The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway - China Decode: Trump Promised to Be Tough on China. Xi Outplayed Him.

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

Trump leaves Beijing claiming “fantastic” progress with Xi Jinping — but did the summit actually deliver meaningful results? Alice Han and James Kynge break down the biggest takeaways from the high-stakes Trump-Xi meeting, from the economic promises and simmering Taiwan tensions to the surprising role top CEOs like Elon Musk and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang played throughout the trip. They discuss the real winners and losers of the summit, what companies like Apple, Tesla, Nvidia, and Boeing stand to gain, and whether any of the promised deals will actually materialize. They also unpack China’s warning on Taiwan, the broader geopolitical stakes surrounding Iran and global energy markets, and the symbolism behind Trump’s visit to the Temple of Heaven. Plus, they examine China’s growing influence at Cannes, where AI, robotics, and film technology showcased the country’s expanding soft power ambitions. Subscribe to China Decode on Substack for weekly analysis, livestreams, and deep dives into the biggest story shaping the global economy: chinadecode.profgmedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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New episode Sundays wherever you get your podcasts. For years, if you ran a media company, you obsessed about Google. Because Google could send a fire hose of traffic your way. But now things are. changing fast. So last year, I told all of our teams, you need to plan your businesses around there being no search. And if you don't have a plan for that, you may not have a business. I think it was very effective. That's Roger Lynch, the CEO of Condé Nast, the home of fabled magazines like

The New Yorker and Vogue. And if you want to hear how Lynch is thinking about Google and AI companies and who's going to replace his most famous editors, good news. You can hear all of that on channels with Peter Kafka. That's out now everywhere. For the first time ever, the Chinese leader had the upper hand in this summit. And the potentially game-changing outcome was that the US and China are now trying to work together to put into place what China calls a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability. Welcome to China Decode. I'm Alice Han. And I'm James King. In today's episode of China Decode, we're discussing. the post-game analysis of the Trump-She summit, would Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia stand again

after the trip, and the infusion of technology and creativity that Chinese companies are bringing to this year's GAN film festival in France. That's all coming up, but first, let's do a quick check-in with how the Chinese markets are starting the week. On Monday, the Shanghai Composite Index ticked up 0.2 percent, standout stocks including Nara technology, a semiconductor, equipment firm up 4.9% and Huagong tech up 10% with positive signals through the AI and semiconductor sectors. The Shenzhen component rose 0.3%. Retail sales sharply eased to 0.2% year-on-year growth in April, marking the weakest growth since December 2022. Industrial output also slowed to 4.1% year-on-year, the softest pace since July 23. All right, let's get into it. We're still

decompressing from last week's big summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, both leaders left the event after trading praise and touting massive progress in stabilizing what they agreed is the world's most important bilateral relationship. Trump hailed fantastic trade deals and said a lot of different problems, quote unquote, were settled, although no major agreements or breakthroughs were announced before he departed Beijing. Taiwan and Iran loomed large over the talks, but much of the trip seems centered around economic and business-related progress between the two nations. James, we have been talking about this at length. We had a Sub-Sach Live video about this as well. How do you perceive the summit? What are the main takeaways? And what do you think we should expect after this main summit?

Yeah, I find myself slightly at odds with, I think, conventional wisdom on this. a lot of the news reporting has called this, things like the stalemate summit, others have called a nothing burger, but I think those are very much missing the mark. To me, this summit was important. There was one what I would call historic aspect, and there was one potentially game-changing outcome. I think the historic aspect was that, from my perspective, for the first time ever, the Chinese leader had the upper hand in this summit. And the potentially game-changing outcome was that the US and China are now trying to work together

to put into place what China calls a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability. I know that's a bit of a mouthful, but to me, that means they're trying to climb down from a situation in which China and the US are constantly adversarial. in their relationship and moving towards a much more stable relationship. And I think one of the pointers towards this is that Trump invited Xi Jinping to visit the US in September this year, and Xi Jinping has agreed to go. So there's a measure of continuity there. I think quite a lot of

