The Reorient! Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Reorient! Podcast
Welcome to the era of friend shoring and nearshoring. The breakdown of the supply chain during the pandemic highlighted the risk of concentrating your manufacturing base half way around the world. For many years now there have been growing headwinds for China-based exporters. Rising US-China tensions, increased labor costs, and less favorable local policies meant that factory owners needed to consider alternatives. While before that often meant another Asian country like Vietnam or Bangladesh, the passing of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2019 cemented Mexico's role as a key supplier to the US market.
We were fortunate to speak with an expert in this emerging trend, Andrew Hupert. Andrew has a unique background, combining academic understanding of trade, investment and negotiation, with many years living in China and other parts of Asia along with his current focus on how to navigate Mexico's industrial opportunities.
He explains how the focus from Just in Time to Just in Case is shaping the the global logistics industry as well as China's involvement in Mexico.
Andrew Hupert is an accomplished entrepreneur, lecturer, and writer who has over 25 years of international experience. He has lectured and taught courses on cross-cultural negotiation at some of the world’s top business schools such as NYU’s Stern School, Strathclyde University, and Hult International Business School. Now he spends his time in Mexico working with international businesses to improve their North American supply chains, and writing on the future of globalism, cross-culture negotiation, and trends in international supply chains.
Andrew lived in Asia for over 20 years, with over 10 years of direct China experience. His first overseas experience was in the historical Japanese city of Kyoto, but he has also lived and worked in Taipei, Hong Kong, Chiang Mai, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City. He returned to North America in 2021, when he moved to Mexico to assist international firms transition supply chains to Mexico and the US. He is a recognized leader in international negotiation and cross-cultural conflict management.
Andrew has published books, including The Fragile Bridge – Conflict Management in Chinese Business, and regularly writes for well-known sites like China Law Blog, in addition to maintaining his site about North American Strategy Planning.
E 38 / Cooperation, Competition and Conflict: Scott Moore on US-China relations and Cross-border Threats
The current state of US-China relations is poor to say the least. In addition to concerns over a potential conflict in Taiwan and opposing policies towards the war in Ukraine, we have witnessed a general deterioration in trust and willingness to partner in virtually any sphere. We are seeing a tit-for-tat sanctioning of companies, deemed "unreliable" or a threat to national security and the banning of Chinese app Tik Tok in parts of the US. High level and military-to-military talks are absent as is dialogue on any global issue. How did we get to this point and what path is their forward? To find some answers, join me for an informative discussion with Dr Scott Moore focused on his book, China's Next Act - How Sustainability and Technology are Reshaping China's Rise and the World's Future. Moore does an excellent job of explaining the importance of Public Goods and the importance of US-China relations to the containment of potentially civilization threatening issues. His perspective comes from a career looking at US-China relations through the prism of emerging cross border themes of environmental, technology, and biomedical developments. Having lived in Hong Kong and mainland China, Moore currently leverages his knowledge at the University of Pennsylvania to provide insights and encourage collaboration between various departments. Moore views Authoritarianism, Nationalism, Protectionism in China as the key barriers to achieving cooperation on pressing issues. And he promotes the concept of competition, while not ideal, as a potential useful dynamic to continue to tackle shared challenges.
Dr. William H. Overholt is a distinguished Asia Expert with five decades of experience in research, analysis, and advisory for leading investment banks, think tanks, government and educational institutions. He is a prolific author with a broad set of knowledge and experience he leverages to bring insights into Asia's complex social and political context. Overholt's assessment of US-China relations is very sober. At the same time, he believes China's growth trajectory is declining and its long-term political structure is not guaranteed. In many ways, the cycle of history continues, something which Overholt has personally witnessed first hand.
Dr. Overholt holds a research position at Harvard's Kennedy School and is Principal of AsiaStrat LLC, a consulting firm. Previously he held the Asia Policy Distinguished Research Chair at RAND's California headquarters and was Director of RAND's Center for Asia Pacific Policy.
During 21 previous years in investment banking, he served as Head of Strategy and Economics at Nomura's regional headquarters in Hong Kong from 1998 to 2001, and as Managing Director and Head of Research at Bank Boston's regional headquarters in Singapore. At Bankers Trust, he ran a country risk team in New York and was regional strategist and Asia research head based in Hong Kong.
At Hudson Institute in the 1970s Overholt directed planning studies for the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of State, National Security Council, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Council on International Economic Policy.
Dr. Overholt received his B.A. (magna, 1968) from Harvard and his Master of Philosophy (1970) and Ph.D. (1972) from Yale.
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Sign up for our newsletter at https://www.reorientpodcast.com o receive a private RSS feed for full episodes! Dr. Kumudu Gunasekera is a management consultant and strategic advisor to private equity firms, public and privately held corporations, and Fortune 100 global organizations. Throughout his career he has delivered actionable insights to clients worldwide. A proven problem-solver, his insights and perspectives have been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals and industry magazines. He has also instructed numerous undergraduate, graduate and professional courses while being an adjunct Professor at Boston University. He is currently is a Managing Director at https://www.stax.com/ (Stax ), a global strategy consulting firm that advices 100+ Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies. Prior to Stax, Dr. Gunasekera was a Principal Economist at https://www.wsp.com/en-US/news/2017/wsp-parsons-brinckerhoff-rebranding-as-wsp (Parsons Brinckerhoff )(now rebranded as https://www.wsp.com/en-US (WSP)), a leading global infrastructure group, in their Washington, D.C offices. Dr. Gunasekera is also the co-founder of https://srilanka100.lk/ (Sri Lanka@100) a private sector led initiative for value creation of mid sized firms in Sri Lanka. In 2019, Dr. Gunasekera was recognized as one of the top https://echelon.lk/ne100/kumudu-gunasekera/ (100 business leaders )in the Sri Lanka. He was also a Past President of the American Chamber of Commerce; and is currently serving on the Board of Directors of https://www.cinnamonhotels.com/ (John Keells Hotels), the largest luxury hotel chain in Sri Lanka with resorts in Maldives. Kumudu earned his Ph.D. in Economic Geography, and a joint M.A. in https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/ (International Relations and Environmental Policy )from https://www.bu.edu/ (Boston University). He has a B.A. in Economics from https://www2.hws.edu/requestinfo/?gclid=CjwKCAjwi9-HBhACEiwAPzUhHDciTknX2cO4qCrjbmlznpecYOsjNB9jQ50aLDzN9RDI3Is5_NLpQxoCnsIQAvD_BwE (Hobart and William Smith Colleges).
What is China? It is a simple question but one that cannot be properly without the help of reading Bill Hayton's book, 'The invention of China'. And, why is the conflict over sovereignty of the Spratly and Paracel islands and atolls so intractable? To understand this also requires reading another one of his works, 'The South China Sea, The Struggle for Power in Asia'. Bill Hayton is the prototypical guest on the Reorient! podcast -- accomplished, intelligent and possessing deep expertise and a unique perspective. I know of few authors with comparable breadth of experience reporting on geopolitical issues to a global audience and having a deep understanding of the history of Asia. Mr. Hayton's accomplished career as a journalist for the BBC began in the Middle East. His first assignment took him to Iran in 1995 to interview Ayatollah Ali Akbar Mohtashemi to ask him if he organised the Lockerbie bombing. In 1999, he shifted his coverage to European Affairs where he witnessed the struggle over the fate of the post-Soviet Republics, a focal point for Western audiences and policy makers. Mr Hayton arrived in Asia in 2006, where he reported from Vietnam, which had recently been re-engaged with the United States. He published his first book 'Vietnam, Rising Dragon' and notes that, even today, Vietnam remains a poorly understood country , despite being the 15th most populous nation and subject of many Hollywood movies. Hayton continues to offer insights into the nuances and rich history of countries in Asia with his soon to be released book 'A Brief History of Vietnam'. During our conversation Hayton helps to untangle and organise the concepts of peoples, nations, empires, cultures and civilisations. He also explains how narratives, interpretations and definitions of history play into political objectives and become their own source of conflict. His informed realism provides a framework and pathways to enhance our mutual understanding of this fascinating and complicated region. You can find more information on his website www.billhayton.com Sign up for our Newsletter and RSS Feed at www.reorientpodcast.com
David P. Goldman is Deputy Editor of Asia Times, where he has written the "Spengler" column since 2000, and a Washington Fellow of the Claremont Institute. His books include How Civilizations Die (2011), It's Not the End of the World -- It's Just the End of You (2011), and You Will Be Assimilated: China's Plan to Sino-Form the World (2020). He publishes in The Wall Street Journal, Claremont Review of Books, First Things, Tablet Magazine, Law and Liberty, PJ Media and many other venues. He was global head of fixed income research at Bank of America and global head of credit strategies at Credit Suisse, among other senior positions in finance. He won Institutional Investor magazine's award for General Strategy, one of the highest honors in investment research.
