7 ms·

A selection of other members of this university board: http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/aboutsem/advMem.html http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/aboutsem/advMem

A selection of other members of this university board: http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/aboutsem/advMem.html http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/aboutsem/advMem.html Henry M. Paulson, Jr. Chairman, Paulson Institute Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Former Chairman and CEO, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Mary T. Barra Chairman and CEO, General Motors Company Lloyd C. Blankfein Chairman of the Board, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Carlos Brito CEO, Anheuser-Busch InBev Michael L. Corbat CEO, Citigroup Inc. Michael Dell Chairman and CEO, Dell Technologies Jamie Dimon Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Laurence D. Fink Chairman and CEO, BlackRock, Inc. Doug McMillon President and CEO, Walmart Inc. Elon Musk CEO, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) CEO, Tesla, Inc. Satya Nadella CEO, Microsoft Brian L. Roberts Chairman and CEO, Comcast Corporation Ginni Rometty Chairman, President and CEO, IBM David M. Rubenstein Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman, The Carlyle Group David C. Schmittlein John C Head III Dean, MIT Sloan School of Management Stephen A. Schwarzman Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, Blackstone Mark Zuckerberg Founder and CEO, Facebook

socalnate1 7y ago
This is the only post that matters here. Thanks for providing the proper context to this (non) news.
- ridaj 7y ago
  Yes. The fact that this is considered newsy enough to make it to the front page tells us more about the fever pitch China paranoia in these parts than about the actual news itself.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - tanilama 7y ago
    This news is from a highly opinionated Taiwan website. They had a narrative to push with anything they write.
kaiwen1 7y ago
This may be the most A-list group of people I've ever seen assembled for anything. It screams how important China is.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- throwaway2048 7y ago
  I doubt many (or any) of them do much of anything on the board.
  - EsssM7QVMehFPAs 7y ago
    Certainly not, but this is exactly how China buys influence by courting the rich and important.
    - Iv 7y ago
      I am wondering, what is the quid pro quo here. I don't like most of these people, but they don't ring to me like the kind of people who could be bribed with a seat at a prestigious university's board.
      - shsjxjbsbs 7y ago
        Maybe they can’t be bribed with cash, but could they be bribed with a nice contract for the company they founded? Or threatened for access to a market?
        Iv 7y ago
        Yes maybe, but I don't see how having a seat at a university helps that.
        enriquto 7y ago
        the seat does not help these CEOs, it helps China. They accept the (public) seat in exchange for (hidden) access.
__john 7y ago
From Wikipedia > Since 2015, Tsinghua University has overtaken the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to top the list of Best Global Universities for Engineering published by the U.S. News & World Report. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_University#Rankings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_University#Rankings
- throwaway1777 7y ago
  College ratings are basically bs so I’d take this with a grain of salt.
  - jbay808 7y ago
    I can say anecdotally that the graduates from Tsinghua that I have met are absolutely brilliant individuals.
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      Oh, they are. US News and World is still garbage, though.
    - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
      You have to be brilliant to get into Qinghua. Same is true with MIT. However, having known Chinese students who got offers to both Qinghua and MIT, the choice for them was really a no brainer.
      - andruby 7y ago
        Which one did they chose?
        tanilama 7y ago
        MIT of course Tsinghua is highly respected and your peers is likely to be better ON AVERAGE than that of MIT. But the faculty and the resources you would be able to access is unmatched from what MIT can offer.
ksec 7y ago
I think it is also important to mention Tsinghua Holdings [1], or a name commonly heard in Tech Circle Tsinghua Unigroup. And all the stories behind it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_Holdings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_Holdings
m0zg 7y ago
