Hello friends,

I am restarting my weekly newsletter after a long break.

I am calling it the Front Row Bulletin because that feels more on brand now ;)

(PS you can check out The Front Row Pod here)

The mission is still the same - to get us to scroll less and read more.

Think of this as the Sunday primer to warm you up and prepare you for the week ahead!

What You Can Expect:

This is what you will be getting every week:

• Moment of the Week. A snippet/ quote from a podcast episode to set you thinking.
• Three Insightful Reads. The picks I curate are specific to the themes I am researching on for my upcoming podcasts.
• Occasional book notes, essays, musings and things I think you will enjoy.

Snippet Of The Week

I asked Kishore Mahbubani to give me one piece of advice for youngsters like myself starting.

The answer was surprisingly simple.

Read.

Rediscover the libraries.

Stop scrolling.

Start reading.

Immerse yourself in the great books.

Here is the full clip.

(P.S : Feel free to connect on Linkedin!)

Reads of The Week

This week’s readings are more China-oriented because my upcoming interviews will feature China experts.

(These are folks who have operated at a high level in China or are leading academics who have done economic research in and out of China. I think you will like it!)

Noah Smith Is Wrong About China by Robert Wu

I am a paying subscriber to Robert’s China Translated Newsletter, which helps me get an insider's view of China.

This essay debunks the American political commentator’s view that China is hamstrung by the CPC’s governance. Robert pointed out eloquently that Chinese governance often operates in cycles. Xi’s current preference for greater state control is driven by the need to reform the structural problems in the preceding decades.

Simply put, there are some problems that the invisible hand of the market cannot solve. (e.g. Overdependence on low-end, high-pollution, and high-energy-consumption industries.)

(I find it quite funny that Noah has the confidence to proclaim that he has workable solutions to China's problems despite not speaking Chinese and not having been to China.)

Prejudice and China by Louis-Vincent Gave

The fundamental question he sought to address was how Western automakers fell asleep at the wheel and did not see their Chinese counterparts rapidly catching up to them in the last four years. They went from ‘laggards’ to ‘setting global industry standards’.

I want to focus on his ‘It depends who you talk to’ argument because I think it is a powerful way to understand a country that is often as misunderstood as China.

His analysis reminds me of the parable of the blind men and the elephant, in which the moral is that one can fail to see the big picture because he generalizes his observations improperly.

To put it more succinctly, there have been two main stories in China over the past five years. The first was a real estate bust, which was felt disproportionately in the rich cities of China’s coast. The second was an impressive industrial boom, which had a greater impact on the cities of the interior with cheaper labor which were suddenly linked to the coast by new highways, railways and airports.

Over the past five years, Western media consumers have heard a lot about the first trend but very little about the second.

Let's (temporarily) assume that the Western media is as honest and objective as they claim to be. How could they miss this second big story?

Well, as Louis argues, they are much better connected to Tier-1 cities and are culturally more comfortable there.

That's probably true.

Imagine you are now a New York Times Reporter.

Ivy-league grad, cushy 100k annual salary, living in Beijing.

What are the chances that you will take the time to visit Heilongjiang, China's northernmost province?

In this region, most people hardly speak English, life is not as convenient as in Tier 1 cities, and the winters can be punishing. Why would you inconvenience yourself?

Incentives dictate that you report what happens in Beijing and extrapolate your findings to the whole of China.

So, when there is a real estate downturn, you take the sentiments in Beijing and/or Shanghai- and assume it to be representative of the whole of China!

This is not to say that everything they report will be wrong, but it might be worth asking yourself this question when you read the news next time: “Is this a China issue? Or is it a Beijing/Shanghai issue?”

China Builds A New Eurasia by Jacob Dreyer

COP is taking place in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku this coming week.

For the first time in a long while, the world’s attention will now shift towards Eurasia.

Now, how do we make of this region?

Dreyer sheds some light on the rise of Chinese influence here.

At the heart of the contemporary Chinese empire is a digital megastructure that might be the true protagonist of our time, reordering energy, land, and human life around its need to adjust to a new enviro-political reality. When COP29 opens in November in Baku, a Eurasian city built on oil that is today crisscrossed by infrastructure with Chinese characteristics, a latter-day Pax Mongolica will see itself in the mirror: a Sinified Eurasian continent remaking itself with renewable power.

As their trade and economic collaboration with China increases, Central Asian countries will need to grapple with some uneasy tensions.

A case in point that Dreyer points out,

China is, of course, a familiar interlocutor for Mongolians; some privately boast that they founded Beijing (during the Yuan Dynasty, when it was called Khanbaliq). But it’s in the interest of the Mongol state to keep a firm distinction between the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia and Mongolia the independent country, lest they fall quietly into Beijing’s warm embrace. This has already happened once, and it didn’t end well: Chinese Inner Mongolia’s GDP per capita is nearly three times that of Mongolia, but the Mongolian language is marginal there, and Han constitute 80% of the population. The Mongolians of Ulaanbaatar view the Inner Mongolians as sleepers in a poisoned dream who may never again wake up their true selves.

Recommendations Of The Week

🎧 An earworm that has made its way (back) into my head

Reflections by Misterwives.

I remember listening to this in NS at 19 years old. It moved my spirits in a way that got me ready to book in.

I’m 29 now.

Rediscovering this song hit me in the head that time flies so fast.

If you want a hit of 2014 nostalgia, indulge in this tune.

📺 A video that has me ugly-laughing

World’s Fastest Writer.

The comedian, Josh2Funny was too funny that he made it from Nigeria to America Got Talent.

Please don't watch it if you want to sleep tonight.

It will set you into a loop of doom scrolling,

🖼️A view that has me awe-struck

Shibuya Sky.

I spent the last week in Japan with my wife on our 8th(?) honeymoon.

This was one of those observation decks that lived up to its name.

It offers a 360-degree panoramic view of Tokyo and breathtaking views of Tokyo's skyline, including Mt. Fuji on clear days.

May the sun shine upon your face,

Keith