James Fok, Author of Financial Cold War: A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets. "James Fok’s book highlights the explosive risks in the relationship between the US and China today. It also offers insights into fundamental driving forces of international frictions and is a call to take urgently necessary steps to address the sources of conflict." - Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum Please click on the following link for more background on Mr. Fok: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-fok-24082237/
A diplomat for nearly thirty years, Ted Osius served from 2014 to 2017 as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, a country he has loved since serving there in the 1990s, when he helped open the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and was one of the first U.S. diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. Leading a mission team of 900, Ambassador Osius devised and implemented strategies to deepen security ties, sign tens of billions of dollars’ worth of commercial deals, expand educational exchange, conclude agreements on trade, law enforcement, environmental protection, and address honestly a difficult past. Ambassador Osius’ leadership helped bring about a positive transformation in U.S.-Vietnam relations. As he worked to improve U.S.-Vietnam relations, Ambassador Osius came to know the heroes who sought to reconcile our nations, including John Kerry, John McCain, Pete Peterson and Le Van Bang. Under four Presidents and seven Secretaries of State, Ambassador Osius contributed to reconciliation not just between governments, but between former combatants, and the people of both nations. The first openly gay U.S. ambassador to serve in East Asia, he was only the second career diplomat in U.S. history to achieve that rank. Ambassador Osius earned a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and an Honorary Doctorate from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education. A member of the Board of Governors of the American Chamber of Commerce Vietnam, Ambassador Osius loves all kinds of travel, biking, sailing, theater and photography. He is married to Clayton Alan Bond; the couple has a three-year-old daughter and four-year-old son.
Published April 10, 2022 Josephine Wong is a co-founder and principal at Apogee and co-founder of Make Meaningful Work, as well as the co-founder of UX Hong Kong. Jo grew up in multicultural Hong Kong, with a Chinese-Burmese father and Chinese-Indonesian mother. She collaborates with global teams conducting research in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Jo is passionate about the environment, political and economic systems and how we can live healthier and happier lives while not adversely impacting less fortunate people. She co-authored Make Meaningful Work with Daniel Szuc. Daniel Szuc is a co-founder and principal at Apogee and co-founder of Make Meaningful Work, as well as the co-founder of UX Hong Kong. He has been involved in the UX field for over 20 years, and has been based in Hong Kong for over 20 years. Dan has lectured about user-centered design globally. He has co-authored three books including Global UX with Whitney Quesenbery, The Usability Kit with Gerry Gaffney and Make Meaningful Work with Josephine Wong. Recorded February 5, 2022.
Published March 22, 2022 Anthony Elson is an international economist, writer and university lecturer based in Washington, DC. For a number of years, he was a senior staff member of the IMF with responsibilities for organizing and supervising the Fund's macroeconomic surveillance and financial lending operations with countries in the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions. He also served for a time as the Deputy Director of the Fund's Statistics Department and was involved in the development of its Fund-wide Data Dissemination Standards and in the oversight of its data collection and technical assistance activities. He now teaches at the Duke University Center for International Development and the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. He is the author of five books: The global currency power of the US dollar: Problems and prospects (2021), The United States in the world economy: Making sense of globalization (2019), The global financial crisis in retrospect (2017), Globalization and development: Why East Asia surged ahead and Latin America fell behind (2013), Governing global finance: the evolution and reform of international financial architecture (2011). Recorded February 8, 2022.
Published March 7, 2022 In 2012, Mandar Apte influenced Shell’s CEO to start Shell’s GameChanger social innovation program, which would invest in innovative solutions to sustainability challenges (SDG’s) and create both social impact and business returns. Through the portfolio of investments that he made through this impact investment fund, Mandar showcased how global brands, like Shell, can and must play a greater role (beyond just CSR & philanthropy) to enable and scale social impact. In 2016, Mandar joined George Mason University as a visiting scholar at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. He created the Business for Peace Innovation Lab, through which he provided innovation consulting to SDG16 (Peace & Security) and helped organizations to invest in peace. While at Shell, in 2012, Mandar also won the League of Intrapreneurs award for his efforts to design and facilitate an innovation learning program to over 2000 colleagues at Shell using meditation techniques. For nearly two decades, Mandar has taught leadership development programs using meditation techniques to thousands of people across the world, including corporate executives, Mayors, police officers, survivors of violence, returning veterans, inner city youth and educators. Mandar is the Founder & Executive Director of https://www.cities4peace.org/ (Cities4Peace) – a not-for-profit consultancy that actively promotes peace in cities worldwide. The flagship program was held in Los Angeles, where so far over 250 community members including LAPD officers, former gang members and victims/survivors of violence have been trained by Mandar as Ambassadors of Peace. Similar programs are now being offered in many other cities and communities worldwide. – that showcases the transformational experience of victims of violence from across America who embarked on a journey to India. The film was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had also visited India to study nonviolence in 1959. In 2017, Mandar produced & directed a documentary film, From India with Love, that showcases the transformational experience of victims of violence from across America who embarked on a journey to India. The film was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had also visited India to study nonviolence in 1959. The film was premiered by the Los Angeles Police Department at Paramount Studios and is now available of Alarm Prime in the US and in the UK. In 2018, the film was converted into an educational module (https://cities4peace.org/bethechange/ (Be The Change)) in collaboration with the Association for School Superintendents (AASA). This module has been used as a resource by educators from across America to promote peace education in schools. In 2018, Mandar hosted the inaugural World Summit on Countering Violence & Extremism that brought together law enforcement officers and peace activists from US and India to brainstorm novel solutions to promote peace. Recorded December 31 2021.
Published February 21, 2022 Herald van der Linde is HSBC’s Chief Asia equity strategist, also known as “The Flying Dutchman” given his frequent travels around the region. He and his Indonesian wife are based in Hong Kong and Jakarta. He is trained as an economist and wrote his Master’s thesis in Jakarta, making this city his home. He later worked as a strategist in South Africa and Taiwan before he became HSBC's Chief equity strategist for Asia. Herald is a certified Financial Analyst (CFA), a member of the advisory board of the Chinese Studies program at Hong Kong’s Baptist University, speaks seven languages, including Bahasa Indonesia, and is a certified lecturer for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. He has published a book on wine in 2012 titled “A Good Year To Learn About Wine” and one on Jakarta’s history in 2020, "Jakarta: History of a misunderstood city". His new book, published in October 2021, is "Asia's Stock Markets from the Ground Up." Recorded December 20, 2021.
Published February 5, 2022 Laszlo Montgomery is an LA-based businessman. He began studying Chinese at the University of Illinois in 1979. He moved to Hong Kong in 1989, and in the following decade worked at two different China manufacturers of light industrial consumer goods for the US mass market. In both companies he was the sole Westerner, gaining a unique appreciation and understanding of Chinese sensitivities and sensibilities. He then leveraged this experience into a successful career as a "bridge" between American and Chinese companies and corporate cultures. In 2010, Laszlo, an amateur historian with a lifelong passion for Chinese history, took advantage of the emergent podcast medium to launch the China History Podcast. The podcast presents popular curated topics from China's antiquity to modern times. Three hundred episodes later, he has built an audience of Chinese history enthusiasts from Asia to Europe to Africa. He has also since expanded his offerings to include: The Tea History Podcast, The Chinese Sayings Podcast and The China Vintage Hour. Recorded 12 November 2021.
Published 23 January, 2021 Andrew Leung is a prominent international and independent China Strategist, a second career after thirty eight years as a top Hong Kong bureaucrat. During his illustrious public service career, he held wide-ranging positions, including Assistant Financial Secretary, Deputy Secretary for Transport, Deputy Director-General of Industry, Director-General of Social Welfare, and Director-General London. Following his retirement, he has been a China Futures Fellow, Massachusetts Berkshire Publishing Group; Brain Trust Member, IMD Lausanne Evian Group; Gerson Lehrman Group Council Member; Thomas Reuters Expert; Senior Analyst with Wikistrat; Member, Royal Society for Asian Affairs; Former Governing Council Member, King's College London; Former Advisory Board Member, China Policy Institute, Nottingham University; Think-tank Research Fellow, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai Campus; Advisory Board Member, http://e-center.eu/en/beirat (The e-Centre), European Centre for e-Commerce and Internet Law; and Visiting Professor, London Metropolitan University Business School. In 2003, he was invited by Prince Andrew for a private briefing leading to HRH’s first visit to China as UK’s Ambassador for Trade and Investment. He also advised on cross-cultural management in Lenovo's take-over of IBM Computers, and was invited as Editor-at-large by MEC International for a consultancy on China's energies. He is a regular speaker on China at overseas conferences and on many international TV channels. He holds graduate qualifications from the University of London, and postgraduate qualifications from Cambridge University, PMD, and Harvard BusinessSchool. He has been included in UK's Who's Who since 2002. He was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star (SBS) in the July 2005 Hong Kong Honours List. Recorded December 22, 2021.