Kinda surprised Hunter Biden isn't on the board. CNN reports he's very talented.
NicoJuicy 7y ago
How do I interprit this list. As tit for tat or why else would a CEO join this board? Tesla is one of the only companies that really seems to be successful in China. Then you have Apple and others that are getting overtaken by domestic companies and not coincidentally a lot of financial companies ( that niche was pretty open in China, I thought) Does this list also explain why Microsoft asked the White House to lift the ban on Huawei/trade war? Or is this not even close related. Am I wrong? If so, please explain. I guess the profit is both in market access and some sort of personal gain?
- adventured 7y ago
  > Tesla is one of the only companies that really seems to be successful in China. > Am I wrong? If so, please explain. GM has, over time, made an enormous business out of the Chinese market. They got in early and printed a lot of money there. Something like 1/3 of all their unit sales have been in China over the past decade. More recently it was closer to half. They went from 900,000 annual units in 2004, to 1.8 million by 2009. In 2018 they moved ~4 million units there, half their sales volume globally. The financial entities on that list (Blackstone, Goldman, Citi, JP Morgan, BlackRock) all want access to China. China has been - sort of - working to open access to foreign financial giants like JP Morgan and Goldman. There's wide debate on whether that's more plausibly China trying to sucker them into helping with their debt situation, or whether it's the financial firms that will benefit more (no doubt they arrogantly think they can wrangle China for a fat profit, famous last thoughts when the debt monster turns). Walmart has been in China for a quarter of a century now. They have a thriving, growing retail business there and have done modestly well [1] whereas their peers have flailed. Dell has had deep manufacturing relationships in China for a while. More recently they started manufacturing in Western China (Chengdu) in 2012 and Xiamen before that. Henry Paulson has a strange, slightly Kissinger like relationship with China, dating to the financial crisis and before. He has a lot of personal relationships with authorities there. He wrote a book about China ("Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower") and seems to have a personal fascination with the country. He openly admires them, so it makes sense he'd want those ties. As the world's #1 or #2 consumer market, it makes perfect sense for Anheuser-Busch InBev to be everywhere there (to the extent they can), given they're a global beverage giant. Their stated position is that China and the region in general represents a very large growth opportunity in the coming decades. Microsoft has a real business in China, generating several billion per year for them. It's not what it should be, but it's essentially all gravy given the alternative is piracy in China. All the way back to when Bill Gates was running the company they were working with China to limit piracy of Windows and Office. Gates made early ventures to China repeatedly to try to convince Chinese authorities to crack down on piracy. There's an amusing quip [2] from Gates about this from 2007: > Today Gates openly concedes that tolerating piracy turned out to be Microsoft's best long-term strategy. That's why Windows is used on an estimated 90% of China's 120 million PCs. "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not," Gates says. "Are you kidding? You can get the real thing, and you get the same price." Indeed, in China's back alleys, Linux often costs more than Windows because it requires more disks. And Microsoft's own prices have dropped so low it now sells a $3 package of Windows and Office to students. I don't know what Comcast (Roberts) is doing there. They're a large telecom company and there is, I suppose, prestige in that list. Plus Comcast is now also a media & content company. I'm sure they want their content to have access to China, today and in the future. [1] https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-08-16/as-rivals-flee-china-walmart-rings-up-47-sales-growth-101451866.html https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-08-16/as-rivals-flee-china... [2] https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/23/100134488/ https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007...
villgax 7y ago
Our reps
gigatexal 7y ago
I mean my original reaction was a bit too knee-jerk. Having some western influence is better than not having any I guess. I stand corrected.
JohnClark1337 7y ago
ah, now the article sounds like a hit-piece

