China is one of the most important markets for international companies. It boasts over a billion of potential customers.

But China is also under an authoritarian regime, and one that doesn’t like criticism. It is used to the obedience of its population.

This is the backdrop for the Hong Kong protests, where China is trying to ratchet up its influence over the former British colony. And despite months of protests, it didn’t look too good for the demonstrators fighting for their democracy and freedom.

But then China threw them an unexpected lifeline: An NBA team owner tweeted his support for the Hong Kong protests, with the NBA immediately apologizing and bending the knee to China. Then the Streisand effect kicked in, drawing attention to the NBA’s actions, with US fans showing up for games sporting t-shirts or signs stating their support for the Hong Kong protests.

Another US company also inadvertently helped: after a pro player made a pro-democracy statement during a live stream for Blizzard’s Hearthstone, Blizzard banned the player for a year and forced him to forfeit his prize money (along with firing the two casters¹ who interviewed him. In return, the gaming community is pushing back hard. Players are cancelling their accounts and demanding refunds, its own developers are publicly denouncing the decision, a popular caster for Hearthstone has quit in protest, and an American team has expressed their solidarity with the Hong Kong demonstrators on-stream. Blizzard eventually relented, and reduced the ban to 6 months and no longer stripping him of his prize money. But Blizzard also claims that China had no influence on the ban, despite Blizzard China earlier apologizing for the player’s statements. (Riot Games, publisher of Leage of Legends, has asked its players and casters not to discuss politics on stream)

And then there’s Apple: First it refused to allow an app into the App Store that showed Hong Kong citizens where police presence was heaviest at the moment. Then it approved it, only to remove it again after a few days, following pressure from the Chinese government threatening unspecified consequences. Apple even removed the Quartz news app from the Chinese app store, apparently due to its ongoing coverage of the protests.

China has a lot of power over companies, due to their reliance on its cheap labor and manufacturing capabilities, and it’s growing middle class that is purchasing more and more goods from western companies. China uses that power to have these companies do their censoring for them, lest they are excluded.

But the kowtowing of these companies has also put a new spotlight on China, and Hong Kongs fight for democracy, and the power that China now has not only over its citizens, but everyone in the world. It’s a cultural clash that has been building up for years, and China’s influence can be found in unexpected places: TikTok (which purchased Musical.ly) is owned by a Chinese company and heavily censored, especially in China. Tech companies, like Apple, have tried to get access to the Chinese market for years, and now it’s biting them. These companies will have to make a decision on what’s more important to them: profits, or ethics? No matter how they decide, they will have to bear the fallout — either from the Chinese government, or from customers and domestic politics.

Wireless-less Future

WiFi is basically ubiquitous. It’s available almost everywhere, in cafes, restaurants, trains, planes, and even in space. But what we take for granted today wasn’t such a sure thing 20 years ago: How Wi-Fi Almost Didn’t Happen.

Dark Side of the Moon

The USA made history — and effectively ended the space race — when it put the first man on the moon in 1969. Before then, the Soviet Union dominated in space. It launched the first satellite, put the first man into space, and took the first photo of the moon’s back side, which no human had seen before: The First Photograph of the Far Side of the Moon from 1959.

Privacy is for the Rich

We are used to being able to control what we put online, what we share with others, and what information we choose to put on social networks. In other parts of the world, people’s only choice is to not being able to access the internet — or give up their entire privacy: Inexpensive, unpatched phones put billions of users’ privacy at risk

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2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Finalists, and Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2019 Finalists.