Calling PMs/buyside Analysts - The whole China thing

wanting to get some opinions from people who also have to make capital allocation decisions. I'm becoming increasingly conflicted about China and its role in investment portfolios for clients. since my job is to allocate capital as best I can with regard to the risk the client's comfortable with, the potential returns of the area are attractive and therefore we have an allocation to emerging markets (of which china's the obvious 800lb gorilla).

at the same time, the talk of common prosperity, the lack of legal protections for equity holders, the presence of the communist party in every private enterprise gives me tremendous pause. combine that with the known atrocities being committed in NK which is essentially a puppet of beijing, and there's a big moral dilemma I'm feeling. finally, while I've rarely agreed with soros on anything in the past 10y, his pieces in WSJ on china were very compelling. pasted below if you've not read.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/blackrock-larry-fink…

https://www.wsj.com/articles/xi-jinping-deng-xiao…

on the other hand, literally every single company in the USA has some ties to china, be it parts from suppliers that their vendors use, direct customer interest (movies, apparel, etc.), direct investment from china, and so on, it's a completely unavoidable thing, so part of me goes "well if I can't be 100% out, then what good does an imperfect moral stand do?" and let's not forget my job is to allocate capital, so I'm cognizant that I don't want my personal misgivings to negatively affect my investment decision making.

so, other PMs, how are you navigating the china minefield?

GoodBread ke18sb Addinator Going Concern Jamoldo 

 

By saying get investor capital out of China I'd also have to avoid nearly 100% of the russell 3000 since they all do business with China, and therein lies the problem. If I simply sell my EM investments, we're still tied, so your PMs that have no direct Chinese holdings still have Chinese exposure, no?

Of note, I do not have direct investments in Chinese equities, but instead use EM funds

 

At the institutional level, we don't have direct equity exposure - it's all, similarly, through a variety of funds or managers - in that case, we have tilted away from China for actually quite a while now. In most cases that looks like underweights by active managers to Asia or China directly (depending on the strategies) while trying to keep a consistent allocation to EM. That is driven more by the economic growth in China vs. the risk at this point than it is any moral issues with Xi or the overall Chinese state. It's somewhat like SRI and Oil - you can't entirely get out of fossil fuel exposure, so you exclude, tilt away from or invest in renewables to compensate in the majority of cases. Domestic equities - I just don't think it's practical, underweighting anything with significant Chinese exposure (revenue, suppliers, etc.). I also don't think performance would be great - best case, you get fired - worst case, you get fired with a 'we really support what you are doing, but...' Maybe someone has done that and can prove me hilariously wrong, but on it's face seems like a tough sell. 

The world has made a Faustian bargain for decades now with them. We will overlook your transgressions and in return we will get access to your markets, cheap labor, etc. The list goes on and on. Their appetite for progress and growth outweighed their ideology - though it was always there as a risk, it was at least muted. With those risks back on the table and, frankly, returns in China moderating anyway - you probably want exposure, as there is upside there, but limiting it is the game. 

Goodbread makes a great point - the narrative of Xi basically reasserting the governments ability to forcibly curb and route investment to industries it deems forward looking - i.e. rare earths, renewable energy, doing away with the massive building or development projects, reigning back in the loosening of capital, tech companies getting restricted - does lend itself to opportunities... it's just very hard to get at it from over here. I also, well, don't quite believe that this is all a well intentioned green new deal. It's also similar to the actions states take when they decide they want to start tramping over other countries or, simply, ensure the regime retains control. I'm not a Chinese political scholar nor expert - but again, the risk just keeps going up. 

Also - and now I'm starting to ramble - I'm not sure it's a good thing for America to, broadly, pull out of providing capital to countries like China. I don't consider myself a rampant globalist, but if you are at least at the table you can influence or do something - the last thing we need are countries with strong militaries that are isolated from one another and in constant competition.. that's generally a recipe for, well, you know. 

 

Living in Shanghai at the moment. It's very risky to do business in China, in any industry. There is no separation of business and government. If you're doing any kind of transaction with any kind of business  you're dealing with the government. The government can decide to shut down a business at any point in time for any reason, and there's nobody you can go complain to. You can't predict when or to what extent the government can interfere with a company's operations and therefore it is impossible to actually plan investment strategies or plan anything really. Not only that Chinese companies don't adhere to foreign/internatuonal reporting standards. Even if you get info on a company it could be completely fraudulent and there's no way of verifying the data.

