Miles of smiles belie a fraught and fragile Trump-Xi summit
Diplomacy involves the art of telling lies with a straight face or even a reassuring smile.
On day one of Donald Trump’s China visit, political correctness and diplomatic finesse were in ample display from the US leader, while Chinese sources reported that Xi Jinping issued a stern warning to “properly” handle Taiwan, “the most important issue in China-US relations.”
Otherwise, Xi continued, “the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy.” That was typical Chinese bluster, clearly uttered for domestic consumption. The issue has been “properly” handled by the US since 1949, otherwise it would have blown up into a war by now.
Much has been written and said about China’s position of relative strength in this summit, with the US bogged down in the Iran war. This may be the reflection of the alleged antipathy of much of the mainstream media towards anything Republican Party in general and towards Trump in particular. True or not, polls show that a majority of Republicans have no trust in the US mass media.
But US and Chinese actions may be a better guide about who is actually speaking from a position of strength at the summit. We could start with trivia. China allowed a sanctioned American to travel with Trump, land in Beijing and shake hands with none less than Xi Jinping.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is renowned for China-bashing, rooted in part in his antipathy toward all things communist, hailing from an immigrant family from Cuba who was deeply influenced by the exiled, anti-communist Cuban community in Miami.
Rubio has repeatedly touched a raw nerve with Xi through his criticism of China’s atrocities against ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang and was sanctioned by Beijing in 2020. Rubio’s inclusion in Trump’s delegation and warm welcome in Beijing speaks to China’s desire to bend over backward to facilitate the summit.
While Beijing was preparing a red-carpet welcome for Trump and company, it was likely no coincidence that a jury found Lu Jianwang guilty of opening and operating a secret police station in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood on behalf of the Chinese government.
Moreover, just two days earlier, Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia in southern California, had resigned after she was charged by the US Department of Justice with being a Chinese government agent. Wang faces charges of sharing pre-written articles by Chinese government officials on the US News Centre website and spreading Chinese Communist Party disinformation, including denial of atrocities against Uighurs.
The First Assistant US Attorney had called it the latest success in America’s “determination to defend the homeland against China’s efforts to corrupt our institutions.” This calling out of China’s grey-zone war against the world’s democracies, just a couple of days before the Trump-Xi summit, would surely not have been music to Xi’s ears.
Widespread labeling of China as a totalitarian, repressive state had begun much earlier but notably intensified as the summit came closer. The US National Security Strategy 2025 re-emphasized US dominance in the Western Hemisphere, amid China’s rapid inroads.
A reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine, the portmanteau “Donroe Doctrine” stressed securing critical supply chains and materials and the “reindustrialization” of the US, measures clearly aimed at China without naming it.
Later in the document, it directly refers to China, accusing American elites of both political parties of being “either willing enablers of China’s strategy or in denial.”
There has been a slew of federal agency actions in recent weeks directed at China. On May 6, 2026, the US Trade Representative issued a notice that it has started a second, statutory four-year review of the actions taken in the “investigations of China’s Acts, Policies, and practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation.” Apparently, a routine exercise, but the timing sends a signal.
On April 14, 2026, the US Federal Trade Commission announced a “Made in USA” sweep and took action against companies for selling products made in China as if they were produced in America.
On April 16, 2026, the US State Department, headed by Rubio, issued a report on conditions in Hong Kong which said that, “Beijing and Hong Kong authorities have systematically degraded Hong Kong’s political autonomy and civilians’ rights and freedoms.”
It added that US citizens who live in Hong Kong or go there for business or tourism and “publicly criticize the Chinese Communist Party or its policies are at a heightened risk of arrest, detention, expulsion or prosecution.” The report did note there were no national security-related arrests in 2025; its appearance so close to the summit nonetheless raises eyebrows.
On 23 April 2026, the US Scam Center Strike Force brought “criminal charges against two Chinese nationals who managed a cryptocurrency investment fund compound” in Myanmar, where “trafficked workers were beaten and forced to steal from Americans.”
So why would the Trump administration initiate so many actions against China and the Chinese shortly before an important summit meeting if Trump is the summit’s underdog?
It does not stand to reason that the “stronger” party would roll out the red carpet and do legal calisthenics to facilitate sanctioned Rubio’s participation at the summit, while the “weaker” US would paint its welcome carpet black through numerous actions aimed at antagonizing China.
Trump, buoyant from his recent achievements against China in Venezuela, Panama and elsewhere, is talking in Beijing about it being an “honor” to meet and call Xi his friend.
Xi, facing an economic slowdown, falling consumption, an entrenched real estate crisis and high youth unemployment, on the other hand, issued a warning. This is what diplomacy is all about – flexing while weak and showing grace while strong – but the realpolitik reality in Beijing is that the US, not China, is deciding the relationship’s direction and tone.
Bill to block publishers from killing online games advances in California
A bill focused on maintaining long-term playable access to online games has passed out of the California Assembly’s appropriations committee, setting up a floor vote by the full legislative body. The advancement is a major win for Stop Killing Games‘ grassroots game preservation movement and comes over the objections of industry lobbyists at the Entertainment Software Association.
California’s Protect Our Games Act, as currently written, would require digital game publishers who cut off support for an online game to either provide a full refund to players or offer an updated version of the game “that enables its continued use independent of services controlled by the operator.” The act would also require publishers to notify players 60 days before the cessation of “services necessary for the ordinary use of the digital game.”
