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Dalek

Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,901

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been appointed chairman of the advisory board for Tsinghua University's economics school in Beijing, according to local news reports and a Chinese-language meeting summary noted by Apple Insider.

Cook will reportedly assume the role for the next three years, and recently acted as chairman for a meeting, as the South China Morning Post notes. Cook has been on the board in the past, as has Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who recently took on Chinese censorship in a public speech about free expression. Major Chinese government officials have also served on the board, as the Post reports. Cook succeeds Breyer Capital founder Jim Breyer in the role.

While Cook isn't the only tech industry executive to have served on the board, his chairmanship comes at a particularly fraught moment for Apple, when any relationship with China is likely to be closely scrutinized. The company faced a wave of criticism earlier this month when it removed a crowdsourced map of Hong Kong police presence from the App Store that was used by pro-democracy protestors. Cook defended the decision in an email to employees, arguing that the app had become a dangerous tool for tracking police — an idea that the app's developers have pushed back on.

Thank you, Tim Apple.
 

Canucked

Comics Council 2020 & Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,414
Canada
Tim, stop. Just keep your money and stay home. There's no need for you to be chairman of this board.
 

Lo-Volt

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,435
New Yawk City!
*sighs* Beijing really doesn't need the help of Americans on matters like this, especially under these circumstances. We should stay away.
 

Expy

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,861
Is Tsinghua a public University?
It's part of the C9 League , which was initiated by the Chinese Central Government.
The C9 League (Chinese: 九校联盟; pinyin: Jiǔ-xiào Liánméng) is an official alliance of nine universities in mainland China,[1] initiated by the Chinese Central Government through Project 985 to promote the development and reputation of higher education in China. Collectively, universities in the C9 League account for 3% of the country's researchers, but receive 10% of national research expenditures.
 

o Tesseract

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,542
Poor timing of the news I guess, but he's been on the board since 2013. Not like he's just jumped on the board in light of all the recent news.

Still, not the best look, but not a "betrayal" as many people are claiming across the net.
 

SolidSnakeUS

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,584
Yep, not surprisingly really. Funny how they worry so much about your privacy yet they are so deeply in bed with the Chinese gov't that they may as well be handcuffed to the bed posts, splayed out.
 

Nome

Designer / Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,312
NYC
Yep, not surprisingly really. Funny how they worry so much about your privacy yet they are so deeply in bed with the Chinese gov't that they may as well be handcuffed to the bed posts, splayed out.
Who is "they" here?
Is everything Tim Cook does as an official representative of Apple?
 

SolidSnakeUS

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,584
Who is "they" here?
Is everything Tim Cook does as an official representative of Apple?

In this case, how can he not be? Especially if it's for a university that was initiated by the government itself. I see this as doubling or tripling down on recent China support in the wake of the HK protests. Do you see Cook doing this as a normal thing or something for just himself personally? He's a CEO of one of the largest companies EVER; to think that this isn't for Apple as a whole to look better in the eyes of the CCP would be shortsighted.

That's how I take it.
 

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,183
Poor timing for the position.

Look at the list of people on their board though lol. It's the illuminati. http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/aboutsem/advMem.html

The Advisory Board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (2018-2019)


Honorary Chairman

ZHU Rongji
Founding Dean, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University (1984-2001)
Premier, State Council, People's Republic of China (1998-2003)

Honorary Members
Lord Browne of Madingley
Executive Chairman, L1 Energy
Chairman, Huawei Technologies (UK) Ltd.
Former Group Chief Executive, BP PLC

Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
Chairman, Paulson Institute
Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
Former Chairman and CEO, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

H. Lee Scott, Jr.
Member, Senior Advisory Council Board for BDT and Company
Former President and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

WANG Qishan
Vice-President, People's Republic of China

Chairman
Jim Breyer
Founder and CEO, Breyer Capital

Vice Chairmen
QIU Yong
President, Tsinghua University

QIAN Yingyi
Distinguished Professor of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Tsinghua University
Professor of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University
The Fourth Dean (2006-2018), School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University

Members
Mary T. Barra
Chairman and CEO, General Motors Company

Lloyd C. Blankfein
Chairman of the Board, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Carlos Brito
CEO, Anheuser-Busch InBev

CHANG Zhenming
Chairman, CITIC Group

CHEN Jining
Mayor, Beijing Municipal Government
Former Minister, Ministry of Environmental Protection, People's Republic of China
Former President, Tsinghua University

CHEN Yuan
Vice Chairperson, The 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)
Former Chairman, China Development Bank

Tim Cook
CEO, Apple

Michael L. Corbat
CEO, Citigroup Inc.

Michael Dell
Chairman and CEO, Dell Technologies

Jamie Dimon
Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Robert Dudley
Group Chief Executive, BP PLC

Denis Duverne
Chairman of the Board, AXA Group

Laurence D. Fink
Chairman and CEO, BlackRock, Inc.

William E. Ford
CEO, General Atlantic

Victor K. Fung
Group Chairman, Fung Group
Honorary Chairman, Li & Fung Limited

Christopher B. Galvin
Former Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, Harrison Street Capital LLC
Former Chairman and CEO, Motorola Inc.

