Victor Shih
@vshih2
Director of 21st Century China Center and Ho Miu Lam Chair at GPS of UCSD. Expert of Chinese elite politics, economy, and finance. RT does not mean endorsement.
How do dictators maintain power for life? I explain in a new book that they can stay in power by forming "Coalitions of the Weak" composed of tainted or inexperienced officials. Not a loyalty-competence tradeoff but one of institutions vs patrimonialism cambridge.org/core/books/coa…
I don’t know if this works that well but the whole notion of stopping China’s AI progress is a non starter investing.com/news/stock-mar…
Changes are afoot for sure….
"China’s elite politics remains a black box...But analysts now whisper that Mr Xi’s governing style may be changing in subtle ways." Great piece on Xi Jinping's evolving leadership by @DuncanCorbin in @TheEconomist Happy to whisper w/ @chrisbeddor @HollySnapeWang @vshih2 1/3
Five recent books on China cover a range of heated topics, from dystopian Hong Kong to the end of Sino-U.S. engagement. Read @chinabksreview's latest roundup of new China books: chinabooksreview.com/2025/07/15/ncb…
Definitely not a means of production
rip karl marx, you would’ve hated the labubu stage of capitalism
Glad to offer a few thoughts for @Lingling_Wei’s front page @WSJ story on Trump’s shifting China policy ahead of a rumored Xi summit. Trump’s wild swings from competitive to accommodating (tariffs, H20) undermine US leverage. China, meanwhile, is playing the long game.
Jeeze, rewatching my early 2022 interview w Steve Orlins where I predicted Li Keqiang losing power and the end of Covid lockdown youtube.com/watch?v=Tbq8WJ…
This makes me sad, used to love chatting with the jianbing vendors outside of Beida Nanmen
A robot to make 煎饼馃子 Jianbing Guozi aka Chinese Crepe with Crispy Fritter / Crispy Egg Wrap
Not a bad take from someone outside of academia and yes agree on the AI part which we are doing @21CenturyChina
From Insider to Observer: What I See in the China Field Since publishing my memoir and joining X four years ago, I’ve followed the “China” space closely. What I’ve seen: instant experts, outdated frameworks, and a closed circle of analysts reinforcing one another. The field…
How a Chinese Border Town Keeps Russia’s Economy Afloat / really fascinating reporting and @KeithBradsher is one of the few reporters who can pull it off nytimes.com/2025/07/24/bus… via @NYTimes
A House committee focused on national security has subpoenaed JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America produce documents related to their roles in a Chinese battery giant’s IPO/ this is so ludicrous. It’s a general purpose battery company! wsj.com/finance/bankin…
So that means there are 2 to 3x as many cases and 2-3x as many people involved?
Chinese police cracked 1.739 million telecom fraud cases and arrested 366,000 suspects, including 3,442 major financiers and core members of crime groups, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), a senior police officer announced Wednesday.
Sitting at a good public university, I do think undergrads get ignored b/c large class size reduces contact per student. Also funding pressure, esp now, leads us to hire MA and PhD level RAs. Need mechanisms and funding to encourage research for the most promising undergrads
The most frequent Alma mater for them is Tsinghua U. Of course, gaokao (science/math) is a good filter for high IQ, & Tsinghua gets the highest scorers. Also Tsinghua clearly is good at cultivate science talent. US still leads in post grad training tho that’s being destroyed
🚨 BREAKING: Detailed list of all 44 people in Meta's Superintelligence team. — 50% from China — 75% have PhDs, 70% Researchers — 40% from OpenAI, 20% DeepMind, 15% Scale — 20% L8+ level — 75% 1st gen immigrants Each of these people are likely getting paid $10-$100M/yr.
Eh ok will look at this
New paper. We analyze tariffs, export controls, and sanctions using AI and corporate text. Including the ongoing trump trade war.
Turns out there is a correlation between training costs and performance?
How do top AI models do on the newest International Math Olympiad problems? Google Gemini is the strongest. Followed by OpenAI’s o3. DeepSeek R1 and Grok 4 do very poorly.
透明度应该从头到尾都有，当然，美国现在这方面也越来越不行
抓了个人弄个简单通报，否则一句话不说，那外人就只能想象，然后就搞得谁都往最恐怖的方向想。当然，有人说，后面总会知道细节。也许，但是谁在乎后面。
Apparently the biggest consumer innovation this year is a doll for your doll. The next innovation: a doll for the doll’s doll
Foreign firms' executives entangled in Chinese probes | Reuters/ even if these people did something wrong, China must be much more transparent about the charges and ensure that defendants can obtain good legal help. Or investors won’t come reuters.com/world/china/fo…
What about the first part where your kids welcome them into your home and become best friends with them?
Illegal aliens, take a page from E.T. and PHONE HOME. If you are here illegally, leave NOW— the easy way— using the CBP Home App. You will receive travel assistance and a stipend to return to your home country.