Kai-Fu Lee on Artificial Intelligence in China

A Sinica Podcast

By Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn & more on June 7, 2017

Kai-Fu Lee is one of the most prominent figures in Chinese technology. He founded China’s noted early-stage venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures after launching and heading up Google’s China operations during their years of growth from 2005 to 2009. Born in Taiwan and educated at Columbia and Carnegie Mellon, Kai-Fu had an early career in Silicon Valley, including a stint as a principal research scientist at Apple.

Possible Foreign NGO Law-Related Detentions: What We Know, and What We Don’t

By Jessica Batke on June 6, 2017

Three labor activists affiliated with the New York-based China Labor Watch (CLW) were detained in China last week. Reports suggest that they were detained for investigating labor practices at factories in Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces. This comes days after the People’s Republic of China’s formal arrest of Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-che on charges of “subverting state power.” Press reporting on Lee, who has been unreachable since entering mainland China from Macau, has frequently noted his connection to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Taiwan and mainland China.

Kai-Fu Lee

on June 6, 2017

Kai-Fu Lee is currently the Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, a leading early-stage investment company that is targeting the next wave of Chinese high-tech companies and mentoring the next generation of Chinese entrepreneurs.

Prior to starting Sinovation Ventures in 2009, he served as President of Google China, Vice President of Engineering at Google, and held executive positions at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple. Lee received a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in Computer Science in 1983 and went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1988. He holds Honorary Doctorate degrees from the City University of Hong Kong and Carnegie Mellon and is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Vice Chairman of the Committee of 100, an elite group of Chinese Americans. The best-selling author of six books, Lee was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine in 2013. He is based in Beijing and has over 50 million followers on social media.

Chinese Debt in Africa: How Much Is Too Much?

A China in Africa Podcast

By Eric Olander, Cobus van Staden & more on June 6, 2017

China now owns more than half of Kenya’s external debt, and that figure is likely to grow even higher as President Uhuru Kenyatta turns to Beijing to finance large infrastructure projects across the country. Most recently, China completed the first phase of the highly-anticipated Standard Gauge Railway, a 420-kilometer passenger and cargo line that that connects Nairobi with the port of Mombasa.