Showing posts with label China Speakers Bureau. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China Speakers Bureau. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Why the anti-TikTok law in the US does not make sense – Kaiser Kuo

 

Kaiser Kuo

US lawmakers have started debate on a law that would ban the successful TikTok app.  Political analyst Kaiser Kuo dismisses the effort as misguided at best, he writes in the ChinaFile. “In a sense, the threat of TikTok is real: In this crisis of confidence, and in a state of moral panic that we’ll look back on red-faced a decade out, TikTok is causing us to inflict grievous self-harm.”

Kaiser Kuo:

The bill that got through Congress on Wednesday to effectively ban TikTok—let’s not pretend either that this bill isn’t specifically about TikTok, or that a forced divestiture isn’t tantamount to a ban—is the latest example of a classic pattern of American behavior: In a panicked attempt to preserve the American way of life, we undermine that very way of life. This time, we seem to be falling over one another to sacrifice our openness, a cornerstone of American strength, out of exaggerated fear that a social media app owned by a Chinese company could be our undoing. As usual, this whole episode says much more about us than it does about China. We have a terrible track record of making bad decisions while in the throes of a moral panic, from Prohibition to the Patriot Act. A closer analogy can be found in the Trump administration’s moves to restrict Chinese STEM students and researchers from coming and working in the U.S., and the subsequent China Initiative. Out of a fear that Chinese industrial espionage would confer an advantage on Beijing, we somehow decided that we were better off if all that prodigious Chinese STEM talent went back to China or just stayed there.

If we accept that we ought to take preemptive action against threats to national security, even if they are only latent and potential, any actions should address those potential threats in good faith. In this case, the threats are data harvested by social media falling into the hands of the Chinese, and social media being used by China to advance a hostile agenda. The bill now making its way to the Senate does not address either of these threats. Instead, it takes aim only at one relatively minor potential vector. Not only is the preponderance of valuable data on TikTok out in the open—the content itself, not the metadata—and would be there just the same irrespective of who owned the company, but Beijing can easily either buy valuable data from brokers, vacuum it up from other social media properties, or just acquire it the old fashioned way, through hacking.

That the motive behind this bill is not, in fact, data security is driven home by the refusal of legislators to accept ByteDance’s own proposal, Project Texas, which was devised in consultation with the Austin-based tech company Oracle and The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and would see data localized and housed entirely on servers controlled by Oracle with oversight entirely by U.S. citizens vetted and approved by Oracle. Project Texas would make TikTok the most locked-down, secure social media property in the U.S., if not in the world. The notion that even under that plan, Beijing would still decide to squeeze ByteDance just to acquire data it could obtain far more easily, and in ways that wouldn’t seriously imperil the only Chinese social media company to have enjoyed any global success, is just risible.

And influence? If TikTok is a potent vector for Chinese propagandists, one has to ask: How’s that working out for you, Beijing? Across its years of popularity, American attitudes toward China have plummeted, not improved. If we’re looking for causation, it is clear enough that, if anything, it’s our low national opinion of China driving D.C.’s animus toward TikTok. In a sense, the threat of TikTok is real: In this crisis of confidence, and in a state of moral panic that we’ll look back on red-faced a decade out, TikTok is causing us to inflict grievous self-harm.

More viewpoints at the ChinaFile.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more political experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

How AI will change our lives in the next decade – Alvin Wang Graylin

 

Alvin Wang Graylin (left)

AI is going to change our lives in the next five to ten years, says AI expert Alvin Wang Graylin, co-author of the new book Our Next Reality, in an interview at MRTV. “Nothing will be the same anymore! In this 90-minute in-depth discussion Alvin Wang Graylin gives us fascinating insights on how the AI-powered Metaverse will change all our lives and what we can do to make it an overall positive outcome for our society,” MRTV writes.

 

 

The Book “Our Next Reality” is available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/2PhsWmU

Alvan Wang Graylin is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

AI will help to improve XR operations – Alvin Wang Graylin

 

Alvin Wang Graylin

AI is going to have a major beneficial effect on extended reality (XR), like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR), says Alvin Wang Graylin, China President and Global VP of Corporate Development at HTC at Golf Business. “Motion tracking, hand tracking, voice interactions, spatial scanning, and procedural world generation would all not be possible without AI,” adds Graylin.

