IF DEMOGRAPHY IS DESTINY, then the recent headlines from Beijing read like a eulogy. China’s population has fallen for two consecutive years, shedding millions of citizens in a statistical retreat that Western observers often mistake for an economic surrender. The logic is seductive in its simplicity: fewer workers mean lower growth, collapsing pensions, and the … Read more
Part II of How Stellantis Rewrites the Transatlantic EV Playbook In Part I, we mapped the Wuhan-Paris axis — a dual arbitrage allowing Stellantis to shore up its European defences using Chinese engineering. That was the dress rehearsal. The ultimate prize lies across the Atlantic, where Detroit continues to slumber inside its tariff-protected greenhouse. Stellantis … Read more
Stephen Curry just pulled off the most strategically brilliant move of his career—and it didn’t happen on a basketball court. On June 2, 2026, Curry announced a landmark 10-year partnership with Li-Ning, reportedly worth north of $400 million. But calling this a “shoe deal” misses the point entirely. This is an empire-building move that positions … Read more
Warren Buffett saw the Alpha that Elon Musk laughed at. A Bloomberg interviewer asks Musk about BYD. He laughs. “Have you seen their car?” Three years earlier, Berkshire Hathaway had put $230 million into that same company, at HK$8 a share. Munger called Wang Chuanfu a mix of Edison and Welch. Both men were looking … Read more
Chinese maths just grew up The five-syllable head start behind China.s maths oversupply Chinese are better at maths. In a very childish way. Not genes. Language. The advantage is installed in childhood, by the mother tongue itself, long before the first maths lesson. Seven sevens are forty-nine. In Mandarin, that takes five syllables, and it … Read more
VW will be bought by BYD, said Schularick. He’s wrong about the verb. Moritz Schularick, president of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, said Volkswagen would “likely be bought by a Chinese car maker like BYD.” The press amplified it. Headlines ran with “buys” and “takes over.” A few editorial cartoonists went further, drawing … Read more
Giving the CCP’s dialect a total free pass while policing ancestral roots reveals the bizarre logic of defensive policymaking. Mind Your Tongue Giving the CCP’s dialect a total free pass while policing ancestral roots reveals the bizarre logic of defensive policymaking. Singapore’s biggest newspaper says a Teochew film is dangerous. Meanwhile, Mandarin, literally Beijing dialect, … Read more
Lululemon’s China Sales Grew 30%. Then They Put a Japanese War Drum on the Great Wall Lululemon on placed a Japanese taiko drum on a beacon tower of the Great Wall of China. Not a metaphor. This happened on May 30. The company flew in Chinese TV star Zhu Yilong to beat the drum on … Read more
The Wuhan-Paris Axis: How Stellantis Rewrites the Transatlantic EV Playbook Part I Three Things to Know • Stellantis is turning its Wuhan joint venture into an engineering classroom — European engineers are learning Chinese EV platform development firsthand. • The deal repurposes idle European factories (Rennes, Zaragoza) to assemble Dongfeng-derived models, bypassing EU anti-subsidy duties. … Read more
Trump, the Nation Builder: How an Accidental Architect Built the Nation of Engineers As Air Force One touches down in a self-assured Beijing this May 14th, 2026, a curious moniker echoes across the Chinese internet: Chuan Jianguo (川建国)—or “Trump, the Nation Builder”. It is a title born of exquisite geopolitical irony. To the Chinese public, … Read more