Published January 9, 2022 Keiko Sydenham is CEO and co-founder at LUCA Ltd., a digital platform for alternative Investments, private equity, real estate, infra and private credit. Prior to founding LUCA, she was a managing director at Blackstone Japan, where she handled investor relations and business development. She has also held management positions at J. P. Morgan Japan (in their alternative investments division), Russell Investments, Orix Investments, and HC Asset management. She is a graduate of Tokyo University and the School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. She is fluent in English, Russian and Japanese. Recorded April 22. Jesse: Well, it's a beautiful day here in Hong Kong, and I'm very pleased to have Keiko Sydenham as our guest on today. Keiko. Very thanks very much for joining the Reorient! podcast. Keiko: Well, thank you very much for inviting me. It's very exciting. Jesse: We're really thrilled. You're our first guest, uh, who's Japanese who, um, can discuss Japan. Um, so which is obviously an important part of the Asia Pacific region. So, uh, it's, it's, uh, very special for us to have you on. Um, so Keiko, I'd like to first ask just a little bit about your background. Um, can you share with us sort of where you grew up. Keiko: Yeah, sure. So I grew up a small city in Nagoya in Japan. Soand afterwards I went to, uh, college in Tokyo. And then afterwards, I actually, I spent a [00:01:00] little bit in multiple places, like in Russia, Moscow, and in Washington, DC, where I graduated, from SAIS Johns Hopkins and then New York afterwards. Uh, I worked there from 2001 to 2003. So now, then afterwards, I went back to Tokyo. Jesse: Um, so, um, so, uh, you know, uh, most recently, um, uh, Keiko, you were a very senior director of Blackstone group and Japan. Um, so tell us a little bit about what, what type of work you are doing at Blackstone and what, what was the firms, um, sort of main objectives in Japan. Keiko: Yeah, sure. So, uh, I was always responsible for capital raising. So basically, uh, my title was like, head of client institutional clients solutions, and which is, uh, I'm responsible for advising and supporting capital raising from, uh, institutional investors in Japan. So institutional investors, uh, are mainly like, you know, government, patient funds or like major banks and insurance companies and the corporate pensions. And then. Blackston Japan actually started as a real estate investment location. So we have a heavy investment, uh, in real estate as Blackstone, Japan. And then, you know, um, afterwards, uh, we decided to do more marketing as a fundraising side, is that it was just like 2013. We kind of like put the resource in there. And then more recently, uh, we started private equity investment in Japan. So we're pretty active in investment in Japan. Jesse: So when you were raising funds capital, um, was it primarily for the global funds that are primarily United [00:04:00] States, but they could potentially invest in some of the Blackstone's Japan funds as well. Keiko: Yes, exactly. So, oh, we don't have actually a regional standalone fund. Blackstone doesn't have it. And so it's, everything is about a global fund, but as a part of, uh, a global, uh, we could invest in Japan. Jesse: Understood now, um, obviously Japan as the world's or it certainly was the, world's second largest economy. I'm not sure if, if China has surpassed Japan yet, um, it probably depends on how you measure it, but, uh, you know, fair fair to say the world's second largest economy with a huge savings rate. Um, so it makes sense that, um, large institutions would want to tap into this, uh, enormous savings, um, pool of savings in Japan. uh, as a source for capital for their investment funds. Um, could you give us a sense for, um, you know, typical, large Japanese [00:05:00] institutional investors? Uh, what were they looking for as they...
Published December 26, 2021 Shanghai-based Bryce Whitwam is an adjunct instructor of integrated marketing and communications at New York University. Prior to that he was the China CEO of MRM/ McCann, a leading data science, technology innovation and creatively-driven relationship marketing agency, and before that still, the CEO of Wunderman Greater China. He is a fluent Mandarin speaker and a 25-year veteran of the marketing communications business. Whitwam is one of Asia's pioneers of non-traditional advertising, specializing in digital and data-driven marketing, retail communications and brand activation. His experience spans key categories, including automotive and telecommunications, and he has held senior management roles at Nielsen, Lowe and Ogilvy. A keyboardist when he's not working, he has recorded 2 records in China and Taiwan with the band, "Identity Crisis." Recorded September 1, 2021. Transcript Jesse: All right, everyone. Good day. Good evening, everyone. Today is the 1st of September, 2021. And today I'm very pleased to have a very interesting guest named Bryce to have a very interesting guest Bryce Whitman, uh, join us who is an expert in marketing and advertising and China. Bryce. Welcome to the reorient podcast. Bryce W: Thanks, Jesse. I'm really happy to be here. Jesse: Great. Well, um, so, uh, Bryce, I think people can tell from your name and your accent, that you're not originally Chinese, but your, uh, you spent a couple of decades, uh, even more in, in [00:01:00] China and the greater China region. Um, but you're originally from, I believe, South Dakota. Uh, so maybe share with us, uh, sort of briefly how a young man from South Dakota sort of unlikely journey to become a, uh, advertising and marketing guru in China. Bryce W: Okay, so thanks Jesse. Appreciate it. And I will try to answer your question in the briefest, most interesting way possible, because anytime you tell your life story, you always, uh, always this tendency to go on and on and on. And normally my wife is next to me and she'll kick me under the table and say that’s enough. Um, so yeah, so I, I. It literally, uh, I was, I graduated, uh, from the university of Minnesota with a Russian area studies degree. I was a Russia guy. Uh, I was unable to find any opportunities, uh, to go to the then Soviet union. So a professor [00:02:00] recommended that I go to China instead and it turned out. I found a teaching job in Beijing, uh, and that was a really enlightening experience. Uh, it wasn't a, let's say a financially viable one, but it really essentially changed my life. And after that, I moved to Taiwan, uh, for about three years where I studied Chinese. And later after that, I went back to the US and got my master's degree. And that kind of started out my whole career plans. It was in my master's degree program that I found a love for marketing. Or you could say, I found that I wasn't very good at finance. So usually at that time you usually have this choice to do marketing or you do finance. And surprisingly, I was really good at marketing. So I immediately thought, well, that's what I'm going to do. Uh, so I went back to Taiwan after graduating and I got a job at Nielsen, the marketing research company. I was pretty much in [00:03:00] retail software. Uh, I thought it was a very interesting, uh, chance to, to really, to get into, uh, marketing and advertising. And it was there for about three years before I joined a company in Hong Kong that primarily did retail displays and merchandising for big brands like Coca-Cola and Procter and. And then later I was in Thailand and that was my real first advertising advertising job. I was at Lowe in Bangkok for five years. Uh, after that, uh, I was recruited to, to China for obviously at that time, my, my, my Chinese is easily better than my Thai. And I took a job, uh, with Ogilvy in, in, in Shanghai about 2005. And I've been in Shanghai now for almost 16 years, doing...
Published December 12, 2021 Noor Sweid is the founder of Global Ventures, a Dubai-based, growth-stage venture capital firm focusing on investing in emerging markets. Previously, Noor was the Chief Investment Officer at The Dubai Future Foundation, where she spent time developing the technology and innovation ecosystem in Dubai, and a Managing Partner at Leap Ventures, a growth-stage venture capital firm based out of Dubai and Beirut. Noor moved back to Dubai in 2005 after spending time in the US as a biotechnology and pharmaceutical strategy consultant. Once in Dubai, Noor joined her family business, Depa. Implementing best-practice corporate governance and enabling the scaling of the business tenfold in three years to reach US$600 million in revenues, Noor then led the IPO for the company in 2008, on the NASDAQ Dubai and the London Stock Exchange. During this time, Noor also founded ZenYoga, the first yoga and pilates studio in MENA, which grew to become the largest chain of wellness studios in the Middle East, and which she exited ZenYoga in early 2014 through sale to a private equity firm. Noor is Chairperson of the Middle East Venture Capital Association, was on the Founding Board of Endeavor UAE, and serves as a Director for MIT Sloan, TechWadi, The Grooming Company, the Collegiate American School in Dubai, as well as the portfolio companies of Global Ventures. In 2018, Noor was named as one of the World’s Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes, and received the Arab Woman Award for Finance. Noor has also been named in the Arabian Business 100 Most Powerful Arab Women list three times, and has been profiled on the covers of Forbes Middle East, Entrepreneur Middle East, and Arabian Business magazines. Noor holds bachelors’ degrees in Finance and Economics from Boston College as well as an MBA from MIT Sloan. Recorded September 2, 2021. Transcript: Jesse: Okay, here we go. All right. Hello? Hello everyone. Today is the 2nd of September, 2021. Time goes by quickly. And, uh, today I have the pleasure of a very interesting guest who I met many years ago and really excited to talk to. Uh, and I'm hopefully going to pronounce her name correctly. Noor Sweid. Noor: That's perfect. Thanks Jesse. Jesse: Uh, and Noor, are you joining us from Dubai? Noor: I'm in Dubai right now. Jesse: Great, great. So Noor is, uh, joining us from Dubai, who is the founder of Global Ventures, um, which is I think where the most interesting venture capital firms I have come across. So Noor, welcome to the Reorient podcast. Noor: Thank you, Jesse, for having me and, um, and for giving us the opportunity to share what we're working on here out of Dubai. Jesse: Well, you have a great story and I'm looking forward to delving into it. So before we go into what, um, sort of the Global Ventures. And what your work is there. Um, give us a little bit of sense. You have a very interesting personal story. So let us know a little bit about your journey of how you came to become a venture capitalist, uh, sitting in Dubai. What was your journey to this point? Noor: I grew up in a bunch of different countries. I was born in Boston, raised in London. We moved to Saudi Arabia when I was 12. We moved to Dubai when I was 15. I, I then went back to Boston for college. Um, I studied, I worked at Accenture for awhile as a consultant in biotech and pharma, and then I did my MBA and after a time staying in Boston, came back to Dubai in 2005 where my family had remained since I had gone off to do my studies and came back as a consultant with Booz Allen, and then between my first and second projects kind of had three weeks as consultants do, to, to relax or recover depending on how you see it and just kind of zone in on, on home turf rather than continuing to travel every week. And then within that three weeks, I worked for a little bit with my father and his company, Depa. Three weeks in the trenches grew into three months. Over the...
