EP13. Baiguan AMA - TikTok, Elon Musk, venture capital, capital market

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.baiguan.newsWelcome to China biz talk by Baiguan Radio. Two weeks ago I hosted an “Ask Me Anything” live webinar for paid subscribers of Baiguan, where many of you threw at me many interesting questions you have about China. Today, we are releasing the recording of the AMA webinar to paid subscribers like you. If you are a free subscriber, you can listen to a preview that lasts for about 10 minutes. While the full version is more than an hour. You can also check out what are the questions being asked in this recording, at the post below.Every few months, we will host this kind of live webinar for our paid subscribers. And every month, we will open AMA chats at the Substack app, also exclusive for paid subscribers. All of these features, including all of our paid articles, come at as low as $100/year. If you wish to have access to these offerings, make sure to subscribe to us. Without further ado, let’s play the webinar recording now.Key highlights and timestamps01:12 What are your comments on 民生为大?05:49 What does the average Chinese 25-35 years old think of Africa?08:09 I read your article on “China’s venture capital is dying” which got quite popular in China. What are your most updated views on China’s capital market? Esp with the stock market rising recently?15:36 In your view, what is the best way to track population growth in major cities? How do you see the differentiation between top-tier and lower-tier cities going forward? Seeing many of your posts talking up some of the lower tier cities, but also feel that top tier cities remain 'safer' as an investment (esp. property).22:00 What kind of policy that Chinese gov would give with regards of the aging population and declining birthrate? And what kind of policy do you think would be useful?26:48 Both China and America have allowed for hedge funds and stock buybacks, but supposedly China's economy is less financialized. What do you think about this topic?37:35 How do you see language becoming a barrier in the near future when Chinese investors and companies continue to export in key industries beyond the traditional brick-and-mortar?40:45 I haven’t had the chance to listen to the podcast on China inc’s overseas strategy after the TikTok ban. Any chance to brief us on the discussion? Just want to have more views on TT41:40 And please share your thoughts on Elon Musk’s visit to China and its implications49:17 How will power transition work? Will it go smoothly next time?53:16 I want to ask about the China-India relationship, which has been pretty terrible the last few years. India's govt has taken some pretty drastic actions to retaliate against the border issue and limit Chinese involvement in the Indian economy (investment curbs, banning TikTok, raiding Xiaomi, etc), but China has not imposed any sort of reciprocal penalties. Do you have some sense of where things stand from the Chinese government's point of view, and how do you see this going in the coming months?55:45 Are there interesting platforms(in English) to know about Chinese Tech trends, especially great startups? Something like Techcrunch but for Chinese Companies57:50 TikTok and US… what is the mainstream in China saying about it?01:03:02 What advice would you give to Ecosystem builders who are looking at attracting Chinese Tech VCs to invest in markets other than the traditional SEA region? i.e. Going beyond investing in Construction and EV sales.