As currently amended, the act would not apply to completely free games and games offered “solely for the duration of [a] subscription. Any other game offered for sale in California on or after January 1, 2027, would be subject to the law if it passes.
“Back shortly before Christmas, when I flew to the US to help set up SKG-US, I didn’t expect us to get this far this quickly,” SKG’s Monitz Katzner wrote on Reddit after the committee vote. “It has been an honor to take part in drafting this bill on behalf of the SKG community: gamers, developers, and publishers alike.”
In a formal statement of support for the bill sent to the California legislature, SKG wrote that “there is no other medium in which a product can be marketed and sold to a consumer and then ripped away without notice… As live service games rise in popularity for game developers and gamers alike, end-of-life procedures are essential tools to ensure prolonged access to the games consumers pay to enjoy.”
The Entertainment Software Association, which helps represent the interests of major game publishers, publicly told the California Assembly last month that the bill misrepresents how modern game distribution actually works. “Consumers receive a license to access and use a game, not an unrestricted ownership interest in the underlying work,” the ESA wrote. The eventual shutdown of outdated or obsolete games is “a natural feature of modern software,” the group added, especially when that software requires online infrastructure maintenance.
The ESA also said the bill would impose unreasonable expectations on publishers regarding licensing rights for music or IP rights, which are often negotiated on a time-limited basis. “A legal requirement to keep games playable indefinitely could place publishers in an impossible position—forcing them to renegotiate licenses indefinitely or alter games in ways that may not be legally or technically feasible,” they wrote.
Last month, the Protect Our Games Act also received positive votes from the California Assembly’s Privacy and Consumer Protection and Judiciary committees. But the bill still faces significant hurdles in getting majority passage in the full California Assembly and the California Senate before being sent to California Governor Gavin Newsom for signature.
Gulf tensions deepen as reports emerge of covert UAE attacks on Iran and secret Netanyahu visit
The Middle East conflict widened further this week after reports emerged that Gulf states including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia had secretly carried out attacks on Iran, raising fears that the war could draw more regional powers directly into the fighting.
According to Reuters, Saudi Arabia launched covert strikes against Iran in retaliation for attacks linked to Tehran during the regional conflict. The operations were reportedly not made public at the time and reflected growing alarm among Gulf monarchies over Iranian missile and drone attacks targeting energy infrastructure and shipping routes.
Separately, The Guardian reported that the UAE also carried out secret military strikes against Iranian targets, including an alleged attack on facilities on Iran’s Lavan Island shortly before an April ceasefire. The report said the UAE’s actions came after repeated Iranian attacks on Emirati infrastructure during the conflict.
The disclosures have intensified concerns that the confrontation between Iran, Israel and the United States is evolving into a broader Gulf security crisis. Gulf states have increasingly faced direct threats to oil facilities, shipping lanes and urban centres since the conflict escalated earlier this year.
Iran has accused Gulf countries of cooperating with Israel and the United States against Tehran. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned that countries “colluding with Israel” would be “held to account” after reports surfaced of closer UAE-Israel coordination during the war.
The UAE has publicly denied some claims surrounding secret diplomatic and military coordination. Emirati officials rejected reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an undisclosed wartime meeting with President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, insisting relations with Israel are conducted openly under the Abraham Accords framework.
Analysts say the reported covert operations highlight divisions within the Gulf region. While the UAE has taken a more confrontational approach towards Iran and strengthened ties with Israel, other regional powers including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait have publicly warned against a wider regional war that could destabilise energy markets and the Strait of Hormuz.
The conflict has already disrupted shipping and energy infrastructure across the Gulf. A UAE-linked oil tanker was damaged in an Iranian drone strike near Oman this month, while several Gulf economies continue to face pressure from instability around the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil transit route.
This California Congressional Hopeful Opposes a Billionaire Tax. So Do His Tech CEO Backers.
The leading progressive candidate to replace longtime Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi in Congress is opposing a pair of wealth taxes on the ballot in his state and district: a one-time statewide tax on California billionaires and a local San Francisco tax on the city’s wealthiest businesses and corporations.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener’s opposition might seem uncharacteristic for someone running a progressive campaign, but it’s consistent with the priorities of two top donors to a super PAC backing his candidacy.
Crypto mogul Chris Larsen and venture capitalist Garry Tan — a pair of wealthy Bay Area tech executives funding a pro-Wiener super PAC called Abundant Future — have been outspoken advocates of stopping the taxes, both of which aim to help fill funding gaps in healthcare and social services after the Trump administration’s recent cuts to Medicaid. Larsen has poured millions of dollars into the fight.
The statewide tax, known as the Billionaire Tax Act, would levy a one-time 5 percent tax on the state’s billionaires’ wealth and assets. The local San Francisco proposition, colloquially known as the Overpaid CEO tax, would tax companies whose CEO makes 100 times more than their median worker, which mostly applies to companies with billionaire CEOs. Both will likely be on the ballot in November, as Wiener also hopes to be.