people will be wondering whether or not this really was a historic summit. And in the sense that I reckon China had the upper hand. I think you can see that from the fact that Trump was trying to be as friendly as possible. He said to Xi Jinping, you are a great leader. He said, it's an honor to be with you. It's an honor to be your friend. The relationship between China and the U.S. is going to be better than ever before. And I think one piece of essential background has changed a lot in the way these two countries see each other, and that is China's enduring chokehold over rare earth and critical minerals supplies. These rare earths and these critical minerals are essential to make US weapons. The Pentagon needs them. U.S. arms manufacturers need them, and so do all the big U.S. tech

companies, many of which were on the plane with Trump. The other thing is, of course, that the U.S. needs China to some extent to help resolve the war in Iran. We don't know whether China will play ball in that regard, but it seems clear that Washington thinks it might need China. So that's why I come to the conclusion that this was the first U.S. China summit ever where China appeared to have the upper hand. The second point about stability, I guess we can discuss, Alice. But how did you see it? I mean, how did you see the interplay? Did you think it was important? Or did you think it was a nothing burger, as some people say?

Well, just very, very quickly, I've been watching all the videos in terms of their interaction. And I think President Sheen knew how to play that relationship very, very well. He was speaking to the right audience when in his banquet speech, the state banquet speech over dinner, he said that the great rejuvenation of the nation, which is a big slogan of his, can go hand in hand with. make America great again. And I thought it was very smart and apt of him to link these two narratives that these countries have about their greatness together to say that effectively he and Trump are singing from the same choir sheet. And effectively, I think it is reviving this G2 relationship that China wants to see in the global stage. But to bring it slightly away from the personal, I want to sort of talk a little bit about what has happened in the last few days.

since the summit, since Trump has left. And it's always very helpful to compare notes in terms of the two sides of readouts, Washington versus Beijing. Washington's White House readout made it very clear that China had agreed to a number of things, which still the Chinese haven't confirmed. So just to run through them very, very quickly, the Chinese, according to the White House, have agreed to purchase 200 Boeing aircraft. Now, there's slightly down from the 500 that is what is originally speculated. China has also agreed, according to the White House to purchase at least $17 billion per year in ag products in 26, 2027 and 28.

And that's on top of the soybean deal that agreed to late last October. And China is going to renew the expired licenses for the 400 or so US beef facilities. They're going to work with regulators to import more American beef and similarly American poultry and that the Chinese will help the U.S. address its concerns with regards to critical minerals and rare earth supply shortages. So some of these rare earths like scandium, neodymium, which do have relevance for defense-related applications. From the Chinese side, and I think this is interesting, there is an acknowledgement of the U.S. purchases, the purchases of U.S. Boeing aircraft. There is an in terms of a resumption of some level of beef imports, as well as ag imports,

but no specification as to the size and the scale. And then I thought this was interesting. The Chinese readout suggested that the two sides had agreed that they would expand two-way trade, including in agricultural products, and that they would cut tariffs in mutually sensitive areas. It suggests to me, as is often the case, that the two sides have very different interpretations or takeaways from the meeting. The American side is very keen to help American business, in particular American ag, American aviation company in the form of Boeing, and to help

plug the holes in the supply chains when it comes to critical minerals. On the Chinese side, I feel is that they're more interested in the two boards, the Board of Investment and Board of Trade, and renewing and expanding those two dialogues in terms of, A, reduced, tariffs, which obviously didn't come out of the summit, and B, expanding the opportunity set for Chinese companies to set up a shop and invest in American manufacturing. What is also interesting is what is missing from the two readouts. So there's no discussion about chip export bans being wound down, and similarly no discussion about the tariff levels, right? So that's what's happened in the last few days. Keen to get your take on it. But I think we can, at least from my vantage

point, Trump got some of the business deals that he wanted, the Chinese got further cemetery and an expansion of discussion around some of the more strategic areas like tariffs, like investment, and maybe in the future chips. I completely agree, Alice. I think, you know, after these summits, it's always really rewarding to look at the contrast of the two communiques. And these two communiques contrasts quite a bit, as you've. just mentioned. I think the key contrast is something that you've already mentioned a little bit,

