Kuaishou, a popular Chinese short video platform, seems a world away from geopolitics. It shows items such as a grandmother singing Hey Jude with her Chihuahua, migrant workers dancing at construction sites and farmers making pork dumplings.
But the company’s initial public offering in Hong Kong this week — which is set to be the world’s largest since the start of the coronavirus pandemic — reveals a basic truth about the US’s strategic rivalry with China: when it comes to making money, there is much more that attracts than repels.
US institutional investors, including Fidelity and BlackRock, feature prominently among investors in Kuaishou’s IPO, which is expected to raise up to $6.3bn. Their interest is just one of many indications that former US president Donald Trump’s exhortation for “a complete decoupling from China” is falling short.