I would go far as to say all foreigners should just completely avoid doing anything China related in the future.

 

You kind of need to be a Chinese to really do business in China. You need to look Chinese, speak native Chinese, and know how to kiss ass to government officials, at least some of them because government officials are paid very little in China. They have economics incentives to get bribed. If they all make bank they probably don't care about 2 packs of nice cigarettes or a couple bottles of good white spirit, or, an iPhone. Maybe the people who say their live in Shanghai or are based in mainland have stayed here for a long time and have suffered a lot of unfairness. You probably went through those unfairness because you are foreigners in the first place. Surprise, China is not a very diverse country like the U.S. That is not to say you cannot make money as an investor in China. That statement is just wrong. 

You really need to tap into the local network. Almost every single person in big investment banks, Chinese or American or European, is Chinese right now. I'm working with Morgan Stanley Hong Kong and MS Beijing on an IPO. There are like 30 people in total from both companies' groups. Only 1 out of 30 is from Hong Kong. None of the rest is a foreigner. That Hong Kong guy, an MD, solely does execution. He doesn't pitch at all.

I'm in a coverage team. Almost all coverage MDs are from mainland because even if it's the HK market, >95% companies are from the mainland. You need to be a mainland Chinese person to actually get your chance to see the CEO or COO or CFO. Otherwise, they won't want to talk to you >90% of the time. If you connected to the wrong person in the company, you won't get the deal. Your meeting would probably be 5 minutes and then it's over, like the first time you had sex with that dime. 

A lot of big investment funds are not doing as well as they like in China. BlackRock. They have an office in Shanghai. A friend of mine told me he doesn't want to work at BlackRock when get poached by someone there. Asked him why and told me everything takes 2x longer when it comes to an investment decision at BlackRock Shanghai. Meanwhile, Chinese investors are already all-in. 

Let me give you another example. Hillhouse Capital is a big Chinese PE house who actually doesn't make that many great investments. They have a lot of dry power though. This PE company has some very controversial way of winning deals. Sometimes the investor would wire RMB 1mn (~USD 160K) to your own bank account if you, as someone who has influence over the potential portco's decision-making process, vehemently persuade the CEO to take some $ from Hillhouse. 

Again, there is actual money to make in China. My parents and I know a lot of people who started their own thing as long as they take educated risks, have good networks, and know how to smooth talk the government. Subjectively speaking, it's more product/service 60%-70% + 30%-40% know how to deal with the government versus in the U.S. maybe 95% is about your products or services.

Don't act like how to smooth talk the government is not a great skill to have. There are a bunch of people called lobbyists. That is their job. Also, smooth talking is one of the essential skills in finance, no? That's selling, just to the government. It is what MDs do when they pitch deals. Look at it from a different angle and you got something. 

Persistency is Key
 

I don't love the idea of single stock names there given all the idiosyncratic risks people have mentioned. But there are some really interesting narratives going on, particularly the fact they are doing their own version of a "green new deal" right now. There could be a huge shift in capital from what seems to have become dead-ends (property developers, older manufacturing assets...) towards what will be the big winners from China pushing in on cleaner energy and modernizing its metals sector. I haven't really done any leg work on how to trade that, but there are big things afoot, including a move away from exports of critical minerals (just look at the price of some metal adders the past month).

 

KWEB etf just broke out of a downtrend. I expect it reinflates quickly once the S&P gets back on the horse. Probably a good time to put a stinky bid in given sentiment.

But agree your are insane if you are putting private / illiquid capital to work there

 

The only thing you need to see is the number of CCP members that are what is known as "ghost officials" or something like that.  They have basically moved their entire families out of the country and are hanging around to continue their corruption and will split as soon as they get wind of an investigation.  It is estimated that since 2008 these types of party memebers have grown in number by 25 to 50 fold and have extracted an estimated 5 to 6 trillion USD from the coffers of the CCP.  When combined with a government spending of GDP that is around 40% or more by conservative numbers why anyone has money in China is beyond me.  It is so bad that people in China don't even put money into China.  This idea that the country is a stable growing economy is a joke.  It is powder keg that is going to explode if any sembelance of a decline in economic growth.   The country is estimated to spend between 12 and 15% of GDP on "stability" programs, i.e. the internal secret police that stamps out dissidents.  There are African dictatorships that are a better place to put money than in China.

 

As a follow up to this I have an example.  The CRC (China Railway Company) currently has debt that hover around 900B USD, their current opperating deficit is about 45M per DAY.  The current development plan calls for the high speed rail network to grow between double and tripple its current size.   This is a network that serves no other purpose than to move passengers around.  The most profitable line in the entire network makes about $1B in profit per year and it is estimated that less than 3% of the passenger rail lines in the country are profitable.  The country has poured an estimated 80 - 85% of all rail development capital into the passenger side of the system which is forcibly subsidized by the freight network.  The cost of moving freight by rail has gotten so expensive that low value raw materials like coal are being moved via truck with more expensive fuel sources being used to move the products.  The entire country is a poorly managed house of cards that is going to collapse sooner than later.

Those who think this is a Chinese century are deluded.  

 

All these comments make me so bullish china

WSO was prob mad negative tech in 2014 calling for a tech bubble 

 

Currently recruiting for HFs, so take my input with a grain of salt (only money I manage at the moment is my personal money). 

I have a slightly contrarian view on China in that I believe it offers tremendous opportunity given recent crackdowns on a number of industries (tech / for profit education etc.). Someone mentioned KWEB above (ETF that tracks China tech), and if you look at it from a fundamental perspective, it seems to me that a lot of the regulatory risk is already priced in and the underlying equities in the index look very attractive. Tech will be an important industry to drive continued China growth and as such I think that the existing players in the industry have strong competitive positions that are incredibly valuable (similar to a Facebook / Alphabet). 

With that said, you need to be really conscious of two main risks in China: 

1. CCP - Important to hedge your bets accordingly to limit your downside. The communists can kill an industry with the stroke of a pen, so ensure you have downside protection via put options or some other instrument

2. Growing debt burden - At the moment looks to be limited to real estate and lateral industries, but the situation is fluid and you need to monitor it closely

As mentioned in your original post you need to take your feelings regarding Chinese atrocities out of the equation (I am an Aussie, so I have some very strong feelings towards China), and I think if you do you will be able to see the potential large payoffs that exist if you hedge your investments appropriately. 

As mentioned, I'm pretty young / don't manage outside money / don't know shit in the scheme of things so appreciate anyone challenging my above points. 

 

Great analysis. What concerns me about China is that all companies which mean something are generally SOEs and as a result their health can be masked or shrouded in a false reality as long as the govt wants them to continue existing. So in an Evergrande situation where the biggest developer is defaulting on their debt, I know that if Xi wants them to survive then their ability to pay creditors is moot. Basically selective survival chosen by the govt is scary af in public markets

 

How do you know to what extent pricing-in is appropriate? I.E. if it's under-priced-in or over-priced-in? Seems the outcome with China is very binary (either obliteration of industries and nationalization of certain companies, or slap on the wrist fines). If the long-term outcome for a given stock is binary but the inputs are unknowable -- for example you don't know the inner-workings of the CCP or their thoughts on what to target next and how to enact their policies -- then the entire space becomes univestable.

My 2 cents.

 

Sorry for the delay on the reply - I have been getting smoked. 

I have had a look at implied equity risk premiums - Currently low double digits in China (depending on what you are looking at) vs c. 4% - 5% in the US. Obviously China is significantly more risky than the US for reasons described above, but does this risk demand more than double the risk premium? IMO no, which is why I believe the regulatory risk is priced in. 

I agree with your point on binary outcomes and not knowing the inner-workings of the CCP. This is why I said you need to protect your downside via long-dated, out of the money put options or some other derivative instrument.

 

Totally outside my wheelhouse from a work perspective. Personally, I think China is hard to trust, certainly I don’t think they give two cents about foreign investors. However, the flip can be that they are coming off such a low base (any developing economy) that by default they should out pace developed economies through cycle until the reach more of a steady state. So hard to predict more near term vol but through cycle should be growing. This is more shooting from the hip vs having spent a lot of time researching and developing a view. 

 

I think China is a trading environment but I would agree with the more real investors on here that China is very dangerous. First I think US/China are going to fight each other to death over the next 10-15 years and outspend each other to death to win. Additionally China has all these demographic issues around the population make up and the future population, Xi is all about vertical integration and betting on the right industries to lead them forward he knows the traditional ways cannot work, demographics alone. 

So for these reasons I am not totally bearish China as mentioned they are going to be a world leaders in rate earths, prolly will majorly involved with driverless vechiles. Politically they have gained way more control in Africa and plan to bankroll the taliban here.

So while yes investing in single names is scary long-run as Xi can take over the firm overnight and screw you. Saying china is going to keep declining I do not agree with this they are going to get stronger and more important and should not be ignored when look at longterm investment themes.

 

It is really hard to invest in single stocks in China right now given it is not a free-market economy and politically unpredictable, so how can you properly assess risk? Secondly, what edge do we have trying to invest in China? 

Covered Casinos on the sell-side. The ones with Macau exposure like LVS, WYNN make me leary right now. Sure Macau needs the operators but the operators need the concessions more and they are coming up for renewal in 2022. The government can do anything, tax the shit out of them, require massive amounts of CAPEX etc.  Worst case they strip the concession completely which would destroy significant amounts of EBITDA overnight but likely wouldn't happen because it would destroy any foreign investor confidence in the country. But how do I handicap that risk, why not spend the effort elsewhere?

Brofessor, they do make ETFs that are emerging markets ex China. https://www.ishares.com/us/products/288504/

 

Honestly, wasn't much different than everyone else trying to break into ER. I got into the Leisure/Gaming space simply because I interviewed with 2 analysts at the firm and the analyst covering that picked me. At a junior level, your coverage is harder to choose and more often chosen for you. If you have specific industry experience then it is a different story because you have value to add above the typical candidate for a given coverage group.

 

Invest in China through low-net equity long/shorts that have done well in extracting alpha by picking the right industries and shorting/avoiding stuff like Evergrande.  

Despite the majority of Greater China funds being plain vanilla long-biases with index hedges, dig around and you'll find some true hedge funds in the region.  This year's volatility in the region has been great for those that did what they were supposed to be doing, as opposed to levered-longs taking fees merely on cultural/language barriers.  

A lot of these comments here are pricing in the bearish market consensus and what has been known forever about investing in China, showing the worse is near an end.    

 

China and the US are effectively on a collision course. As Soros' articulates far better than I can in his Op'ed, China's approach to governing and managing itself as a country is fundamentally incompatible with Western democracy. As China continues to grow, it will increasingly threaten the US' supremacy as the world's most powerful Nation. Although it's unclear as to how things will ultimately play out, it's hard to envision a scenario in which US-China relations improve. 

This brings me to your point on company's earnings being tied to China. Ultimately, US companies either can't or won't accept that at some point, they're going to be forced to choose a side. There have been a handful that have done a very good job playing both sides while sitting on the fence (e.g. Apple), but in the long run, a reliance on China to generate earnings represents a huge liability that your average CEO is unwilling to address because there's so much money to be made within China in the short run. 

 

When talking about a country the population of China is easy to talk in superlatives but my 2 cents is that China is going to go down as probably the architect of the biggest misallocation of capital ever seen in history.  There is no way that hundreds of billions of dollars spent in ghost cities, inefficient belt and road projects and liquidity infusions to zombie companies wont come back to bite it in the butt in a major way.  Yes, on the way up China saw the biggest growth story in the history of humanity but I dread to think of the consequences for the world (black swan event) when the cracks in their credit markets become unstainable and their whole economy comes tumbling down like those cheap concrete buildings we see on YouTube. 

 

Oh no, hundreds of billions in infrastructure spending wasted? They're completely screwed, those idiots built bridges, buildings, and roads lolol. I bet some of them are not even used! 

You're right of course, China should be wasting trillions in endless and counterproductive wars, massive defense spending, be content with slow ass 40 mph Amtraks, and lead the world in incarceration rates ($200bn a year spent in locking up and managing 1% of our adult population). Oh and don't get me started on healthcare, I can't believe they aren't imitating our system.

In terms of misallocation of capital, there's definitely a country I can think of that is completely fucked. 

 

When I first learned about Enron and Madoff, I felt the same towards Uncle Sam as well. :P
Joke aside, generalization is the easiest way to avoid the hard work. 
Investment is all about discovering truth and finding the hidden gem amidst the "smoke", it's only up to your gut and real effort for the attractive treasure hunt.

 

Worthwhile topic here. As way of background I am an EM macro investor with a global mandate. 

This is highly simplified but basically look at EM's on a continuum from "wouldn't touch" to "would build a factory/start a business here" with buying single name equities, indices, FX, sovereign debt, corporate credit, PE/VC investing all somewhere in between. Basically, the more stable the political/economic/legal regime the more willing I would be to take higher/illiquid/concentrated/non government risk. Let's leave the "is China an EM?" debate for another day, but policy uncertainty/ad hoc legal decisions that turn firm's equity values to 0 would certainly qualify in my view.

