https:// www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/technology/facebook-china-shanghai-office.html

Part 1

Blocked in China, Facebook Is Said to Seek a Shanghai Office

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By PAUL MOZURSEPT. 6, 2017

SHANGHAI — Facebook is blocked in China, but it is feeling comfortable enough there to look for its own place.

The social media giant in recent months has quietly scouted for office space in Shanghai, according to two people with knowledge of its efforts there. Those offices would house employees working on Facebook’s effort to make hardware but could also help with its broader ambitions in China, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the plans.

Facebook’s plans are tentative, the people said, and would depend on approval from the Chinese government. But if successful, it would be a symbolic victory for the social network, which has long worked to get into China despite being blocked there for nearly a decade.

“We have long said that we are interested in China, and are spending time understanding and learning more about the country in different ways,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in response to questions about the office plans.

Facebook has been looking for momentum in China, home of the world’s largest population of online users. Earlier this year, it quietly authorized the release by a small local company of a Chinese version of its Moments photo-managing app.

Despite being obstructed in China, Facebook has many reasons to continue pursuing business there. The social network sells advertising to Chinese companies hoping to reach the rest of the world. The Chinese ad sales, supported from its office in Hong Kong, are some of the largest in Asia. Even China’s government propaganda organs use it.

Facebook’s new hardware ambitions would require a Chinese presence as well. The initiatives would require plugging into China’s electronics supply chain, which helps build some of the world’s most popular gadgets, like Apple’s iPhone. The office would first be used by employees of Facebook’s hardware effort, called Building 8, according to the people with knowledge of the plans. Anything from an internet-connected medical device to a drone requires coordination with dozens of Chinese producers and assemblers, mostly located in the southern part of the country.

Facebook has for years entertained the idea of a Chinese office. In late 2015, it obtained a license to open an office in Beijing, but the permit lasted only three months and it could not establish a space in that time. Oculus, the virtual reality company Facebook bought three years ago, already has a Shanghai office.

At the moment, Facebook uses third parties and its own employees to sell ads in China. Because of cybersecurity concerns, Facebook employees run special security software on devices when they travel in China and do not have access to secretive or critical business information.

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>>1011265

Part 2

Opening an office in Shanghai allows more support for its employees when they are in China, but also raises security questions. The Building 8 teams, which focus on their own hardware projects, would have less need to access sensitive Facebook data when in China, one person said. The office could also help Facebook work more with local Chinese companies.

If it opens a Shanghai office, Facebook would not be the only Western internet company banned in the country to have some space there. Google, which pulled its servers out of China in 2010 after it decided to stop censoring search results, retained offices in Beijing and Shanghai that support both advertising and research and development. Google still maintains extensive advertising sales and research facilities there.

Facebook over the past three years has pulled out all the stops to court the Chinese government and gain approval for its network. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, has showed off his Mandarin at one of the country’s top universities and has directly courted Xi Jinping, China’s president.

The office search comes just months after Facebook released the Chinese-language version of Moments. That app, called Colorful Balloons, originally went largely unnoticed but briefly rose into the top 50 in the photo and video section of China’s iPhone app store after The New York Times reported its release last month, according to app research company App Annie.

Like other cities in China, Shanghai has been eager to attract technology start-ups and other internet-related investments.

Earlier this year, a woman listed as the executive director of the company that released Colorful Balloons on Facebook’s behalf was photographed at a meeting between Shanghai government officials and Facebook. In order to open an office in Shanghai, Facebook will likely have to register a branch company in Shanghai as well.

That the Colorful Balloons app has not come down could be a sign that Facebook has done something right with the government, said Teng Bingsheng, a professor at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. Opening an office, if it happens, would be another sign.

“It has symbolic meaning,” Mr. Teng said, “because it must be the result of good communication with the government.”

Facebook is about to take the wraps off its secretive and ambitious consumer hardware group

Alex Heath

Apr. 17, 2017, 11:25 AM

http:// www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-building-8-working-on-camera-augmented-reality-mind-reading-projects-2017-3

Part 1

The all-star roster of tech veterans that Facebook began assembling one year ago is quietly making progress, steadily expanding the size of its ranks and the hardware prototypes under development.