Published November 28, 2021 Dr. Kumudu Gunasekera is a Colombo, Sri Lanka-based management consultant and strategic advisor to private equity firms, public and privately held corporations, and Fortune 100 global organizations. He is currently the Joint Managing Director of Stax Inc (APAC region), a global strategy consulting firm that advices 100+ Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies. Prior to Stax Inc, Dr. Gunasekera was a Principal Economist at Parsons Brinckerhoff (now rebranded as WSP), a leading global infrastructure group, in their Washington, D.C offices. Dr. Gunasekera is also the co-founder of Sri Lanka@100 a private sector led initiative for value creation of mid sized firms in Sri Lanka. His insights and perspectives have been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals and industry magazines. He has also instructed numerous undergraduate, graduate and professional courses while being an adjunct Professor at Boston University. In 2019, Dr. Gunasekera was recognized as one of the top 100 business leaders in the Sri Lanka. He was also a Past President of the American Chamber of Commerce; and is currently serving on the Board of Directors of John Keells Hotels, the largest luxury hotel chain in Sri Lanka with resorts in Maldives. He is also on the Advisory Boards of Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, and the National Infrastructure Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Kumudu earned his Ph.D. in Economic Geography, and a joint M.A. in International Relations and Environmental Policy from Boston University. He has a B.A. in Economics from Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Recorded August 19, 2021. Show Notes: 02:25 "If you've never experienced a bomb before, suddenly time stops and you see vibrations in slow motion." 03:20 "In Asia even the trishaw driver has a 20% growth mentality." 05:15 "Working on the Panama Canal expansion gave me an understanding of mega projects" 10:19 "The legacy of colonial divide and rule policies haunted post-independence Sri Lanka." 12:28 "The post-war growth spurt in Sri Lanka hit the dual hurdles of the Easter attacks in 2019 and now, COVID." 14:38 "Sri Lanka's economic growth strategy has never been purely tourism-centric." 15:30 "Not many people know about Sri Lanka's robust and growing knowledge services industry... It is becoming an innovation hub globally, boosted by the rise of remote work." 18:30 "Sri Lanka's comparative advantage is not just natural resources, but also its native capacity for innovation." 22:34 "Positioning Sri Lanka as a global hub is not a new thing--historically it has always been central to East-West trade routes." 23:16 "In the Sixties, Lee Kuan Yew came to Sri Lanka and said he wanted to model Singapore on Sri Lanka." 25:50 "Sri Lanka has the potential to be a hub for India/ South Asia, one of the fastest growing regions in the world." 27:10 "Sri Lanka has highly developed human capital." 29:36 "What Sri Lanka can learn from Singapore on balancing great power interests while maintaining its independence." 31:41 "Sri Lanka has arrived at a good understanding with all its regional neighbours." 33:20 "Sri Lanka's trade agreement with India includes the movement of people." 34:40 "Sri Lanka is very different from India." 35:40 "The solution to Sri Lanka's problems lie in economic development and delivering a good quality of life across the country." 40:47 "Sri Lanka will pay off its debt." 42:00 "Sri Lankan companies need to acquire a global mindset." 45:29 "Some recent success stories among Sri Lankan corporates." 48:40 "Advice to private equity and venture capitalists in Sri Lanka." 52:33 "Using Sri Lanka's considerable tourist attractions to entice investors to the country." 56:44 "It will be a tough ride, but it will be a good ride."
Published November 14, 2021 Dev Roy's career has seen more twists and turns than a whodunnit. It took him from India to the United States in the early 1990s, one of many in that country's brain drain, and from there to London, where he became the head of derivatives trading at Barclays up until 2008. Seeing the writing on the wall for the financial industry, he decided to pack up and return to India to become an entrepreneur, following in the footsteps of his own father thirty years earlier. He started a government services company, followed by an edtech company, built a chain of dialysis clinics and then started yet another edtech company. Some of his ventures paid off, some didn't. In the process, he had to unlearn and relearn many lessons about innovation and commerce in the developed versus developing world. After selling his most recent company, he has now gone in house and possibly full circle, heading innovation at Byju's, the multi-billion dollar Indian edtech giant that has seemingly come out of nowhere in the past decade. He is based in London. Recorded 4 June, 2021. Show Notes: 05:47 "The flight to America: the great Indian Brain Drain of the eighties and nineties.” 13:12 "A banker sees the writing on the wall in 2008." 16:22 "BRIC -- a Bloody Ridiculous Investment Concept." 17:59 "Going back to India with three investment theses." 20:08 "The first venture: providing services to rural populations ancillary to government services." 23:13 "The second venture: the underserved dialysis market in Indian healthcare." 28:35 "Why the first venture failed." 30:34 "Lessons from the first venture which were then applied to the second venture." 33:31 "Cracking the nut: his first entrepreneurial success." 40:00 "Next up, the Indian education sector was ripe for disruption." 42:57 "Innovating for the local market." 45:30 "How the pandemic affected Indian entrepreneurs." 48:15 "Fundraising challenges faced by entrepreneurs in India." 51:53 "The financing difficulty faced by entrepreneurs innovating for the local market." 56:50 "What lessons can the Indian government learn from China in terms of creating a more business-friendly company?" 1:03:15 "What are some ways the Indian government can reduce entrepreneurial red tape in India?"
Published October 31, 2021 Robert has had a varied career spanning health and fitness, consultancy, and academia. Currently he works in a regional director role for one of the largest fitness solutions providers in the world. He has a BSc in Sports Science and Management from Brunel University and an MBA from the University of Lincoln. He did his doctoral studies in marketing at a university in Hong Kong. He is the author of two books: Marketing Professional Services in Asia (Lexis Nexis, 2009), which was called one of the most indigenous books on Asian marketing by Professor Oliver Yau (Chair Professor of Marketing at City University HK) and Developing a Profitable Practice in Asia (Ark Group, 2010). He has also published over 50 articles in various newspapers and magazines on the topics of strategy, marketing, and leadership. He has spoken at numerous events as a keynote speaker or panelist around Asia. Robert is a keen sportsman having played professional football. He still hits the gym five times a week and plays rugby. Recorded June 11, 2021. Show notes: 07:26 “24 hour fitness hits a wellness culture.” 08:18 “What happens when Tai Chi meets HIIT?” 10:04 “A largely rural population has no need for gyms.” 11:03 “COVID has accelerated the move from fitness to wellness worldwide.” 13:28 “Have the leisure classes moved on from the gym?” 14:58 “Who is the Asian gym bunny?” 15:49 “Grandma and Grandpa hit the gym.” 17:30 “How to keep gym goers motivated beyond the first six months.” 20:25 “Adapting gyms to local cultural environments in Asia.” 22:22 “Group classes are especially popular in a collectivist society.” 22:50 “There is unlikely to ever be an Asian Jane Fonda.” 27:30 “Catering to a tech-forward customer base, Asian gym equipment companies are ahead of their American counterparts when it comes to innovation.” 29:46 “A bodybuilder turned academic turned entrepreneur has a unique perspective on narcissism vs. collectivism within the fitness industry.” 30:32 “Switching out fantasy for realistic expectations is key to a wellness approach” 36:46 “Virtual fitness may not be here to stay.” 40:42 “Why all the international fitness operators failed in China.” 44:12 “Gym equipment companies can succeed in Asia where gym operators failed.” 55:29 “If wellness is becoming an ecosystem, does the fitness club just happened to be one of the spokes of that ecosystem? Or does it become the hub?”
