Good evening. How are we to make sense of the abrupt shift in China’s approach to its tech giants? Our cover story this week — an excerpt from Ya-Wen Lei’s new book, Gilded Cage — walks us through Beijing’s thinking as well as the bureaucratic steps it took to initiate the now-infamous crackdown. Elsewhere, we have infographics on ZhenFund, the Beijing-based angel investor; an interview with Gregory Allen on the U.S.-China tech turning point; a reported piece on China’s coal calculations; and an op-ed about fixing China’s real estate sector. If you’re not already a paid subscriber to The Wire, please sign up here.
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Caging the Tech Capitalists
Jack Ma’s provocative speech in October 2020 gave China the justification it needed to tame its unruly tech giants. But Beijing was already pretty far along in the process of building the bureaucratic tools it would need to initiate a crackdown — meaning when the order was given, the fallout was swift.
The Big Picture: Who is ZhenFund?
ZhenFund, a Beijing-based angel investor, has helped several big names in the high-tech space get their start, including autonomous aerial vehicle manufacturer EHang, LiDAR sensor developer Hesai Technology, and artificial intelligence companies DeepGlint, Intellifusion and YITU. This week’s infographics by Ella Apostoaie look at ZhenFund’s founders, limited partners and major investments.
A Q&A with Gregory C. Allen
Gregory C. Allen is the director of the Wadhwani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Most recently, he authored two new reports: one on the implications of Huawei’s new smartphone for the future of export controls, and another on allied perspectives on U.S. export control policy. In this week’s Q&A with Eliot Chen, he talks about the landmark 2022 export control policy and its shortcomings, the 2023 update of that policy, China’s indigenous chipmaking capabilities, and the long-term prospects for America’s multilateral approach to chip controls.
Gregory C. Allen
Illustration by Kate Copeland
China’s Coal Calculations
China has installed huge amounts of clean energy projects, and the country’s carbon emissions could enter structural decline as early as next year. But, as Rachel Cheung reports, there’s a big catch.
Fixing China’s Real-Estate Sector
Past warnings of a housing-market crash in China have never been borne out, with the real-estate sector always managing to muddle through. But unless the government takes concerted action to address the deteriorating finances of developers, Yu Yongding argues that this time may well be different.
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