The group, known as Building 8, currently has four simultaneous projects underway, spanning everything from cameras and augmented reality to science fiction-like brain scanning technology, Business Insider has learned.

And Facebook is already planning the coming-out party for its impending family of gadgets, laying the groundwork to drum up interest and sell the products when the time is right. Building 8 has yet to unveil any of its products, but people familiar with the matter said the hardware group is expected to play a key role in Facebook's developer conference this week, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave his 10-year vision for the company last year.

To be part of this next wave, they've got to get real and hurry

The move to hardware is an ambitious and risky adventure for Facebook, which reigns as an internet superpower thanks to its nearly 2 billion users. With virtually no experience in the world of hardware, Facebook is taking on deep-pocketed competitors like Apple, Google and upstarts such as Snap, in a cut-throat business defined by thin profit margins and complex logistics.

And Facebook doesn't appear to be treating Building 8 like a hobby.

An analysis of Building 8's recent hires and job listings by Business Insider, as well as conversations with people close to the company, shows an ambitious effort to create and sell millions of consumer hardware units, from a supply chain outpost in Hong Kong to a planned retail push and customer call center operation.

Facebook declined to comment for this story.

>>1011289

Part 2

Cardiologists and prosthetics

Regina DuganRegina Dugan Facebook

One of the current Building 8 projects involves cameras and augmented reality, according to people familiar with the matter, and recent hires point to the possible development of a drone.

Another project involves brain-scanning technology and is lead by a former John Hopkins neuroscientist who helped develop a mind-controlled prosthetic arm. Yet another project could have medical applications, as it's led by an interventional cardiologist from Stanford with expertise in early-stage medical device development. The group is also planning to jumpstart a fifth unspecified project, and is currently looking for the right person to lead it.

Overseeing everything is Regina Dugan, the former DARPA executive who Facebook CEO Zuckerberg poached from Google's advanced projects division last April.

Building 8 is structured similarly to Google's Advanced Technology and Projects Group, or ATAP, and is also similar to X, the "moonshot" lab where Google's self-driving cars were born.

At Building 8, technical project leads are treated like mini-CEOs and given two-year deadlines to prove a concept that will either be shipped and sold or spun out into a different part of Facebook, which also owns Oculus VR, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

"He's going to help us make things fly"

Frank Dellaert Building 8Frank Dellaert, a technical project leader at Facebook's Building 8. Regina Dugan/Facebook

The first such deadline is about a year away, coming up in the summer of 2018. Frank Dellaert, a robotics and computer vision expert, is leading that project. His involvement could suggest that Facebook is looking at making a consumer drone, something which Snapchat maker Snap Inc. has also looked into.

Before he joined Facebook last summer, Dellaert was the chief scientist at Skydio, a small startup that is working on an unreleased drone that can autonomously track a person while navigating through physical space. Dellaert also served as a professor at Georgia Tech and has shown specific interest in quadcopters, according to a person familiar with his work.

Additionally, Skydio's former head of hardware, Stephen McClure, joined Facebook to be Building 8's head of hardware in January, according to his LinkedIn profile. A handful of former GoPro employees have also joined Building 8 in recent months, including a founding member of the drone maker's industrial design team.

In a separate Facebook post announcing his hire, Building 8 chief Regina Dugan hinted at Dellaert's aerial ambitions. "He's going to help us make things fly… when he's not guarding the door," she wrote.

>>1011290

Part 3

Workers from other parts of Facebook have also been pulled in to staff Building 8. One engineer who joined last year named Alex Granieri previously worked on Aquila, Facebook's high-altitude drone designed to beam internet connectivity to the developing world.

In an August 2016 post announcing his decision to join Building 8, Frank Dellaert signaled that his Building 8 project would be over by the summer of 2018, when he planned to return and teach at Georgia Tech.

"I can't yet discuss the details of what I'll be working on at Building 8, so stay tuned," he wrote. "Suffice it to say, I accepted this position because of the potential impact. I'm eager to apply DARPA-style development to building hardware products at Facebook - audacious science and product development in one place? Let's do it."

