Jensen Huang's Resignation Takes a Sudden Turn, Is Beijing the Winner? | Wang Zhonglin Falls! Mysterious Woman Uncovers Wuhan Officialdom Rumors | China's Sensitive Words Become Increasingly Absurd [US Trending] 11/13
This episode focuses mainly on several trending topics: first, the downfall of Wang Zhonglin and rumors surrounding him and the Wuhan official circles; second, the deduction of the US-China AI chip game behind Jensen Huang's resignation; third, retired employees of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and depositors from Henan rural banks encountering obstacles while going to Beijing to defend their rights; fourth, the tightening of China's internet censorship environment, with sensitive words and account bans emerging endlessly; fifth, Trump's upcoming meeting with Xi Jinping and the predicament of Jimmy Lai's case; and finally, reviewing the absurd phenomenon where the police swiftly investigate an AI parody of a pig while turning a blind eye to unpaid wages.
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US Hot Search lets you hear the voice outside the Great Firewall. Hello everyone, audience and friends, welcome to today's US Hot Search, I am Qi Xiaotian. First, let's enter today's major news segment. At the height of the Wuhan epidemic in 2020, the newly appointed party secretary of Wuhan, Wang Zhonglin, demanded that Wuhan citizens carry out gratitude education, to be grateful to the General Secretary and the Chinese Communist Party. This caused a public uproar, and he eventually had to change his tune to thank the citizens of Wuhan.
On the morning of November 12, Twitter user "Afei" posted that the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) raided Wang Zhonglin's home in Jinan on November 11. On the morning of November 13, Afei broke the news again, stating that Wang Zhonglin's wife, daughter, and former son-in-law had also been taken away. His residences in Beijing, Hubei, and Jinan were all raided. About seven hours later, the CCDI officially announced that Wang Zhonglin was suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and was undergoing disciplinary review and supervisory investigation. However, details such as the raid and family members being taken away are currently just online rumors and have not been officially confirmed. As for what specific issues he is suspected of, the CCDI did not specify.
According to Caixin's report, Wang Zhonglin is 64 years old this year, a native of Feixian, Shandong. He rose all the way from a grassroots police officer to the party secretary of Jinan. During the Wuhan epidemic in 2020, he was transferred to serve as the party secretary of Wuhan, and later promoted to governor and party secretary of Hubei Province. In June this year, he stepped down as party secretary and moved to the Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation Committee of the National People's Congress as Vice Chairman. He is also a member of the 20th CCP Central Committee. Moving from a local top leader to the National People's Congress is often seen by the outside world as a sign of losing power in Chinese officialdom. Unexpectedly, just five months later, he was investigated.
The article also pointed out that a woman surnamed Hu who had a specific relationship with Wang Zhonglin was also recently investigated. This woman works for local media in Hubei and is also a native of Shandong. Notably, as early as two months ago, our channel's Twitter account published an exclusive scoop, explicitly stating that this woman surnamed Hu was the host of Wuhan News on Wuhan TV. When Zeng Sheng, the secretary-general of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee, was investigated and fell from power, it was discovered that he had an affair with this anchor. In this anchor's home, it was found that three standing committee members of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee had all left behind images involving intimate relationships in her home. Today's Caixin report locked onto one of the involved standing committee members in our scoop, who was the then party secretary Wang Zhonglin.
On the evening of November 13, the Standing Committee of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee held a meeting, and its very first sentence was to resolutely support the decision of the CCP Central Committee to conduct disciplinary review and supervisory investigation on Wang Zhonglin for suspected serious violations of discipline and law, and also demanded that cadres "use cases as a warning and keep alarm bells ringing." Six years ago, Wang Zhonglin taught the people of Wuhan to know gratitude. I wonder if he will also remember to be grateful for the Party's cultivation when he is being investigated now? After all, it was the Party that promoted him, and it is the Party that is investigating him. The Party's grace is vast, from promotion to downfall, handling it all the way.