Published October 17, 2021 As a journalist in the 1990s based in Moscow, Jeff Lilley wrote about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of 15 independent republics. He covered Russia's relations with Asia and reported from three Olympics Games. His first book, China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage and Diplomacy (Public Affairs, 2004) presents a fascinating portrait of an American family’s engagement with Asia in the 20th century. Lilley moved to Central Asia in 2004. During a three-year posting in Kyrgyzstan, he started reading the works of Chinghiz Aitmatov, slept in yurts, drank fermented mare’s milk and hiked in the country’s beautiful mountains. That led to his second book, completed over ten years as he worked in the field of democracy and governance support in Washington, DC and the Middle East. Have the Mountains Fallen? Two Journeys of Loss and Redemption in the Cold War was published by Indiana University Press in 2018. Jeff works as Director of Monitoring and Evaluation for American Councils for International Education, based in Washington, DC. Recorded July 2, 2021 Show Notes: 03:00 “I found out my dad was a CIA agent when I was 16.” 05:08 “I was a child of the Cold War.” 10:13 A privileged expatriate childhood in the German colony of Qingdao in prewar China 11:44 The desire to birth a modern China through an ideology that was completely alien and antagonistic to the American way. 13:55 A father who fought the spread of communism throughout Southeast Asia through a series of covert operations. 16:30 A front row seat to the US-China rapprochement and a belief that the best way to deal with China was to engage with China. 18:33 Why is it that democracy in China never followed the trajectory that it did in Korea during Amb. James R. Lilley’s tenure? 20:21 One of the best American accounts of the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989 24:19 On being a junior high school waiter at a Chevy Chase luncheon with senior Chinese leadership and George H. W. Bush 27:44 The classic Yale gentleman 35:30 There are more students of English in Russia than there are of Russian in the United States 39:00 Covering Kyrgyz acrobats for Ringling, Barnum and Bailey brothers 45:25 Chinghiz Aitmatov: one of the most prominent non-Russian authors in the Soviet Union 51:32 The Soviet Union wasn’t all bad 58:22 The Islamist threat in post-Soviet Central Asia 1:02:33 The borders of post-Soviet Central Asia are as random and problematic as the borders in the post-colonial Middle East 1:06:20 The bright, smart and plugged-in younger generation of Central Asia
Published October 3, 2021 Valerie Hansen teaches Chinese and world history at Yale, where she is professor of history. She is the author, most recently, of The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began. In the course of writing The Year 1000, she traveled to some twenty different countries and was a visiting scholar at Xiamen University in China, University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, and the Collège de France in Paris. Having lived in China for six plus years, Valerie has visited at least 300 temples, climbed the Great Wall multiple times (once during a lightning storm), and posed next to the Terracotta Warriors eleven times. (All this in the company of her husband and three children.) Her other books include: The Silk Road: A New History, The Open Empire: A History of China to 1800, Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China, Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1279, and Voyages in World History (co-authored with Kenneth R. Curtis). Recorded April 8, 2021. Show Notes 02:00 When the future feels especially unpredictable, the study of history can provide guidance 04:20 How to get a job with a PhD in history 05:40 Why is Chinese so difficult? 12:02 How to study Chinese history when your government won't let you go to China 16:29 If you want to study medieval Chinese history you need to speak Japanese 20:47 The true history of China according to the Japanese 22:54 Japan is to Tang China as America is to Tudor England 25:50 Why the dynastic paradigm may not be the most helpful to the historian of China 29:10 Maybe we should stop using the word China altogether 31:50 A language is a dialect with an army 34:48 The many different Chinas 37:57 The Chinese have always been selectively cosmopolitan 44:14 The farther back you go in the past, the less of the role of modern ideology and the more freedom accorded the historian 48:07 On being a non-Chinese historian of China 51:04 Does ancient Chinese history provide a framework for understanding China's great power ambitions today?
Published 19 September, 2021 Michael C. Horowitz is Director of the Perry World House and Richard Perry Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Diffusion of Military Power: Causes and Consequences for International Politics (Princeton University Press, 2010) and Why Leaders Fight (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He won the 2017 Karl Deutsch Award given by the International Studies Association for early career contributions to the fields of international relations and peace research. He has published in a wide array of peer reviewed journals and popular outlets. His research interests include the intersection of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics with global politics, military innovation, the role of leaders in international politics, and geopolitical forecasting methodology. Professor Horowitz previously worked for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in the Department of Defense. He is affiliated with the Center for a New American Security, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Professor Horowitz received his Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and his B.A. in political science from Emory University. Recorded 7 April, 2021. Show Notes 01: 17 MCH on how the invasion of Iraq kicked off renewed academic interest in international relations 04:24 MCH on how invasion is easy compared to rebuilding a nation 08:02 MCH on the challenge in matching national interest to what the American people will support 10:39 MCH on weighing the need to pull out troops against the risk of a place like Afghanistan becoming a haven for terrorist groups. 12:24 MCH on the tension between the political administration and career civil servants in US foreign policy 14:36 MCH on how new administrations change their policy positions once they come into power because of access to better information 18:54 MCH on bipartisan agreement on the need for a pivot to the Indo-Pacific that was more than merely symbolic 26:05 MCH on the partisanship that characterized the debate around the JCPO/ Iran nuclear deal 38:20 MCH on the Abraham Accords 42:39 MCH on the need for free societies to work together 45:08 MCH on the role of advancements in technology in ensuring the United States’ continued dominance 48:31 MCH on the role of a space mission in military strategy 52:28 MCH on why he continues to be pro-democracy and pro- the United States
Published September 6, 2021 Jonathan Medved is a serial entrepreneur and according to the Washington Post (2007) "one of Israel's leading high-tech venture capitalists". In the 2008 NY Times Supplement "Israel at 60," Medved was named one of the top 10 most influential Americans who have impacted Israel. Medved is the founder and CEO of OurCrowd, the leading global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors and angels. OurCrowd has $1.7B in commitments and has made investments in more than 240 companies, in 25 funds and has seen 46 exits since its launch in February 2013. OurCrowd exits include: Jump Bikes sold to Uber, Briefcam sold to Canon, Argus sold to Continental, Crosswise sold to Oracle, and Replay sold to Intel. Bloomberg Businessweek said in the May 7, 2015 edition that "OurCrowd is hands down the most successful equity-crowdfunding platform in the world right now." The Street.com described OurCrowd as "Crowdfunding for Real Investors." Prior to OurCrowd, Medved was the co-founder and CEO of Vringo (Nasdaq:VRNG) and the co-founder and General Partner of Israel Seed Partners, with $262M under management. Recorded April 2, 2021. Show Notes 01:15 JM on his educational and career path and what attracted him to Israel 03:14 JM on the early days of VC in Israel 06:16 JM on how he started OurCrowd 08:55 JM on the role played by venture investments in a portfolio 11:45 JM on OurCrowd’s star performers, including Beyond Meat 16:14 JM on the role that Asian investment has played in the development of the Israeli startup ecosystem 23:36 JM on seeing Israel as part of Asia and the economic implications of the Abraham Accords 24:40 JM on an emerging perception of the Middle East beyond conflict and as an economic powerhouse in its own right 26:51 JM on how the Middle East is the bright spot on the economic horizon and OurCrowd’s moves to take advantage of this growth opportunity 28:51 JM on how the changes in the Middle East appear to be coming from the bottom up as well as top down 31:36 JM on the common heritage of Israelis and Arabs 34:04 JM on how the business culture of the Middle East differs from that in the West 37:50 JM on the small country advantage 41:33 JM on Israel as a leader in agricultural technology
Published August 25, 2021 Jeanne Lim is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of beingAI, a transmedia AI company creating AI beings™ that build long-term engagement and trust with digital-native consumers anywhere, anytime, on any device and media platform. Jeanne is an angel investor and advisor of several startups, and a board member of Kami Intelligence, a conversational AI company. Jeanne has over 25 years of experience in business management and technology marketing. She is the former CEO and CMO of Hanson Robotics, the creator of Sophia the robot, and held marketing leadership roles at Dell, Cisco, Danaher, and Apple, where she was the product and business manager responsible for launching Apple’s most groundbreaking products in the region. She started her career as a Group Management Trainee at John Swire & Sons. Jeanne is a Founder and Director of Nama Institute, a not-for-profit organization creating solutions to gamify the learning of wisdom. She is also a Volunteer and Director of Himalayan Consensus Institute, an NGO involved in social enterprise development and climate protection. Jeanne has a Ph.D. in integrated and holistic health, an MBA degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and a BA degree in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Recorded 20 August, 2021. . Show Notes: 03:02 JL on her first job and her subsequent move to Apple. 08:26 JL on how she came to appreciate the centrality of the user experience during her years at Apple 09:20 JL on Apple's most valuable asset, its loyal fanbase 11:26 JL on her introduction to yoga, the book that caused a life-changing epiphany and studying energy medicine in Sausalito 16:58 JL on how, upon her return to the corporate world, her colleagues were more open to the wisdom she gained from her time away because of her corporate background 20:10 JL on the process behind Sophia the robot's very human-like interface 23:59 JL on Sophia's ability to empathize 26:35 JL on Sophia's curated machine learning, leading to higher levels of empathy 27:25 JL on Sophia's first creative act as an artist 28:04 JL on her new company Being AI, a new generation of computer user interface and targeting the digital natives of Gen Z 31:36 JL on how to create morally interactive AI characters, such as ZD, with instructive backstories 43:03 JL on a more rational way to think about AI and its place in our lives 47:51 JL on the Chinese social credit system and whether there are lessons in there for the rest of us 54:19 JL on how we might measure the life of an AI Being: by productivity? by its ability to inspire? by its ability to entire into meaningful human relationships? 58:54 JL on where to draw the line on the inexorable march of technology 1:07:11 JL on the need for checks and balances on the power of big tech
