Notations From the Grid (Special W-End Edition): On #China & "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"

As we gear up for a new week of deliberations throughout out platforms, our team chose this courtesy of the Fortune's Clay Chandler on China and the escalating US-China Trade War.    Our team will be continuing its' on-going assessment:

OCTOBER 19, 2019 Variety reports Quentin Tarantino won’t re-cut his latest film, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” to accommodate Chinese censors, all but assuring the production will never be shown (legally, at least) in the world’s second-largest movie market. The buddy pic, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt and pays homage to 1960s Hollywood, was expected to rake in hundreds of millions in China for Tarantino and financial backers including Sony Pictures and Beijing-based Bona Film Group. Instead, Tarantino appears to have joined the growing ranks of commercial casualties—among them the National Basketball Association, Apple, Viacom, and Starbucks—caught in the crossfire of the escalating U.S.-China trade war. “Once Upon a Time” was slated for release in Chinese theaters on October 25. The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that distribution has been postponed indefinitely by Chinese film regulators. Beijing has declined comment about the delay. In the past, Chinese censors have cited excessive violence and nudity as reasons for blocking Tarantino films. But in the global business press, the prevailing theory is that this time Chinese authorities spiked Tarantino because of his film’s portrayal of martial arts icon Bruce Lee. The Times speculates cancelation was a response to a direct appeal to China’s National Film Administration by Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon, who has decried the film’s depiction of her father as a “mockery,” and demanded changes before its release in China. I haven’t seen the film, but by all accounts the martial arts legend comes off badly in it. Reportedly Lee’s character, played by actor Mike Moh, boasts that he could have crippled Mohammed Ali—then ends up getting thrashed by Pitt’s character. Shannon Lee has blasted Tarantino for making her father out to be “this arrogant, egotistical punching bag.” Tarantino scoffs at the complaint. The truth is, he insists, Bruce Lee was “kind of an arrogant guy.” The tussle over Lee’s image is rich with irony. He was born in San Francisco grew up in Hong Kong, and became one of the first Asian actors recognized in Hollywood. But Hong Kong didn’t fully embrace him as a star until after his death at age 32 from a brain edema. A statue of Lee on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront has become one of Hong Kong’s most photographed landmarks. Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrators have embraced his “be like water” martial arts philosophy as one of their primary spiritual influences. Beijing, for all its hostility to Hong Kong’s protestors, seems no less keen to lay claim to Lee’s legacy—and has lately shown itself to be hypersensitive to even the smallest slights to Chinese sovereignty and identity. Meanwhile, demonstrations in Hong Kong show no sign of dying down. Pro-democracy leaders are calling for a huge anti-government march Sunday in defiance of a police ban. More China news below. Clay Chandler – Clay.Chandler@Fortune.com – @ClayChandler

. . INNOVATION AND TECH Tim Cook visits China. Apple CEO Tim Cook was in Beijing this week to meet with the chief of China's market regulator. They discussed Apple expanding investment into China, among other topics, according to the Chinese agency. The meeting comes on the heels of Apple's controversial decision to remove a Hong Kong protest-related app from its App Store for alleged targeting of police officers. Critics of Apple's decision accused the company of appeasing mainland China, a key market for Apple. CNBC  Facebook vs. P.R.C. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at Georgetown University this week, extolled the importance of free speech and said global tech companies like Facebook must fight to protect it or the global Internet may start resembling China's censored version. Seemingly resigned to the fact that he will never get Facebook into the Chinese market, Zuckerberg criticized TikTok for censoring content deemed sensitive by the Chinese government and said he is not going to open Facebook data centers in China out of security concerns—a far cry from 2015, when he unsuccessfully asked Xi Jinping to help name his newborn child. Bloomberg ECONOMY AND TRADE Is the deal real? More than a week after the White House announced a preliminary "phase one" trade deal between the U.S. and China, the two sides have yet to release written details about the terms of their agreement. The lack of documentation has led analysts and investors to speculate that, in fact, no agreement was reached during Trump's meeting with Chinese vice premier Liu He in Washington last Friday. But Liu, speaking at a conference in Nanchang yesterday, suggested some sort of bargain is in the works. “The two sides have made substantial progress in many fields, laying an important foundation for the signing of a phased agreement,” he said.  CNBC Slowing growth. China's third-quarter economic growth dipped to its to its slowest pace in nearly three decades, with GDP rising only 6.0% year-on-year after an already faltering second quarter that saw just 6.2% growth. The U.S.-China trade war is starting to hit factory production, and analysts say the slowdown is mainly due to weakness in export industries. Some analysts note that China's growth was slowing before the trade war, and the slowdown will not be solved by a simple resolution of China's dispute with the U.S. Fortune Shaky stocks. Asian stocks fell, erasing the week's earlier gains, in response to China's third-quarter slowdown, which came out 0.1 percentage points lower than economists predicted. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 0.48% at close on Friday Hong Kong time, the Shanghai composite ended Friday 1.32% lower, and the Shenzhen composite was down 1.17%. Analysts pinned the stumble in shares on "macro uncertainty" around the U.S.-China trade war and widespread doubts that last week's "mini-deal" will bring economic relief. Apart from Japan, stocks elsewhere in Asia-Pacific lowered as well. CNN

Notations On Our World (Special Tuesday Edition): On #Turkey; #Syria-On the View From the Ground

As we went to press, the Turkish Army continued its' assault in Northern Syria.     President Trump imposed sanctions and noted that Vice President Pence and the National Security Advisor were slated to be dispatched to try and end the fighting.   Vice President Pence was adamant in stating that the United States did not give a green light to Turkey to invade.   There was a perception that the United States was trying to mitigate what was perceived as a Foreign Policy blunder.  

As our team continued to assess the changing true realities on the ground, we captured the following which captures the profound seismic shift in the Middle East right now : 

Notations From the Grid (Special Sunday Edition): On #Turkey, #Syria & the War...

It has been a challenging few days as the Turkish Army continues its' assault in Northern Syria.   The National's Joyce Karam released the following to get a sense of the challenges at hand in this regard as the United States is withdrawing Troops:

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@Joyce_Karam

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UPDATE: #Syria - #Turkey • Kurds/SDF STRIKE DEAL W ASSAD • Syria Regime Deployments NE to counter Turkey • 24 Civilians Killed (SOHR) • US to start withdrawal “in days” • Trump declined defending SDF • Merkel

Erdogan • US to stay in Tanf (Al Monitor) • Putin

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This is shaping up as most chaotic US withdrawal from region. Rivals hurrying to collect the spoils. With Assad deal with Kurds, a Turkey- Syria regime battle in horizon. Russia role on the rise as Trump packs and leaves

A Sampling of the engagements over Social Media underscored the challenging reality on the ground :

This is a sense of the aftermath of President Trump's Decision on the long-term impact of the challenging times before us: 

 The Economist' Kal also weighed on: