China follows EU lead in data regulation – Winston Ma

 

Winston Wenyan Ma

China is following the European Union’s GDPR in trying to regulate the unruly data industry, says Winston Ma, Winston Ma, adjunct professor at the New York University School of Law at CNBC. China’s internet companies based for years their business models on consumers’ lack of awareness of privacy, he adds, but those days are over.

CNBC

In 2018, the European Union’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation came into effect. Called the GDPR for short, it gives citizens in the bloc more control over their data and grants authorities the ability to fine companies that fall foul of the rules. The U.S. has yet to enact a nationwide data protection law like Europe.

Now China is attempting to do something similar.

“After years of Chinese internet companies building business models around Chinese people’s lack of awareness about privacy, users are becoming more knowledgeable, and they are becoming angry with companies abusing their personal information,” Winston Ma, adjunct professor at the New York University School of Law, told CNBC via email.

More at CNBC.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more fintech experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Sovereign wealth funds will change the digital economy – Winston Ma

 

Winston Wenyan Ma

Traditionally conservative sovereign wealth funds are a wrongfully ignored player at developing the digital economy, says financial analyst Winston Ma, author of The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace, at the Investment Magazine.

The Investment Magazine:

Fuelled by a desire to keep up with the US and China, traditionally passive sovereign wealth funds are increasingly deploying capital into strategic development areas like infrastructure, communications and more recently the digital economy according to global investment manager and academic Winston Ma.

No longer mere “stabilizers of capital markets”, the sovereign wealth funds of the world – which control around US$30 trillion in funds – are building internal teams and becoming more “active and direct” in their investment style, Ma explained on a recent Investment Magazine Market Narratives podcast.

Part of the reason is to save money, he said, by eschewing external management teams.

A larger purpose, however, is because these funds serve as domestic economic promotion agencies that drive strategic development agendas linked to sectors like infrastructure, telecommunications and increasingly, the digital economy.

“All countries are looking to sovereign funds as a policy tool to promote domestic research and development in order to stay as a relevant information centre besides China and the US,” Ma explained. “For Europe, Japan and places like India they need to think about how they can stay competitive in these digital revolution competitions.”

Many countries and regions are now setting up specific sovereign wealth funds tied to singular strategic objectives, he explained. The EU is looking to set up a €100 billion to finance European tech “champions” competing with alibaba and facebook, for example, while Japan is reported to have set up a 6G research fund, Ma said.

“That’s not a typo,” he added. “They’re already thinking ahead. If they’re late to the 5G competition they want to get ahead on the 6G.”

More at the Investment Magazine.

Winston Wenyan Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more fintech experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

 

The Alstom-Siemens merger does not stop competition from China - Harry Broadman

Harry Broadman

The EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager banned the merger of European rail giants Alstom and Siemens. They presented the merger as the way to stop competition from China. China expert Harry Broadman commends Vestager for her much-debated ban as, Broadman argues, size is not the way to fight Chinese companies. Innovation is, he writes in Gulf News.

Harry Broadman:

At first glance, the proposed merger between Germany’s Siemens and France’s Alstom to fight off the future intrusion of the giant state-owned Chinese rail industry into the European Union market might appear to be in the public interest. After all, what better way to combat size than to scale up.

The EU Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, had the wisdom — if not the courage — to make the correct call in blocking Siemen’s acquisition of Alstom.

While competing against firms from China is becoming tough going in virtually every sector across the globe — in large part because Chinese enterprises can get away by not having to play by the same rules as most businesses of other nationalities — sound public policy must be based on deftly balancing the welfare of a country’s consumers, workers, and businesses. 

The fact is that businesses and the governments of the countries in which they operate need more innovative strategies to compete effectively with the Chinese — or anyone else — than simply increasing scale. Ask any Chinese boss of a lumbering state-owned-enterprise (SOE) he or she runs if they wish they had more agility to enhance their firm’s competitiveness against rivals. 

Don’t be surprised if the answer is a resounding “yes”.

Indeed, for Siemens and Alstom the answer won’t be scale. That’s looking through the wrong end of a telescope.

More in Gulf News.

Harry Broadman is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more strategic experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

China: becoming part of the world - Zhang Ying

Zhang Ying

RSM professor Zhang Ying discusses China's relations with the EU and the US, after the election of Donald Trump as their president. China is becoming part of the world, says Zhang, and whoever is elected, those relationships will prevail.

Professor Zhang Ying is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on China's outbound investments? Do check out this list.