Larsen, the billionaire co-founder and executive chairman of the blockchain service Ripple Labs and now a mainstay in Bay Area political funding, has donated $100,000 to the PAC backing Wiener — the most of any individual donor — and $700,000 opposing the Overpaid CEO tax, according to federal and San Francisco city records. He’s spent far more fighting the statewide billionaires’ tax, sinking $5 million of his own wealth and another $5 million from Ripple into the Golden State Promise PAC, an anti-tax PAC he founded, per state records. Larsen gave an additional $2.5 million to a separate anti-billionaire tax group, Building a Better California, founded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. (Brin has reportedly already left the state to avoid the tax.)
Tan, the CEO of startup incubator Y Combinator, has less money to throw around, but he’s made vocal opposition to the tax measures a key part of his brand. He frequently invokes the specter of billionaires and startups fleeing the state and spreads claims that the statewide tax would mean Google’s founders would owe 50 percent of their stocks, which the tax’s backers have dismissed as false. He’s contributed $25,000 to Abundant Future.
Larsen and Tan likely see their support as “political investments that they expect a return on,” said Jeremy Mack, executive director of Phoenix Project, which tracks corporate spending in San Francisco politics. Wiener owes much of his political strength to the donors who have boosted his housing causes during his state Senate career, including Larsen and Tan. With those backers now animated against the wealth taxes, Mack said that supporting them would be “political suicide” for Wiener.
But Wiener’s opposition to the taxes positions him against the political currents now driving the Democratic Party’s progressive wing. California’s major labor unions, a supermajority of San Francisco’s board of supervisors, and national progressive leaders like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., all support the pair of taxes. Even Pelosi, Wiener’s would-be predecessor and a known moderate, is in favor of the local San Francisco tax. SEIU California, one of the state’s largest labor unions, withdrew its endorsement of Wiener in early April over his opposition to the tax measures.
Both of Wiener’s opponents in the three-way June 2 primary — progressive member of San Francisco’s board of supervisors Connie Chan and Justice Democrats co-founder Saikat Chakrabarti — are in favor of the taxes. Most California voters support the statewide billionaire tax, according to a March poll, including 72 percent of Democratic voters.
“If you look at who is bankrolling [Wiener], he is doing the bidding of massive corporate interest,” Justin Dolezal, a San Francisco bar owner and co-founder with Small Business Forward, an advocacy group that supports both wealth taxes, told The Intercept. “That’s what he’s looking out for, rather than the average, everyday working San Franciscans.”
Wiener’s campaign did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.
“He is doing the bidding of massive corporate interest. That’s what he’s looking out for, rather than the average, everyday working San Franciscans.”
While Wiener in the past has brushed off concerns of corporate backers influencing his policy, saying that he and his wealthiest donors “have agreements and disagreements,” their alignment in opposition against two popular wealth taxes has drawn concern from housing and homelessness advocates, who were already skeptical of Wiener for boosting housing development in the city that they argue favors real estate corporations. The real estate industry was consistently among his top donors during his state Senate elections.
Wiener is a proponent of the “Yes in My Backyard” movement that seeks to address the housing crisis by increasing the housing stock, while opponents criticize it for its emphasis on boosting development rather than redistributing wealth. The movement has morphed over the past several years with the growth of the abundance movement, which is popular among San Francisco’s powerful billionaires and aims to remove regulations and red tape to speed up development.
In addition to being top donors to Abundant Future, Tan and Larsen, along with Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman, have been consistent supporters of Wiener’s YIMBY vision. During his decade in the state Senate, Wiener introduced a series of bills that cut regulations to accelerate housing development across the state, a core tenet of YIMBYism and abundance. Critics on the left dismissed his policies as rewards for corporate commercial real estate developers that failed to meet San Francisco and the state’s housing needs, as well as exacerbating gentrification and displacement of its low-income residents. Opponents instead argue for redistribution of wealth, using the housing that already exists and direct investment in services for low-income people.
Confronting challenges over his support from wealthy donors during his campaign for Congress, Wiener often refers to his track record of taking on corporations, such as introducing AI regulation bills, one of which drew the ire of some of his tech backers, including Tan. But earlier this year, Wiener and Tan partnered on a failed state bill that would have restricted Big Tech companies from self-preferencing their products over smaller companies. While Wiener touted the legislation as a way to rein in the likes of Apple and Google, Tan’s company, Y Combinator, likely would have benefited because it helps launch new startups.
Tan has also worked to insulate the tech sector from organized labor, accusing the state’s labor leaders of having the goal of “killing the tech golden goose and taking maximum waste into the budget … until CA ceases to work for everyday Californians.”
Larsen, meanwhile, railed against unions at a San Francisco business event in January, calling on his peers to “start fighting on par with the unions when they propose these absolutely stupid propositions like this crazy CEO tax.” Larsen echoed the message at a separate tech donor gathering Tan hosted months later.
Larsen did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment. A spokesperson for Tan told The Intercept to “look at Mr. Tan’s posts on X/Twitter,” where Tan has called the billionaire tax “a destroy tech in California proposition” and the overpaid CEO tax “bad policy wrapped up in anti-billionaire bullshit.”
Wiener’s legislative record reveals an inconsistent history of supporting progressive taxation. In 2018, he opposed a successful local tax on big businesses to fund homelessness services. Two years later, Wiener supported the first iteration of the CEO tax, the first of its kind nationwide, before it was undone in 2024.