Just over a day after Jensen Huang resigned, the official U.S. narrative regarding Huang Le has quietly shifted. Previously, U.S. media consistently cited intelligence officials claiming that Huang Le was a spy recruited by the Chinese Ministry of State Security. On November 12, Nvidia announced that Jensen Huang had resigned as CEO, effective immediately. A few hours later, when asked by a reporter when the Department of Justice learned that Huang Le was a Chinese spy, U.S. Attorney General Branch replied that no one had ever said such a thing. On the same day, CNN also reported that there were differing views within the U.S. intelligence community on whether Huang Le was a spy. Some officials believed that labeling her a Chinese spy was an overstatement, and that the intercepted communications did not prove she had any intention of passing intelligence to Beijing. Now that she has stepped down, U.S. officials are only just beginning to say there is insufficient evidence.
If Huang Le is not a spy, then this entire affair becomes a case of the U.S. causing its own trouble, undermining its own efforts, and shooting itself in the foot—which is exactly what Beijing has been saying all along. However, if we look at other news that has emerged over the past few days, Beijing is likely not just a bystander; in the game of U.S.-China AI competition, it may well be the biggest winner. What follows is our deduction.
First, regarding the whereabouts of Huang Le herself. Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Huang Le has returned to China and is currently living in Beijing. Chinese security authorities are aware of this. Her husband, Kang Wei, according to Caixin, was subjected to criminal coercive measures by Shanghai police before the Spring Festival this year on suspicion of stock manipulation. Bloomberg also reported that Kang Wei was the head of a large computing center in Shanghai, which housed a batch of Nvidia chips transferred from Singapore that were prohibited from being shipped to China. As a result, the two most critical people the U.S. needs to investigate regarding this chip network—one is living in Beijing, and the other is in the hands of the Shanghai police—are beyond the reach of the U.S. Whatever they say or do not say from now on will be decided by Beijing.
Even more suspicious is a report from Hong Kong yesterday. Just before Nvidia announced Jensen Huang's resignation, the pro-Beijing Hong Kong propaganda outlet HK01 published an investigation. The report stated that a Hong Kong company wholly owned by Huang Le imported Nvidia chips into Hong Kong from Megaspeed's Indonesian subsidiary in 2024, and in the same year, it formed a joint venture with a subsidiary of a Shanghai-listed company to open a computing company in Shanghai. The report linked the Hong Kong transit hub to the Shanghai computing company, perfectly filling in the missing link that the U.S. was looking for when tracing the flow of Nvidia chips. For a pro-Beijing propaganda outlet to proactively put this information on the table at this specific moment is, objectively speaking, kicking Nvidia while it is down and dealing a blow to Jensen Huang.
The trend of domestic public opinion is also intriguing. The topic of Jensen Huang's affair has garnered over 40 million views on Weibo, and even Hu Xijin remarked that domestic gossip posts on this matter were unimpeded. However, when former CCTV director Bai Jie posted confirming that Huang Le had worked at CCTV back in the day, and added that the affair was a minor matter while the espionage was a major one, her post was deleted, and a day or two later, her account was banned. The affair can be discussed freely, but the espionage cannot be mentioned at all. Topics that hurt Jensen Huang and Nvidia are allowed to be discussed, while topics that hurt Beijing itself are tightened.
Market reactions have been even more direct. In the week since Jensen Huang's resignation, the stock price of domestic chip company Cambricon rose by about 20%, and Enflame Technology rose by more than 40%. Brokerage research reports also suggest that the speed at which domestic chips capture the market is expected to accelerate. To understand these news items, one must first clarify: what does Beijing actually want? In January of this year, just as the U.S. cleared Nvidia's H200 chips for export, Chinese customs issued a notice prohibiting their import. By then, Chinese companies had already placed orders for over two million units. Later, Beijing only allowed the import of about 400,000 units, with the added condition that domestic chips must be purchased simultaneously. Beijing would rather have its own enterprises face chip shortages than fail to clear market space for Huawei. Jensen Huang has been speaking out in Washington for the past two years in favor of exports to China; every time the U.S. loosened its stance, Beijing had to step in at customs to block it. Now that Jensen Huang has fallen, a consensus for increased controls is forming in the U.S. Congress. A bill specifically designed to block Chinese companies from renting Nvidia computing power overseas was passed by a high margin in the House of Representatives in January of this year and is currently awaiting a vote in the Senate.
