European Guanxi x Innovation’s Crouching Tiger Webinar

Authors: Ashley Clark and Jili Chung

​European Guanxi is an intergenerational non-profit organization linking students and professionals who are passionate about discussing, analyzing, and learning about China and sino-European relations. This event would not have been possible without European Guanxi and the Italy Team working on the ICTiger2020 Project, Domiziana Foti and Valerio Antonini.

The Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) China Forum which is one of the leading student-run organizations in North America that focus on intellectual discussions on China also joined in on the event. They can be found on LinkedIn as WUSTL China Forum.

The information below and from the webinar is only a fraction of what is to be included in an online course, soon-to-be offered to anyone in the world. Our online course will also include tips on doing business with China and must-know information such as insights into China’s Five Year Plan. Through this upcoming project, we are excited to share tools and information about how to organically gain accurate insights about China.

Dr. Jili Chung began the webinar by outlining the problem that many students and professionals alike all share in relation to learning about innovation and technology and their regulations in China: a lack of clear and accurate information. But a solution is provided, that when looking through the eyes of IP in China, one can gain a wealth of knowledge about the larger climate in innovation.

How does one use IP to collect insights and information? Dr. Chung provided two examples for those attending the webinar, that one can collect information by (1.) looking at the STAR Market and (2.) observing IP exchanges in China.

First of all, the STAR Market can be seen as China’s counterpart to NASDAQ. It is a board for innovative companies and start-ups that haven’t enough resources yet to obtain financing in other traditional markets. By using the STAR Market as a window, a person can see the current investment trends and hot zones via trading volume; watch current events unfold (such as Ant Group’s failed IPO); and see how regulatory changes are expressed in the focus of development. For example, the STAR market’s top three industries are currently in ‘new generation IT’, ‘high-end equipment’, and ‘biomedicine’.

IP Exchanges are different than looking at a board such as the STAR Market’s because an IP exchange is a direct exchange of the patents, trademarks, and copyrights held by a certain company whereas the STAR Market is the exchange of securities. An interesting note is that most IP exchanges in China are handled by government-sponsored entities, whereas in the West these same exchanges are carried out privately.

An individual, by looking at IP exchanges can learn much about China because of these exchanges ties to history (over-subsidization and the “real estate economy”) and national campaigns (i.e., the Belt and Road Initiative). In addition, a person can also learn a lot about China’s unique and creative IP exchange models, which can be explained by China’s “spirit of experimentation” as suggested by Dr. Chung in his book Innovation’s Crouching Tiger.

A comprehensive table listing the various, major IP exchanges in China can be found here.

Dr. Jili Chung and the team on ICTiger2020 are humbly grateful for this opportunity to share knowledge and methods for independently learning more about innovation in China. Anyone interested can read more about these topics on our blog at ictiger2020.com or by purchasing Innovation’s Crouching Tiger on Amazon. Follow us on Facebook or LinkedIn @ICTiger2020 for updates about China-related news and so that you don’t miss out on our next big event!

Originally published at https://www.ictiger2020.com.