At a candidate forum in January, Wiener said he supported progressive taxes, but he would wait until the Billionaires Tax Act got on the ballot to decide. In April, Wiener said he opposed the local CEO tax, saying he didn’t want to interrupt San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s economic recovery agenda and that he would pursue similar progressive tax reform in Congress. And last week, after the state billionaire tax’s backers announced they had the necessary signatures to enter it on the ballot, Wiener said he was also against the statewide tax.
“California already has an unstable boom-bust tax system because of the devaluation of property taxes and reliance increasingly on income taxes on wealthy residents,” Wiener told the San Francisco Standard. He said he disagreed with the approach, especially given that it’s a one-time tax.
“It sounds like a person that’s in opposition, but doesn’t want to be seen as Republican,” said Paul Boden, a longtime advocate for people living unhoused. “It’s the neoliberal justification for continuing down the same neoliberal path since Reagan: that doing something that might impact some wealthy people is bad for all of us.”
“It’s the neoliberal justification for continuing down the same neoliberal path since Reagan: that doing something that might impact some wealthy people is bad for all of us.”
Boden, the executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, has long sparred with Wiener on his housing and homelessness policy. In 2016, when Wiener was a San Francisco board supervisor, Boden spoke out against a letter Wiener wrote to the city’s police chief, which had called for a sweep of homeless encampments amid that year’s winter storms. He has criticized Wiener’s housing policies, arguing they prioritize middle-income San Franciscans over the city’s poor.
The results of Larsen and Tan’s ad spending can already be seen on the airwaves in and around San Francisco. Abundant Future has been running ads and sending mailers that paint Chakrabarti, who is advocating to nationalize AI by turning struggling AI companies into public utilities, as a carpetbagger amid his surge in recent polls. Larsen has said that he supports candidates promoting AI regulation, and he plans to spend millions backing Alex Bores, a New York congressional candidate facing heavy oppositional spending from a PAC backed by openAI.
Larsen-funded ads released by his Golden State Promises PAC aired during California’s recent gubernatorial debate, saying the billionaire tax would “backfire and hurt you.”
Supporters of the local and state wealth taxes argue that more revenue is needed to address California’s shortfall due to federal healthcare funding cuts, which is estimated at a $100 billion loss over the next five years. There are more than 200 billionaires who live in the state, according to Forbes data compiled by tax advocates. Most of the revenue from the one-time state tax would go to healthcare, with some set aside for food assistance at schools and other education programs.
Revenue from San Francisco’s local Overpaid CEO tax — which has been estimated to bring in $250 to $300 million each year — is designed to go to the city’s general fund, with its supporters hoping to invest in healthcare, mental health treatment, and housing support. Larsen and opponents are also funding support for a dueling “poison pill” measure, which would negate the Overpaid CEO tax if approved.
To Mack of the Phoenix Project, this kind of spending is par for the course in politics but should inspire voters to think critically about whom they support.
“The more politicians are in their pockets,” said Mack, referring to wealthy donors, “the less we can expect regular Californian/San Franciscan people’s voices to matter.”
Correction: May 14, 2026, 4:05 p.m. ET A previous version of this article misstated the first name of a San Francisco bar owner and co-founder with Small Business Forward; he is Justin Dolezal, not Jerome.
Order, character and time preserved in China’s classical furniture
The first time one truly stands before a Ming-style horseshoe-back armchair, a quiet misperception arises. It does not feel like an antique. It feels like a piece of modern design completed several centuries too early.
There is no heavy imperial pomp, no crowded carving, none of the mother-of-pearl inlay so often associated with later Qing taste, no need for gold, jewels, heraldry or sheer mass to announce value. Four legs touch the ground. The arms open outward. The back curves with restraint. Under the light, the grain begins to move. The object is silent, yet its structure, proportion and hierarchy are unmistakable.
The value of Chinese classical furniture does not lie in the vague label of “Eastern style.” It lies in the way timber, craftsmanship, bodily scale, spatial etiquette and collecting history enter a daily object and turn it into a form of civilization.
The first element is wood.
According to Shi Hao, founder and director of the Donghu Rosewood Museum in Wuhan, the three great tribute woods of antiquity refer to the precious hardwoods selected for imperial use during the Ming and Qing periods and offered by local authorities or tributary regions. They were known as “first yellow, second purple, third red”: huanghuali, zitan and dahong suanzhi. The classification offers a direct entrance into the material hierarchy of Chinese furniture. Huanghuali is prized for warmth and grain; zitan for density, darkness and gravity; dahong suanzhi for its deep red tone, hardness and stability.
Shi Hao, founder and director of the Donghu Rosewood Museum, with Ma Weidu, the renowned Chinese antique collector, connoisseur and writer. Photo: Shi Hao
Among Ming-style furniture, huanghuali occupies a special place. The finest Hainan huanghuali can glow in tones of amber, honey and reddish brown. Its grain may resemble mountains, running water or drifting clouds.
Most distinctive are the so-called guilian or limian patterns — “ghost faces” or “lynx faces,” also known as ghost eyes or coin patterns. These dark brown clusters can look like theatrical masks, leopard markings or stacks of ancient coins. On a table surface or a chair back, one may see many such images: half-face, half-eye, half-apparition. Craftsmen and collectors describe the wood as alive because these images are not carved into it. They grow from within.
