Topics: EVs• China• Wang Chuanfu: A Name Everyone in the West Should Know Elon Musk has almost 100% name recognition worldwide. Wang Chuanfu (王传福), the founder of BYD which just beat Tesla in global electric vehicles sales, is virtually unknown in the west. Even in China, he is only well-known in the business circle and has a
Topics: AI• China• Regulation• 🤷Does China Want Generative AI? My first post of 2024 tries to answer a question I’ve been wrestling with throughout 2023. Does China want generative AI? Increasingly, I think the answer is: not really. On balance, China as a whole (minus the small, elite circle of tech entrepreneurs,
Topics: Nvidia• AI• China• Nvidia’s China Business is Important to US Geopolitical Positioning But not in the way most people think. Sun Tzu, who wrote “The Art of War” roughly 2500 years ago, distilled many military strategies that are studied by both military and business leaders everywhere. One of the more well-known psychological warfare tactics he espoused
Topics: China• Macro• 5️⃣ China's Future Through the Wubi Lens Recently, I did a weekend long road trip, and then promptly fell sick for a week (thus the delayed publishing of this post, sorry folks!). During my weeklong nasal-congestion-induced stupor, I kept thinking about the stretch of drive over the Blue Ridge Mountains where
Topics: AI• China• 🔊Capital Allocators China - Generative AI Panel Last week, I was invited to do a panel discussion with members of Capital Allocators China on notable trends in generative AI between the US and China. This is the China chapter of Ted Seides’s Capital Allocators community, so the audience is mostly
Topics: VC• China• Geopolitics• “Hardtech” Corporate VCs Rising in China Huawei runs a little-known corporate VC division called Habo Investment. I first wrote about Habo back in early 2021, when it was barely two years old. Yet, at that time, it had already made 22 investments, five of which have gone public on the
Topics: TikTok• ByteDance• China• RESTRICT First, Ban Later Since my first post on the RESTRICT Act two weeks ago, the bill has gotten a lot more attention and scrutiny than when it was first announced on March 7. And deservedly so. Its definition of what types of technologies may constitute national security
Topics: Regulation• China• RESTRICT China From time to time, I like to read the full text of a legislative bill, if only to put my past work experience at the White House and my law degree to some good use. What caught my attention recently was the RESTRICT Act,
Topics: Industrial Planning• Semiconductor• China• US vs China: How Can America Win? The technology competition between the US and China is often framed as a race where China is trying to catch up, while the US is trying to maintain its lead by using tools, like export control, to keep China behind. For the first time
Topics: AI• Regulation• China• So Which Algorithms Do the Chinese Regulators Have? Back in January, [http://www.cac.gov.cn/2022-01/04/c_1642894606364259.htm] the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), in coordination with several other regulatory bodies, enshrined a new policy to regulate how algorithms are used in Chinese Internet companies. Seven months later, the
Topics: China• Alibaba• Jack Ma• Ant IPO and China's "Startup Debt" Problem Last week, Chinese tech stocks went through a mini rollercoaster. The Wall Street Journal first reported that regulators were close to completing their cybersecurity investigations [https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-to-conclude-didi-cybersecurity-probe-lift-ban-on-new-users-11654501320?mod=hp_lead_pos6] of Didi, Full Trust Alliance, and Kanzhun, sending stock
Topics: Apple• Tesla• China• American Tech Leaves China, But What Will Stay? A series of recent headlines has confirmed a looming trend – American tech businesses are giving up China for good. LinkedIn [https://www.wsj.com/articles/linkedin-social-network-is-leaving-china-but-microsoft-remains-11634321277] , Yahoo [https://www.reuters.com/technology/yahoo-leaves-china-good-cites-challenging-environment-2021-11-02/] , Airbnb [https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/23/airbnb-is-closing-its-domestic-business-in-china-sources-say.html] , and
Topics: China• Stock Market• Charlie Munger• Dissecting the "Great Delisting" Last December, I wrote a rather provocative post called “Let the ‘Great Delisting’ Begin [https://interconnected.blog/let-the-great-delisting-begin/]”. That was when the SEC released its final specifications [https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2021-250] to implement the accounting compliance requirements outlined in the Holding
Topics: Open Source• China• Alibaba• Open Source in China: Next Four Years Last May, I wrote a three-part series that surveyed the entire open source landscape in China: * Part I: the Players [https://interconnected.blog/open-source-in-china-the-players/] * Part II: the Game [https://interconnected.blog/open-source-in-china-the-game/] * Part III: the Trends [https://interconnected.blog/open-source-in-china-the-trends/] Since then, the landscape
Topics: IPO• China• Regulation• Let the “Great Delisting” Begin Last week, the SEC dropped the final “regulatory shoe” by specifying the rules and procedures [https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2021-250] that will implement the accounting compliance requirements outlined in the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA) on foreign companies listed on US
Topics: Regulation• Facebook• China• Removing China’s “Startup Debt” I’ve been struggling to come up with an elegant analogy to explain China’s regulatory crackdown on its tech industry. After observing this year’s Singles Day [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singles%27_Day], I think I finally found it. Everything that’
Topics: Tesla• China• Elon’s "Place" in US-China Relations Elon Musk has become the focal point of US-China relations once again. The Wall Street Journal reported a couple of weeks ago [https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-to-restrict-tesla-usage-by-military-and-state-personnel-11616155643] that Tesla’s will be banned from military and some state government employees in China for
Topics: Semiconductor• China• Top Articles• China's “Semiconductor Theranos”: HSMC (The audio version of this post can be found on the Interconnected YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/c/Interconnected_newsletter]): China’s semiconductor ambition just had its first ponzi scheme fully exposed: Wuhan Hongxin Semiconductor Manufacturing [http://en.hsmc.com/] (HSMC). The HSMC
Topics: Apple• India• China• iPhone: “Made in China -> India?” I always try to live by the framework of “strong opinion, weakly held”. That’s how I treat all my thoughts shared on Interconnected. I write, not just to share what I know, but also to learn from others, absorb new information, and update
Topics: Semiconductor• China• CFIUS• When "Jurassic Park" Goes to China I spent last week in the French Polynesian islands for a quick vacation. One of my favorite moments there was approaching the magnificent landscape of Moorea on a ferry, because it reminded me of one of my favorite movies growing up -- Jurassic Park.
Topics: Open Source• Geopolitics• India• [Enhanced] The Future of American Industry Depends on Open Source Tech This post is an enhanced republication of an OpEd I wrote jointly with Jordan Schneider a month ago that was published in Wired Magazine [https://www.wired.com/story/opinon-the-future-of-american-industry-depends-on-open-source-tech/] . This enhanced version includes more information on how governments around the world are adopting
Topics: Huawei• Open Source• China• 300 Years: Huawei's Open Source Strategy Lost in the fog of TikTok was an important announcement: Huawei open sourced its homemade mobile operating system, HarmonyOS, now dubbed OpenHarmony. This announcement flew under the radar, but has far-reaching implications to not just the future of mobile technology, but also how that
Topics: Semiconductor• China• India• September 6, 2020: China’s Semiconductor Woes and Investments, India’s New Apps Ban This issue covers the period between August 31 - September 6, 2020 with six news stories – three from English language sources, three from Chinese language sources. Disclaimer: all translated article titles are done by me, not official translations from the media outlets. Before you