Fernando de Góngora

Reliance Partners Advisory. 顺其自然 let Nature take its course. Cross-cultural management. #politics #business all things #China

[Roger Federer @rogerfederer]

Vamos, @RafaelNadal!

As you get ready to graduate from tennis, I’ve got a few things to share before I maybe get emotional.

Let’s start with the obvious: you beat me—a lot. More than I managed to beat you. You challenged me in ways no one else could. On clay, it felt like I was stepping into your backyard, and you made me work harder than I ever thought I could just to hold my ground. You made me reimagine my game—even going so far as to change the size of my racquet head, hoping for any edge.

I’m not a very superstitious person, but you took it to the next level. Your whole process. All those rituals. Assembling your water bottles like toy soldiers in formation, fixing your hair, adjusting your underwear... All of it with the highest intensity. Secretly, I kind of loved the whole thing. Because it was so unique—it was so you.

And you know what, Rafa, you made me enjoy the game even more. 

OK, maybe not at first. After the 2004 Australian Open, I achieved the #1 ranking for the first time. I thought I was on top of the world. And I was—until two months later, when you walked on the court in Miami in your red sleeveless shirt, showing off those biceps, and you beat me convincingly. All that buzz I’d been hearing about you—about this amazing young player from Mallorca, a generational talent, probably going to win a major someday—it wasn’t just hype.

We were both at the start of our journey and it’s one we ended up taking together. Twenty years later, Rafa, I have to say: What an incredible run you’ve had. Including 14 French Opens—historic! You made Spain proud... you made the whole tennis world proud.

I keep thinking about the memories we’ve shared. Promoting the sport together. Playing that match on half-grass, half-clay. Breaking the all-time attendance record by playing in front of more than 50,000 fans in Cape Town, South Africa. Always cracking each other up. Wearing each other out on the court and then, sometimes, almost literally having to hold each other up during trophy ceremonies.

I’m still grateful you invited me to Mallorca to help launch the Rafa Nadal Academy in 2016. Actually, I kind of invited myself. I knew you were too polite to insist on me being there, but I didn’t want to miss it. You have always been a role model for kids around the world, and Mirka and I are so glad that our children have all trained at your academies. They had a blast and learned so much—like thousands of other young players. Although I always worried my kids would come home playing tennis as lefties.

And then there was London—the Laver Cup in 2022. My final match. It meant everything to me that you were there by my side—not as my rival but as my doubles partner. Sharing the court with you that night, and sharing those tears, will forever be one of the most special moments of my career.

Rafa, I know you’re focused on the last stretch of your epic career. We will talk when it’s done. For now, I just want to congratulate your family and team, who all played a massive role in your success. And I want you to know that your old friend is always cheering for you, and will be cheering just as loud for everything you do next.

Rafa that!

Best always, your fan, 

Roger

[Michael Dunne @dunne_insights]

When it comes to electric vehicle and plug-in markets, China is not just bigger than the next guy...

...China is bigger than everyone else on the planet combined.

There's more: China will continue to be the runaway leader in production and supply of EVs to global markets for years to come.

Great chart tells the story. H/T @BloombergNEF

[Fernando de Góngora @FdeGongora]

Vídeo | El rompecabezas del litio: el mineral del futuro que nadie sabe aprovechar https://t.co/zIjEeM1tAt

[Fernando de Góngora @FdeGongora]

Beijing’s new world order via @FT
⁦@TorrasLuis⁩ https://t.co/SurLancLzj

[Fernando de Góngora @FdeGongora]

La guerra comercial entre China y EEUU sube de tono y entra en una fase más agresiva

https://t.co/Bsd7TCj3Re

[Hua Chunying 华春莹 @SpokespersonCHN]

President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron jointly attended the Closing Ceremony of the Sixth Meeting of the China-France Business Council.

[Fernando de Góngora @FdeGongora]

El primer coche eléctrico de Xiaomi confirma los peores temores de Elon Musk https://t.co/Q7M6y092Bp

[Roger Casals @RogerCasals]

Amén:

[Fernando de Góngora @FdeGongora]

Mercedes-Benz boss urges Brussels to cut tariffs on Chinese EVs via @FT
https://t.co/4oUgiK8Fva

[Fernando de Góngora @FdeGongora]

La complicada autonomía estratégica

https://t.co/TwFuJ6bp8p

[Fernando de Góngora @FdeGongora]

China convierte un desierto en una central eléctrica con la mitad de potencia de toda Europa

https://t.co/aAdDWD4J3T

[Michael Dunne @dunne_insights]

China's battery and car makers have united as part of a government-led drive to commercialize all solid-state batteries.