This is one reason Ming furniture often prefers plain surfaces. It was not a lack of decorative ability. It was respect for the material. Huanghuali already contains landscapes, clouds, ghost faces and coin patterns. Excessive carving would interrupt the wood’s own painting.
From the middle and late Ming period onward, fine hardwoods entered elite furniture through southern trade, maritime commerce and the consumer culture of Jiangnan. As large pieces became scarce and slow-growing timber more difficult to obtain, huanghuali came to be regarded as “gold among woods.” The literati liked it unadorned because the grain itself was the event.
Today, museums and traditional craft institutions are again reorganizing this material knowledge. The Donghu Rosewood Museum occupies about 2,000 square meters and houses more than 400 pieces of precious classical rosewood furniture. Through research and development with expert teams from the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum, it uses Suzhou-style craftsmanship to revive the elegance of Ming furniture.
This matters beyond one institution. It shows that Ming-style furniture is no longer only an antique category in the collecting market. It has returned to the fields of material study, craft history, museum research and contemporary aesthetic education.
After material comes structure.
The most refined part of Chinese classical furniture is often hidden at the joints. Mortise-and-tenon construction is not merely the romantic idea of “using no nails.” It is a structural system for dealing with force, expansion, contraction, weight and stability. Wood moves with humidity. Metal nails can injure its nature. Mortise and tenon allow furniture to breathe within limits, which is one reason so many pieces have survived for centuries.
To understand a horseshoe-back armchair, one cannot stop at the outline. One must see how the arms extend from the back, how the back splat receives the human body, whether the legs splay just enough, how the stretchers distribute force and how aprons and openings balance support with visual rhythm. Luoguo stretchers, ba wang stretchers, mitered frames with floating panels, waisted construction, foot supports and soft seats are not a list of antique terms. They are the grammar of structure.
If the proportion is wrong, the spirit of the object collapses. If the arm is too high, the body resists. If the back is too straight, one does not wish to remain seated. If the legs are too thick, lightness disappears. Fine Ming furniture is not simply “simple.” It is accuracy after compression. Minimal appearance is only the surface. Precision is the essence.
In the traditional craft system, measurement was never casual. Ming carpenters, especially in Jiangnan, often used the Luban ruler, also called the menguang ruler or bazi ruler, to determine the dimensions of doors, beds, tables and other objects. Luban, whose personal name was Gongshu Ban, was a celebrated craftsman of the state of Lu during China’s Spring and Autumn period, roughly 770 to 476 BCE.
This period overlaps broadly with archaic Greece and the Roman kingdom. At a time when the foundations of Eastern and Western civilizations were both being laid, Chinese craft culture was already linking technique, measurement and symbolic order.
Ming-style hongmu round-back armchairs. Photo: Art Habsburg Visual Archive
The Luban ruler divided measurement into auspicious and inauspicious positions. Common favorable characters included wealth, righteousness, office and good fortune; unfavorable ones included illness, separation, calamity and harm.
A saying from Luban’s handbook on architecture, the Luban Jing Jiangjia Jing states: “Beds do not leave seven, tables do not leave nine, stools do not leave three, doors do not leave five, coffins do not leave eight.” The phrase reflects a belief that the final dimensions of beds, tables, stools and doors should not only serve use, but also fall within auspicious measurements.
Seen from a modern perspective, this belongs to feng shui and symbolic belief. Seen within traditional society, it shows that furniture making was not merely technical labor. It joined bodily scale, domestic peace and psychological order into one craft discipline.
Imperial architecture and court objects took measurement even more seriously. The Qing dynasty Gongbu Gongcheng Zuofa Zeli, the official building standards of the Board of Works, listed numerous door dimensions aligned with auspicious Luban positions, including categories such as “wealth-increasing doors,” “righteousness and harmony doors,” “official rank and emolument doors” and “fortune and virtue doors.”
A bed, a table or a door was therefore not simply processed timber. It carried ideas of household stability, continuing fortune and maintained order. The proportion of Chinese classical furniture came from eye and hand, but also from a long inheritance of measurement culture.
This design logic explains why Ming furniture speaks so naturally to modern design.
A hongmu nanguanmao chair, also known as a Southern official’s hat chair. Photo: Art Habsburg Visual Archive
Modernism values structural honesty, material honesty, functional clarity and formal restraint. Ming furniture had already achieved these principles centuries earlier. It lacks the coldness of industrial design, but it possesses the modern spirit at its core: It does not conceal structure, it does not abuse decoration and it does not substitute mass for authority.
A Ming-style chair can stand in a modern house, a gallery or a private study beside stone, concrete, abstract painting and contemporary lighting without appearing theatrical. Its outline is clear, its scale controlled, its material legible, its structure self-evident.
Yet furniture is never only design.
In late Ming literati life, furniture formed a spatial order. A painting table was not an ordinary table. It was the center for reading, writing, viewing paintings, burning incense and receiving guests. A horseshoe-back armchair determined posture, line of sight, ritual distance and the bearing of the host. An incense stand might hold only a burner, a vase or a scholar’s rock, yet it gave the room breath. A luohan bed stood between bed, couch and seat. One could recline, converse, drink tea, read or rest upon it. It belonged to the zone between private life and social space.