Not sure China was ever really in "would start a business here" (as a foreigner) category in my book, but has moved a lot more towards the "wouldn't touch at all" though is not there. Similar to as others have alluded I wouldn't do single name equities, PE/VC, corporate credit. Taking the Russia playbook I would feel comfortable investing in anything you are aligned with the government so sovereign debt/FX, quasi sovereign debt though can be a wild ride (see Huarong), and a basket equity approach to the sectors highlighted in the last national development plan (hard tech, AI etc). I don't agree with the disaggregate oneself from all China risk b/c as you mention pretty onerous as you'd have to divest of a lot of US equities.

 

The problem with investing into china (buying chinese stock or debt) is that you cannot predict who will be the next Evergrande, and risk of getting wiped out overnight is extraordinarily high (vs buying any member of the Russel 3000).  Its one thing to invest into Nike who outsourses labor to China, and might take a hit to earnings some year because the head of the CCP decides they don't like Nike anymore and want to extort them, but Nike stock won't ever goto zero and become worthless because its a giant fraud...but buying Chinese assets is playing Russian Roulette with a fresh spin on every trigger pull.  You might never never fire a bullet into yourself...but you know its coming at some point...the only question is "how many times can i pull the trigger and not catch the bullet, that i know is in the cylinder."

You might earn 20% /  year for a while, and then one day poof...its all gone...and there is no recourse...no bankruptcy...its just all gone.

 

I think you just have to build considerable risk premium into your models.  If you really don't trust the political/regulatory landscape, which I don't, then screen only for the investments that stand to compensate you appropriately for that heightened risk.  I think Dalio put it well - if you've deemed it too corrupt or risky for the past decade or two, you've missed a lot. 

Not too high, not too low
 
thebrofessor

wanting to get some opinions from people who also have to make capital allocation decisions. I'm becoming increasingly conflicted about China and its role in investment portfolios for clients. since my job is to allocate capital as best I can with regard to the risk the client's comfortable with, the potential returns of the area are attractive and therefore we have an allocation to emerging markets (of which china's the obvious 800lb gorilla).

at the same time, the talk of common prosperity, the lack of legal protections for equity holders, the presence of the communist party in every private enterprise gives me tremendous pause. combine that with the known atrocities being committed in NK which is essentially a puppet of beijing, and there's a big moral dilemma I'm feeling. finally, while I've rarely agreed with soros on anything in the past 10y, his pieces in WSJ on china were very compelling. pasted below if you've not read.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/blackrock-larry-fink…

https://www.wsj.com/articles/xi-jinping-deng-xiao…

on the other hand, literally every single company in the USA has some ties to china, be it parts from suppliers that their vendors use, direct customer interest (movies, apparel, etc.), direct investment from china, and so on, it's a completely unavoidable thing, so part of me goes "well if I can't be 100% out, then what good does an imperfect moral stand do?" and let's not forget my job is to allocate capital, so I'm cognizant that I don't want my personal misgivings to negatively affect my investment decision making.

so, other PMs, how are you navigating the china minefield?

GoodBread ke18sb Addinator Going Concern Jamoldo 

My apologies. I am not on WSO as much so apologies again for the late reply.

First of all your moral concerns regarding China are nothing new. They have always been there with regards to CCP involvement, North Korea/Xinjiang/Tibet, free speech, slave labor etc... Many in the US and the West have only really started caring. Morality is suspect in a number of other EMs as well with regards to human rights, rule of law, environmental protection, etc. I mean they are called "Emerging Markets" for a reason. Your point on US companies doing business in China is a good one and in some sense, if you buy anything nowadays, chances are that there is a China connection. I will not comment much on China specifically here since so many already have.

Regarding investment returns. One can certainly make money in China or any other emerging market, but one has to account for the fact that changes on the ground can be very fast and go against you. It could be some sentiment against foreigners, inflation, currency devaluation, revolution, or whatever. And that means, usually, as the foreigner, that you are always left holding the bag with the biggest losses. It's exactly why you (hopefully) are rewarded with higher returns than in developed markets when things go well (or super well). Because of this inherent instability, these markets are essentially, trading markets. Being "long term" is usually a suckers game unless you are supremely well connected and in the know (then we are talking about corruption...).

