Alimama

When I was reporting for 60 Minutes in China, I was told by people I met that they regard America as inferior, specifically because they say the U.S. does not understand how to play the long game. They said with disdain: “We think in terms of centuries - Americans can only think in terms of minutes.”

🇮🇳🇺🇸 Microsoft’s Indian CEO, Satya Nadella, fired 15,000 Americans. He announced 7,328 new H-1B hires from India + $18.5 billion in AI investments in India. Microsoft earned billions from Americans in the US, only to pour that into India’s economy and create jobs for Indians.

Many years ago, I gave two presentations on how China builds its industrial and technological ecosystem—one for an Indian audience and one for a Vietnamese audience. Although the content was largely the same and went into many details that were rarely mentioned in other settings, the feedback from the Vietnamese and Indian participants was strikingly different. When I discussed the gaps between Vietnam and China, my Vietnamese friends listened very attentively to my analysis of Vietnam’s weaknesses. They even proactively acknowledged Vietnam’s deficiencies and asked me to analyze more specific issues in greater detail. However, when I compared China and India, many Indian friends became quite argumentative. They tried to compete with or challenge the Chinese perspective on almost every point, to the point where I could barely develop my analysis. As a result, they might have won the debate, but missed a valuable opportunity to have a meaningful exchange. So, I came to know which country would be the real winner for "China+1" many years beforehand.