China Corner Office

This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks with Wayne Silby and Guo Peiyuan, the co-founders of Syntao, the Beijing-based sustainability consulting and investing firm. Wayne is also the founding chair of the $35 billion ESG investing pioneer Calvert. Wayne and Peiyuan discuss how in the last 30 years, green finance and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investing has gone from a fringe topic to the mainstream globally, and how in the last decade the topic has also taken off in China. Syntao has actively shaped how this field emerged in China, and Wayne and Peiyuan also reflect on how they have worked with Chinese companies and leaders to convince them of the importance of sustainability, how the top-down role of the government in supporting corporate responsibility in China is different than in the West, and how investors around the world now consider environmental factors as important indicators of companies’ long-term risk.   

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks with Craig Allen, President of the US-China Business Council and Robert Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Their discussion centered on how the U.S. can productively pursue constructive relations with China while also defending American interests and a rules-based order. In particular they discuss increased multilateral engagement, better coordination on China policy within the U.S. government, and how the U.S. can more effectively compete with China.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks with Tao Zhang, co-founder of Dao Foods International, a cross-border impact venture that invests in eco-friendly plant-based and clean meat in China. Tao is also founder and managing director of Dao Ventures, a pioneering impact investment, advisory and accelerator group. Tao reflects on the evolution of the impact investing sector in China and how some of the early environmentally focused companies attracted investment. Tao’s recent focus is on funding alternative protein companies. He discusses why this sector is essential for China’s environmental future, the innovative products of the companies Dao Foods invests in and the growing acceptance of these foods among the younger generation of Chinese consumers.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks with Anne Stevenson-Yang, the co-founder and research director at J Capital Research (J Cap), a firm that focuses on investigating global equities, particularly Chinese stocks, based on extensive primary research and public sources. The company’s reports identify short-selling opportunities by exposing fraudulent businesses and accounting. Anne discusses the flags for questionable activity in those reports and some of J Cap’s recent recommendations about Bit Digital and Luckin Coffee. 

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks to James Chou, the CEO of Microsoft for Startups, North Asia. James discusses the development of the unique startup ecosystem in China and how the fast innovation cycle and online nature of the Chinese consumer has led to a vibrant environment for technology entrepreneurship, particularly in areas such as fintech, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. James is also the chair of the Technology and Innovation Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai, and in that context, he discusses some of the biggest challenges faced by non-Chinese tech firms operating in China.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks with Peter Corne, who leads international law firm Dorsey & Whitney’s mainland China offices from his home in Shanghai. Peter discusses how legal services have evolved in China in recent decades across different sectors, from corporate entry to intellectual property. As Chinese courts have become more professionalized and domestic legal talent has developed, China has become more litigious. As a result, there has also been a dramatic increase in private mediation and arbitration, and Peter discusses his role on a number of influential mediation panels. Other topics addressed in the podcast include how, despite trade tensions, there are still robust mechanisms in place to attract foreign investment to China, and the important progress China is making in clean technology  and environmental law.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks with Wilkie Wong, the managing director of production planning and logistics at Esquel Group, a $1.3 billion vertically integrated apparel enterprise founded in 1978 and headquartered in Hong Kong. Esquel is one of the world’s largest producers of premium cotton shirts, with manufacturing operations in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. Wilkie reflects on the evolution of the textile manufacturing sector in China and how Esquel’s strategy of investing in people and community has led to greater productivity, which allows the company to maintain competitiveness even with rising labor rates. Also discussed is the role of automation in manufacturing, how an OEM can expand into branded product lines, and Esquel’s efforts to overturn U.S. sanctions on one of its Xinjiang cotton milling plants.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks with Don St. Pierre, the co-owner and executive chairman of Vinfolio, an online wine marketplace. In 1996, Don co-founded ASC Fine Wines, which he built into Greater China's leading importer of premium wine. In this episode, he reflects on China’s growing role in the global wine industry and ASC’s early work in building a consumer market for fine wine as China’s middle class grew. Don also discusses the importance of government relations for foreign-owned businesses, and prospects for U.S.-China trade relations under a Biden administration. For wine recommendations, both Chinese domestic and global producers, stick around to the end of the episode!

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks with Virginia Tan, founding partner of Teja Ventures, which is the first gender lens VC fund for emerging Asia. Virginia, who also founded She Loves Tech and Lean In China, discusses the powerful investment thesis behind the “she economy,” and how commercially driven investments focused on women can have social impact. She reflects on how she built the fund and the work of Teja’s portfolio companies. More broadly, Virginia also discusses how in Asia and China in particular, impact investments need not be concessionary, and how in these contexts, aligning with government priorities is important.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks with Ken Pao, the executive managing director of the Asia-Pacific region for Criteo, a leading advertising technology company. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he led a VC-backed startup called Dorm 99 that was briefly the largest online social network in China before it was shut down by the government. Ken discusses the uniqueness of China’s online advertising ecosystem compared with those in other countries, as well as his experience as an entrepreneur in China. He also reflects on how the challenges he faced as an entrepreneur have shaped his career and approach to doing business in China.

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