https://t.co/96kRfkyWSr via @NikkeiAsia

[Fernando de Góngora @FdeGongora]

Are Chinese stocks a value trade or a value trap? via @FT
⁦@TorrasLuis⁩ https://t.co/e5qrUYLZzR

[Fernando de Góngora @FdeGongora]

China's auto exports hit record high in 2023 https://t.co/0fueM5Nudi

[Fernando de Góngora @FdeGongora]

China apabulla a Europa y concentra ya el 41% de las exportaciones de coches eléctricos
- https://t.co/ZiirP3CIY6

[Charlie Munger Fans @CharlieMunger00]

MUST READ 🙏

Remembering my teacher Charlie Munger - By Li Lu

Thursday, November 30, 2023

I was on a business trip in Asia on Tuesday when I got the call from the Munger family informing me that Charlie was in his final hours. I hopped onto the next flight I could find to California, and before departure, was able to talk to Charlie through the help of his daughter. Charlie had largely lost consciousness, but still I could clearly hear him trying to make a sound to acknowledge he had heard me. Upon landing, I learned that Charlie had left us a few hours earlier.

I arrived at his Santa Barbara home and had the opportunity to spend cherished time with family members, reminiscing about all things Charlie. Charlie was engaging, humorous and full of wit even at Thanksgiving dinner just a few days ago, family members told me. I visited his home library again. In that very room, exactly 20 years ago, also on a post-Thanksgiving weekend afternoon, following the introduction by our mutual friend Ron Olson, Charlie and I first struck up a deep conversation which ran for several hours. It began an investment partnership that has now endured two decades. Charlie became my mentor, partner, dear friend and above all, life-long role model.

I was so deeply grateful that the Munger family made a special arrangement the next day for me to say a proper and private goodbye to Charlie.

There, lying quietly with eyes closed, Charlie looked the same as ever, peaceful and sincere with a subtle smile on his face. There was a serenity about him. For a moment, I was reminded of the Living Buddhas I once saw in the Buddhist temples of Thailand. In the Buddhist tradition, the bodies of truly enlightened monks, through life-long self-cultivation, can remain incorrupt, without any traces of mummification after death. In that moment, it is what I saw in Charlie, an enlightened sage with an incorruptible body, surrounded by a glimmer of eternal light.

Charlie was not a Buddhist. That vision can never be tested. But it is incontrovertible that his legacy and impact will live on for generations to come.

In our capitalist society, where do virtue, moral responsibility, truth-seeking and public service fit in? Charlie Munger answered these questions through his long exemplary life. He insisted on making money in the most morally sound way, entering transactions only when, if positions were reversed, he would comfortably take the other side. He sought worldly wisdom through life-long learning. He guided life with rationality devoid of mental deficiencies such as envy, resentment and self-pity. He faced and persevered through countless adversities with stoicism and equanimity. As he gained in wealth and stature, he showed little appetite for the trappings of that success, and instead spent his wealth on worthy causes and tirelessly spread his worldly wisdom to those who would listen, often with humor. He remained deeply engaged with family, friends, partners and the broader world with loving assiduousness through his last days.

In his later decades, Charlie Munger’s ideas began to spread across the world, particularly in the most populous countries of China and India. In China, the Mandarin language version of “Poor Charlie’s Almanack,” an anthology by and about Charlie Munger, sold over 1.2 million copies over the last 10 years. There, the educated class increasingly came to view Charlie as the embodiment of the modern-day Confucianism, maintaining a virtuous and enlightened life while embracing the market forces of capitalism. In time, that vision of modern Confucianism will be crucial for Chinese modernization and how China interacts with the rest of the world.

Charlie’s teachings will continue to spread, inspire and impact the world even more profoundly. That will be his eternal legacy.

Please retweet

[Bloomberg New Economy @BBGNewEconomy]

"A stable and sounds China-US relationship is the common expectation of people...we are ready to strengthen communication and dialogue with the United States at all levels,"

VP of the People's Republic of China HE Han Zheng #NewEconomyForum

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Another masterful interview on Gaza of Dominique De Villepin, former Prime Minister of France, who IMHO is the best diplomat the West has produced in decades.

Again I believe that his words are so important and so rare among Western leaders today, that I decided to translate it in full (the bold parts are emphasis Villepin himself made when speaking):

"The Israeli government, Benjamin Netanyahu, failed on October 7th and failed doubly. Firstly, in its ability to ensure the protection of the Israeli people by allowing massacres that are an abomination to occur. He bears direct responsibility for what happened. And his second failure is having encouraged a policy of occupation and colonization, which continues at this moment in the West Bank and constitutes another threat to Israel if a second front in the West Bank were to open.