Remember, if you are making a 3x in an EM, there is definitely some local making 10x. Take the 3x, be happy and move your money elsewhere to the next opportunity.

All of this is a long way of saying that investing in EM, you need to be ready for the risk that your investment can go to 0. And so one should be careful and opportunistic.

I don't actively trade since I am no longer at a HF but am (sadly) now an allocator. We do have some China via passive ETFs as well as one on the ground active fund. The fund is well known, has done very well and typically avoids SOEs. That said, we are in no way adding to the position and are not touching any PE or VC in China in the near future. This is more because of US/China tensions rather than any human rights, or morality issues.

The key is, as long as you understand the risks, you can do EMs. Just be ready for super quick changes and super quick movements in your PnL.

I hope this helps. I have tried to keep it basic. Please feel free to PM if any more specific questions.

I used to do Asia-Pacific PE (kind of like FoF). Now I do something else but happy to try and answer questions on that stuff.
 

thebrofessor I started at JPM in the asian financial crisis and invested in restructurings in Asia and then back to NY for PE and special situations. Since the GFC, I pivoted to China and have been there since. Although, I am now in NYC due to covid. I think China is at turning point where most of the dumb competition have left or are scared!!!!

China is so misunderstood. How many people know that to get into the CPC (media calls it CCP) you have to take a test like Singapore. And you only get promoted based on hard numbers and review. Ever notice why there are no ruling political families? Beijing has a very very hard job. China, unlike the US, has horrible geographic borders and hence have to contend with different factions, militaries, cultures etc... We, the US have CAD and MEx - not so hard right!? Further China is less than 20% college educated - think about that!!

This talk of internet regulation, helping out middle class,  etc has been done in history. Just look back a little. How many people remember that the US regulated the radio, media content in the old days when it was tightly controlled by a few? Sounds familiar. China is not doing anything, past human emotions, psychology, or actions that has not be done int he past.  WSJ has to write and exaggerate. Perception as we all know is different than reality. 

China has now "kicked" out all the fast, dumb and short term money. IF you think about how to remove competition, you might do what Jack Ma did; use the govt to scare away competitors -- think about that and how many times, mafia and others have used the govt to take out competition. Very very futurustic and 5 chess moves ahead thinking. Too many crooks playing in china game.. And its not just the Chinese, foreigners are even worse if you believe that.

I think China has the best valuations right now. Capital markets are opening up faster in SH/SZ/BJ b/c those old Chinese regulators needed a kick in the ass.. And if you think about it, it was Trump." No more Chinese IPOs, no more investing in Chinese companies" - what does this do? This forces Bejing and the old hands to stop sitting on their hands and change.. I believe people hate change......

Credit markets like ABS/MBS and high yield are moving faster in China. People don't understand that this is hard. Look what Milken went through and the high yield market and mezzanine, CLOs gone through in the US.. And EUR is still behind in this manner. I bet China capital markets might leap frog EUR as they are slow. CHina's banks are asset based lenders. You know how hard it is to do cash flow lending.. If Taiwan and Japan lack CF lending or a lot of it.. 

People talk about politics and war etc.. IF you recall 1989 Tiannemane Square, every foreigner walked away from China markets. But guess which country stayed and killed it - Taiwan!!! And we are seeing that again. Guess who is helping China build its semi-conductors or competition? Hint - already mentioned. And the benefits me and U as a consumer, b/c intel and tscm need to get off the top of the mountain so our future technologies in our hand can be cheaper... Thanks again to the former crazy president we had...

. Most people in the investing world need to keep their seat so don't play China unless ur mtg is paid off or you got juice or control your firm. And if you haven't visited non tier 1 cities, you re missing out!  Look at Dalio, some may not like him, but he is right on spot. I can go on, just ping me if you want to chat more.

Overall, China has less competition now and this is better for those that can do the deep work and be long term. Govt helps Chinese consumers which is really everyone's long term thesis....Good luck

 

Knee-jerk reactions from WSO is usually a contra-indicator. Terrible takes by the early posters in this thread.

For those that are actually interested in educating themselves and becoming better investors instead of just China-bashing, Fred Liu wrote a pretty nice piece in his 2Q21 LP letter.

http://www.haydencapital.com/wp-content/uploads/Hayden-Capital-Quarterl…

Also just realized he had a 222% net return in 2020, well played Fred.

 

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success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”