate its way out of a dependence on U.S. and global semiconductor suppliers, after the launch of a new advanced phone.

Huawei boosters are boasting about it, but it is not clear if the chip in the new phone can be manufactured at scale, nor if the phone is still using other chips from Korean firm SK Hynix that were stockpiled or illicitly obtained.

But the new chip has alarmed the U.S. government enough to launch an official probe into it, and caused a debate about the efficacy of U.S. curbs on sales of seminconductors and other advanced tech to China.

Meanwhile the political world is still wondering why Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 skipped the ASEAN meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, from September 4 to 7, and why he will not attend this weekend’s G20 summit in New Delhi, India.

Like everyone else outside the block box of the Chinese government leadership apparatus, we can only guess. But we’ve covered all the context for you this week in our Daily Dispatches on September 5, 6, and 7, and in this newsletter below.

Jeremy Goldkorn Editor-in-Chief

Zhang is trying to spread the idea of an integrated, self-sufficient energy network he calls “Green Utopia,” and a leading Chinese environmentalist calls his vision “thrilling.” He is like a Chinese Elon Musk, but so far without the bombast and need for constant attention.

So who is he?

More on The China Project:

Has Huawei innovated its way out of sanctions? The Chinese tech giant launched online pre-order sales of its latest smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro, which contains advanced tech that some observers believe shows the Chinese telecommunications company has found ways around U.S. export controls.

U.S. lawmakers want to restrict sales of gene sequencing tech to China. Citing human rights abuses, Congress may regulate sales to China. Some major American firms stand to lose business.

This bring us our Phrase of the Week is: Coffee in the morning, alcohol at night (早C晚A zǎo C wǎn A): Click through for context and language notes.

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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is breaking international laws and ignoring treaties as it continues systematically breaking apart Turkic Muslim families, writes Ruth Ingram for this week’s Uyghur Bulletin.

“Is China running the UN?” asked a French journalist at a United Nations press conference earlier this year. The answer is no — but Beijing is dictating the UN’s Taiwan policy, argues Chris Horton from Taipei. And he has the faxes to prove it.

Guatemala’s newly elected president, Bernardo Arévalo, has said he will “continue working with both Chinas”. He’s had talks with Taiwan about how to advance their diplomatic relationship, but also has said he’d like to expand trade relations with the P.R.C. Alex Colville takes a closer look in this week’s China Ties.

U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly left his trip to Beijing empty-handed but relieved, the first visit by a U.K. foreign secretary to Beijing in five years. “I’m realistic that one phone call, one visit, one meeting isn’t going to fundamentally change the direction of travel,” James Cleverly said. But “patient, consistent, and reliable communication could have an effect.” He did however have to defend his visit in response to a barrage of criticism from colleagues.

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Filmed in France by exiled Uyghur directors, Nikah is a glimpse into the shattering of a culture, and shows us the beauty of Uyghur communal life, Darren Byler writes.

A Shanghai bookseller gets kidnapped — and brings out the copyright police. In the early 20th century, Chessboard Street in Shanghai was the heart of the Chinese publishing industry. This is where James Carter’s story begins: when Lǐ Dífán 李迪凡, a salesman for a small Shanghai bookseller, found himself in an opium den and approached by men claiming to represent a nearby province seeking textbooks…

All the traditions lost after the Communists entered Beijing: David Kidd’s Peking Story is one of the best accounts we have of the crucial interregnum period between the end of the Chinese Civil War and the consolidation of Communist rule, writes Paul French.

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The Philadelphia Orchestra is commemorating the 50th anniversary of its groundbreaking tour to China with two concerts in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We talked to Alison Friedman, executive and artistic director of Carolina Performing Arts about the concerts, and the difference between art and propaganda.

Sushi restaurants in China are searching for alternative supplies and, in some cases, new recipes after Beijing’s ban on Japanese seafood and amid rising animosity toward all things Japanese among Chinese diners, who are enraged by Japan’s decision to release contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean.

Both Hao and Seligsohn have written persuasively about the importance of renewing the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement which was renewed, for the most part, every five years without much fuss — until this year. They discuss what has been accomplished under the agreement’s auspices, and why they think GOP concerns about it are largely misplaced.

More on The China Project:

Beijing launched a sweeping policy package to rescue the property market, China extended income tax breaks for foreigners, AI specialist SenseTime is laying off more workers after another year of red ink, and Evergrande delayed offshore debt restructuring votes at the last minute: Listen to the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief.

Indonesia suspended diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China from 1967 to 1990 and restricted Chinese-language lessons and literature. But the two countries now have robust political and commercial connections, and large numbers of young Indonesians are learning Mandarin.

Crocs are in. In an otherwise restrained era for Chinese youth, the return of brightly colored, highly customizable rubber clogs allows for both escape and self-expression.