socalnate1 7y ago

This is the only post that matters here. Thanks for providing the proper context to this (non) news.

ridaj 7y ago
Yes. The fact that this is considered newsy enough to make it to the front page tells us more about the fever pitch China paranoia in these parts than about the actual news itself.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- tanilama 7y ago
  This news is from a highly opinionated Taiwan website. They had a narrative to push with anything they write.

kaiwen1 7y ago

This may be the most A-list group of people I've ever seen assembled for anything. It screams how important China is.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
throwaway2048 7y ago
I doubt many (or any) of them do much of anything on the board.
- EsssM7QVMehFPAs 7y ago
  Certainly not, but this is exactly how China buys influence by courting the rich and important.
  - Iv 7y ago
    I am wondering, what is the quid pro quo here. I don't like most of these people, but they don't ring to me like the kind of people who could be bribed with a seat at a prestigious university's board.
    - shsjxjbsbs 7y ago
      Maybe they can’t be bribed with cash, but could they be bribed with a nice contract for the company they founded? Or threatened for access to a market?
      - Iv 7y ago
        Yes maybe, but I don't see how having a seat at a university helps that.
        enriquto 7y ago
        the seat does not help these CEOs, it helps China. They accept the (public) seat in exchange for (hidden) access.

__john 7y ago

From Wikipedia > Since 2015, Tsinghua University has overtaken the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to top the list of Best Global Universities for Engineering published by the U.S. News & World Report. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_University#Rankings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_University#Rankings

throwaway1777 7y ago
College ratings are basically bs so I’d take this with a grain of salt.
- jbay808 7y ago
  I can say anecdotally that the graduates from Tsinghua that I have met are absolutely brilliant individuals.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Oh, they are. US News and World is still garbage, though.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    You have to be brilliant to get into Qinghua. Same is true with MIT. However, having known Chinese students who got offers to both Qinghua and MIT, the choice for them was really a no brainer.
    - andruby 7y ago
      Which one did they chose?
      - tanilama 7y ago
        MIT of course Tsinghua is highly respected and your peers is likely to be better ON AVERAGE than that of MIT. But the faculty and the resources you would be able to access is unmatched from what MIT can offer.

ksec 7y ago

I think it is also important to mention Tsinghua Holdings [1], or a name commonly heard in Tech Circle Tsinghua Unigroup. And all the stories behind it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_Holdings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_Holdings

m0zg 7y ago

Kinda surprised Hunter Biden isn't on the board. CNN reports he's very talented.

NicoJuicy 7y ago

How do I interprit this list. As tit for tat or why else would a CEO join this board? Tesla is one of the only companies that really seems to be successful in China. Then you have Apple and others that are getting overtaken by domestic companies and not coincidentally a lot of financial companies ( that niche was pretty open in China, I thought) Does this list also explain why Microsoft asked the White House to lift the ban on Huawei/trade war? Or is this not even close related. Am I wrong? If so, please explain. I guess the profit is both in market access and some sort of personal gain?

adventured 7y ago
> Tesla is one of the only companies that really seems to be successful in China. > Am I wrong? If so, please explain. GM has, over time, made an enormous business out of the Chinese market. They got in early and printed a lot of money there. Something like 1/3 of all their unit sales have been in China over the past decade. More recently it was closer to half. They went from 900,000 annual units in 2004, to 1.8 million by 2009. In 2018 they moved ~4 million units there, half their sales volume globally. The financial entities on that list (Blackstone, Goldman, Citi, JP Morgan, BlackRock) all want access to China. China has been - sort of - working to open access to foreign financial giants like JP Morgan and Goldman. There's wide debate on whether that's more plausibly China trying to sucker them into helping with their debt situation, or whether it's the financial firms that will benefit more (no doubt they arrogantly think they can wrangle China for a fat profit, famous last thoughts when the debt monster turns). Walmart has been in China for a quarter of a century now. They have a thriving, growing retail business there and have done modestly well [1] whereas their peers have flailed. Dell has had deep manufacturing relationships in China for a while. More recently they started manufacturing in Western China (Chengdu) in 2012 and Xiamen before that. Henry Paulson has a strange, slightly Kissinger like relationship with China, dating to the financial crisis and before. He has a lot of personal relationships with authorities there. He wrote a book about China ("Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower") and seems to have a personal fascination with the country. He openly admires them, so it makes sense he'd want those ties. As the world's #1 or #2 consumer market, it makes perfect sense for Anheuser-Busch InBev to be everywhere there (to the extent they can), given they're a global beverage giant. Their stated position is that China and the region in general represents a very large growth opportunity in the coming decades. Microsoft has a real business in China, generating several billion per year for them. It's not what it should be, but it's essentially all gravy given the alternative is piracy in China. All the way back to when Bill Gates was running the company they were working with China to limit piracy of Windows and Office. Gates made early ventures to China repeatedly to try to convince Chinese authorities to crack down on piracy. There's an amusing quip [2] from Gates about this from 2007: > Today Gates openly concedes that tolerating piracy turned out to be Microsoft's best long-term strategy. That's why Windows is used on an estimated 90% of China's 120 million PCs. "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not," Gates says. "Are you kidding? You can get the real thing, and you get the same price." Indeed, in China's back alleys, Linux often costs more than Windows because it requires more disks. And Microsoft's own prices have dropped so low it now sells a $3 package of Windows and Office to students. I don't know what Comcast (Roberts) is doing there. They're a large telecom company and there is, I suppose, prestige in that list. Plus Comcast is now also a media & content company. I'm sure they want their content to have access to China, today and in the future. [1] https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-08-16/as-rivals-flee-china-walmart-rings-up-47-sales-growth-101451866.html https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-08-16/as-rivals-flee-china... [2] https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/23/100134488/ https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007...

villgax 7y ago

Our reps

gigatexal 7y ago

I mean my original reaction was a bit too knee-jerk. Having some western influence is better than not having any I guess. I stand corrected.

JohnClark1337 7y ago

ah, now the article sounds like a hit-piece