and that is the rare earths. The Chinese did not mention rare earths or critical minerals at all, and yet the US put this pretty much at the top of one of the leading sections in the White House fact sheet. This to me means that, first of all, as we mentioned, the US really wants these rare earths. They are essential for the production of American weapons. But it also means, I think, that the Chinese are holding back. They are, I'm not saying the Chinese will not supply these rare earths, but they're going to use them as leverage. They're going to use them as bargaining chips to ensure that the US does more on China's big ask, which Xi Jinping was very clear about right at the beginning of the summit, and that is Taiwan. Exactly what China wants from the US on

we don't really know, but if past is prologue, then certainly China will be hoping that the US either reduce sharply or scrap or postpone some of the big US arms sales to Taiwan, or maybe in the future the US works towards coming up with a form of words that more closely reflects China's view of its disagreements with Taiwan, particularly on the issue of sovereignty. So I think that China is using the rare earth chokehold to try to, you know, put pressure on the US to get something on its most important topic. Now, on the issue, as you've mentioned, on the trade and investment councils, I do think that this is quite key. As I said at the top, there is this Chinese phrase of putting the relationship onto a new footing, that of a constructive relationship of strategic stability. And I think these two councils, as China called them,

or as the US is calling them, the US China Board of Trade and the US China Board of Investment, I think these are crucial to this initiative of trying to reduce some of the differences, reduce some of the tension that we see between the US and China on trade and investment issues. and some people are poo-pooing this. Some people are saying, this is not important. It's just a form of words. There's no sincerity behind it. I completely disagree.

I think this is important, and I think both sides want to do this because both sides need something from the other. In the case of the US, it's rare earth to make weapons, and in the case of China, it's some movement from the US on Taiwan, aside from other issues, of course. So I think that there is impetus for the two to try to work together to reduce their differences. Really interesting. And just to add one final word on some of these geopolitical issues, Taiwan and Iran, there wasn't, apart from the Chinese statement about their red line when it comes to Taiwan,

there wasn't any major readout about the Taiwan issue. Similarly, there has been no indication as of yet as to whether or not Trump and the American administration will go ahead with the $11 billion. arms sales agreed to last December to Taiwan. And similarly on the Iran issue, we heard a China that was very mum and reluctant to say anything about Iran. But the U.S. was keen to document the fact that China and the U.S. agree that peace in the Middle East and a resolution to the Strait of Hormuz is in each other's best interests. But I come away from the summit feeling like a nothing burger on the geopolitical issues, right? Yeah, I think on Iran, it was the dog that didn't bark. The U.S. was pretty clear. Trump even said in front of Xi Jinping, in televised remarks, that the U.S. was determined that Iran would not develop a nuclear weapon. The Chinese side was completely silent about that, both in that meeting between C and Trump, but also in the following statements after the summit. So I think we can take that as a point of disagreement, or at least,

China is not willing to say anything about Iran and nuclear weapons at this point. So it doesn't sound to me like there was a great meeting of minds on Iran. It could also be the case that China is holding this in reserve to use it again as leverage in the future. Yeah, so it seems like they've agreed to disagree, but put those two issues in the back burner. If you missed it, we did our first substack live stream last week, breaking down all things Trump Xi Summit, joined by Kevin Shrew, author of The Interstate, connected Substack. To check out all the insights on the meeting, robotics, Taiwan, and more, watch the replay on

Substack now. And we're going to be doing more of these exclusive live streams for our subscribers. So make sure you get signed up to ProfG Plus at chinatode.progmedia.com. We'll be back with more on the CEO presence at the summit after a quick break. Stay with us. Support for the show comes from LinkedIn. If you're a small business owner, you don't need me to tell you how much hiring great people matters. But the time and resources you have to spend to get it right are precious commodities.