Published 22 August, 2021 David Zweig (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1983) is Professor Emeritus, Division of Social Science, HKUST and Director, Transnational China Consulting Limited. He is an Adjunct Professor, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, National University of Defence Technology, Changsha, Hunan, and Vice-President of the Center on China’s Globalization (Beijing). He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University in 1984-86. He has lived in Hong Kong since 1996 and was a fulltime faculty member at HKUST for 25 years. Dr. Zweig studied in Beijing in 1974-1976 and did field research in rural China in 1980-1981 and 1986. In 1991-92 and 1997, he did field research on China’s “opening to the outside world.” Since 1991, he has surveyed and interviewed academics, scientists, entrepreneurs, and employees who returned from studying abroad, and Mainland-born Chinese working overseas. In June 2012, he gave Li Yuanchao, then head of the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party, a critical evaluation of the CCP’s Thousand Talents Plan. He is the author or editor of ten books, including Internationalizing China: domestic interests and global linkages (2002) and Sino-U.S. Energy Triangles: Resource Diplomacy under Hegemony (2016). “’The best are yet to come’: State programs, domestic resistance and reverse migration of high-level talent to China,” appeared in the Journal of Contemporary China (Sept. 2020), and in May 2020, his report, America Challenges China’s National Talent Programs (with Kang Siqin), was published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. He is a Contributing Writer to the South China Morning Post. Recorded 13 May, 2021. Show Notes: 05:08 DZ on his days as an aspiring revolutionary at Beijing University during the 1970s 07:13 DZ on basketball and the Gang of Four 10:17 DZ on the first Tiananmen Square protest 16:05 DZ on the second Tiananmen Square protest 19:22 DZ on how the Chinese have always wanted to find a way to get back to their glory days 23:00 DZ on how China is now ready to share the "Chinese model" with the world 27:50 DZ on the different models of economic development that China experimented with during Mao 29:37 DZ on the different models of economic development that China experimented with during Deng 34:00 DZ on some of the key tensions in the Chinese model 36:30 DZ on the Xi Jinping model of development 41:06 DZ on why so many China observers got it wrong and whether things could have been done differently 46:45 DZ on China's undemocratic capitalism 51:54 DZ on the political and economic leanings of the real China 59:29 DZ on the difference between India's and China's treatment of reverse migrant entrepreneurs 1:07 DZ on what the West can learn from China
Published July 25, 2021 Author Dori Jones Yang is a former foreign correspondent in Asia. Dori grew up in https://youngstownohio.gov/ (Youngstown, Ohio), the daughter of a bookseller. At http://www.princeton.edu/main/ (Princeton), she majored in history but spent most of her waking hours at the college newspaper, http://dailyprincetonian.com/ (The Daily Princetonian.) Eager to explore the world, she taught English in Singapore for two years, where she plunged into the study of Chinese. She traveled all over Asia on a shoestring and returned home through Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, six months before the Shah fell. To deepen her understanding of Asia, she earned a master’s at http://www.sais-jhu.edu/ (Johns Hopkins) in international studies, with a focus on China. She began her career just as Washington and Beijing established diplomatic relations. http://www.businessweek.com/ (BusinessWeek )offered her dream job: foreign correspondent in Hong Kong. The youngest of the magazine’s foreign bureau chiefs, she covered the negotiations over Hong Kong’s future, the opening of China, and the Tiananmen Square crisis in Beijing. During eight years there, she met and married a Chinese man, Paul Yang, and they had a daughter, Emily. She tells the full story of those amazing years in her memoir, https://dorijonesyang.com/when-the-red-gates-opened/ (When the Red Gates Opened), publication date September 22, 2020. Disheartened by the Tiananmen crackdown, she moved to Seattle in 1990, where she covered Northwest companies for Business Week and later worked forhttps://www.usnews.com/info/features/about-usnews ( U.S. News & World Report), covering Silicon Valley. Recorded May 14, 2021. Shownotes: 03:05 DY on how her upbringing was very different from the life she later chose to lead. 03:42 DY on how a love for foreign languages led her to an international career. 05:33 DY on having to study Mandarin in Singapore as China was closed to Americans. 07:50 DY on witnessing Deng Xiaoping’s first visit to Washington D.C. 08:47 DY on the excitement in the American business community when the US began to normalize relations with China. 11:01 DY on just how communist life in China was in the 1980s. 13:34 DY on shopping for unmentionables in communist China when her Chinese still wasn’t that good. 16:56 DY on witnessing the birth of private enterprise in China. 20:24 DY on how every aspiring capitalist country needs a hyper-capitalist incubator city like Hong Kong. 22:12 DY on the difference between American and Chinese views on capitalism. 24:08 DY on how Reagan-era capitalism shaped her outlook. 26:41 DY on having repeated front row seats to history. 29:03 DY on how so many observers thought Tiananmen would put an end to the Chinese experiment with capitalism. 31:20 DY on the extremely difficult choices that Deng had to make at Tiananmen. 36:38 DY on what it was like to marry into a Chinese family. 41:37 DY on assertive Chinese women playing against western stereotypes. 45:20 DY on the secret to making cross-cultural marriages work. 50:04 DY on how terrifying it was the break the news of her decision to her parents in Ohio. 54:30 DY on her other publishing projects, both past and upcoming. 1:04:22 DY and JF on the parallels between their lives.
Dr. Hong Tang is the Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of OnQuality Pharmaceuticals, a targeted cancer supportive care company developing medications to address specific side effects and improve the quality of life for patients receiving anti-cancer medications, with operations in Seattle and Shanghai. Dr. Tang brings to this position a wealth of medical and pharmaceutical experience. From 2017 to 2019, she held executive positions at Juno Therapeutics, an American biopharmaceutical company with a focus on CAR-T therapy and acquired by Celgene in 2018, and Dendreon, a Seattle-based company that develops personalized immunotherapy to fight cancer. Prior to that, she was the executive medical director for oncology medical affairs at Chicago-based Astellas Pharma. She has been the medical lead for Opdivo or Nivolumab (Anti-PD1), the blockbuster oncology drug from Bristol-Myers Squibb. She started her research career at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland. She received her undergraduate degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hefei, China, her graduate degree in Western medicine in Guangzhou, China, and her Phd. in pharmacology at the University of Texas in San Antonio. She is also board certified in internal medicine and practised as an internist in Indiana for almost 7 years. Recorded May 28, 2021. Show Notes: 01:22 HT on her career journey from rural China to CEO of a leading edge biotech firm. 05:38 HT on how her foundational training in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) informed her philosophy of medicine. 07:21 HT on whether TCM can be translated to a Western scientific context. 08:22 HT on the unregulated neutraceuticals sector and how it cannot be compared to the more rigorous oversight in TCM. 09:29 HT on how her parents’ experience with cancer drove her entrée into the field of immuno-oncology and her work on developing Opdivo, an immune-oncology drug at Bristol-Myers Squib. 11:48 HT on how she came to join her current company, OnQuality, of which she is the CMO, and why their approach to supportive cancer care resonated with her. 13:09 HT on the difference between working for a large pharmaceutical company and early-stage startup. 13:56 HT on the scale of OnQuality’s current operations. 15:15 HT on OnQuality’s approach to cancer supportive care, and what sort of side effects it aims to treat. 19:20 HT on the active ingredient in OnQuality’s treatment. 21:17 HT on the status of the clinical trials of this product. 22:43 HT on cancer rates in the West than in Asia and whether there are certain precautionary measures. 25:37 HT on her view of current status of the Chinese biotech industry. 27:30 HT on the extent to which biotech and pharmaceutical are viewed as a national strategic industry. 28:35 HT on the challenges of doing US China cross border research in general and with the current pandemic. 31:16 HT on trends in outsourced research and testing organizations, whether in China or other parts of the world. 34:29 HT on other Chinese-pioneered innovations in cancer therapy such as CAR-T, drawing upon her work at Juno Therapeutics. 37:21 HT on why OnQuality’s topical treatment is superior to systemic delivery when treating the side effects associated with cancer therapies. 39:24 HT on what she is hearing from her colleagues in China about that nation’s current public health strategies to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and how that compares to the approach in the United States. Correction In an earlier version of this episode, when talking about OnQuality’s approach to cancer supportive care, and what sort of side effects it aims to treat, Dr. Tang named “EGFR (Epidermal grow factor receptor)” instead of “VEGFR (vascular endothelia grow factor receptor).” The podcast has been updated to reflect this correction.
Professor Makarand Paranjape is an Indian novelist, poet and literary critic. He has been the Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, since August 2018. Professor Paranjape has been teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students for almost thirty years. His teaching career has spanned the better part of the globe. A large part of this has been spent in the United States and India, where he has lived and worked. He started his career in 1980, as Teaching Assistant at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 1999, he has been a professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, Centre for English Studies. He has published over 120 academic papers in various refereed journals and edited books within the country and internationally. In addition, he is the author of several poems and short stories, over 200 essays, book reviews, and occasional pieces in academic and popular periodicals in India and abroad. He was a columnist in Sunday Observer, Business Standard, The Pioneer, and Life Positive. He has been twice the chairperson of the Centre for English Studies, JNU, and is a member of the Board of Studies, the Academic Council of JNU, and the Vision Committee of JNU; the Coordinator for UGC Special Assistance Programme, in the Centre for English Studies, JNU from 2003 to 2008; the principal investigator of the Project on Indian Perspectives on Science and Spirituality, from 2006 to 2009. He is the General Editor of a series of reprints of rare and out of print Indian English titles published by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. He is the founding Trustee of Samvad India Foundation, a Delhi-based non-profit, public charitable trust, and also the founding editor of Evam: Forum on Indian Representations, an international bi-annual, multi-disciplinary journal on India. He was the chairperson for the Europe and South Asia region of Pan-Commonwealth panel of judges for the 2008 and 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize; he also served as the Indian host judge for the 2010 Prize awarded in New Delhi. Recorded June 8, 2021. Show Notes 01:36 MP on the idea of Asia as a European creation. 03:30 MP on India as the crossroads of the world and its inherent pluralism. 05:27 MP on the oft ignored scientific and material aspect of Indian culture vs its spiritual aspect. 13:50 MP on how India’s salubrious climate influenced its culture. 14:25 MP on the fallacy of setting up Buddhism in opposition Hinduism. 15:45 MP on the lens of dharma (rather than religion) to understand the faith traditions of the subcontinent. 18:04 MP on the meaning of the word Hindu. 21:35 MP on the Gandhian view of modernity and environmentalism. 27:35 MP on the problem with imposing external paradigms on the Indian polity and China envy in India. 31:30 MP on the Indian caste system. 38:00 MP on India’s role in the changing world order. 45:30 MP on the pressing need for India to balance its idealism with realpolitik in its foreign policy. 50:20 MP on Narendra Modi as a transformational leader in Indian history. 57:57 MP on why a Western or Chinese modernity may not work for India, and the need to evolve its own version of modernity. 01:04:31 MP on his experiences fostering better understanding between India and China. 01:06:02 MP on the challenges facing classical liberalism, from cultural revolutionaries to hyper-globalization.
