I’d like to take a moment to welcome over readers who have been following me over the years on Forbes.com. This is where I will now be publishing stories about my New Silk Road travels and research. For continuity and convenience, I’ve moved over the relevant parts of my Forbes column here.
If there’s anywhere along the New Silk Road that you’d like me to go or any stories that you’d like me to cover, just let me know.
Welcome aboard! I’m looking forward to continuing this journey with you.
Great research and documentary work, I really appreciate your stories! I just watched the BBC documentary on Khorgos, really enjoyed it - thank you! Keep up the great work!
From an investment perspective, which companies and countries do you believe will benefit the most from the Silk Road rising again after Covid-19?
Thank you, Petr, much appreciated! I'd say that most countries are probably going to be hurting at least temporarily after this, but the low-wage countries in Asia that have large amounts of manufacturing capacity will probably be those to gain the most. We're probably going to be watching the flow of companies go through the roof throughout this year. For Western firms, this is both to save money and to be on more secure footing as it's unclear what will happen between the US and China.
I'm going to do a Q&A thread tomorrow. If you'd like to hop on there and ask questions about this I can go more in-depth.
So a bit off topic. You wrote in Forbes about "brushing" scams, where companies send you products you didn't order in order to have a verified purchase that they can use to review a product favorably. For the past year I have been getting electronics devices, all under $30: An exercise watch, a podcast camera, and a solar phone charger among others. I am concerned they might contain malware that will invade my Macs, network, phone. Ever heard of such a thing?
Am a new reader, an English ex pat living in Australia...might one add this to my message -one wrote and suggested to a specific dept in UK that once China tightened that belt, sic., security wise, the Genie would be out of the bottle...and also software within say one out of ten mobile phones could also be tampered with...especially as many used face/fingerprint recognition...they said they were monitoring it and that software in say Huawei mobile phones was safe...'Really' was one's response.
Let us not forget that Italy signed a contract with China…one wonders whether the advent of the coronavirus is perhaps China’s nemesis such as its ‘belt and road’ ideology… (my words)
Equally perhaps the vehemence that China attacks its own people especially the Uighurs possibly goes back to its Silk Road demise…which appeared to point to the expansion of Islam…see below...
'Another key factor in the decline of the Silk Roadways the expansion of Islam, which spread, much like Buddhism, very easily along the Silk Road. As Islamic power and territory began to encroach on China, ideas and communication were greatly stymied, as tension ensued'.
Thankyou for your insight...am now reading your articles in Forbes.
Yes, the next move that China makes needs to be extremely wise. They tried throwing their diplomatic weight around in the early days of Covid's spread by spreading misinformation about the origins of the virus, but now there is just way too much negative sentiment built up that they are probably going to have to be a little more humble moving forward and try to make amends for the mess that was caused.
I'm still writing for Forbes but this newsletter gives me more independence and the ability to go more in-depth into the Silk Road. I also feel as if I can make enough money through subscriptions that this could become what I do full time, which would grant me even more independence to cover this topic as I feel it should be.
This is awesome!! We probably dont agree on much politically but I have been reading your stuff for many years and it has always interesting and thought provoking. Would love to hear more of your view on the future of China and USA from a technology and supply chain point of view (per your last article in Forbes). Keep up the good work!!!!
Hello Clyde, Thanks for reading all these years and for subscribing to this new project. It should be fun. I will try to get something up soon about the future tech battle that's just getting started on the Silk Road. That's a big topic and in some ways dwarfs all these ports and logistics zones that I've been writing about.
Great research and documentary work, I really appreciate your stories! I just watched the BBC documentary on Khorgos, really enjoyed it - thank you! Keep up the great work!
From an investment perspective, which companies and countries do you believe will benefit the most from the Silk Road rising again after Covid-19?
Thank you, Petr, much appreciated! I'd say that most countries are probably going to be hurting at least temporarily after this, but the low-wage countries in Asia that have large amounts of manufacturing capacity will probably be those to gain the most. We're probably going to be watching the flow of companies go through the roof throughout this year. For Western firms, this is both to save money and to be on more secure footing as it's unclear what will happen between the US and China.
I'm going to do a Q&A thread tomorrow. If you'd like to hop on there and ask questions about this I can go more in-depth.
So a bit off topic. You wrote in Forbes about "brushing" scams, where companies send you products you didn't order in order to have a verified purchase that they can use to review a product favorably. For the past year I have been getting electronics devices, all under $30: An exercise watch, a podcast camera, and a solar phone charger among others. I am concerned they might contain malware that will invade my Macs, network, phone. Ever heard of such a thing?
Am a new reader, an English ex pat living in Australia...might one add this to my message -one wrote and suggested to a specific dept in UK that once China tightened that belt, sic., security wise, the Genie would be out of the bottle...and also software within say one out of ten mobile phones could also be tampered with...especially as many used face/fingerprint recognition...they said they were monitoring it and that software in say Huawei mobile phones was safe...'Really' was one's response.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-52194356
Let us not forget that Italy signed a contract with China…one wonders whether the advent of the coronavirus is perhaps China’s nemesis such as its ‘belt and road’ ideology… (my words)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47679760 - or its ‘Silk Road’ moment…
Equally perhaps the vehemence that China attacks its own people especially the Uighurs possibly goes back to its Silk Road demise…which appeared to point to the expansion of Islam…see below...
'Another key factor in the decline of the Silk Roadways the expansion of Islam, which spread, much like Buddhism, very easily along the Silk Road. As Islamic power and territory began to encroach on China, ideas and communication were greatly stymied, as tension ensued'.
Thankyou for your insight...am now reading your articles in Forbes.
Josephine
Yes, the next move that China makes needs to be extremely wise. They tried throwing their diplomatic weight around in the early days of Covid's spread by spreading misinformation about the origins of the virus, but now there is just way too much negative sentiment built up that they are probably going to have to be a little more humble moving forward and try to make amends for the mess that was caused.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the end of the Xi era.
Why are you doing this instead of doing forbes
I'm still writing for Forbes but this newsletter gives me more independence and the ability to go more in-depth into the Silk Road. I also feel as if I can make enough money through subscriptions that this could become what I do full time, which would grant me even more independence to cover this topic as I feel it should be.
This is awesome!! We probably dont agree on much politically but I have been reading your stuff for many years and it has always interesting and thought provoking. Would love to hear more of your view on the future of China and USA from a technology and supply chain point of view (per your last article in Forbes). Keep up the good work!!!!
Hello Clyde, Thanks for reading all these years and for subscribing to this new project. It should be fun. I will try to get something up soon about the future tech battle that's just getting started on the Silk Road. That's a big topic and in some ways dwarfs all these ports and logistics zones that I've been writing about.
Hello! Keep my eyes wide open!
Excellent! Thanks for subscribing.