China’s Communist Party will celebrate its 100th anniversary on Thursday 1 July.

Chinese tech companies are once again flocking to New York for IPOs, including ride-hailing giant Didi, Full Truck Alliance, AiHuiShou and Kanzhun.

Thailand approved a plan for Phuket to allow vaccinated tourists in without quarantine.

Indonesia is preparing a tax overhaul with a new marginal income tax rate of 35% for those earning more than US$350,000 per year.

Former Philippine President Benigno Aquino died at aged 61, an event that may have an impact on next year’s election.

Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing and Russia agreed to strengthen ties.

Demand for Sinovac vaccines in Singapore has greatly exceeded the supply. Meanwhile, the Singaporean government released a plan to lift restrictions and learn to live with endemic COVID-19.

Asian stock ideas

• I did a deep-dive on Philippine casino operator Bloomberry Resorts (PSE:BLOOM — US$1.5 billion). A quick follow-up comment on the arbitration proceedings between Bloomberry and GGAM here.

• Vineyard Holdings wrote an 86-pager on Tencent (SEHK:700 — US$734 billion)

• Value Investing Substack on Malaysia’s AirAsia (KLSE:AIRASIA — US$3.5 billion)

• Wickhams Hill on Singaporean cinema stock MM2 Asia (SGX:1B0 — US$120 million)

Long-form writing

• I wrote a primer on Asia’s casino industry ($)

• A few personal book recommendations

• Long article about Delfi Limited in today’s Business Times ($)

• Exante Data: 2H2021 mRNA vaccine exports set to boom - highly positive for EM

• New York Times: They relied on Chinese vaccines. Now they’re battling outbreaks ($)

• Katsuji Nakazawa from Nikkei comparing Xi Jinping with his father ($)

• Minxin Pei: “The Party Is Not Forever”

• Alibaba is starting a credit scoring business together with the state ($)

• How an American 29-year old became one of the richest men in Hong Kong ($)

• A thought-provoking essay about how Beijing has “cleaned up” the urban landscape and the impact that has had on small merchants

• A Taiwanese chip CEO interviewed by Nikkei said “there will surely be a correction” in the chip industry ($)

• Taiwan’s foreign minister: “We need to prepare for military conflict with China”

• On SoftBank’s investment in an Indian start-up run by former CEO of Infosys ($)

Podcasts and videos

• Bloomberg: In China, the future of shopping is already happening (11 mins)

• Anne Stevenson-Yang on US-China relations and CCP’s centenary (8 mins)

• Hyun Song Shin at BIS on China’s central bank digital currency (47 mins)

• Francis Fukuyama on China’s perceived rise as a global superpower (41 mins)

• CSIS on China’s military strategy (29 mins)

• Asia Tech Strategy Podcast on Didi’s upcoming IPO (56 mins)

• Nassim Taleb explains why he is not a big fan of Bitcoin (18 mins)

• Another Marc Faber interview, this time on precious metals (44 mins)

Chart of the week – The number of billionaires in the United States vs China / Japan

If you want 20x high-quality Asian investment ideas per year, thematic reports and catalyst-specific ideas, try out the Asian Century Stocks subscription service - for the price of a few weekly cappuccinos. Check out my previous ideas here.

Get 30 day free trial

Thanks for reading, and I wish you a great week ahead!