SILICON DRAGON NEWS
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Silicon Dragon
Roundtable
 NYC
 
US-China Tech and Trade Discussion: 
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Silicon Dragon 
Night
Hong Kong

Drinks, Talks: 
Bar 6
Who's Winning the Tech Race? 
Rebecca Fannin, 
Tech Titans of China 
& Edith Yeung, 
China Internet Report 

Silicon Dragon LA 2019

Stella Li, President,
BYD Motors

 

Day One Opener
US-China Superpower 
Debate
Tech Titans 
of China
 Book Signing
VIP Reception

Day Two Forum
Mobility Innovations
Sino-US VC Trends

Rooftop Party
 
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Commonwealth Club
San Francisco
July 30

Rotman School
University of Toronto

Stay tuned! 
China's BAT and US FANGs 
Feel The Pinch of Too Much Power        
 
At a time when Facebook, Amazon and Google are feeling the pinch of too much power, China's own tech giants face a squeeze.
China's tech titans Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent (the BAT) are at the forefront of the country's tech revolution. They own search, e-commerce, and social networking in China. They are pushing ahead into innovating frontier technologies such as AI, robotics and fintech that will reshape financial, retail, transportation and mobile communication sectors. 
As China's Big Three tech companies have forged their paths within their home country, they parallel America's FANGs. They are still far overshadowed in size by Google, Amazon, and Facebook and not nearly as global, but growing superfast. If their growth continues at a rapid clip, China's BAT might someday measure up to America's tech giants in size. The Chinese threesome are already among the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world.
China's BAT are managing broad and deep power bases in tech. With that power comes lots of headaches. 
 Read Forbes : Pinch

Motoring in Motor City To Track Next Auto Capital of the World
 
I was at Detroit Tigers baseball game this past week and posted this photo of Detroit's skyline from the stadium. Guess where I am, I prompted on Facebook. Back came the response, with a notable comment: "The rebirth of cities down on their luck is really exciting to behold, and oh so fragile."
I did come away with exactly that impression after a brief trip to Detroit and Flint. The impetus for this journey was to learn more about how, and if, the U.S. auto industry is being transformed in this futuristic era of autonomous driving and electric cars.
I was particularly interested to find out if my book's premise that China could be the next Detroit for electric vehicles and autonomous driving is right. It was time to have a closer look at what was once the world's leading auto making hub.
I visited Flint, once known as Buick City, but no longer. This city of 100,000 (once 250,000) needs a rebranding.  Read Forbes: Flint is Alive?
 
VENTURE FUNDS
Kai-Fu Lee's Sinovation Ventures launches a Greater Bay Area headquarters in Guangzhou and closes third RMB fund of $361 million. The firm is refocusing away from Silicon Valley in wake of increased US-China tensions and a deal slowdown. 
  
Europe's Pioneering Ventures launches $70 million Rural India Impact Fund.    

VENTURE DEALS
Qiming Venture Partners reaches out from Shanghai to lead a $15 million, Series B round in Indian self-publishing platform Pratilipi
Chinese VC firms are turning to India deals (wonder why?) Pratilipi looks promising: 1 million users have written 8 million stories in five languages including Tamil, Bengali and Marathi. Existing investors Omidyar Network, Shunwei Capital and Nexus VP also participated. 

Alteria Capital invests $3.5 million more in Indian scooter startup Vogo.      

TECH WAR UPDATES
China summons tech giants to warn against cooperating with Trump ban. Dell, Microsoft, FedEx, Intel, Google, Ford, GM, Walmart, P&G on the list. NY Times: don'ts

U.S. national security under threat due to Huawei ban, tech company executives warn Trump administration. 
Ban may slow research and development and harm U.S. military technology, which relies on fast and capable chips. Washington Post  tech risk

Shenzhen feels the impact as U.S. snaps at its "dragon's head." SCMP: strike

VIEWPOINT 
"They are right that China's rise inherently threatens American interests - so long as America defines its interests as maintaining global dominance everywhere and forever." historian  Stephen Wertheim view in 
NY Times: too late to stop a cold war?  

NOTEWORTHY
Global crisis as China corners rare earth minerals market and could cut U.S. off.  60 Minutes segment explaining how dependent U.S. tech is on this China resource.  
 
Media Interviews: Tech Titans of China
Impact of US-China Tech Cold War

Bloomberg TV