Gulf Business:

When combined with extended reality (XR) technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR), AI opens a world of creative possibilities but raises new issues related to privacy, manipulation, and safety.

“AI will solve the biggest issue the XR space faces by democratising content creation and bringing its cost to near zero,” said Alvin Wang Graylin, China President and Global VP of Corporate Development at HTC – who will be speaking at DeepFest 2024.

“And immersive technologies will enable unlimited virtual worlds to give an outlet for the energy and renewed purpose to the billions of displaced workers that AI will create in the coming decade due to its massive gains in productivity.”

The promise of XR is fueling predictions for an array of once-unthinkable possibilities within the fast-emerging metaverse. “By 2030 people could be spending more time in the metaverse than in the real world,” KPMG said in a report while projecting that people will be applying for jobs, earning a living, meeting with friends and shopping using the virtual capabilities of the metaverse…

A study by PwC revealed that the use of AR and VR for soft skills training was four times faster than in a traditional classroom setting.

Together with AI, XR will deliver physical interactions dynamically and in real-time. The innovative technology will achieve this by overlaying digital elements in the real-world environment, enabling businesses to deliver contextually pertinent just-in-time data, support, and information to people who are navigating complex experiences.

“AI-related technologies have been a major part of almost all aspects of enabling immersive computing to be possible. Motion tracking, hand tracking, voice interactions, spatial scanning, and procedural world generation would all not be possible without AI,” said Graylin.

From enhancing productivity to transforming customer experiences, XR presents an array of benefits for businesses looking to gain a competitive edge in the market. Companies can use the technology to virtually design and test new products and experiences much faster and at a fraction of the cost and to deliver immersive and personalised entertainment experiences that can’t be replicated in the real world.

More at Gulf Business.

The Book “Our Next Reality”, co-authored by Alvin Wang Gray is available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/2PhsWmU

Alvin Wang Graylin is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more experts on innovation at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Why China’s economy is weak, but surviving in the long run – Shaun Rein

 

Shaun Rein

China’s consumers are still nervous, the economy is weak, but looking good in the longer run, says Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein at CNBC. Consumers are trading down now, but both real estate and infrastructure are not helping the economy, he adds. In the next decade, China’s middle class will grow from 400 to 800 million. Rein saw many of his clients move temporarily to Japan but is sure they will return to China.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more experts on China’s consumption? Do check out this list.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Selling your China dream – Mark Schaub

 

Mark Schaub

About 90 percent of the China expats have left, estimates China lawyer Mark Schaub in his latest China Chitchat. And while new people are slowly coming back, those who left are struggling to sell their business, he says. What are the challenges they are facing, Schaub summarizes in the first part.

Mark Schaub:

Much more challenging is selling a business in which you have invested your lifeblood and passion for a long time. There is a combination of guilt (selling and leaving the employees behind) and fear (will those employees, the buyer, bank, authorities screw me over on the way out).

No entrepreneur I have met so far seems happy about the prospect – compounding this is that most are not so young (sorry guys – if I know you and you fall in this category and you are reading this then rest assured I did not mean you – I consider you to be very young) so this sale also impacts their future financial security.

The seller really needs to think in detail about what they want and weigh up differences but also think about how things will turn out for your specific business (i.e. special challenges or leverage or weaknesses you may have).

The common challenges with such sales are 1) certainty of obtaining purchase price overseas; 2) dealing with potential Chinese buyers and selecting the right one; 3) dealing with the transition (i.e. period in which you remain a minority shareholder and still be employed by the target); and 4) securing that the second sale (i.e. the minority shareholding) is secured in respect of timing, certainty and value.

Another challenge is to run the project quickly and smoothly. For almost all entrepreneurs selling a company in China is a new experience. It is common and sensible to be apprehensive and cautious, but a slow process is not in your interest as the seller.

Accordingly, to optimize the process you need to: 1) have a clear strategy, 2) understand what is possible, 3) have game played in your head all possible scenarios, 4) have a trusted group of advisors, 5) everyone is well briefed about your business and interests, and 6) carefully select the buyer (this is NOT just the highest price but also integrity and capability to implement).

More in the China Chitchat.

