Biden’s Asia czar Kurt Campbell said the era of engagement with China is over.

The main port in Shenzhen closed down over the weekend due to an outbreak of COVID-19, presumably variant B.1.617.2. Chinese state media says the domestic spread of COVID-19 is under control.

Chinese regulators are going after Tencent to make the company separate its finance business from the rest of the group.

The demand for Chinese IPOs has weakened somewhat recently in the US and in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, NetEase’s music app just filed for an IPO as did India’s fintech unicorn Paytm.

Myanmar blocked foreign apps and websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Malaysia’s government announced a nationwide total lockdown starting tomorrow to curb its new COVID-19 outbreak.

Company-specific reports

• I wrote about Japanese online recruitment company En-Japan (TSE:4849 — US$1.5 billion)

• Merger arb: Pembridgecap on the privatisation of Chinese online recruitment company 51Job (NASDAQ:JOBS — US$4.8 billion)

• A blogger called Circle of Competence has written an introduction to South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang (NYSE:CPNG — US$71 billion)

Long-form writing

• What I think could be the implications of B.1.617.2 (the variant first detected in India) ($)

• A more lighthearted post on my experience trying out Delfi’s chocolate products

• My tweetstorm summary of John Train’s book Money Masters of Our Times

• Financial Times talking bubbles with GMO’s Jeremy Grantham ($)

• HBR: What the West misunderstands about China

• I highly recommend professor Kenneth Rogoff’s paper on China’s housing market

• Capital Economics gives a nuanced view on the prospects for higher inflation

• Open Insights: $80 oil… here we come

• Financial Times: clean energy stocks are the most crowded of all sectors

• Fortune Financial making the case that oil & tobacco stocks are inflation hedges

• How to invest in Iran’s undervalued stock market

• Bloomberg on retail speculation in Asia’s top-performing markets: Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam ($)

• Nikkei survey: Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter and Ferdinand Marcos’s son are both front-runners in the Philippines 2022 election ($)

• Bloomberg: How Singapore has become a playground for the wealthy ($)

• Taiwan security expert Ian Easton: “Are war clouds on the horizon”?

• Great overview of Taiwan’s recent COVID-19 outbreak

• For fun: “Ten ways in which Taiwan wins”

Podcasts and videos

• Carson Block on Bloomberg’s Masters in Business podcast (1:22 hours)

• Macro: Jim Leitner on The Market Huddle (2:20 hours)

• The Economist interview with Ray Dalio (31 mins)

• The Economist: Can Asia’s COVID havens re-open? (41 mins)

• China Tech Investor on Bytedance (1:08 hours)

• Value Hive with Thomas Bachrach on Kazakhstan tech stock Kaspi (1:26 mins)

• Asia Tech Strategy podcast on Chinese online retailer Shein (51 mins)

• Richard McGregor interviews Linda Jaivin on her new book The Shortest History of China (30 mins)

• Asia Matters podcast on Japan & Korea’s geopolitical rivalry (42 mins)

• Taiwan’s foreign minister says China is preparing for war (9 mins)

Chart of the week – China’s residential floor space sold is likely to drop due to demographics

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