Baiguan is not just a newsletter #2
And invitation to Baiguan's 3rd AMA session
AMA Announcement
We will host our third "Ask Me Anything" live webinar session on Thursday, Dec 12 @ 9:30 PM Hong Kong (8:30 AM New York), where you can ask Robert Wu and the Baiguan team any questions you have about China, without limitations.
If you are a paying subscriber of Baiguan, please sign up with this form.
Baiguan is not just a newsletter, but also an active community for people who have a real stake in China to dig out facts and exchange ideas on a daily basis.
As we explained in the September issue of this series, we have been operating a member-exclusive Discord community where members with similar tastes but diverse backgrounds can come together to engage in civil, meaningful dialogues and share useful information with each other.
Apart from paying members, we are also honored to have invited a very selective list of top China experts into our community to share their ideas, including:
- , renowned for his deeply data-driven takes at
- , a power sector expert and great writer of China anecdotes at
- , a Greater China-based investor who writes at
- , an old friend of Baiguan who has a unique background spanning state-run think tank and venture capital who writes at
- , a top venture capitalist of
An anonymous expert who is one of the best China TMT research analysts in the market
In the last few months, our discussion has spanned diverse topics from geopolitics to policy, the economy, and to specific investment opportunities.
Below is a run-down of some of the key highlights. (If you are already part of this community, you can find links to these topics behind the paywall of this post, in case you have missed reading them.)
Economy, policy, capital markets
For the economy and capital markets, our members are at the front seat looking at how the recent policy pivot has been unfolding. For instance, one expert helped a member go through the ins and outs of China’s local debt problems.
One expert made a prediction about what the government should do to reinvigorate the market as early as August, which mostly came true in the policy pivot of late September.
One member who worked at a commodities trading firm regularly shares insights and takeaways he observed from the commodities market.
Robert Wu discussed a potentially new model for real estate development in China, and also shared an anecdote about homebuyer behavior involving Robert Wu’s parents.
A member shared some thoughts on how some manufacturers that s/he talked with would react to US election results.
One expert quantified the impact of EVs on China’s power sector and what he said surprised us.
Equities and specific investment opportunities
We discussed POP Mart and Miniso, two success stories of Chinese consumer brands going global
One member shared his research on YUM China, which started a conversation about what may constitute a “national brand” in China like what McDonald’s or Coca-Cola have achieved for the US market.
I shared an interview I had with a top-level executive in the education sector and pointed out the many reasons that local governments in China are now quietly supportive of the after-school tutoring industry.
of our team shared her further thoughts on Laopu Gold with a member
About WeChat’s content ecosystem.
A member was thinking of constructing a high-dividend stock strategy for Hong Kong stocks and I shared some insights.
Geopolitics and other topics
Since Trump won the re-election, we have opened a specific thread to discuss the implications for China from many of his nominations.
We opened a discussion thread to talk about everything related to Sino-India relations.
Stories about many Chinese people’s fantasies about the West 2 decades ago.
Is China worth investing in at all?
[Below are the links to the topics above reserved for paying subscribers]