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That's ProtonvPN.com slash Prop G. Complex and unprecedented, the Spanish authorities are calling it. Before the disembarko, asymptomatic. Passengers who'd been stuck aboard the Hanta or maybe Hanta virus-stricken Dutch cruise ship disembarked in the Canary Islands this weekend, prompting the highest stakes game of where are they now since maybe COVID. Some of the evacuees, American and French, have since tested positive for the virus. And yet public health officials seem remarkably calm.

We do have one individual who was taken to the biocontainment unit early, early this morning. And we assessed that individual. they are doing well. Possibly because this is not the one to freak out over. Today, explain drops every weekday afternoon. Welcome back. We haven't touched much yet on the economic and commercial aspects of the Trump-She summit, but it was notable that over a dozen U.S. executives were part of the delegation to China,

including Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who both traveled with the U.S. president on Air Force One. The CEOs became a bit of the main story themselves. Here's Jensen Huang enjoying himself around town in Beijing after the official meeting concluded. James, I actually have to say that I've been doom scrolling a lot of the videos of Jensen Huang going on his little food-y journey throughout Beijing. He's eating a lot of things like Mi Shui Binteng, which is a type of, you know, bubbled iced tea.

He's also eating jatya mien, which is a type of Chinese noodle. and I see him eating some squid tentacles, having some fermented soybean milk. And what was actually interesting to me is to see just the level of affection that he has amongst everyday Chinese on the street. You can see that in the way they interact with him. And even in the way that the stores immediately after he's come, it was as if to bless each store, they have a photo of him or some new drink or some product that is named after him.

That, I think, suggests to me that Jensen Huang's charm offensive has worked out. He's probably been the most effective CEO in the delegation in terms of charming the Chinese. And some netizens have been commenting on the fact that he's been the hardest working of the delegation because he's been here the longest in doing his homework on China, which I thought was pretty apropos. But it speaks to, I think, a broader insight, which is that Jensen really needs to get the Chinese on board. They're the hold-up when it comes to the import of H-200s. The U.S. has just announced that 10 Chinese suppliers can get access to H-200s from NVIDIA, including Alibaba and Bight-Dance, Lenovo. But the real bottleneck is Beijing, right?

So I wanted to ask you a broader question as to who were the winners and losers, but in particular the winners that you think at the CEO delegation. And what does that say about American business interests in China? I really like your descriptions of Jensen Huang going around Beijing, eating all kinds of Chinese food. I think he looked like he was enjoying himself. And did you see that clip of him when he was walking around Shihai in central Beijing, which is a beautiful scenic lake area? I was there about a month and a half ago myself. And a Chinese reporter rushed up to him and said, how do you like China? And he said, I love China. I thought, I mean, it was just a one-liner, but it really said a lot to me.

he is the $5 trillion man. I'm talking, of course, about the Nvidia, well, market capitalization of Nvidia shares hovering around $5 trillion right now. So he is the U.S.'s biggest businessman, and he's actually, well, he runs the world's most valuable company. So it is a big barometer of U.S.-China relations as to what's happening with Nvidia chip sales to China. And I thought, you know, he came out with a phrase in an interview recently. He said, you know, Nvidia had a 90-some odd percent of the world's market share, but today in China we have dropped to zero. And this is obviously because of the US bands on

Nvidia selling advanced chips to China. You've just mentioned the fact that as we understand, it, about 10 Chinese companies have received U.S. Commerce Department authorization to buy NVIDIA's H-200 artificial intelligence chips. But so far, we haven't seen any shipments to China, and it's not clear whether or not the Chinese are allowing their companies to buy these chips. It's possible that China will hold out on this and just not allow Chinese companies to buy Nvidia chips, or maybe China's holding out for the even more advanced Blackwell chips, also made by Nvidia, holding out for them to be exported to China. So we just don't know the situation at the moment, but one thing is very clear, that is that Nvidia, the world's most valuable company is having a

really rough time trying to sell its advanced chips to China. And that's why Jensen Huang was on such a charm offensive. And as you've said, certainly an effective charm offensive when it comes to popular opinions of him in China, I would say. It seems to me vitally important for NVIDIA's prospects as a company as to whether or not it can actually start selling its advanced chips again to China. You say he's a five trillion man. And just to get a sense of how poor the Chinese market is, you know, by some estimates will have a $5 trillion market for robotics worldwide by 2030. China dominates well over half of all robotics is done by China. So if you just think about what that could mean for Nvidia,