Hall furniture emphasized order and ritual. Study furniture emphasized solitude and cultivation. Beds and couches joined the daily body to the life of the mind. The placement, scale and grouping of furniture formed a social language. Ming furniture gave particular importance to empty space. Emptiness here was not absence. It was control. It allowed distance between objects, room for light, air and movement. A sophisticated room is not one packed with valuable things. It is one in which each object knows its position.
Collecting value must also be judged from within this system.
The price of a piece of Chinese classical furniture is not determined by wood alone. Wood is only the threshold. What gives a piece scholarly and market value is age, form, proportion, workmanship, condition, provenance, publication history, exhibition record and collecting pedigree.
The international market has already shown what truly top-level Chinese classical furniture can command. Christie’s has cited important results: a 16th- to 17th-century huanghuali circular incense stand sold for US$5,847,500, while an 18th-century zitan luohan bed sold for US$3,607,500. Such prices make clear that top Chinese classical furniture is no longer treated internationally as decorative antiquity. It is a high-level art asset combining material rarity, technical refinement, aesthetic rank and collecting history.
To judge a huanghuali piece, one must ask several questions. Is the timber old material? Does the form correspond to the period? Are the mortise-and-tenon joints original? Are panels, legs, aprons or openings later replacements? Is the patina natural? Has the surface been over-polished, waxed or recolored? Has the structure undergone major repair? Have dimensions been altered? Is the provenance clear? Has the piece entered significant collections, exhibitions, catalogues or auction records?
Provenance is especially important at the high end of the market. Without a clear history, even beautiful material remains limited in value. With a documented collecting record, publication history and scholarly background, a piece is no longer merely an old object. It becomes a cultural asset tested by time, connoisseurship and the market.
Authenticity demands the most experience.
Chinese classical furniture cannot be judged simply by whether it looks old. Old wood can be used to make new furniture. New furniture can be aged artificially. Old components can be recombined. Partial restoration can change the value of the whole. The real judgment lies in whether wood, structure, proportion, tool marks, patina, wear and use logic agree with one another.
Naturally used furniture ages with direction. The arms become smoother where hands often rested. The seat shows subtle wear where the body made contact. The lower legs carry traces of long contact with the floor. Drawer edges grow rounded from repeated opening and closing. Real traces of life are never evenly distributed. If a piece is uniformly old from top to bottom, caution is required.
Renowned Chinese painter Leng Jun admires the wood material and craftsmanship. Photo: Shi Hao
Patina is not a layer of shine. It is the surface condition formed by hands, air, light, dust, use and time. Good patina is calm, warm and layered. Over-polishing erases time. Artificial aging invents it. Old furniture fears two things most: being restored too new, or being made too old. One destroys evidence; the other fabricates history.
Late Ming furniture history also contains an emperor who cannot be avoided: the Tianqi Emperor, Zhu Youxiao, who reigned from 1620 to 1627. He was so devoted to woodworking that he may be called the most “hands-on” emperor in Chinese history. Later generations remembered him as the “carpenter emperor.” The title is not a casual anecdote. It places the precision and prosperity of late Ming woodwork beside the decay of imperial politics, creating one of the strangest and most tragic images in Chinese dynastic history.
According to the Ming Shi, the official History of the Ming dynasty, and Liu Ruoyu’s Zhuozhong zhi, a detailed insider account of the late Ming court, Zhu Youxiao loved carpentry intensely. He is said to have made miniature palace models, folding beds, small screens, lacquer objects and mechanical wooden pieces with his own hands. When working with wood, he could forget meals, sleep, heat and cold.
Even skilled craftsmen in the palace acknowledged the refinement of his work. Later accounts even record that he had eunuchs take some of his pieces outside the palace to sell, giving his hobby an oddly worldly quality: An emperor not only admired woodwork, but personally sawed, planed, carved and shaped timber into objects.
The story darkens quickly. The emperor’s absorption in carpentry coincided with the rise of Wei Zhongxian. Wei held major positions, including writing eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial and head of the Eastern Depot. The Ming Shi, Britannica and historians in China and abroad commonly regard him as one of the most powerful eunuchs in Chinese history. Britannica states: “He is usually considered by historians to have been the most powerful eunuch in Chinese history.”
In accounts such as Liu Ruoyu’s, Wei would present important memorials while the emperor was absorbed in his tools. Tianqi would often respond with a phrase to the effect of: “I have understood. You handle it well.” Affairs of state then passed into the hands of the eunuch faction.
On one side were sawdust, shavings, mortise and tenon, lacquer and ingenious furniture. On the other were court corruption, eunuch domination, unpaid military funds, worsening frontier pressures and spreading unrest.
Tianqi did not create Ming-style furniture. His significance is different. He became the most extraordinary imperial footnote to late Ming wood culture. That an emperor could work wood so well that craftsmen admired him shows how mature the craft system had become. That the same emperor abandoned government to his obsession gives this furniture history an unavoidable political shadow.
The maturity of Ming furniture did not come from Tianqi alone. It arose from Jiangnan wealth, maritime hardwoods, literati taste, court demand and a developed craft system. Zhu Youxiao’s meaning lies in the contradiction he embodies: Woodwork could become refined enough to enter the emperor’s hands, while the dynasty itself had become fragile enough to be undone by failed authority. Behind a folding bed, a miniature palace or a lacquered mechanism stood not only skill, but the imbalance of an age.
Chinese classical furniture deserves to be seen from this breadth.