Nirgunan Tiruchelvam is an equities analyst with three decades of experience covering the Asian region. He currently works for Tellimer (formerly Exotix Partners), dividing his time between Dubai and Singapore. He has also worked for Standard Chartered, ABN Amro, and RBS. Nirgunan is a graduate of Oxford University, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). He has written for the Financial Times and has appeared as a TV commentator on BBC, Channel News Asia, CNBC and Bloomberg. His views have been cited by the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. He is the author of Investing in the Covid Era: How to Spot Opportunities and Pitfalls (March 2021). Recorded April 30, 2021 Shownotes: 01:44 NT on his cosmopolitan upbringing between Sri Lanka, India and England. 03:30 NT on his start at the Asian investment bank Crosby during the go-go 90s. 06:30 NT on his ringside seat during the Asian Financial Crisis and lessons learned from that crisis. 15:43 NT on the common theme underlying investing in the COVID era. 18:54 NT on the red flags investors should be on the look out for. 21:42 NT on the place for precious metals in a COVID portfolio. 24:07 NT on some problems facing the traditional Singapore Inc. 25:17 NT on what went wrong at Hin Leong, a Singaporean oil trading company that recently declared bankruptcy. 27:56 NT on comparing the e-commerce landscape in Southeast Asia versus China. 33:33 NT on the next big opportunities in Southeast Asian e-commerce. 39:00 NT on where to look for investment opportunities in post-pandemic life. 44:30 NT on the prospects for greater economic integration within ASEAN. 53:12 NT on Sri Lanka’s close economic partnership with China.
A giant of US foreign policy, Eliot A. Cohen is the Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies and Dean of Johns Hopkins SAIS. After receiving his BA and PhD degrees from Harvard, he taught there and at the US Naval War College before coming to Johns Hopkins SAIS in 1990. His books include, most recently, The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force (2017) as well as Conquered into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battle along the Great Warpath that Made the American Way of War (2012) and Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime (2003), among others. He served in the US Army Reserve, was a director in the Defense Department’s policy planning staff, led the US Air Force’s multi-volume study of the first Gulf War, and has served in various official advisory positions. In 2007-2009 he was Counselor of the Department of State, serving as Senior Adviser to Secretary Condoleezza Rice, focusing on issues of war and peace, including Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a contributing editor at The Atlantic, and his commentary has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and on major television networks. Shownotes: 03:49 EC on the role of military and defense in the context of a global world order. 05:47 EC on the role of non-US military in the international system. 08:08 EC on the increasing role of cyber warfare as a tool of military conflict. 09:22 EC on a paradigm for understanding China's new role within the international system. 12:40 EC on whether different political systems can co-exist peacefully. 14:45 EC on whether the West was overly optimistic about China's embrace of Western political norms. 17:07 EC on the recent détente in the Middle East and whether it can provide a model for other interminable conflicts in the region. 22:02 EC on the role of the Israeli military in Middle East relations. 22:45 EC on the quadrilateral security dialogue between India, Australia, New Zealand and Japan (Quad). 26:35 EC on the continued importance of national sovereignty in our era of hyper-globalization. 29:09 EC on serving under former US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice. 32:03 EC on why he is optimistic about the US in the long term.
Jim Rickards, an American lawyer, is the author of the national bestseller, Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis, and a partner in JAC Capital Advisors, a hedge fund based in New York. He is a counsellor and investment advisor and has held senior positions at Citibank, Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) and Caxton Associates. He was the principal negotiator of the rescue of the LTCM sponsored by the Federal Reserve. He has been interviewed in The Wall Street Journal and has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox, CNN, BBC and is an Op-Ed contributor to the Financial Times, New York Times and Washington Post. Mr. Rickards is a visiting lecturer at Northwestern and the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University. He has written and delivered numerous papers on risk management. He is an advisor on capital markets to the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Rickards holds an LLM in Taxation from the NYU School of Law, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, an M.A. in economics from SAIS and a B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University. He joins us to tell us about his latest book, The New Great Depression: Winners and Losers in a Post-Pandemic World. For the full episode, visit reorientpodcast.com.
Show Notes 07:48 JR on the difference between depressions and recessions. 15:40 JR on being raised with a depression mentality through the 50s and 60s, long after the last great depression. 20:20 JR on how the botched policy response to the pandemic caused the depression. 23:32 JR on how this was the greatest economic blunder in history. 27:30 JR on the disastrous politicization of the virus. 30:00 JR tracks the initial spread of the virus. 37:23 JR on the increasing impotence of central banks. 39:43 JR on "Chinese levels" of saving in the US economy. 43:18 JR on the multiple asset bubbles, whether in crypto, stock market or residential housing. 47:00 JR on how small businesses have borne the brunt of the pandemic. 49:00 JR on the looming risk of systemic failure. 52:00 JR on the structural problems and demographic time bomb in the Chinese economy. 1:01 JR explains the Triffin dilemma. 1:02 JR on the viability of a yuan denominated bond. 1:03:44 JR on the winning strategies in his new book The New Great Depression.
Leonhard A. Weese is a young Austrian economist who came to Hong Kong at the beginning of the last decade to study statistics, fell in love with the city’s freewheeling capitalism and never left. During that time Weese became involved with the city’s nascent Bitcoin scene, where he, along with a few other interested parties, started hosting Bitcoin meetups in order to come together and understand this revolutionary new form of money. Within a year of the first meetup, the events grew to attract hundreds of attendees. In order to meet the public demand for more information, Weese co-founded the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, overseeing its evolution from niche club to a more mature organization that today boasts 6000 members, puts out white papers on Bitcoin regulation, and serves as a reliable and accessible resource for the local and international Bitcoin community. For the full interview, visit reorientpodcast.com Show Notes 00:02:20 LAW on Austrian economics as a jumping off point to understand Bitcoin 00:06:50 LAW on how universities have had relatively little engagement with Bitcoin 00:08:40 LAW on the purity and energy of the early Bitcoin meetups 00:12:00 LAW on Bitcoin arbitrage between Hong Kong and China in the early days 00:14:50 LAW on the state of Bitcoin regulation in Hong Kong 00:19:30 Prominent HK investor David Webb on Bitcoin 00:21:19 LAW explains the nuts and bolts of Bitcoin 00:26:30 LAW explains the workings of blockchain technology 00:29:55 LAW on the Bitcoin halvening 00:33:10 LAW on how verification works in Bitcoin 00:37:32 LAW on the free rider problem in Bitcoin verification 00:39:37 LAW on Bitcoin’s most famous error 00:42:10 LAW on the cost of maintaining Bitcoin as a form of money 00:43:50 LAW on Bitcoin mining in China 00:48:16 LAW on Chinese government policy towards Bitcoin 00:49:42 LAW on how Chinese investors are using Bitcoin 00:53:03 LAW on how other cryptos like ETH stack up against Bitcoin 00:55:30 LAW answers critics who claim Bitcoin isn’t a real technological breakthrough but a speculative tool 00:58:08 LAW posits that Bitcoin is not a threat to governments 01:00:11 LAW on how it’s almost impossible for governments to enact effective bans on Bitcoin 01:01:41 LAW on how Japan is exceptionally progressive in Bitcoin regulation 01:02:38 LAW on the crypto scene in Southeast Asia 01:04:22 LAW on whether Bitcoin can overcome its innate volatility to become money 01:06:04 LAW on Bitcoin as part of an investment portfolio 01:07:57 LAW on why governments of small countries have incentives to get on the crypto train 01:11:38 LAW on what Bitcoin could offer financial centres like Singapore and Hong Kong in order to compete against digital economy vanguard nations like Estonia
Allan Zeman, the father of Hong Kong’s famed Lan Kwai Fong nightlife district, has had the most extraordinary career: born in Germany and raised in Montreal, he made his first million in Hong Kong by the age of 20. Today, he is one of Hong Kong's most prominent businessmen. In 2008, he gave up his Canadian citizenship and became a naturalized citizen of the People’s Republic of China. Access the full podcast at reorientpodcast.com. Show Notes: 01:30 AZ describes his youth as a newspaper boy and retail salesman in Montreal. 06:38 AZ on how he made his first million. 06:50 AZ on how the Canadian taxman prompted him to move to the other side of the world. 11:46 AZ on the the secret to doing business across cultures. 15:20 AZ on the beginning’s of Hong Kong’s storied nightlife district, Lan Kwai Fong. 24:12 AZ on taking Ocean Park into battle with Disney and winning. 31:39 AZ on how to take care of your money. 35:40 AZ on being on the factory floors of the New Territories versus the clubby world of Hong Kong. 40:08 AZ on his momentous decision to give up his Canadian passport and become a Chinese citizen. 43:15 AZ on why China seems to be on track to overtake the American economy. 54:36 AZ on the current situation in Hong Kong. 57:25 AZ on the Greater Bay Area. 01:03:18 AZ on the current wave of out-migration from Hong Kong.
