Day: September 7, 2021

Is U.S.-China Conflict Inevitable?

Chin@Strategy

For starters we need to ask: What aspects of our competition/conflict with China are inevitable between a rising power and a status quo power, and what can be dampened by smart policy? Let’s start with the inevitable. For roughly the first 30 of the 40 years of economic integration, China sold us what I call “shallow goods” — shirts we wore on our backs, tennis shoes we wore on our feet and solar panels we affixed to our roofs. America, in contrast, sold China “deep goods” — software and computers…

Alibaba Manager Not Charged in China’s Latest #MeToo Moment

Chin@Strategy

The police in China released a former Alibaba manager who had been accused of rape by a co-worker after prosecutors declined to charge him, deepening debate about an episode that has shaken the Chinese technology industry and prompted a reckoning for the fledgling #MeToo movement in the country. In a statement issued late Monday, the authorities in the eastern Chinese city of Jinan said that the behavior of the manager — referred to by his surname, Wang — did not constitute a crime and that his arrest had not been…

What Is The Goal Of Beijing’s New Stock Exchange?

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement A new Beijing Stock Exchange was announced by Xi Jinping at the Global Trade In Services Summit in Beijing last Thursday. Xi said the exchange would “deepen reform of the New Third Board,” referring to the existing financing mechanism in Beijing for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are firms with fewer than 500 employees. Traditionally they have struggled in comparison with larger companies to acquire loans from banks. The new stock exchange appears designed in part to make redress for that by connecting SMEs with retail investors. It…

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Stashes First Mars Rock Sample

Chin@Strategy

NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars has confirmed the successful collection of its first rock sample. “One down, a lot more to go!” Kenneth A. Farley, professor of geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology and the mission’s project scientist, said in an email. On Monday night, NASA announced that the rover had sealed the tube that contains the rock core, which is slightly thicker than a pencil, and put it away for safekeeping in its belly. That and other collected samples will be dropped to the ground to be collected…

China’s Crackdown on Private Equity Funds

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement As analysts are trying to wrap their heads around the flurry of regulation happening in China, the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced a crackdown on private equity funds. The private equity fund industry currently has an overall management scale of over 18 trillion renminbi ($2.79 trillion) with 111,800 managed funds. Most firms on the Sci-tech Innovation Board and ChiNext have received funds from private equity and venture capital funds. As the industry is relatively new, this is one area in which additional regulation is necessary, as financial risks continue…

New to the American Melting Pot, and Finding Its Taste Bittersweet

Chin@Strategy

Imagine you’re a kid, joining your mom for a day at work. This is no corporate-sponsored occasion where you’ll raid the supply closet and nibble cookies frosted with the company logo; it’s just a regular Saturday. Your mother, who was a math professor back in China, is now employed by a sushi processing plant near the Holland Tunnel. There you will stand for eight hours, clad in ill-fitting rubber boots and a hooded plastic onesie, while she guts and beheads an endless stream of salmon floating by on a metal…

China’s Xi Pressures Tycoons With ‘Common Prosperity’ Talk

Chin@Strategy

Four decades ago, Deng Xiaoping declared that China would “let some people get rich first” in its race for growth. Now, Xi Jinping has put China’s tycoons on notice that it is time for them to share more wealth with the rest of the country. Mr. Xi says the Communist Party will pursue “common prosperity,” pressing businesses and entrepreneurs to help narrow the stubborn wealth gap that could hold back the country’s rise and erode public confidence in the leadership. Supporters say China’s next phase of growth demands the shift.…