I mean it could be at least another trillion dollar that he could add to his name if he can get the Chinese market. Because, you know, as we discussed previously, James, China is going all in on robotics. And there's a lot in terms of chip technology that Nvidia can bring to bear for that robotics rollout. Completely. So, you know, whatever time and effort Jensen Huang is spending on his charm offensive could be repaid massively, depending on what the Chinese government decides to do. I mean,

the important thing about this now is that I don't think the ball is in America's court. I think the ball is now in the court of the Chinese regulators, whether they allow Invidio chips to come in, because China in the meantime has had all kinds of workarounds. The main ones are Huawei's Ascend series of chips being put onto superclusters, these massive racks of 15,000 chips or half a million chips, or next year we're told a million chips to try to work around the need that China currently has for very advanced chips, such as the ones that Nvidia makes. So that's really something to watch.

You mentioned Elon Musk as well. again, you know, Elon Musk, obviously a massively powerful businessman in the US and, you know, with an extraordinary global stature. But in China, he needs China very much indeed. At the moment, he's seeking clearance from Chinese regulators to expand the adoption of Tesla's full self-driving assistance system. So that's one thing he needs. He's also hoping to buy, apparently, about 2.9 billion US dollars' worth of equipment for manufacturing solar panels from Chinese suppliers. So he needs China for that, too. You know, I thought it was interesting.

I'm sure you've seen the videos of Elon Musk and his young son going through. I think it was the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. That was kind of touching on his behalf. I guess that was a bit of a charm offensive too, would you say? Well, I'm not sure if Elon was intending that, be in chab offensive. I don't think he's as deliberate as Jensen Huang. But my funny observation was when he was at the state banquet and Le Jun, the CEO and founder of Xiaomi, you know, which is a major smartphone company, but now they're expanding into cars and elsewhere. He wanted to

take a selfie with Elon and Elon obviously wasn't keen. You can see that on his face. And then the other thing that I thought was really interesting was that the only woman sat at that table, which was the main table where the leaders were at was Zhou Quan Fei, who is the CEO and founder of Lens technology. And she was the only woman there. She's a powerhouse and really built this company from scratch. And they build the advanced screens that are used in all iPhones, tablets, but also in Tesla dashboards as well. So, you know, I thought that that was super interesting that she was there because remember it's not just these US CEOs are trying to sell into the Chinese market, they're also using China for production, right? So as we discussed previously, China's share

in global iPhone production is around 74%. That's still pretty significant. It means three out of every four on average iPhones are still made in China. And Tesla still requires a lot of Chinese manufacturing inputs. I saw and toured a place near Hong Kong, where they specialize in these advanced light but also durable tires that are used in Tesla's. And apparently Tesla in its newest models is unable to find anything comparable to this kind of special alloy wheel that is manufactured in Hangzhou. So, you know, I think that's worth mentioning is that for a lot of these CEOs, they don't just want to sell to the market. they also want to be able to ensure that they can still get access to Chinese inputs, intermediate inputs.

Yeah, I really like the way you've highlighted Jochun Faye. I think that is such an important example. It shows, first of all, you know, the supremacy of the Chinese supply chain, the fact that China can make pretty much anything of very high quality, cheaper and faster than anywhere else in the world. But also, I like the Jo Chow Chum Faye story because she, She built herself up from nothing. She started life as a migrant worker.

Working on the production line, she had almost no formal education. She was, when she was a worker, she studied at night, became self-taught, to teach herself enough technology to become, you know, in the technology industry as she is now.

I mean, it's amazing. She is really the embodiment of the American dream, as well as the Chinese dream, you know. She made it from nothing. And I think that's such an important example of what China's all about. Right at the other end of the spectrum, just to round it out, I was interested by Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs is a different case. I'd say in the case of Jensen Huang and Elon Musk, they both need a lot from China.