Force does not ensure the security of a people! This is what all Israelis must understand today. And what is important is that since October 7th, the Israeli government's choice has been to escalate the use of force. You know, neither force nor vengeance ensures peace and security. What ensures peace and security is justice! And justice is not being served today.

The rationale of the Israeli government for the bombings happening today is flawed, and the whole international community can see it. The principle is: "we target terrorists, and unfortunately, there are also civilian populations," what is euphemistically called in military language "collateral damage." It must be understood that this collateral damage is not accidental. That is to say, it is perfectly predictable and fully accepted.

[Host: "But once again, the responsibility is not solely Israeli."]

But once more, let's stop asking about responsibility; let's look at the reality of what's happening on the ground! Assigning fault, allow me to tell you, we will leave to historians. What we want is to stop this violence, to stop these massacres. Israel is putting itself in danger, even more today, with this type of warfare and these types of strikes.

We are essentially dealing with a policy of vengeance from the Netanyahu government. Israel has the right to self-defense, but self-defense does not give an indiscriminate right to kill civilian populations. When you target an ambulance, you can always imagine that there was a terrorist in one of the ambulances, or not. But the result is that there are children, women who die. Every child, every woman killed, that's more terrorists. Therefore, Israel's objective, what Israel achieves, is exactly the opposite of what they wish. So, it is essential today to change this logic and return to a strategy that is sound.

Hostages, everything must be done to secure their release. But let's not forget: the Palestinian people are also taken hostage, by Hamas and by Israel. And Hamas, we all know, cares little for the Palestinian people. So telling Hamas: "we will not lift the siege, we will not have a humanitarian truce until the hostages are released," is a dialogue of the deaf.

Benjamin Netanyahu is waging a war to do everything so that the political solution does not come to the table. And this is where the international community, Europe, the United States, must tell Benjamin Netanyahu that this war is not acceptable. It is not acceptable because it leads us directly [to escalation] - because we can see it well, from Hamas we will move to Iran, from Iran we will move to other targets, and we then enter into the logic of a clash of civilizations. When Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu says that on one side there is the people of light and on the other the people of darkness, we can see the kind of spiral we are getting into.

All the wars that have been going on for the past twenty years are wars that begin and do not end. These are frozen conflicts. We know how to start a war; we do not know how to end it. And Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu could control Gaza, it would change nothing. There will continue to be terrorist attacks, Israelis will continue to live in fear. We must get out of this. The second reason why this is yesterday's war is that the war against terrorism has never been won anywhere. Force is not the answer, once again. Vengeance is not the answer. The answer is justice, and that is what all the peoples of the world, all those who today watch what is happening, call for justice.

Today the direction we must follow is to prevent Benjamin Netanyahu from continuing his suicidal logic that will make Israel a besieged state. They can besiege Gaza, but they will be besieged. And do not think that tomorrow we will again have a pacified discourse with Saudi Arabia, with the Arab states that will normalize the situation: no! The wounds of history are awakening.

Israel's interest is to have a responsible state at its side. And this responsible state, let's stop splitting hairs, must clearly be the West Bank, all of the West Bank. It must be Gaza, with access between the two territories, and East Jerusalem. The problem, and this is the whole point of Benjamin Netanyahu's escalation, is that Benjamin Netanyahu does not want it. And the policy of separation must be dignified. That is, it must confer to the Palestinians a state where they can live, a viable state, a true state, which can build itself and which will be all the more at peace...

[Host: "Does that mean that the settlements in the West Bank have to be removed?"]

Well, when we left Algeria, there were a million French who left Algeria. Today there are 500,000 Israelis colonizing the West Bank, and there are 200,000 in East Jerusalem.

[Host: "They must leave the West Bank?"]

Yes. Yes, that is history, that is responsibility, that is the price! I tell you solemnly, it is the price of security for Israel! And all those who today consider that it will never be enough are pursuing the worst policy."

Credit to @caissesdegreve who took these extracts from the original interview which can be found here: https://t.co/hRuGw6CbuA

[Centro de Estudios de Asia Oriental (CEAO) @ceao_uam]

La profesora Taciana Fisac, directora del CEAO y especialista en literatura china, publica la obra "Claves de la gramática china" (Edicions Bellaterra, 2023). Una propuesta que promete cambiar el paradigma de la enseñanza de este idioma en nuestro país.
https://t.co/vw8Ij9qvbF

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb @nntaleb]

I kept looking for living people who understood the dynamics of this conflict & found NONE as clear-minded as Villepin, former French PM & mostly chief diplomat.
I thought no living politician had the clairvoyance of Gaulle & Peyrefitte. I was wrong.