It is not a single category of object. It is a complete civilizational cross-section. Its materials come from nature and trade. Its structure comes from craft experience. Its proportion comes from bodily scale and the Luban ruler. Its space comes from literati life. Its value comes from collecting history. Its authenticity comes from trained judgment. It belongs to technical history and aesthetic history, to market value and to the shadow of dynastic rise and decline.
True Chinese classical furniture does not rely on massive scale to intimidate, nor on gold and jewels to seduce. It hides civilization in structure, status in proportion and time in wood grain. It gives a daily object practical, aesthetic, ritual and spiritual weight.
Beauty need not shout.
Power need not always sit on a golden throne.
Sometimes a piece of wood, shaped by exacting eyes, precise hands, auspicious measure and long time, is enough to preserve a civilization’s judgment.
Jeffrey Sze is chairman of Habsburg Asia (partially owned by the Habsburg Family) and GP of both Archduke United LFP and Asia Empower LPF. He specializes in high-end art transactions and RWA-T operations. In 2017, he secured a cryptocurrency exchange license in Switzerland.
You are here: Home/All RECIPES/ Southern-Style Honey Butter Cornbread Poppers – Sweet, Savory & Irresistible
These Southern-Style Honey Butter Cornbread Poppers are the perfect bite-sized treat—soft, fluffy, and packed with rich corn flavor, melty cheddar, and a sweet drizzle of honey butter. Whether you’re serving them as a snack, appetizer, or side dish, they’re guaranteed to be a hit at any table.
Ready in just 30 minutes, these mini cornbread bites are simple to make, incredibly satisfying, and perfect for sharing. One bite and you’ll understand why they disappear so quickly!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Quick & easy – Ready in under 30 minutes
Perfect texture – Fluffy inside with lightly crisp edges
Crowd favorite – Great for parties, potlucks, or family dinners
Versatile – Works as snack, side, or appetizer
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)
Add-ins
1 cup sweet corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Honey Butter
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup unsalted butter (softened)
Instructions
1. Preheat the Oven Preheat to 400°F (200°C) and grease a mini muffin tin.
2. Mix Dry Ingredients In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3. Combine Wet Ingredients In another bowl, whisk buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter until smooth.
4. Make the Batter Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix gently until just combined.
5. Add Mix-Ins Fold in corn kernels and shredded cheddar cheese.
6. Fill the Pan Spoon batter into the muffin tin, filling each cup about 2/3 full.
7. Bake Bake for 12–15 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Make Honey Butter Mix softened butter and honey until smooth and creamy.
9. Serve Let poppers cool slightly, then drizzle with honey butter and serve warm.
Tips for Perfect Poppers
Don’t overmix the batter to keep them light and fluffy
Use fresh corn for the best flavor if available
Let them cool slightly before removing to avoid sticking
Generously drizzle honey butter—it makes all the difference
Variations
Spicy twist: Add jalapeños or pepper jack cheese
Cheese swap: Try mozzarella or gouda
Gluten-free: Use a gluten-free flour blend
Extra flavor: Add herbs like chives or parsley
Serving Ideas
These poppers pair perfectly with:
Chili or soups
BBQ dishes
Fried chicken
Salads or coleslaw
Breakfast plates
Storage & Reheating
Fridge: Store up to 3 days in an airtight container
Freezer: Freeze up to 2 months
Reheat: Warm in oven at 350°F for 10 minutes or microwave briefly
Final Thoughts
These Honey Butter Cornbread Poppers are the ultimate comfort food—simple, flavorful, and perfect for any occasion. With their fluffy texture, cheesy goodness, and sweet buttery finish, they’re guaranteed to become a favorite in your recipe collection.
US officials suspect Iranian hackers breached tank readers at US gas stations: Report
US officials believe Iranian hackers may be responsible for a series of breaches involving systems that track fuel levels in storage tanks at gas stations across several US states, CNN reported Saturday, Anadolu reports.
The hackers reportedly took advantage of automatic tank gauge (ATG) systems that were connected to the internet without password protection.
This access allowed them, in some instances, to alter the displayed tank readings, though not the actual fuel quantities, the report said.
While the cyberattacks are not believed to have caused any physical damage or injuries, they have sparked safety concerns.
According to US officials and private cybersecurity experts, unauthorized access to an ATG system could theoretically enable a hacker to conceal a gas leak.
Sources involved in the investigation said Iran’s past involvement in targeting fuel tank systems is one reason it is considered a leading suspect, according to CNN.
However, they noted that the US government may never be able to conclusively identify those responsible because the hackers left behind little forensic evidence.
Making cement from a different type of rock could clean up emissions
Cement production alone currently accounts for about 8 percent of global CO2 emissions, so considerable effort is going into lowering that number. Efficiency can be increased, and energy sources can be swapped for cleaner ones, but a stubborn reality remains: The byproduct of turning limestone into lime during cement production releases CO2 gas. These “direct process emissions” are actually slightly larger than the emissions from burning fuel to heat the kilns and drive this process.
A new paper in Communications Sustainability suggests a route to eliminating direct process emissions by removing a bedrock assumption. What if we don’t have to use limestone cement?
Get out of Portland
The material we call “Portland cement” was developed in the 1800s. It simply requires heating limestone (calcium carbonate) and adding something like clay or coal ash. This gives you the calcium oxide (lime) you’re after but also releases the CO2 that results when you pull an oxygen atom from carbonate.
