This episode is the second part of my conversation in Shanghai with author and China expert Jim McGregor. And just to recap: it’s still stinkin’ hot and Jim is still in his baseball cap.

That’s about as lighthearted as it gets.

Sorry.

In case you missed our last episode—and if so, you can download it here—it featured Jim’s worrying assessment of the current state of US/China trade. As Jim pointed out, no matter what we might tell ourselves in the US about our open system and its virtues, the fact remains that anyone—and this includes nations—who are dealing with a major Chinese investor or company are also and always dealing with China, Inc. 

What are the consequences of the bargain we are striking with the Chinese? How does the US create reasonable and transparent defenses to shield our own interests while at the same time finding ways to re-energize American entrepreneurs and companies to consider the interests of the United States alongside their own?  The recent withdrawal of the US from the TPP is just one example of the American myopia that impedes the ability to answer this question effectively.
 
And what about the alarming headlines this morning that suggest a more serious conflict looms? As I write this, North Korea is threatening a “physical response” to aggressive trade sanctions imposed by the Trump Administration. Jim provides a frank perspective on the situation and what can be done about it. The US has made a habit of asking China to intervene with North Korea and I ask him if they are doing enough. Or is there something that China could be doing but aren’t doing because they know there might be something in it for them? 

This is Inside Asia. Jim McGregor’s is a voice more urgent and necessary than ever before. This episode is required listening for anyone presuming to be informed about the current state of affairs.
Thanks for listening.

Inside Asia

Jim McGregor: Trump, China INC, and the North Korea Question

What is China doing in Africa?

Is it to establish a beachhead for access to natural resources and commodities? Is it a new frontier for China investment, technology and services? Does China see Africa as the last among market greenfield opportunities, where telecom networks, roads, ports, power plants and payment systems are all in the earliest stages of development?

Some observers question China’s means of doing business in Africa. Specifically, the way Chinese companies extract government concessions or do closed-door deals with the African elite. It feels shady to some, and perhaps it is. Perhaps it isn’t. The lingering fear is that China wont’s so much enrich Africa as it will exploit it.
There’s certainly no scarcity of controversy and bad press swirling around the topic.

In this episode, we get past the hype and hullabaloo by speaking to Eric Olander, founder, host and mastermind behind the China Africa Project. As many of our listeners will already know, Eric is also the host of the China in Africa Podcast which has a listenership that numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Each week Eric and his co-host— South African-based Cobus van Staden—showcase experts with deep knowledge of the trends, developments, investments and controversies associated with China in Africa.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Eric has established himself as one of the most rigorously informed and brilliantly articulate voices on the subject.  

I sat down with him on my last trip to Shanghai, and from the executive lounge atop the JW Marriott, and I asked him what he made of the China/Africa connection. Eric’s brilliant and brilliantly articulate—and can be controversial. Thanks for listening.

Eric Olander: What is China Doing in Africa?

Here’s some old news: this past January President Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement—the TPP. 

It shocked some, but it should have come as no surprise.

Candidate Trump—like Candidate Clinton—made the TPP withdrawal a central campaign promise. And fact is for a lot of Americans, getting out of the TPP made a lot of sense. If the US is the big dog why would it want any other dogs at the same table? At bottom, Americans—like Trump himself—thought the TPP dissolution would a chance to put the art of the deal into practice. If the US was going to win, in other words, it should play one on one. The idea that bilateral trade agreements are by definition much better for the US than multilateral agreements is at the core of Trump’s approach to…well, his approach to pretty much everything.

This episode, we ask if this is true—and what happens next. What will replace the TPP?

My guests are Deborah Elms, Founder and Executive Director of the Asian Trade Centre in Singapore and Steve Okun, a member the board of governors on the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, which was—under Okun’s leadership—the first business association to endorse the TPP (before Obama even announced that the US would be a part of it).

This is a fascinating, detailed discussion that does justice to the complexity of the issue. It’s not the sort of thing you’re going to hear anywhere else. Listen to the end for an extraordinary story of one of the most unexpected and underreported consequences of the TPP dissolution from Deborah Elms.

This is not an episode you can afford to miss. Thanks, as always, for listening.

Deborah Elms and Steve Okun: The Trans-Pacific Partnership

In this special bonus episode of the Inside Asia Podcast, we explore the unlikely career trajectory of healthcare industry disruptor, Rosaline Chow Koo.
Rosaline is the founder and CEO of CXA, the first data-driven private insurance and workplace wellness exchange in Asia.
In this episode, we explore Rosaline’s backstory – from a daughter of immigrants growing up in Watts to her scrappy career in Wall St., we trace the career of one of today’s most impactful innovators.

Rosaline Chow Koo: The Birth of an Innovator

In many ways, the failure to invest in China is a failure of the imagination.
Of course there have been risks in the past, and there continue to be; but China is changing. The market is maturing and regulations are becoming increasingly transparent. The combination of internal banking sector constraints and China’s newfound global ambitions is resulting in new opportunities for global
financial institutions.
My topic this episode is asset management in China and my guest is Peter Alexander, Founder and Managing Director of Z-Ben Advisors, a consulting firm based in China. Peter’s built his career around advising clients on how to best capitalize on growing investment opportunities in the Greater China market.
During his conversation with me Peter makes an important point: it’s far easier to latch onto past events to justify staying away from the China market then it is to take run at future possibilities. He reminds us that confirmation bias is always at play particularly when it comes to bad press around treatment of foreign financial institutions in China. It’s easy to find information to support conclusions you have already drawn. That’s human nature. The important thing is to see around it.
The question is not whether you’re going to get in the game, it’s when. Investing in China requires a new playbook and a novel approach. It’s new territory, and there are risks and challenges. The rules may feel unfamiliar. But as Peter says, if you can get your head around the cultural divide and the nuances of operating in China, there’s money to be made.
This is, as Peter says, the beginning of the beginning. There are miles to go. What is your China strategy? Whether you’re all in all the way, half way, or not at all, the time is rapidly approaching when to not have an answer is to not be in the game. So, to the world’s financial institutions and asset managers, I ask: Can you afford not to be in China?