"Disruptive shopping experiences"

12983910_10102777875412201_1824114153464567549_oFacebook CTO Mike Schroepfer, Building 8's Regina Dugan, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook

While Building 8 is only less than a year old, the group is already ramping up plans to release its products into the wild, with multiple open "go-to-market," retail, supply chain, and customer experience job positions listed on its website.

An open retail manager position says the job will "have the responsibility of creating disruptive ground up shopping experiences of Facebook consumer hardware," and another open partnerships lead position says the person will "build an engaging and successful 3 year partnership strategy for Building 8 retail."

The listings also indicate that Facebook plans to leverage outside partnerships to sell its products. One responsibility for the partnerships lead position is to "identify unique and inspiring collaborations that will drive innovation, impact social good, and inspire consumer loyalty and trust."

Shipping and selling consumer hardware to millions of people represents a new challenge for Facebook, which to date has only tried smaller-scale retail pushes for its expensive Oculus VR headset.

Facebook's early efforts with Building 8 are an indication that the company wants to be a serious player in augmented reality, which is considered to be the next frontier of technology, according to Loup Ventures partner Gene Munster.

"They realize to be part of this next wave, they've got to get real and hurry," said Munster, who was previously known for his coverage of Apple as a Piper Jaffray analyst.

>>1011294

Part 4

Munster, whose firm closely follows augmented and virtual reality companies, foresees Facebook wanting to ship at least 20 million units per year to be considered a successful consumer hardware company. Even then, he predicts that competition from the likes of larger companies like Apple and smaller incumbents like Snap Inc. will be strong.

google glassGoogle attempted to be an early player in augmented reality with its Glass eyewear. The product completely flopped. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

"It's a sign that they want to be more impactful and have a seat at the table," he said of Facebook's hardware efforts with Building 8. "I think it's the right thing to do, but I'm hesitant to say it will be a success."

Still, Building 8 is continuing to make hires from well-known hardware companies. The majority of Building 8's senior leadership previously worked with Dugan at Google's advanced technologies division, including the leadership team responsible for the shuttered Project Ara modular smartphone.

Interestingly, Dugan has made a couple of Facebook posts in recent weeks that hint at what she's focusing on within Building 8.

In a post from February, she cited a statistic that 93% of "face-to-face" time between parents and their children is done by the time kids graduate high school.

"Most people experience this fact like a kick in the gut," she wrote. "Because it is a profound reminder of the power of connections. And that we can do more to increase our sense of presence beyond the remaining 7%. I'm optimistic that technology can help… it will require new advances. Including hardware advances. That are social first."

In a March post, Dugan wrote, "Smartphones have the power to connect us to people far away from us. Too often, at the expense of the people sitting right next to us. We shouldn't have to choose."

nside the shady private equity firm run by Kerry and Biden’s kids

https:// nypost.com/2018/03/15/inside-the-shady-private-equity-firm-run-by-kerry-and-bidens-kids/

Part 1

What Hunter Biden, the son of America’s vice president, and Christopher Heinz, the stepson of the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (later to be secretary of state), were creating was an international private equity firm. It was anchored by the Heinz family alternative investment fund, Rosemont Capital. The new firm would be populated by political loyalists and positioned to strike profitable deals overseas with foreign governments and officials with whom the US government was negotiating.

Hunter Biden, Vice President Joe Biden’s youngest son, had gone through a series of jobs since graduating from Yale Law School in 1996, including the hedge-fund business.

By the summer of 2009, the 39-year-old Hunter joined forces with the son of another powerful figure in American politics, Chris Heinz. Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania had tragically died in a 1991 airplane crash when Chris was 18. Chris, his brothers, and his mother inherited a large chunk of the family’s vast ketchup fortune, including a network of investment funds and a Pennsylvania estate, among other properties. In May 1995, his mother, Teresa, married Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. That same year, Chris graduated from Yale, and then went on to get his MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Hunter Biden (left) with father Joe Biden following the inauguration ceremony of President Barack Obama, Jan. 20, 2009.REUTERS

Joining them in the Rosemont venture was Devon Archer, a longtime Heinz and Kerry friend.