The authors of the new paper include the CEO and an engineer from a company that says it has made Portland cement from silicate rocks like basalt—at the lab scale. Basalt contains a mix of minerals that include calcium, aluminum, iron, magnesium, sodium, silicon, and oxygen. (Note the absence of carbon from that list.) The basic idea is that you don’t need limestone to get calcium oxide.
The process of freeing these components from basalt looks more like a refining or recycling process than the toss-it-in-the-oven simplicity of the limestone process. Acid can be used to leach elements like calcium out, then a chemical or energetic process precipitates that calcium as calcium hydroxide. Toss that in a kiln with additives of your choice, and with less heating than you need for limestone, you’ve got Portland cement, with only water vapor released.
Those steps (along with follow-up reactions to restore the acid or other chemicals to a usable state) obviously add up in terms of cost and energy use. Tallying up the energy to do all this using common techniques, the researchers found that you need to use a little more than double the energy of traditional production from limestone.
The interesting thing is that, according to thermodynamics, the chemical conversion of basalt minerals to calcium oxide only requires around half as much as the conversion from limestone. The problem is that our techniques to facilitate that chemical conversion are quite inefficient, so we don’t get anywhere near what is theoretically possible.
Better options?
The researchers note that there are at least some known lab techniques that could greatly improve our efficiency if they can be applied at scale, but even if we’re stuck with doubled energy usage, producing Portland cement from basalt would significantly reduce CO2 emissions. That’s because the direct liberation of CO2 from limestone is eliminated and because the whole process can run on electricity.
Assuming you use electricity from a fossil-fuel-dominated grid, they estimate that emissions would be cut by almost 30 percent. Using clean electricity would eliminate most of the remaining emissions.
The trade-off, obviously, would be cost, which generally wins out over the sustainability of a livable environment.
But there is another interesting aspect to this idea: The other components of the basalt also have value. Iron, magnesium, and aluminum could also be separated and recovered, and leftover silicate material can serve as the additive for Portland cement instead of something like coal ash. So if these things were done together, the process could become more economically feasible.
That’s a lot of ifs and buts, but this relatively simple analysis can at least point to what would have to happen to make this viable. And given that cement is one of the tougher nuts to crack in the struggle to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, concrete solutions are welcome.
MMA Star Dead at 30 After Saving 4 Teens from Drowning
MMA fighter Medet Zheenaliev has died at just 30 years old after reportedly sacrificing his own life to save four teenage girls from drowning in a terrifying lake accident.
The former fighter was spending time with friends at the massive Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan when tragedy struck. According to reports, strong currents suddenly pulled several teenage girls into dangerous waters, triggering panic along the shoreline.
Without hesitation, Zheenaliev and one of his friends rushed into the lake to help.
Witnesses said the MMA star managed to help all four girls get back to safety. But in a heartbreaking twist, Zheenaliev disappeared beneath the surface moments later and never came back up.
Divers later recovered his body from the bottom of the lake the following day. Officials reportedly ruled the incident a drowning during a rescue mission.
The shocking death has sparked an outpouring of grief online, with many hailing Zheenaliev as a hero who gave his life saving others.
Lake Issyk-Kul, where the tragedy happened, is one of the deepest lakes in the world and is known for unpredictable currents that can quickly turn deadly.
Zheenaliev competed professionally in MMA between 2017 and 2019, finishing his career with a 2-2 record.
He made an explosive debut by defeating Vladimir Kravchuk with a first-round armbar submission before scoring another quick finish months later with a brutal knockout win over Shamil Temirkhanov.
But his promising run inside the cage eventually cooled off after back-to-back losses, including his final bout in August 2019, which ended in a doctor stoppage after the opening round.
The fighter had reportedly been scheduled for another match later that year, but the bout was canceled for unknown reasons.
Now, years after stepping away from the sport, Zheenaliev is being remembered not for his wins or losses inside the cage — but for the courageous final act that cost him his life.
Israel Assassinates Hamas Military Chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad in Gaza City
Israel’s military announced Saturday that it had killed Izz al-Din al-Haddad, identified as the chief of Hamas’ military wing, in what it described as a targeted strike in Gaza City against a senior figure involved in directing combat operations and rebuilding Hamas military capabilities. Al-Haddad was the most senior Hamas leader killed since the ceasefire was declared last October.
According to the military, the strike targeted al-Haddad in Gaza City. Reuters reported that his wife and daughter were also killed in the attack.
In a statement Saturday, the IDF said that despite ceasefire provisions calling for Hamas to disarm, al-Haddad had recently “acted to rebuild the capabilities of the terrorist organization’s military wing and to plan numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.”
AFP photographs showed mourners carrying al-Haddad’s body on a stretcher wrapped in a Hamas flag through the ruins of a damaged building.
The military said that over the past two weeks it had also two Hamas members involved in the October 7 invasion. They were identified as Iyad Muhammad Al-Matouq and Khaled Muhammad Salem Jouda.
Separately, Hamas leadership elections ended without a final result, prompting plans for another round of voting, Ynet reported. No candidate secured victory in the first round of voting between Khalil al-Hayya and Khaled Mashal, the two leading contenders for leadership of the organization.
