Entrepreneur, Philosopher
Last November, Beijing went “all in” on blockchain (Newsletter #14), saying they were going to move forward with a state-backed crypto currency. Unsurprisingly, when Xi Jinping made that announcement, things were already well underway. They launched a pilot of the digital currency the next month, and announced just last Wednesday that they were expanding the trial to include … Continue reading “US Senate discusses “digital dollar””
China continues to pursue its ambition of being not just one of the world’s largest economies, but one of its largest powers. The passing of the new Hong Kong security law — which happened in secret, bypassing Hong Kong’s own legislature, and the content of which was only revealed one day before it went into effect (absolutely … Continue reading “The ongoing evolution of Asia”
It’s easy to forget (global pandemic, George Floyd protests and riots, upcoming US election, new Bolton book, SCOTUS landmark anti-discrimination ruling, etc…), but the US is involved in a trade war with China. But actually, it’s much bigger than a trade war; it’s a war over global influence. This week, there was a minor border … Continue reading “The real proxy war coming from the trade war”
As I discussed last week, China’s proposed security law for Hong Kong would be a major blow. Follow-on discussions of potential results of the implementation of such a law really span quite a bit of ground. On the “very likely” side of things, Hong Kong is currently home to over 400 hedge funds, managing north … Continue reading “Hedge Funds and New Hong Kong”
With everything going on regarding COVID-19, and now the protests and riots in the US, it’s easy to forget that just a few months ago, there were on-going protests in Hong Kong around Beijing’s attempt to pass a law allowing people to be extradited to the mainland. Equally seemingly lost in the noise is Beijing’s … Continue reading “Hong Kong no longer autonomous from China”
We tend to think of “the Internet” as a single thing, but, in reality, it has been fragmenting for a while (China is the biggest example, where the Internet inside the country looks very different than the one outside, but there are lots of similar fractures, both big and small, e.g., back in 2014 when … Continue reading “The Internet continues to fragment”
I’ve written a few times about the growing surveillance state in China, but while China tops the world in sheer number of cameras, I was very surprised to find that the U.S. tops the list on a per-capita basis, coming in at 15.28 cameras per 100 people (China is 14.36, and the next closest is … Continue reading “U.S. tops surveillance cameras per capita”
China is spreading Uyghur recognition across the country At least twelve projects across China are mandating that the ability to identify Uyghur be built into their facial-recognition systems. Imagine if US police RFPs started mandating Navajo recognition? Or if the English started mandating Welsh recognition? Remember, TikTok is controlled by China Seventeen-year-old Feroza Aziz wanted … Continue reading “China, Uyghur, TikTok”
Chinese President Xi Jinping said China should “seize [the blockchain] opportunity”. There’s a lot in there, but the big play is that they’re intending to launch a state-backed crypto currency. Of course, this won’t have the purported benefits of true, open cryptocurrencies, but it does represent a huge opportunity for China, including (by no means … Continue reading “Beijing is going all-in on blockchain”
For many weeks now, we’ve been kept abreast of the protests in Hong Kong, ever since Beijing tried to push through a bill allowing extradition to the mainland, and then tabled it instead of removing the proposed legislation all together. We’re not even half way into the “one country, two systems” 50 year plan, and … Continue reading “It’s not just Hong Kong, pay attention to Russian protests”