Fortune (January 11)
“2026 begins with sharper risks for China: Geopolitical uncertainty, a struggling real estate sector, strained public finances, and elevated youth unemployment. Yet what draws companies to China—scale, innovation, and global influence— remain as compelling as ever.” The economics have changed and competition has increased. Success now requires greater discipline, but “for global businesses prepared to operate with this level of discipline, China can still be a lucrative market in the Year of the Horse.”
Tags: 2026, China, Competition, Discipline, Geopolitical uncertainty, Global influence, Innovation, Lucrative, Public finances, Real estate, Risks, Scale, Struggling, Year of the Horse, Youth unemployment
Wall Street Journal (August 24)
“Not long ago it would have been hard to imagine a Republican President demanding government ownership in a private company, but here we are. And now the Trump Administration is toying with a tax on patents too—meaning, a tax on innovation.” Very bizarrely, to compete with China, “the U.S. is imitating its model of state-run business. Washington is becoming Chinatown” as, disturbingly, “corporate statism is riding high.”
Tags: China, Chinatown, Compete, corporate statism, Government ownership, Imitating, Innovation, Patents, Private company, Republican, State-run, Tax, Trump, U.S., Washington
New York Times (May 20)
The Chinese century “may already have dawned, and when historians look back they may very well pinpoint the early months of President Trump’s second term as the watershed moment when China pulled away and left the United States behind.” China “already leads global production in multiple industries — steel, aluminum, shipbuilding, batteries, solar power, electric vehicles, wind turbines, drones, 5G equipment, consumer electronics, active pharmaceutical ingredients and bullet trains.” China is “laser-focused on winning the future.” In contrast, “Mr. Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the pillars of American power and innovation. His tariffs are endangering U.S. companies’ access to global markets and supply chains. He is slashing public research funding and gutting our universities, pushing talented researchers to consider leaving for other countries. He wants to roll back programs for technologies like clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing and is wiping out American soft power in large swaths of the globe.”
Tags: 5G, Aluminum, Batteries, Bullet trains, Chinese century, Clean energy, Consumer electronics, Drones, Electric vehicles, Endangering, Global markets, Innovation, Laser-focused, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical ingredients, Research, Semiconductor, Shipbuilding, Solar power, Steel, Supply chains, Tariffs, Trump, Wind turbines, Wrecking
Reuters (April 22)
“The burning question facing China’s EV industry… is how and when it can convert explosive sales of ground-breaking vehicles into sustainable profits. The intense competition driving the sector’s innovation has also made China a market with precious few winners, foreign or domestic.” Approximately 170 domestic and automakers are competing in China, “but only 14 have a market share higher than 2%.” In 2024, excluding hybrids there were 327 EV models produced by 86 brands. Ultimately, there will be “few survivors from China’s hypercompetitive EV industry.”
Tags: Automakers, China, Competition, Domestic, EV industry, EVs, Explosive sales, Foreign, Ground-breaking, Hybrids, Hypercompetitive, Innovation, Market share, Survivors, Sustainable profits, Winners
New York Times (April 6)
“It’s downright scary,” but the future is “not in America.” President Trump and his administration are “focused on what teams American transgender athletes can race on” while “China is focused on transforming its factories with A.I. so it can outrace all our factories.” Trump is ramping up “tariffs while gutting our national scientific institutions and work force that spur U.S. innovation.” Meanwhile, China is ramping up “research campuses” and “A.I.-driven innovation to be permanently liberated from Trump’s tariffs.”
Tags: A.I., China, Factories, Future, Gutting, Innovation, Outrace, Race, Research campuses, Scary, Scientific institutions, Tariffs, Transforming, Transgender athletes, Trump, U.S.
Institutional Investor (April 4)
“For most industries, transformative innovation is an ever-present reality. Within the staid world of investing, true innovation – the type that alters investor behavior and competitive balance – is rare.” It might, however, “be on the cusp of occurring today for the much-maligned active investment management industry. Ironically, the emergence of active ETFs (combined with an advanced approach to active management) might be the Trojan Horse that saves active management.”
Tags: Active ETFs, Active investment, Competitive balance, Cusp, Emergence, Industries, Innovation, Investing, Investor behavior, Transformative
New York Times (December 13)
Venture capital (VC) stands at a cross roads as firms adopt opposing paths. The “industry that funds and fosters American innovation” is undergoing “a profound debate” about its future. Some funds are remaining true to the lean, traditional VC model of infusing capital and not much else. Others are adopting a “bigger-is-better” approach in the belief that “even more money is needed to solve society’s thorniest problems with innovation. Small funds, they scoff, can back only small ideas.”
Tags: Bigger-is-better, Capital, Debate, Future, Innovation, Lean, Money, Society, Thorniest problems, Traditional, U.S., Venture-capital
Reuters (October 25)
“Stablecoins, the latest innovation in digital currency, are a hybrid of the private and public models and claim to deliver the best of both their worlds.” Their users have roughly tripled in less than three years. “Stablecoins, it seems, give the people what they want: constant, real-time access to a globally usable, digital dollar.” As adoption grows, “the greenback’s supremacy” looks poised to be further reinforced.
Tags: Adoption, Digital currency, Digital dollar, Globally usable, Greenback, Hybrid, Innovation, Real time, Reinforced, Stablecoins, Supremacy, Tripled, Users
American Banker (December 9)
“Fintechs turned cross-border payments into a hotbed of innovation over the last five years. Now the card networks and banks are responding with disruptions of their own. It’s not just the competitive threat from fintechs developing faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payment options. The changing economy is now adding urgency for legacy cross-border providers to modernize their services.”
Tags: Banks, Card networks, Cheaper, Competitive threat, Cross-border, Disruptions, Economy, Faster, Fintechs, Hotbed, Innovation, Legacy, Modernize, Payments, Services, Transparent
Washington Post (July 16)
The extreme heat events “should not be viewed in isolation.” They are “virtually impossible” to explain except for human-caused climate change. “Slashing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning to a greener economy at the scale and pace needed would require creativity, innovation and political courage. But the cost if we fail is far more daunting: a future in which climate disasters, and all the damage and instability that come with them, become the new normal everywhere.”
Tags: Climate change, Climate disasters, Cost, Creativity, Daunting, Extreme heat, Fail, GHG emissions, Greener economy, Innovation, Isolation, Pace, Political courage, Scale, Transitioning
