Jonathan Krane knows China. In fact, the world's most populous country - and second largest economy - has been the focus of his career for more than 15 years now. In the early 2000s he picked up and moved to the Chinese mainland, starting a successful media company. His company was well positioned to cover the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Shortly thereafter, he sold his company to a large multi-national corporation and returned to the U.S., a firm believer that China was the economic growth story of the coming decades. In 2010 he founded KraneShares, the only U.S.-based ETF issuer to focus exclusively on Chinese capital markets. According to Krane, "China should now be viewed as its own asset class, much in the same way Japan started to be viewed [by U.S. investors] in the late eighties." Since its founding, KraneShares has gathered nearly $2.6B in AUM, led by the $1.5B KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB), up nearly 16% YTD.
Topics covered
6:40 - Before KraneShares: Jonathan Krane’s background living and building a business in China 9:20 - The bullish case for China 11:20 - A look at China’s economic prospects in light of current demographic trends 15:00 - The new focus on clean air and clean tech 16:50 - Is China having enough children to grow the economy? AI and robotics to the rescue 19:30 - Resolving the ongoing China-U.S. trade war is a global issue 23:30 - Who has more to lose from a prolonged trade war? Who can withstand a protracted trade war better? 25:40 - Which segments of the Chinese economy are best equipped to side-step the ramifications of a drawn out trade war? (KWEB) (BABA) 29:30 - Which parts of the Chinese economy are most susceptible to the trade war? 31:30 - Has there been a meaningful Chinese consumer backlash towards U.S. goods as a result of the trade war? 33:05 - The opening up of China’s A-shares markets to global capital (KBA) 36:55 - Portfolio allocations: China as its own asset class (KEMX)