SILICON DRAGON NEWS

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TECH TITANS 
OF CHINA
" The most complete chronicle of China's meteoric rise in the past decade."
Kai-Fu Lee

FEATURED EVENTS

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Silicon Dragon 
London 2019 @
Cocoon Global
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Silicon Dragon 
Shanghai 2019
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Tech Titans Singapore
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Silicon Dragon 
Awards 2019
Hong Kong

Book Talks & Speaking Gigs

Seoul
StartupCon 2019

London
How To Academy
Evening Reception
October 21  

London
Conduit Club, Breakfast  
October 22
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Oxford
China Centre
October 23, Noon
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Seattle 
Country club
Evening Reception
October 30

San Francisco
Book Passage store
Ferry Building
November 1, 6pm

Shanghai
AmCham Shanghai
Lunch
November 4
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Hong Kong
Cyberport VC Forum
Partner Event! 
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Hong Kong
Foreign Correspondents Club, Lunch
November 6

Hong Kong
WebWednesday
Nov. 6, Evening 
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Singapore
Block 71
Afternoon Reception
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Hong Kong
AmCham Hong Kong
Nov. 14, Lunch
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Tokyo 
Nov. 15, Lunch
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.... Greenwich, CT
December 2
Evening

LAST WEEK's EVENTS

SoCal Innovation Forum
Brookings in DC, SoCal Innovation Forum in LA, NW China Council in Portland 
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A U.S. Ban on Selling to Chinese AI Startups Hits Hard but China Is In It for the Long Haul  

In the "what could go wrong" list of deterrents that could slow China's tech boom, the blacklisting of three leading Chinese startups in artificial intelligence certainly stands out now. The Trump Administration has put these three AI companies-- SenseTime, Megvii and iFlyTek--on its entity list, requiring American companies to get approval before selling to them.
It's a major blow for China's ambition to lead this foundational technology worldwide by 2030 and create a $150 billion domestic industry.  SenseTime and Megvii have issued statements noting that the block will have minimal impact on their business and that they are in it for the long haul.
For more info on AI in China and these contenders, check out   Tech Titans of China and related 
video of SenseTime founder speaking at Silicon Dragon in Hong Kong.
Read more at Forbes
Read related article in Wired, Trump's Latest Salvo Against China Targets AI Firms, quoting the author of Tech Titans of China, on this latest evidence of a U.S.-China tech cold war.  

Corporations Bracing for China's 
Social Credit System and Scores
China's social credit system of scoring Chinese citizens on a code of personal conduct is moving to foreign corporations. 
Beginning next year, compliance will be enforced by China's Ministry of Public Security over access to corporate data housed on Chinese servers.
Foreign companies are being advised to reevaluate their data collection processes in light of this new action. The impact could be a further decoupling of US-China tech and trade activities.
"Foreign companies will have to decide whether it is worth the risk to sell or manufacture in China. This new lead could lead to diversification of supply chains or decoupling," said  David Jacobson, a global business strategy teacher and executive director of online education  at the SMU Cox School of Business as well as a  visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
The new cybersecurity laws give the Chinese government access to files, contracts, copyrights, business strategies and phone records with no permission asked, according to JacobsonThe rules first went into effect in 2018 but compliance was not enforced. 
Starting in 2020, China is requiring that businesses collect and feed internal information into a centralized data system. The data will be used to quantify the moral codes of corporations, and the individuals that run them, and reward or punish accordingly. 
Read Forbes: Social credit for business

BIG DATA
Several Chinese companies and visionaries broke through on KPMG's annual ranking of top disruptors globally. Among those in leading positions were China's e-commerce leader Alibaba, search company Baidu, drone maker DJI and the CEOs of Chinese telecom giant Huawei and smart phone maker Xiaomi. The ratings by KPMG's yearly survey of tech execs globally were surprisingly skewed to China - and the U.S --  but left out some key technologies of the future.   
Read Forbes: China Disruptors

DEALS
Qiming Venture led a $100 million, Series D investment in Chinese e-commerce cross-border company Club Factory. Other investors were IDG Capital and Bertlesmann
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Chinese biotech firm Insilico inks $200 million drug discovery and AI deal. Qiming recently led a $37 million infusion in the company. 
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Alibaba is acquiring Beijing-based cybersecurity startup Chatin Tech for its cloud computing business. 
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IPOs
Chinese real estate transaction platform Fangdd has filed for a $150 million IPO on Nasdaq. This comes at a time when there's been talk the  U.S. could ban Chinese IPOs.  CDH, Lightspeed China and Vision Knight Capital are backers.   
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NOTEWORTHY
In DC, word comes that China's ByteDance Inc. should be investigated by U.S. national security officials over its 2017 acquisition of social media startup Musical.ly that's behind the company's popular video app TikTok. Republican Senator Marco Rubio has accused the company of censoring content on behalf of the Chinese government and the Communist Party. My article at Harvard Business Review points out that ByteDance has a global strategy and has created two versions of the app -- one for China, and one for the rest of the world. 

VIEWPOINT
NBA grovels to China over 'insult" over tweet about Hong Kong freedoms. Opinion columnist and former global advisory exec George Koo writes in
Asia Times: "The sooner America can accept China for what it is and not what the US would like it to be, the sooner both parties can begin to focus on where mutual ground and common interests exist and find ways to maximize benefits for both sides.

Latest Media Quotes

Impact of U.S.-China Tech Cold War
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Why China's Tech Sector is getting ahead fast. 
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Personal Journey: Tech Titans of China
SupChina  Ta for Ta
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China's tech ambition is unstoppable, trade or tech war or not. CNBC
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China experts advise political leaders to tone down disputes. BroadbandBreakfast, based on my talk and related panel at  Brookings Institution in DC. 

Featured Talk
Talk & Commentary: Brookings Institution, DC
Keynote: Rebecca A. Fannin  / Commentary:
Craig Allen, David Dollar and Cheng Li
October 10, 2019