Let us look at the so-called wiretapping. US intelligence agencies tracked it for over a year. According to CNN, what made US officials most nervous was that intercepted communications showed some information flowed from someone close to Jensen Huang into Chinese intelligence channels, though it was not confirmed that this person was Huang Le. This batch of wiretaps might be one of the reasons for the memo written by Secretary of State Rubio, and it was also the starting point of this storm. Yet to this day, it still has not been able to pin a label on Huang Le. China's intelligence agencies are well aware that the overseas communications of Chinese citizens are monitored by the US. For someone truly working for the Ministry of State Security to leave behind interceptible clues was either negligence or intentional. If it was deliberately let the US hear, it was calibrated just right: enough to frighten Washington, yet lacking evidence that could be presented in court. The result is exactly as it is now: Jensen Huang has fallen, US officials say the evidence is insufficient, and Beijing can smoothly claim that the US wronged a Chinese businesswoman in order to suppress China. This deduction is bold, but it explains one thing: why has the US investigated for over a year and still failed to pin down a definitive characterization?
The final question to answer is how deeply Jensen Huang's stepping down hurts NVIDIA and the US dominance in AI chips. The stock price is not the key here; the key is speed. NVIDIA has been established for 33 years and has had only one CEO, Jensen Huang. About sixty executives report directly to him on major issues, and decisions are basically made by him. Starting in 2024, NVIDIA changed its chip release cycle from one every 2 years to one every year. This pace was set by him and sustained by his personal connections. US semiconductor research institutions have stated that South Korea's memory and Taiwan's chip production capacities were locked in by Jensen Huang personally stepping forward. NVIDIA gets goods cheaper and with higher priority than other major clients. Taking over NVIDIA temporarily is now the company's CFO. Of course, the inertia of NVIDIA's new product development and production can sustain for a while; orders and contracts for this generation of Rubin chips have already been signed, but the real test lies ahead. According to the roadmap, NVIDIA's next-generation flagship chip, Rubin Ultra, is scheduled to hit the market in the second half of 2027. However, reports in July this year suggested that the supporting new cabinet might be delayed to 2028. At that time, if Jensen Huang were still there, he could mobilize the entire company to catch up with the schedule, but now that he is gone, the same delay will be even harder to make up for. Meanwhile, Huawei's Ascend 960DT, used to train large models, is set to launch in the first quarter of next year, three quarters ahead of the original schedule. If NVIDIA's pace is slowed down, Huawei gains an extra year of catch-up time.
Looking further ahead, a chip takes two to three years from defining its direction to mass production, and the direction for after 2028 must be decided right now. In the past, such big gambles were made by Jensen Huang alone. A new management team will most likely be more cautious rather than innovative. Therefore, Beijing does not need NVIDIA to collapse; what it needs is for NVIDIA's annual release cycle to slow down by a beat. Chinese companies are stepping away from NVIDIA and toward Huawei step by step; every beat NVIDIA slows down is a year less that Huawei has to chase. This fire was lit by the Americans, but the firewood was piled up by Beijing long ago. When Huang Le high-profilely flaunted her affection back then, posting pictures of her and Jensen Huang one by one on her Moments, it was equivalent to putting the evidence out in the open in advance, and the fire caught. Afterwards, domestic discussions only allowed the topic of infidelity while sealing off discussions about espionage. Huang Le returned to Beijing, Kang Wei fell into the hands of Shanghai police, and Hong Kong media delivered another blow at this moment. After this blow, relying solely on Jensen Huang stepping down is no longer enough to stop NVIDIA's momentum. With the helmsman gone, priorities in the supply chain must be renegotiated, Washington is preparing to close the chip import door on Beijing for it, and NVIDIA's annual release cycle is on the verge of breaking. Huawei's production volume is still only a quarter of NVIDIA's. What Beijing wants is precisely this kind of breathing room. Our judgment is that in the matter of Jensen Huang's downfall, Beijing is not a bystander, but rather the most precise strike they have delivered in this AI chip war. Dear viewers, do you think this is a masterstroke played by Beijing, or did Washington start the fire itself and Beijing just happened to throw on some firewood? Welcome to leave your comments.