Thursday, March 07, 2024

For multinationals, China cannot be replaced by India or Vietnam – Shaun Rein

 

Shaun Rein

Multinationals do not have to look at Vietnam and India as a replacement for China, says business analyst Shaun Rein at CNBC. In the next ten years China’s middle class is going to grow massively, and cannot be beaten by anybody else, he adds. “About 400 million poorer Chinese are getting into the middle class in the years to come,” he says.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touchmailto:fons.tuinstra@china-speakers-bureau.com or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more financial experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

China cannot roll over its debts anymore – Victor Shih

 

Victor Shih

Financial expert Victor Shih dives into the 2024 figures at the annual NPC and concludes China cannot roll over debts anymore and finance its budget like it did before. He tells Bloomberg that central state policies have increasingly replaced a market-driven economy.

Victor Shih is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more financial experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Why I don’t miss the premier’s annual press conference – Ian Johnson

 

Ian Johnson

In a surprise move, China canceled the annual press conference of the country’s premier. But long-term correspondent and author Ian Johnson explains in the VOA why he thinks the foreign correspondents stopped looking forward to the event.

VOA:

Starting in 1993, Chinese premiers have typically used the annual event as an opportunity to field wide-ranging questions from Chinese and foreign journalists. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, when China was opening its economy to the rest of the world, it had actively sought to elucidate its politics and policies in a bid to attract foreign investment and boost trade.

Ian Johnson, a senior fellow for Chinese studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, who worked in China as a journalist from 1994 to 2001, said that foreign journalists at that time could use the press conferences to ask questions freely.

Later, “it went from being a potential source of information to becoming an empty exercise in propaganda,” he said. “By the end of the 2010s, it had become useless in terms of getting information. It’s just scripted.”

More in the VOA.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers request form.

Are you looking for more media experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

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Monday, March 04, 2024

How Alibaba conquered online pharmacy – Sharon Gai

 

Sharon Gai

Former Alibaba executive Sharon Gai looks at Drugstorenews back on how the company conquered retail in China, focusing on pharmacy with Alibaba Health. “What this medical doctor app did was digitize that entire process,” she said.

Drugstorenews:

Gai took the discussion to Alibaba Health, noting that China only has about 1.8 doctors per every 1,000 people compared to 2.4 in the United States and 2.8 in the U.K. “This means that resources in health care are very strained in China. When there’s a lot of competition, it breeds innovation. That‘s exactly what Alibaba Health has in terms of its growth trajectory,” she said.

AliHealth started as a cloud pharmacy, but its product managers recognized that people were searching for grocery and skin care items, OTCs or certain drugs. “Ali pharmacy was pulled out of Tmall and a separate app was created,” she explained

“The product managers noted that there were people searching to buy contact lenses and prescription eyeglasses, they needed eye exams and physical exams, they were looking for sexual health products, or wanted to do STD tests or pregnancy tests. This became a snowball effect and the number of services this app started to cater to. Today Alibaba Health is a full fledged telehealth app.”

Gai also discussed how a medical doctor app was created for traditional Chinese medicine, a huge Chinese sector that she described as “a very old school brick and mortar place to play.” “What this medical doctor app did was digitize that entire process,” she said. “You open the app, consult with the Chinese medicinal doctor and he will tell you what you need and an entire packet of ingredients will be shipped right to your doorstep.”

Addressing the last pillar of Alibaba Health, a business to business pillar in which the creators built out a health knowledge map and traceability code, Gai said, “AliHealth set a standard in
creating a QR code that every single brand would need to stick on their packaging so when this product is shipped to the end customer, they can scan it and see exactly where this medicine came from. This is the interface of the telehealth app, where you also can see the balance on your health insurance card, nearby hospitals, a doctor for an online experience, get medicine delivered in around 30 minutes to an hour, order vaccinations, get eye exams, mental health services and medical beauty.”

The app also features short-form videos that offer health advice from doctors, who are becoming influencers. “As a user, you’re constantly learning about health care in general. What AliHealth really did, the big innovation, is consumerization of healthcare services,” Gai said.

Lastly, Gai said that AliHealth is good at “new retail,” a term developed by Jack Ma in 2016. “It’s basically the unification or the synchronization of online and offline services,” she said.