Geoffrey Garrett
Dean, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Carlos Ghosn
Chairman and CEO, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi

Terry Gou
Founder and CEO, Foxconn Technology Group

Mario Greco
CEO, Zurich Insurance Group

Maurice R. Greenberg
Chairman and CEO, Starr Companies

GU Binglin
Director, Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University
Former President, Tsinghua University

GUO Shuqing
Secretary of Party Committee and Deputy Governor, People's Bank of China
Chairman and Secretary of Party Committee, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission
Former Governor, Shandong Province

HO Ching
CEO, Temasek Holdings Private Limited

Nobuyuki Idei
Founder and CEO, Quantum Leaps Corporation
Former Chairman and Group CEO, Sony Corporation

Muhtar Kent
Chairman, The Coca-Cola Company

Henry R. Kravis
Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, KKR

Harald Krüger
Chairman of the Board of Management, BMW AG

Ramon Laguarta
CEO, PepsiCo

Jonathan D. Levin
Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Richard C. Levin
Senior Adviser and Former CEO, Coursera
President Emeritus, Yale University

Richard Li
Chairman and Chief Executive, Pacific Century Group

Robin Li
Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Baidu, Inc.

LI Rongrong
Former Chairman, State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council

LIU He
Member, Political Bureau of CPC Central Committee
Vice-Premier, State Council, People's Republic of China
Head, General Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs

LIU Mingkang
Former Chairman, China Banking Regulatory Commission

LIU Shiyu
Chairman, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC)
Secretary, The CPC Committee of CSRC

LOU Jiwei
Standing Committee Member and Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, The 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)
Chairman, National Council for Social Security Fund
Former Minister, Ministry of Finance, People's Republic of China

Andrónico Luksic
Chairman, Luksic Group

Jack Ma
Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group

MA Kai
Member, Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee
Vice-Premier, State Council, People's Republic of China (2013-2018)

Pony Ma
Core Founder, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Tencent

Eric S. Maskin
Adams University Professor, Harvard University
2007 Nobel Laureate in Economics

Doug McMillon
President and CEO, Walmart Inc.

Mike McNamara
CEO, Flex

Elon Musk
CEO, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)
CEO, Tesla, Inc.

Satya Nadella
CEO, Microsoft

Nitin Nohria
George F. Baker Professor of Administration
Dean, Harvard Business School

Brian L. Roberts
Chairman and CEO, Comcast Corporation

Ginni Rometty
Chairman, President and CEO, IBM

David M. Rubenstein
Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman, The Carlyle Group

David C. Schmittlein
John C Head III Dean, MIT Sloan School of Management

Stephen A. Schwarzman
Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, Blackstone

Risto Siilasmaa
Chairman, Nokia Corporation
Chairman and Founder, F-Secure Corporation

Kevin Sneader
Global Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company

Masayoshi Son
Chairman and CEO, SoftBank Group Corp.

A. Michael Spence
Professor, Stern School of Business, New York University
2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics

Ratan N. Tata
Chairman, Tata Trusts
Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Tata Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Tata Chemicals

John L. Thornton
Executive Chairman, Barrick Gold Corporation
Chairman, Board of Trustees, Brookings Institution

Ben van Beurden
Chief Executive Officer, Royal Dutch Shell plc

Jacob Wallenberg
Chairman of the Board, Investor AB

WANG Dazhong
Former President, Tsinghua University

Marjorie Yang
Chairman, Esquel Group

YI Gang
Governor, People's Bank of China

ZHAO Chunjun
The Second Dean (2001-2005), School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University

ZHOU Xiaochuan
Vice Chairperson, The 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)
Former Governor, People's Bank of China

Mark Zuckerberg
Founder and CEO, Facebook​
 

Nome

Designer / Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,312
NYC
In this case, how can he not be? Especially if it's for a university that was initiated by the government itself. I see this as doubling or tripling down on recent China support in the wake of the HK protests. Do you see Cook doing this as a normal thing or something for just himself personally? He's a CEO of one of the largest companies EVER; to think that this isn't for Apple as a whole to look better in the eyes of the CCP would be shortsighted.

That's how I take it.
Tsinghua University isn't "initiated by the government"... it predates the CCP by about 50 years. Just because it's a public university and receives some amount of state funding doesn't make it an arm of the CCP any more than an American state university would be considered part of the government.

And yeah, CEOs tend to be associated with a whole lot of different companies and organizations by virtue of being on their board. Tim Cook is also on the board of Nike.
 
Oct 28, 2017
1,865
Wow.
Didn't know about that C9 stuff.

Seems like they're pouring a load of resources into their unis to rival the traditionally dominant ones.

Tsinghua is pretty much China's number one University. It happens to be where Xi studied and houses some of the most influential foreign and domestic policy thinkers in the country.

According to friends of mine who studied there, it also has a monumental cheating problem.
 

0VERBYTE

Banned
Nov 1, 2017
5,555
Yeah looks like China is sinking its hooks into Apple deeper and deeper.

I dont want no parts of this shit. Fuck em all