Notes from Utopia:the Tropicalist discusses the history of venture capital and finds a surprising link to Furuzonfar Zehni’s ancestors.
Hosts Jesse and Madhavi discuss:the increasing ability to have a global career in finance without being a product of Western institutions the historic Sogdian civilization of Central Asia and how it provides a template for Central Asian development today Central Asia’s immense strategic importance
Furuzonfar Zehni, a young venture capitalist, travels the world to meet with entrepreneurs, whose businesses his firm helps grow into tomorrow’s unicorns. His Tajik heritage finds new relevance in the new globalized, tech-driven economy. Full interview on Reorientpodcast.com. Show Notes 4:11 FZ on global seed investing. 5:50 FZ on how his unique upbringing prepared him for this relatively young field. 8:01 FZ on the cultural differences between the Middle East and Northern Europe. 12:44 FZ on what prompted him to shift his focus to Asia and Hong Kong and first impressions. 15:12 FZ on the Fresco approach to investing—what are the lenses they use. 18:30 FZ on the nexus between culture and venture capital, with specific examples. 21: 46 FZ on the cultural differences among their portfolio companies in various markets. 28:00 FZ on the history of venture capital and whether there are equivalent forms of financing elsewhere. 32:46 FZ on whether there is a regional identity in Central Asia. 34:23 FZ on the ethnic diversity of Central Asia. 37:30 FZ on the historical economic importance and unique socio-political organization of Central Asia. 40:40 FZ on the golden age of Central Asia. 48:13 FZ on how Central Asia can avoid the pitfalls of over-reliance on natural resources. 50:26 FZ on the modern day economies of Central Asia: strengths and weaknesses. 54:07 FZ on Central Asia’s relationship with its neighbouring superpowers.
The Crazy Rich Asians author spills the beans on Asia’s new money, that vaunted work ethic and the first thing he's going to do post COVID. Listen to the full interview at Reorientpodcast.com. Show Notes: 4:03 KK talks about his path to success and how he would advise young Asians wanting to pursue a creative career. 10:11 KK talks about his childhood and how to parent for creativity. 13:53 KK on the cultural difference between Asians from Asia and Asian Americans. 17:21 KK on how the current wave of wealthy émigrés from China are influencing the Asian American zeitgeist. 20:30 KK on the phenomenon of “international Asians”. 22:56 KK on the spirit of enterprise in the new Asia and what powers the drive to achieve characteristic of so many overseas Asian communities. 26:51 KK on connoisseurship in Asia. 30:57 KK on how Asia will define the new modern. 36:23 KK on world cities across the globe, what drives their rise and fall, and life in LA vs. NY vs. Singapore vs. HK. 42:21 KK on the process behind his new novel, Sex and Vanity. 46:03 KK on his upcoming television and film projects and the process of taking his stories from print to film. 48:03 KK on how he feels about the Crazy Rich Asians movie. 52:45 KK on what inspires him. 54:46 KK on how Asia fared so much better than the West in its response to COVID. 57:47 KK on what he’s looking forward to doing post-COVID.
Notes From Utopia: The Tropicalist recounts the history of previous pivotal developments in information and communications technology and how civilizations that failed to grasp the importance of such developments eventually lost out
Jesse and Madhavi discuss: 5G: hype vs reality the rollout of 5G in economically developed parts of Asia versus less developed parts of Asia the possibility of 5G being “galapagosized” the wisdom in the Chinese approach to tech regulation
Links: https://art19.com/shows/entrepreneurial-thought-leaders?q=Morris%20chang&seasonId=51cf9b3c-9093-492b-8ab6-0c6fd3049202 (Interview with Morris Chang of TSMC) (podcast) https://www.ft.com/content/8c0152d2-d0f2-11e2-be7b-00144feab7de (Silicon Valley Rooted in Backing from US Military) https://www.jstor.org/stable/23699688 (Cold War Armory: Military Contracting in Silicon Valley) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-19/japan-considers-tsmc-tie-up-to-boost-chip-industry-yomiuri-says (Japan Considers TSMC Tie-Up to Boost Chip Industry, Yomiuri Says) https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/china-set-pass-own-law-210000590.html (China Set to Pass Its Own Law Protecting Vital Tech From U.S.) https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-rolls-out-huawei-ban-in-new-law-draft-law/ (UK Includes Huawei Ban in Telecoms Security Bill) https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/chinese-hackers-have-pillaged-taiwans-semiconductor-industry/?comments=1 (Chinese Hackers Have Pillaged Taiwan’s Semiconductor Industry) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-04/chinese-scientists-claim-breakthrough-in-quantum-computing-race (Chinese Scientists Claim Breakthrough in Quantum Computing) https://themarket.ch/interview/louis-gave-inflation-will-come-back-with-a-vengeance-ld.3307 (Semiconductor Industry Is the New Battleground in Great Power Conflict) https://www.eurotechnology.com/insights/galapagos/ (Galapagos Effect: How Can Japan Capture Global Value from Japan’s Technologies and New Business Models?) https://www.huawei.com/en/executives/articles/hw_356448 (Text of Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou’s Speech at the 2014 Huawei ICT Finance Forum) https://blogs.bath.ac.uk/iprblog/2020/06/11/build-back-better-in-the-winter-of-the-5th-kondratieff-wave/ (Kondratieff Wave Theory) https://books.google.ca/books?dq=islam%20and%20the%20printing%20press&hl=en&id=D0gQnwEACAAJ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjk7v2a9rfuAhU6TTABHaDuCfUQ6AEwBHoECAAQAg (Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World) https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/365-radio-sanctioned (Sanctioned: The Arrest of a Telecom Giant) (podcast) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-16/xi-warns-against-tech-excess-in-sign-crackdown-will-widen (Xi Warns Against Tech Excess in Sign Crackdown Will Widen )
Intel alum and Asian tech VC Michael Bruck on the little known history of tech in Asia and why Asia will dominate the next wave of innovation. Full interview available at Reorientpodcast.com. Show Notes: 04:00 In layman terms, MB charts the evolution of the semiconductor industry from punch cards to vacuum tubes to transistors to silicon-based integrated circuits. 06:08 MB on the the role played by the US government and military in the development of the commercial electronic computing industry. 20:26 MB on how Japan drove the invention of the microprocessor and eventually got better at designing memories than the Americans and how Intel responded by turning to CPUs and the nascent personal computing industry. 26:07 MB on the mercantilist approach taken by Japan’s METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) in fostering Japanese dominance in the memory business. 28:39 MB on how domestic developments in the US drove the internationalization of semiconductor manufacturing. 31:51 MB on how international students from Asia, such as Morris Chang of TSMC, eventually helped grow key technology industries in their home countries. 34:00 MB on how the horizontalisation of the PC industry contributed to the globalization of its component parts. 40:12 MB on the transition to the mobile era. 47:30 MB on who sets the industry standards and how this impacts the geography of innovation. 54:03 MB on the China tech landscape and one internet for China and one for the rest of the world. 59:30 MB on why the current 5G moment is so pivotal.
Episode 01: Ronnie Chan, the Hong Kong-based billionaire philanthropist and chairman of the Hang Lung Group shares his thoughts on the US-China relationship. Full episode at Reorientpodcast.com. Show Notes: 02:25 How cultural differences between the two civilizations have determined the course of the US-China relationship. 11:32 How the Chinese view the tradeoffs inherent in modernization and whether they see westernization as a prerequisite to becoming modern. 16:11 How very few policymakers in the West are actually familiar with China’s history nor have ever visited China, yet do not hesitate to make pronouncements on the relationship. 19:26 How American exceptionalism colours America’s approach to the US-China relationship. 23:29 How the changing tenor of the US-China relationship has impacted the EU’s relationship with China. 29:00 How European powers must navigate their transition from dominant players to client states. 34:40 The moral philosophy of the Chinese bureaucracy, which is based on extremely long-standing Confucian traditions. 38:08 The crisis in Hong Kong. 47:31 The future of the US-China relationship, whether it can be salvaged and whether China is really gunning for number one. 53:44 What Americans could learn from the British on diplomacy.
Is the MSM missing out on the biggest story of our time? In this brief introduction, hosts Jesse and Madhavi talk about their motivations for launching the Reorient! podcast and what they hope to achieve.