More at Drugstorenews.

Sharon Gai is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Saturday, March 02, 2024

Why Chinese enter the US through the Mexican border – Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

A large number of the illegal immigrants entering the US from Mexico are Chinese, and not only poor Chinese, says China scholar Ian Johnson in DW. They mostly rely on dubious information on TikTok and have no clue what kind of adventure they get into, he adds.

DW:

The phenomenon of Chinese people entering the United States via the southern border has come to be described by the term “Zouxian,” which can roughly be translated as “take the risk” — and the term’s broad dissemination on social media platforms has led many young Chinese to do just that.

“They rely on social media more in China for getting their information,” said Ian Johnson, a China expert at the US Council on Foreign Relations. “In the Western countries, you would say: ‘What does the mainstream media say about it?’ But, in China, there is no way to fact- check.” Johnson said it concerned him that so many of those young people have no idea what they are getting themselves into.

Johnson said the situation would not just hit the very poor.

“The economic slowdown is affecting broader ranges of the population, including the lower middle class,” Johnson said. He added that increased political persecution under President Xi Jinping has also fueled a desire to leave China behind.

More in DW.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more stories by Ian Johnson? Do check out this list.

Can China fix its inequality? – Zhang Lijia

 

Zhang Lijia

Inequality has been one of China’s central problems, writes author and journalist Zhang Lijia in the South China Morning Post. There is no shortage of efforts to fix it, she argues, and while China has dealt with poverty successfully, getting to common prosperity, as it is called, seems much harder to achieve.

Zhang Lijia:

Last month, Panzhihua, a city in western China’s Sichuan province, announced this would be its “breakthrough” year in establishing itself as a common prosperity pilot zone. It is following the example of Zhejiang province in the east, another such pilot zone which was set up in 2021. The idea is to push for a high-quality development that focuses on closing the economic gap between regions, between urban and rural areas, and in income.

This is encouraging news, but will such efforts work? Will there be more pilot zones like these? Will China really achieve common prosperity, or is it mainly a political slogan? The truth is still emerging.

The concept of common prosperity is not new. It first appeared in 1953 during the Mao era as he pushed China towards socialist collectivisation.

Around 1979, shortly after paramount leader Deng Xiaoping had introduced economic reforms and opening up, he declared that China’s path to common prosperity would be to let some people and regions get rich first to help the rest. The term gained new significance in 2021 when President Xi Jinping vigorously promoted it as a way to guard against economic and political polarisation.

Since 1978, some people and regions have indeed become rich. China has transformed from one of the world’s poorest countries to its second-largest economy, and from a relatively equal society to one of the most unequal in the world.

The structural flaws inherent in China’s political system – from state-controlled capitalism to corruption – have all contributed to the problem. The top 10 per cent income share rose from 27 per cent in 1978 to 41 per cent in 2015, approaching levels seen in the United States, according to research by economist Thomas Piketty and his colleagues.
Xi clearly realises the risk of such income and wealth disparities, which could stifle growth and erode confidence in the leadership. Defining common prosperity is complicated as it has many implications and associated aspirations. In one sense, China’s pursuit of common prosperity seeks to build up the middle class so it can become more of an engine of consumption.

More in her opinion piece at the South China Morning Post.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more political experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Can Saudi-Arabia follow China and US as a leader in AI? – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

Winston Ma, an investor, attorney, author, and adjunct professor in the global digital economy, discusses at a Miami conference who can follow as leaders in AI for Arab News. He believes also countries like Saudi Arabia can follow those two leaders, although it does mean a lot of targeted investments.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list. 

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Manufacturing, not consumption, key for China’s economy – Victor Shih

 

Victor Shih

China will continue to focus on supporting its manufacturing power, instead of changing to household subsidies, says economist Victor Shih, out of line with many other economists who expect support for consumption, as reported by Al Jazeera. Shih added: “There are 1.4 billion people in China, so comprehensive social assistance would be extremely expensive, especially in a deflationary context.”

Al Jazeera:

Analysts expect the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, to again set an annual growth target of about 5 percent when it meets in March.

While many economists have exhorted Beijing to stimulate growth through household transfers, Victor Shih, an expert on the Chinese economy at the University of California, San Diego, expects investment-driven growth to continue to hold sway.

