Asia Business Podcast

As part of a new series called “Built in China”, we are looking at international “serial” entrepreneurs who have chosen to live and build startups in China. Our first guest is Charles Liao. Charles was born in Shanghai but grew up in the US and has founded numerous companies, most recently the air purifier company Mila and the men’s personal care brand Day 22. Mila has been invested in by Electrolux and Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital and has become an even bigger success in mature markets like the US than in China. With that success in mind, we ask Charles to share his thoughts on preparing to enter a totally new and underserved product category like men’s skin care without having any prior industry experience. It hasn’t stopped Charles before, so how are he and the team going to tackle this new, big opportunity and what lessons carry over from his prior success. Listen to found out. Producer Jacob Thomas Follow Us LinkedIn Apple Podcasts

Will Chinese companies really be forced off of US stock exchanges because they cannot fulfill certain US audit requirements? The Public Company Accounting Oversights Board (PCAOB) is tasked with essentially auditing the auditors of public companies trading in the US. For Chinese companies which have listed on NASDAQ and NYSE, PCAOB has never been able to do this, and we’re now approaching a hard 3 year timeline where these companies may be forced out. We talk to the former Head of Enforcement for PCAOB, Claudius Modesti, who has negotiated this bilateral issue with China’s CSRC and Ministry of Finance. If a compromise is possible, if these companies really will be forced to leave? No one can answer this better than Claudius. Enjoy the episode. Producer Jacob Thomas Follow Us LinkedIn Apple Podcasts

Xiaomi recently won a case in US federal court to block implementation of a rule that would have prevented US persons from investing in their stock. The announcement of this rule had initially sent their stock plummeting. Xiaomi and Luokung, another company facing this rule, have now given other similar companies a playbook for pushing back. We talk with Tim O’Toole, a white collar defense and international trade lawyer at Miller & Chevalier. Tim has appeared numerous times before the same judge in federal court as the Xiaomi and Luokung cases, and he walks us through the rulings and what comes next. Enjoy! Producer Jacob Thomas Follow Us LinkedIn Apple Podcasts

The Variable Interest Entity. Sounds like a boring term an accountant or lawyer might use. Well it is an accounting term, but it’s anything but boring when you know how its used in the real world. It’s the key to how all Chinese internet companies have been structured to go IPO outside of China for the last 20 years. Let’s just say it’s a bit of a clunky workaround to deal with restrictions on foreign investment in the internet space in China, and despite its clunkiness, it’s still going strong today. We’ll get into the notorious Alipay – Softbank – Yahoo story and others where the VIE was center stage in that drama. Check it out with our guest Ma Xiaohu, one of the leading early technology lawyers in China who along with a few others had to come up with all these wonderful structures 20 years ago to enable that first batch of Chinese internet IPOs to happen… Producer Jacob Thomas Follow Us LinkedIn Apple Podcasts

On the heels of the Shanghai Automotive Show, Bill Russo of Automobility Ltd. joins us for a deep dive on the automotive industry and which types of players are likely to be winners and losers in the biggest global markets - China and the US. Producer Jacob Thomas Follow Us LinkedIn Apple Podcasts

Our latest deep dive on China tech. Semiconductors companies used to be boring. Now they are at the frontline of a global macro competition between two powers. We look at the China semiconductor industry and the challenges it faces as it seeks to bring more of the value chain home locally and rely less on foreign suppliers. A bridge too far? Have a listen and find out. Guests: Stewart Randall, Director of Operations and Global Lead for Electronics and Embedded at Intralink in Shanghai. Nalin Balan, Head of Sales and Business Development for Reality AI in San Francisco and former Head of IP Sales for Asia Pacific at Cadence Design Systems. Producer Jacob Thomas Follow Us LinkedIn Apple Podcasts

A wide ranging interview with Ker Gibbs, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. On how the new Biden Administration will impact US-China relations, the approach US companies are taking towards corporate investments in challenging bilateral times, and how Amcham helps advocate for US businesses at all levels and on both sides of the Pacific. Ker acknowledges the multiple challenges we have to address, and gives us a very real and honest interview from someone who has seen a lot in the last few years and can best give us a window into what will come next.Producer Jacob Thomas Follow Us LinkedIn Apple Podcasts

In this episode we lean on the experience of three foreigners who have done business in China for decades - Rich Robinson, Joanne Wood, and Dan Krassenstein. A wide ranging discussion on favorite China personal experiences, lessons to adapt to doing business in China, and how they see cross-border trade and investment trends with China going forward.Producer Jacob Thomas Follow Us LinkedIn Apple Podcasts

In the wake of the recent IPO, we interview three early members of the Airbnb China team on how Airbnb found and stuck to its core advantages against an array of local competitors. And how it managed to emerge as a rare Western tech startup success story in China. Guest lineup: Robert Hao, Co-Founder and COO of Hype, Ltd., Director of Business Operations and Strategy, HCO, Head of Supply at Airbnb 2012-2017 Bryan Huang, Founder at Annabai Technology, IT Manager at Airbnb 2015-2018 Ziyang David Fan, Head of Digital Trade at World Economic Forum, Senior Legal Counsel at Airbnb 2015-2017 Producer Jacob Thomas Follow Us LinkedIn Apple Podcasts

When you look at the actual origin of investment flows, China is now the biggest investor in Indonesia. And two macro trends are currently at play in the trade relationship. Chinese (and other) manufacturers are diversifying out of China and finding relatively young and affordable Indonesian labor attractive especially as other countries like Vietnam become saturated and more expensive. And Indonesia as we know has become a major potential market for an investment opportunities by Chinese technology companies, and Chinese capital in general. We talk with Liky Sutikno, Chair of the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce in China (Inacham) on this and other issues. Liky explains how Indonesia has been shifting its focus to use its abundant labor and natural resources to attract overseas investment on the condition that Indonesia does more and more value-added processing work, not just resource extraction and export. We also dive into major trade zones and infrastructure projects and the role for Chinese players there. We further get into the role of the Chinese-Indonesian business community in bridging the two economies. And finally we discuss opportunities for Indonesia companies starting out in certain niche industries to expand into the Chinese market directly. Have a listen and please remember to subscribe on your favorite podcast channel.Producer Jacob Thomas Follow Us LinkedIn Apple Podcasts