Bank employees demand benefits, and bank depositors demand their savings. One wants wages, the other wants their own money, yet both have to take to the streets for rights defense. Even more absurdly, if you want to go to Beijing to seek an explanation, there are checkpoints waiting for you along the way. On November 11, a large group of early-retiree employees gathered in front of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's Hunan Branch, holding small red flags to protest. According to netizens, they were dissatisfied with the sharp decline in early retirement benefits and the unit's failure to pay social insurance and housing fund contributions in full. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has not yet responded publicly.
On November 12, more than ten depositors from Henan rural banks once again traveled to Beijing for rights defense. According to news released by Teacher Li, many of them were intercepted along the way, and only a few reached the Beijing Financial Court. Depositors said their demand deposits have been unable to be withdrawn for 5 years. In 2022, some depositors of these rural banks went to defend their rights, and their health codes suddenly turned red. Four years have passed, the money has not been recovered, but there has been no shortage of methods to block people.
On November 13, a commuter traveling daily between Langfang in Hebei and Beijing posted a video stating that the highway into Beijing not only had roadblocks and retractable gates, but also a newly built Public Security Bureau checkpoint and barbed wire fences. The blogger said, "The new road from Langfang to Beijing seems to be regulated now, and whether you can get through depends on your luck." Netizens joked: Beijing and Hebei are two separate countries. The money in the bank cannot be withdrawn, the wages of bank employees cannot be recovered, and even the road into Beijing is not necessarily open. Whose money it is is hard to say, but whose road it is is managed crystal clearly.
Surfing the internet in China, some words cannot be said, and some names cannot be mentioned. Now it is even more severe; even normal speech can be treated as innuendo against leaders. Recently, netizens have successively posted about their accounts being banned. Some just praised a singer, some only posted three words, and others didn't even say anything—it was their virtual pet that caused the trouble. Let's talk about the most wronged one first: a netizen shared a song by singer Fish Leong in moments and said, "I like Cuiping's timbre." Fish Leong's real name is Liang Cuiping. As a result, this netizen's WeChat group and moments features were banned for a month. Netizens joked: super sensitive skin. On November 13, a netizen posted only three words on Weibo—"used to it"—and their account was banned. Douyin is even more absurd. Douyin has a virtual pet called "Little Fire Man," and a netizen's Little Fire Man said, "Xi Dada." However, this character "茜" can be read as xī, homophonous with "Xi." As a result, the netizen's account was permanently banned. Netizens said this is "the most unexpected way to get banned." Dongqiudi also removed a "studying" emoji, which netizens suspected was to prevent people from using it for sarcasm. Another netizen commented under a report discussing whether FIFA President Infantino could be re-elected, saying, "Can't he amend the statutes?" and added a doge emoji, resulting in their account being permanently banned.
The Chinese Communist Party attempts to control AI, but currently the quality of work leaves much to be desired. A netizen submitted a contribution saying that when Baidu's ERNIE Bot explained the Winnie the Pooh meme, it replied that this internet meme is used by netizens to mock former Chinese President Xi Jinping. Netizens laughed and said that Robin Li intends to donate his organs to our great Party. This at least proves one thing: Baidu respects the constitution. In the United States, you can openly give nicknames to the president, and Trump's nicknames are too numerous to count. In China, a singer's real name, a sentence from a virtual pet, or a comment under a football news article can make your account disappear. The increasing number of sensitive words does not show that netizens are getting bolder, but rather that someone is feeling increasingly guilty.