“Marxist ideology, which valorises industrial production, remains the fundamental basis for policymaking in Beijing,” Shih told Al Jazeera.

“In all likelihood, the government will continue to subsidise manufacturing. Consumption, by contrast, is viewed as indulgent.”

Shih added: “There are 1.4 billion people in China, so comprehensive social assistance would be extremely expensive, especially in a deflationary context.”

Shih said Beijing could raise household consumption by urging companies to pay higher wages but that “China’s manufacturing edge is partly based on subdued worker income”.

As such, “higher wages would undermine Chinese exports, which is an important source of output”, he said.

“I don’t think the government will shift budgetary priorities in favour of the Chinese people… which will likely result in a period of economic weakness.”

More at Al Jazeera.

Victor Shih is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more financial experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Monday, February 26, 2024

China and the US need no war on AI, but cooperation – Alvin Wang Graylin

 

Alvin Wang Graylin (right)

Behind all the geopolitical shuffles between China and the US, the war on AI and the metaverse is raging, says AI expert Alvin Wang Graylin in an interview with Cyrus Janssen. And that is a wrong signal for the rest of the world, as both forces should not try to contain the other, for national security reasons or whatever, but work together, he argues.

Alvin Wang Graylin is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you need him at your meeting or conference, get in touch or fill in our speakers request form.

Are you looking for more innovation experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

You can order Alvin’s upcoming book here: Our Next Reality: Preparing for the AI-powered Metaverse,

You can read the full interview here: 12:28 – Introduction to Alvin Wang-Graylin

Monday, February 19, 2024

Can China deal with debts and property crisis? – Arthur Kroeber

 

Arthur Kroeber

China’s economy is dealing with some tough years, writes leading economist Arthur Kroeber, author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know®in ChinaFile, especially now that it does not have enough tools with debts and the property crisis like it did in the past. “So we need to brace for the consequences of the Xi model: slower growth in China, a big rise in Chinese technology exports, and more protectionism in the rest of the world,” he writes.

Arthur Kroeber:

China’s economic malaise results from a combination of political decisions, structural factors, and policy mistakes. The central reason for it is that Xi Jinping has decided to make national security and technological upgrading—not economic growth—his policy priorities.

The broadening definition of national security, and the increased influence of security interests in economic policy, have soured private investor confidence. The focus on technological upgrading has led to an economic strategy that relies almost exclusively on industrial policy. This means that the government devotes most of its attention to the supply side of the economy: boosting production of semiconductors, clean energy equipment, electric vehicles, industrial machinery, ships, and other products seen as needed to increase the country’s technological capability and self-sufficiency. Virtually no serious effort goes into figuring out how to unlock domestic demand—especially from households, which now save about a third of their income, one of the highest savings rates in the world.

These policies mean that China’s economy will have two faces in the coming years. The chronic shortage of demand will mean disappointing GDP growth—probably 3-4 percent on average over the rest of the decade—and a constant struggle to shake off deflation. But at the same time, its technology-intensive sectors will thrive, thanks to both government support and China’s uniquely competitive manufacturing ecosystem. The result will be persistent high trade surpluses and, probably, a strong wave of protectionism from countries that want to preserve their own industrial capacity.

This policy stance also makes it very hard for China to solve two of its biggest structural problems: the collapsing property market and the huge and growing debt burdens of local governments. The last time China faced a challenge of this scale was the late 1990s, when nearly half of all bank loans went bad. At that time, it responded with a combination of financial engineering to postpone the reckoning of bad debts, well-targeted infrastructure stimulus, and aggressive deregulation of manufacturing and housing which unlocked huge new sources of entrepreneurship and household demand. As a result, China grew out of its problems and by 2010 became the world’s second-biggest economy.

A similar approach today would recognize that deregulation of services—which account for more than half the economy, and all net new employment—is the main path to boosting consumer demand and accelerating economic growth. Too much of the service economy is either in state hands, or burdened by stunting regulations. But such a policy would conflict directly with Xi’s desire to keep the state’s finger on all economic levers. So we need to brace for the consequences of the Xi model: slower growth in China, a big rise in Chinese technology exports, and more protectionism in the rest of the world.

More views of other economists in ChinaFile.

Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more financial experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.