Joe Horn-Phathanothai Featured in Longtunman’s “Insights on New China Economy” Series

About the Episode

The episode opens with a question we think about constantly in our own work: is China’s current slowdown a sign of decline, or the beginning of one of the most significant transformations the country has undergone in decades? To explore this, the series travels through eight major Chinese cities, tracing how the country has repeatedly used periods of external and internal pressure — from war and economic crises to today’s geopolitical friction — as catalysts for reinvention rather than retreat.

Among the themes explored in the episode — drawing on insights from Joe and the other guests interviewed — are:

• The costly lessons that reshaped China’s development path
• How China has continually rewritten its own economic playbook
• The country’s rise as the world’s manufacturing base, and the “Made in China” strategy that followed
• China’s deliberate, long-term approach to technology development
• A case study on Midea’s evolution from home appliances into robotics
• The winding down of China’s era of cheap, low-cost manufacturing
• Where we see new investment opportunities emerging in a China that looks very different from the one investors are used to