In five days, Trump is going to Shenzhen to meet Xi Jinping. Chips can be negotiated, tariffs can be negotiated, but there is one person Trump himself finds difficult to handle. This person is the 78-year-old Hong Kong media figure Jimmy Lai. He is the founder of Hong Kong's Apple Daily, a long-time supporter of Hong Kong's democratic movement, and a sensitive figure in the eyes of Beijing authorities. Now imprisoned, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison this February. On November 12, when Trump was interviewed, he was asked whether he could use this meeting to secure Jimmy Lai's release. According to Bloomberg and Agence France-Presse, Trump revealed that Xi Jinping harbors great hatred toward Jimmy Lai, because this supporter of the Hong Kong democratic movement has brought great trouble to the Chinese authorities. Trump said he has already secured the release of some other people, but Jimmy Lai's situation is different. Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison this February; for a 78-year-old elderly man, everyone knows what 20 years means. There is an old Chinese saying that a prime minister's stomach can hold a boat. Yet an unarmed elderly man relying on running a newspaper to speak out can make a top leader hold such a grudge, and a major country with a population of 1.4 billion cannot tolerate even a single newspaper.
In China, bosses who owe wages may not necessarily be dealt with, but letting AI generate a dancing little pig police officer brings immediate action. According to media reports, police in Nanchong, Sichuan, investigated and dealt with a so-called case of abusing AI to spoof the image of the Red Army. A netizen used AI to generate a video in which a middle-aged man wearing a Red Army octagonal hat dances together with a little pig wearing a bikini and high heels. Consequently, the police deemed this to be a desecration of revolutionary martyrs and a disruption of public order, and directly placed the person under administrative detention. Unexpectedly, in the comment section below the police notice, netizens did not care about the little pig at all, but instead collectively flooded the screen: "The people need a two-day weekend!" "When is the two-day weekend?" "Is there a penalty for not having a two-day weekend?" "When will the problem of unpaid wages for workers be resolved?" A little pig dances, and the police take swift action; workers demand unpaid wages, yet the issue may drag on for years. It can be seen that the socialist characteristics of China are: the wages of laborers can be resolved slowly, but the dignity of the image of heroes cannot be delayed for even a minute.
Let us look at a few absurd videos. In a bustling downtown area of Guangzhou, the "real economy" and "new quality productive forces" personally planned by Comrade Xi Jinping have finally been implemented. Netizens filmed young women engaging in "flexible employment" in makeshift live-streaming rooms set up with rows of plastic tents along the street. Netizens joked: women get tired from live streaming and order takeout, while men get tired from delivering takeout and watch live streaming. This is the perfect closed loop of China's internal circulation proposed by General Secretary Xi. The netizen below uses decadent literature to comment on the current state of Chinese society. The netizen sighed: This is the truth; social injustice means that hard work and diligence will definitely result in being taken advantage of.
Finally, we enter the netizen interaction segment. Netizen Michael Chen commented on Lo Ta-yu: Everyone dares to curse Taiwan's democracy, but no one dares to curse the mainland's dictatorship. The people of this world are too magical. TheNormalGuy said: If you remove Lo Ta-yu's name from his words and post them on WeChat Moments, you will be arrested immediately. Netizen Kingqueenj commented on Jensen Huang's resignation: It's good to leave; otherwise, they would find ways to sell high-end chips to China again, and then China would boast about surpassing the United States once more. Today's US trending topics end here. Thank you all for watching. If new viewers like our program, please help like and subscribe, and spread these voices from beyond the Great Firewall further. Friends who want to further support our channel can consider joining the membership of China-US Benchmarking. Until next time.