Your weekly brew made up of top stories, key events and some great insights; slow roated & served hot!
In this week’s brew:
The Ant & The Dragon: Exile of Jack Ma
Two years ago, after the derailed IPO of Ant Group Co. & anti trust action on Alibaba in China, the founder Jack Ma pretty much disappeared from the public view, sparking a lot of rumours and conspiracy throeries. Over the past year, he had been illusive except for a few appearance - of himself or his effects - here and there. Now, FT has broke the news that he has been living in Tokyo, Japan. While we know where he is, it still remains shrouded that why a country cracked down so extensively on its most successful business story?
Additional stories are there on The Guardian, Fortune & Forbes
Zero Covid or Zero Freedom - Lockdown in China
Despite doubling down on its zero Covid policy, China saw a rise in cases last week that resulted in even more stringent execution of already existing harsh restrictions on its citizens. This has resulted in many protests erupting, and one wonders why is it that despite such losses and unrest, China is not willing to change course? What do they know, that we don’t? Here is an article on Carnegie Endowment talking about it.
To understand China’s covid policy and rules read this BBC article. And, another one on the ongoing protest in China.
The Forbidden Apple: Big Tech-Big Gov Collusion
Big tech and big government collusion is not something which should come as a shock. It takes too little for large business to capitulate in front of government demands. We have earlier talked about fb & twitter. This time it is Apple. When the protests raged in China against the strict lockdowns, Apple restricted its Air Drop capabilities in the country. Whether they did it on the behest of the CCP or not can be a question of debate & investigation. But, the way large tech have monopolized our dependency, they certainly are in a position to manipulate and cotrol us on behest of the government which asks them.
Here is a Business Insider report on Apple restricting Air Drop in China.
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