Goldman Sachs also needs a lot from China, but it's playing another charm offensive game. It recently issued a dim sum bond. These are China's offshore bonds. It's borrowed about 47 billion Raminbi in Raminbi debt so far in 2026. This is going to ingratiate it to the Chinese government quite a bit. And as far as we understand, Goldman needs access to the Chinese market. It wants access to the retail and institutional investors to manage their wealth and assets. And of course, given China's rise and its yearly GDP growth,

the number of investors are growing sharply. So Goldman has also got its eyes on the prize. It's trying to do the right thing by the Chinese government, do the right thing by the Chinese regulators so that it gets the approval it needs to appeal to more and more Chinese investors. Yeah. And probably on the other side of this, is Meadow, right? Meta tried to buy Manus, which was this eugenic AI platform originally domiciled in China, now domiciled in Singapore. But that has been cancelled effectively by the Chinese regulators because they do not approve the sale of a Chinese originated AI company to Silicon Valley. So I thought it was interesting that Mehta went anyway. Because I remember the heyday,

you know, over 10 years ago when Mark was going to China and he was very keen on the Chinese market. Since then, they've taken another attack, which is to see China as the enemy somewhat, especially the Chinese applications like bite dense. So I thought it was interesting that they were there, not clear to me what they were trying to do. Maybe they were trying to ingratiate themselves to the regulators again or try to improve their profile in mainland China. But I thought that that was super interesting. Okay, let's take one last quick break.

Stay with us. The Madamy Holmes bike for brain health supporting Baycrest returns on May 31 for its fifth anniversary with a new start and finish at the Aga Khan Museum. Join thousands of cyclists as we take over the DVP and Gardner Expressway in support of dementia research and brain health. Riders of all abilities are welcome and both regular bikes and e-bikes can participate. Bring your friends, family, or corporate team, and make an impact. Register today at bikeforbrainhealth.ca. This week on Criminal, a man leaves his girlfriend at the top of a mountain. He's charged with her death.

And then at the trial, his ex-girlfriend testifies that the same thing had happened to her too. She screamed, she felt dizzy, and at that moment she realized she was completely alone, Thomas apparently left her. On our other show, this is Love, a story of another couple on a mountain. There's no ledges, there's... You're trapped. I had confidence that there's no way this many things can go wrong in a row. You can listen to both episodes right now on Criminal and This Is Love, wherever you get your podcasts.

This week on Net Worth and Chill, I'm telling you my entrepreneurial origin story, how I went from working a 9 to 5 and making internet videos on the side to walking away from a $625,000 a year job to take your rich BFF full time. I'm breaking down exactly how I knew it was time to make the leap, how I set myself up financially so I wasn't just winging it, and what it actually takes to survive and thrive as your own boss. From cash flow to taxes to building multiple income streams, because let's be real, becoming an entrepreneur sounds amazing until you realize you have to figure out all of this yourself. I did, and now I'm giving you the blueprint. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube.com slash your rich BFF. Welcome back. We'll head now to France, another place where China is increasing its influence. This time at this year's Gann Film Festival, arguably the most prestigious film festival in the world. The China Pavilion is in its fifth year at GAN, and China Night was a gala evening hosted last week at the start of the festival, meant to celebrate Chinese cinema and culture.

The event featured previews of upcoming Chinese films, celebrations of the country's artistic traditions and perhaps most importantly, demonstrations of new technology that are changing how Chinese creators make content and how audiences absorb that content. It's coming at a time where you've got a lot of consternation and excitement about Chinese video platform AI capabilities. The FT just ran a piece that was super interesting looking at how the Chinese video AI models are far outpacing the American one. So C.D. dance and Happy Horse, for instance, are doing just better across a number of metrics than what you see out of Twitter or Google or even Facebook. And at the same time, there is a new TV show called

