In terms of redacting the names?
I wanted to ask a little bit more about politics and diplomacy. What did you make of President Tsai’s call with Trump during the transition period?
[laughs]
What do you think about the call itself and the reaction to the call? Was it successful diplomacy, do you think?
I mean as a citizen, as a person.
In the wake of the reaffirmation of the One China Policy from President Trump, among people that you talk to here, has that felt like a betrayal?
You don’t talk to anybody about it?
You don’t care about...?
As a conservative anarchist you care about the existing system, right?
As a citizen, as an observer of politics in general, you don’t care one way or another?
In an abstract sense you’d care?
But your friends care, and you’re talking to people. You’re out to dinner with people.
You never talk about politics?
What do you think about Trump in general? What are your impressions of him? Supporter, not supporter?
[laughs] He’s good at using Twitter. You think he’s an effective communicator?
You did? Like what?
You think he’ s a good communicator. What about policy? What about policymaker?
Because you feel it hasn’t been clearly articulated, or because you haven’t...?
I see what you’re saying.
Maybe we can talk a little bit about a couple of biographical follow‑ups from some of this. You said at age eight you’ve talked about how you were doing programming on paper. You’ve talked about this in a bunch of interviews.
Can you walk me through a little bit of the specifics of what that involve, what that means? I can’t quite picture about what you mean when you’re talking about programming.
Yeah, I see what you’re saying. At 11, you’re in Germany. Can you talk a little bit more? I wanted to get a little bit more detail about the process of listening to the exiles that your father was interviewing from Tiananmen.
Where did these conversations take place? Is this at home?
In the living room, and people came in and talked...
How formative an experience was that, listening to the exiles?
In what way? What were the lessons that you took away from it or the things that you learned from it?
Which is a illusion?
Is that the thing that struck you most about their stories, or was there something else?
Let’s talk about school a little bit more. Any regrets about not finishing high school or that process of dropping out of school? Do you feel like it was a good way for you to learn?
You don’t have a diploma from either one?
If there was somebody, let’s say there was a kid, a 12‑, 13‑year‑old kid said, "I want to do what Minister Tang’s doing," you would recommend the same path?
You were 15, right? I wanted to double‑check the age when you started the search engine for Mandarin lyrics.
[laughs] Got you. Of the startups that you were involved in, which was the most lucrative? Was it Socialtext, in the end?
I read you got paid a Bitcoin an hour. Is that true?
In one of the interviews somebody said something about you being a millionaire. You said, "Well, not if you calculate it in Europe. If you calculate it in dollars."
Not in US dollars?
On the publishing house that you’re involved in from ’95 to ’97, you mentioned it started with publishing books, and then became publishers for software.
What was the name of it?
You said you wrote some pieces of software for them for...
Would you ever start another business after you get through? I read somewhere it said you consider yourself retired, but could you see yourself going back into consulting? You don’t do any consulting right at this moment, do you?
After your stint in public sectors?
You do?
Why do you think the law is silly?
What program is this that you’re using?
Back to Germany for a second. You’ve said that you began to get involved in hacking culture there, in Germany, among exiles. Can you talk a little bit...?
It’s contemporaneous with the period that you’re in Germany. It’s not necessarily something you’re learning from the people that you’re father’s interviewing?
Let me just save that. Let me ask a little bit about the US political system a little bit more. How long did you spend in the US?
Total sounds like a year?
Americans like to think of themselves ‑‑ historically there’s this notion of the "City on the Hill" ‑‑ as an example for the world to emulate. What do you think of that notion? Is there any validity, in your view, to that notion?
A useful motivator for...?