The three friends established a series of related LLCs. The trunk of the tree was Rosemont Capital, the alternative investment fund of the Heinz Family Office. Rosemont Farm is the name of the Heinz family’s 90-acre estate outside Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania.

The small fund grew quickly. According to an email revealed as part of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, Rosemont described themselves as “a $2.4 billion private equity firm co-owned by Hunter Biden and Chris Heinz,” with Devon Archer as “Managing Partner.”

The partners attached several branches to the Rosemont Capital trunk, including Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC, Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners, and Rosemont Realty.

Of the various deals in which these Rosemont entities were involved, one of the largest and most troubling concerns was Rosemont Seneca Partners.

Rather than set up shop in New York City, the financial capital of the world, Rosemont Seneca leased space in Washington, DC. They occupied an all-brick building on Wisconsin Avenue, the main thoroughfare of exclusive Georgetown. Their offices would be less than a mile from John and Teresa Kerry’s 23-room Georgetown mansion, and just two miles from both Joe Biden’s office in the White House and his residence at the Naval Observatory.

In short, the Chinese government was literally funding a business that it co-owned along with the sons of two of America’s most powerful decision makers.

Over the next seven years, as both Joe Biden and John Kerry negotiated sensitive and high-stakes deals with foreign governments, Rosemont entities secured a series of exclusive deals often with those same foreign governments.

Some of the deals they secured may remain hidden. These Rosemont entities are, after all, within a private equity firm and as such are not required to report or disclose their financial dealings publicly.

>>1011369

Part 2

Some of their transactions are nevertheless traceable by investigating world capital markets. A troubling pattern emerges from this research, showing how profitable deals were struck with foreign governments on the heels of crucial diplomatic missions carried out by their powerful fathers. Often those foreign entities gained favorable policy actions from the United States government just as the sons were securing favorable financial deals from those same entities.

Nowhere is that more true than in their commercial dealings with Chinese government-backed enterprises.

Rosemont Seneca joined forces in doing business in China with another politically connected consultancy called the Thornton Group. The Massachusetts-based firm is headed by James Bulger, the nephew of the notorious mob hitman James “Whitey” Bulger. Whitey was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang, part of the South Boston mafia. Under indictment for 19 murders, he disappeared. He was later arrested, tried, and convicted.

James Bulger’s father, Whitey’s younger brother, Billy Bulger, serves on the board of directors of the Thornton Group. He was the longtime leader of the Massachusetts state Senate and, with their long overlap by state and by party, a political ally of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.

Less than a year after opening Rosemont Seneca’s doors, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were in China, having secured access at the highest levels. Thornton Group’s account of the meeting on their Chinese-language website was telling: Chinese executives “extended their warm welcome” to the “Thornton Group, with its US partner Rosemont Seneca chairman Hunter Biden (second son of the now Vice President Joe Biden).”

The purpose of the meetings was to “explore the possibility of commercial cooperation and opportunity.” Curiously, details about the meeting do not appear on their English-language website.

>>1011372

Part 3

Also, according to the Thornton Group, the three Americans met with the largest and most powerful government fund leaders in China — even though Rosemont was both new and small.

The timing of this meeting was also curious. It occurred just hours before Hunter Biden’s father, the vice president, met with Chinese President Hu in Washington as part of the Nuclear Security Summit.

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Chris Heinz (left) with John Kerry at a campaign fundraiser, April 16, 2004.Dennis Van Tine

There was a second known meeting with many of the same Chinese financial titans in Taiwan in May 2011. For a small firm like Rosemont Seneca with no track record, it was an impressive level of access to China’s largest financial players. And it was just two weeks after Joe Biden had opened up the US-China strategic dialogue with Chinese officials in Washington.

On one of the first days of December 2013, Hunter Biden was jetting across the Pacific Ocean aboard Air Force Two with his father and daughter Finnegan. The vice president was heading to Asia on an extended official trip. Tensions in the region were on the rise.

The American delegation was visiting Japan, China, and South Korea. But it was the visit to China that had the most potential to generate conflict and controversy. The Obama administration had instituted the “Asia Pivot” in its international strategy, shifting attention away from Europe and toward Asia, where China was flexing its muscles.

For Hunter Biden, the trip coincided with a major deal that Rosemont Seneca was striking with the state-owned Bank of China. From his perspective, the timing couldn’t have been better.

Vice President Biden, Hunter Biden and Finnegan arrived to a red carpet and a delegation of Chinese officials. Greeted by Chinese children carrying flowers, the delegation was then whisked to a meeting with Vice President Li Yuanchao and talks with President Xi Jinping.

Hunter and Finnegan Biden joined the vice president for tea with US Ambassador Gary Locke at the Liu Xian Guan Teahouse in the Dongcheng District in Beijing. Where Hunter Biden spent the rest of his time on the trip remains largely a mystery. There are actually more reports of his daughter Finnegan’s activities than his.

What was not reported was the deal that Hunter was securing. Rosemont Seneca Partners had been negotiating an exclusive deal with Chinese officials, which they signed approximately 10 days after Hunter visited China with his father. The most powerful financial institution in China, the government’s Bank of China, was setting up a joint venture with Rosemont Seneca.

>>1011374

Part 4

The Bank of China is an enormously powerful financial institution. But the Bank of China is very different from the Bank of America. The Bank of China is government-owned, which means that its role as a bank blurs into its role as a tool of the government. The Bank of China provides capital for “China’s economic statecraft,” as scholar James Reilly puts it. Bank loans and deals often occur within the context of a government goal.

Rosemont Seneca and the Bank of China created a $1 billion investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), a name that reflected who was involved. Bohai (or Bo Hai), the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea, was a reference to the Chinese stake in the company. The “RS” referred to Rosemont Seneca. The “T” was Thornton.

The fund enjoyed an unusual and special status in China. BHR touted its “unique Sino-US shareholding structure” and “the global resources and network” that allowed it to secure investment “opportunities.” Funds were backed by the Chinese government.

In short, the Chinese government was literally funding a business that it co-owned along with the sons of two of America’s most powerful decision makers.

The partnership between American princelings and the Chinese government was just a beginning. The actual investment deals that this partnership made were even more problematic. Many of them would have serious national security implications for the United States.

In 2015, BHR joined forces with the automotive subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned military aviation contractor Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) to buy American “dual-use” parts manufacturer Henniges.

AVIC is a major military contractor in China. It operates “under the direct control of the State Council” and produces a wide array of fighter and bomber aircraft, transports, and drones — primarily designed to compete with the United States.

The company also has a long history of stealing Western technology and applying it to military systems. The year before BHR joined with AVIC, the Wall Street Journal reported that the aviation company had stolen technologies related to the US F-35 stealth fighter and incorporated them in their own stealth fighter, the J-31. AVIC has also been accused of stealing US drone systems and using them to produce their own.

In September 2015, when AVIC bought 51 percent of American precision-parts manufacturer Henniges, the other 49 percent was purchased by the Biden-and-Kerry-linked BHR.

Henniges is recognized as a world leader in anti-vibration technologies in the automotive industry and for its precise, state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities. Anti-vibration technologies are considered “dual-use” because they can have a military application, according to both the State Department and Department of Commerce.

The technology is also on the restricted Commerce Control List used by the federal government to limit the exports of certain technologies. For that reason, the Henniges deal would require the approval of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews sensitive business transactions that may have a national security implication.

According to BHR internal documents, the Henniges deal included “arduous and often-times challenging negotiations.” The CFIUS review in 2015 included representatives from numerous government agencies including John Kerry’s State Department.

The deal was approved in 2015.

Massive White Helmets Photo Cache Proves Hollywood Gave Oscar to Terrorist Group

https:// clarityofsignal.com/2017/02/27/massive-white-helmets-photo-cache-proves-hollywood-gave-oscar-to-terrorist-group/

Another anon posted this website last night. Lots of pictures proving the White Helmets are Terrorists.