Our guest this week is Jeremy Goldkorn, co-host of the iconic, China focused Sinica podcast and editor-in-chief of SupChina.com. Moving to China in 1995, Jeremy worked in Beijing for 20 years as an editor and entrepreneur. In 2003, he founded the website and research firm, Danwei, which tracked Chinese media, markets, politics and business and was acquired in 2013 by the Financial Times. SupChina is an independent digital media company dedicated to informing, entertaining, and educating a global audience about business, technology, politics, and culture in China and covers Bitcoin developments in the context of relevance to greater China. Our conversation is mostly focused on the current corona virus outbreak – Jeremy puts it into context with the SARS outbreak in 2003 which he was in Beijing for, explains what some potential lasting effects might be, and gives his thoughts on China’s central bank digital currency plans among other topics.

Topics:

• Background, China in the 90’s and 00’s
• Founding and running leading China analysis and consulting business Danwei
• Finding Bitcoin while running Danwei, what he thought of the interest in it in Beijing in 2013
• SARS crisis in 2003, the broader context for China then vs today, aftereffects
• How observers should think about the information coming out of China
• China’s growing biosecurity state
• China’s central bank digital currency (DCEP) plans

Resources:

• Jeremy on Twitter (@goldkorn)
• SupChina on Twitter (@supchinanews)
• SupChina.com
• Supchina Newsletter