Pursuit of Jade, Zhuge, in Chinese, that was the first time in history that a Chinese TV show has reached the level of being in the top 10 of global non-English content on Netflix. I sense that After COVID, and we've had to wait a couple of years, we are going back to aspects of really, I feel like the early 2010s where there was a lot of global enthusiasm about Chinese culture, you know, in terms of film, in terms of music, in terms of art. And, you know, from COVID and then a couple of years after that, it was really, I would say, cloistered away. The West wasn't as interested in China wasn't as interested in.

in showing its culture, but I sense a big shift that's happening, whereby Chinese creators and the government supporting the creators, are super keen to show the richness of Chinese culture, be it from the traditional Chinese kung fu films to new animated films to AI-generated content. And at the same time, the rest of the world is more keen to see it, to appreciate it, and to share it. And this I think fits in with some of the previous discussions we've had about China-Maxing. a big Chinese film buff and what do you think about this turn towards China? Well, I am a Chinese film buff, but I have to say I'm a film buff of yesteryear, probably. I like the old Zhang Yimo films. I was delighted to see that Gong Li, who starred in many of those

Zhang Yombo films, opened the Cannes Film Festival this year, along with Jane Fonda. I mean, to me, that just showed how much China has arrived when it comes to global. box office and China's growing global influence in film. The interesting thing to me is the vibrancy of the ecosystem. So the film industry is apparently starting to rebound after the pandemic. And, you know, box office receipts are already exceeding $1.89 billion this May. This fits into what I think was once described to me as a B2 consumerism in China. But what I mean by B2 is sort of in China that's the basement.

so two levels down below the grand floor, and that's where you get your bubble tea and your cheap products, dollar stores and whatnot. And, you know, in a time in which people are more cost-conscious, going to the cinema can be relatively cheaper than, say, you know, traveling or going overseas. So I think people are going towards that kind of entertainment that is more affordable, and the government has been pushing it too.

So the government is apparently claiming initiatives like turning film sets into tourist destinations that will apparently, according to the government generate around $26 billion in revenue this year. The other thing that I thought was interesting at Gan was there was this lady Tina Ja, I believe, who's the head of Wingite, which produces AI-generated film content.

And she was saying that the Chinese AI film market could grow to around 15 billion US dollars. And we haven't gotten, to the minutia of this, but in China, they're advancing way beyond just film and TV shows. There's a lot of short-form content that basically people watch completely on the equivalent of TikTok, so Do Ying. And there's also now increasingly more AI-generated content, with China really pulling ahead because a place like TikTok can command and have a database of if so much more content, you know, video content than even Instagram does.

just because of its user base and the user-generated content scale. So I think it's an exciting time to be in film, you know, after a long hiatus. All right, James, you know what time it is. It is prediction time. As you peer into the future this week, what do you see? Okay, I'm sticking with the film topic. As I was researching for this piece on film, I thought, when are we going to see the highest grossing actor in the world as Chinese?

I'm going to stick my neck out, Alice, and say that within five years, we're going to see the highest grossing actor in the world will be Chinese. So what I'm really saying here is the Chinese film market, which is currently second biggest in the world, is going to become the biggest. And therefore, a Chinese actor is going to become the highest grossing actor. I know this isn't out there, an out there prediction. I'm really just trying to dramatize a trend, which I think is on its way. which is China's going to be the world's biggest film market.

Really interesting. All right. So mine is more germane to the summit. And I may have mentioned this previously, but even though a lot of people may disagree with me, I have a strong feeling that China's going to start to approve age 200s at some point in the coming months. I think that Jetsun Huang is playing his cards right politically.

He's getting a lot of support domestically from everyday Chinese people. You see that across social media, micro blogs. He's a popular guy in China. And I think I'm long, Jensen Huang. I think he knows how to play the game between the U.S. and China. And I think he's one of the last standing Chimericans that will benefit from both sides. So I'm, I'm team Jensen. I think the H-200s get approved by Beijing because also Beijing doesn't have enough capacity via Huawei and Smick to meet the demands of compute that AI will increasingly generate. Good, cool.

All right, that's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to China Decode. This is a production of ProfG Media. Make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcast so you don't miss an episode. Talk to you again next week.