Shanghai’s water-logged-hog-gate was a strange story. It started out so dark – evidence of China’s toxic environment, or perhaps a sign of a wrathful god avenging itself on the Sodom and Gomorrah of the East. But China has been adept at finding the silver lining. First, 16,000 pigs showing up in the water was good news because it showed that the government was cracking down on the sale of porcine carcasses to restaurant suppliers and processed food companies. Then a Caixin report showed us how one man’s bloated animal carcass is another man’s industrial oil treasure.
Finally a report on Wednesday suggested that the floating pigs stemmed not from the double-dead flesh trade but from overcrowding. Officials have slashed the amount of land available for livestock in the countryside surrounding Shanghai, leading to dangerous overcapacity at farms. The bright side is that’s a problem the Chinese government knows how to deal with. As China phases out the one-child policy, where better to deploy those hard-nosed family planning officials? Another upside: Once the one-piglet policy is in place, remaining piglets will get extra special care and attention.
In other news, Huawei is no longer playing hard to get. The Financial Times caused a media storm earlier this week when it quoted Eric Xu, one of the company’s three rotating CEOs, as saying that Huawei “was not interested in the US anymore.” Initially it seemed like a spurned lover tactic, to which we said: You go, massive opaque corporation! Treat them mean and keep them keen. We know you’re a telecom company, but being too accessible never works out well.
But then a Huawei spokesperson came out today to kill our girl power buzz. It seems the statement was not an effort by Huawei to revive the magic, but a simple misunderstanding caused by the presence of pesky double negatives in the English language. “It’s out of question that we will continue our business in the US, but our focuses stay in the Asia Pacific and the Europe,” Huawei spokesman Zhang Lingbo said in helpful clarification. “We have never not said we’re not giving up on the U.S. market.”
Huawei, we’re never not ruling out giving up on you, neither.
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