Matt Sheehan | Semiconductors & Digital Sector Sub-Cultures

<p><strong>Topics Discussed and Key Points:</strong></p><p>●      The increasing simultaneous “closeness” and “friction” between California and China</p><p>●      What makes California special to China as opposed to other U.S. states?</p><p>●      Matt speaks on co-hosting the <em>Heartland Mainland: The Iowa China Podcast</em></p><p>●      Emerging tech trends in China</p><p>●      Eroding trust in Chinese tech platforms</p><p>●      Key takeaways on MacroPolo’s October 2020 report on what China will look like in 2025</p><p>●      How AI, blockchain, and other emerging technologies will transform Chinese society</p><p>●      How China is able to consistently stay on the cutting edge of AI</p><p>●      Why China has been incredibly malleable and willing to overhaul its society over time</p><p>●      What Silicon Valley thinks of Chinese tech</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Episode Summary:</strong></p><p>Today on The Negotiation, we speak with Matt Sheehan, Fellow, and Researcher at MacroPolo, the digital think tank of The Paulson Institute. MacroPolo covers politics, economics, technology, and energy in China. Matt’s portfolio features writings on technology in China and its interactions with the U.S. and the rest of the world. His subfield focuses on artificial intelligence, a topic to which he has dedicated 90% of the last three years of his work.</p><p>In 2016, Matt wrote <em>The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for our Future</em>. His thesis for the book is that “California is Ground Zero for a new era and a new type of U.S.-China relationship.”</p><p>Matt notes that the relationship between the U.S. and China back in 2010 was characteristically more distant and “trade-based”. Around 2018, that relationship had become more “ground-level and face-to-face” as a result of the opportunities generated via the gradual influx of Chinese students, investors, immigrants, and homebuyers over the years. Matt’s book goes into how California (i.e. Silicon Valley a