What is you favourite country in the world?

[ggmopa]

Far from it. Intermediate level at best (HSK3/4, maybe roughly B2 CEFR equivalent), I can deal with most day to day situations without trouble. Characters are a pain, but I know enough basics. My wife's Mandarin is far far better, she did a dual masters degree in English and Chinese linguistics, worked there handling contract negotiations with clothing factories and foreign companies.

Given your above stance, you'll probably love this news I just heard - 'Districts in Shenzhen and Wuxi have proposed incentives — including free housing, rent-free offices, and subsidies of up to $720,000 — to attract startups and developers building on OpenClaw.'

 

[RiskyStuff]

Given your above stance, you'll probably love this news I just heard - 'Districts in Shenzhen and Wuxi have proposed incentives — including free housing, rent-free offices, and subsidies of up to $720,000 — to attract startups and developers building on OpenClaw.'

What can you build with OpenClaw though? Social media bots? Is that what China wants to invest in?!

 

[SilverClouds]

Given your above stance, you'll probably love this news I just heard - 'Districts in Shenzhen and Wuxi have proposed incentives — including free housing, rent-free offices, and subsidies of up to $720,000 — to attract startups and developers building on OpenClaw.'

How much does it cost to register a company in China? I read you have to register there first to apply

 

[GoldenGlovez]

How much does it cost to register a company in China? I read you have to register there first to apply

It's been a few years since I've spoken to my old accountant out there, so I'm sure it's changed. As a foreigner you either need a Chinese national partner or register a WFOE (Wholly-foreign owned enterprise). The WFOE route can be quite "expensive" depending on the industry, the paper, legal, and leg work aren't terrible but you need capital, e.g if you wanted to own a restaurant or bar without a local partner it was ~100k USD capital. Capital requirements range greatly though.. from 10k to 1M+ depending what you're doing.

A common approach for many foreign companies and what I did was register a company in HK, then open a representative office in Mainland China. Far more streamlined process. You're limited to "marketing activities" e.g market research, meeting clients/factories, etc.. while the invoicing is handled by your parent HK company. I would highly doubt such a structure would be eligible for any grant/subsidy benefits like the program mentioned above though.

 

[SilverClouds]

It's been a few years since I've spoken to my old accountant out there, so I'm sure it's changed. As a foreigner you either need a Chinese national partner or register a WFOE (Wholly-foreign owned enterprise). The WFOE route can be quite "expensive" depending on the industry, the paper, legal, and leg work aren't terrible but you need capital, e.g if you wanted to own a restaurant or bar without a local partner it was ~100k USD capital. Capital requirements range greatly though.. from 10k to 1M+ depending what you're doing.

A common approach for many foreign companies and what I did was register a company in HK, then open a representative office in Mainland China. Far more streamlined process. You're limited to "marketing activities" e.g market research, meeting clients/factories, etc.. while the invoicing is handled by your parent HK company. I would highly doubt such a structure would be eligible for any grant/subsidy benefits like the program mentioned above though.

Oh interesting, thanks! Yeah, I've been looking into opening HK company before so I have a general idea, HK companies are quite cost-effective in comparison to Singapore for example and generally I like that it has sligthly looser rules, etc... Still seriously considering Hong Kong as a jurisdiction. Yeah, I don't think that would qualify for a grant, would it? A moment ago I did check some vid on how to register directly in China without agency's (costly) help but on the video it seems you need chinese ID to register .

 

[GoldenGlovez]

Oh interesting, thanks! Yeah, I've been looking into opening HK company before so I have a general idea, HK companies are quite cost-effective in comparison to Singapore for example and generally I like that it has sligthly looser rules, etc... Still seriously considering Hong Kong as a jurisdiction. Yeah, I don't think that would qualify for a grant, would it? A moment ago I did check some vid on how to register directly in China without agency's (costly) help but on the video it seems you need chinese ID to register .

Just a heads up... opening a company in HK is the easy part, getting a bank account to operate there could be borderline impossible, and you'll need to be on the ground applying to the banks in person. I opened my company there ~15 years ago and it was already brutally difficult to get an account. I had a great standing HSBC Premier account for years, fully auditable finances and expenses, gave them everything they asked for and still they rejected my application for the business account. Decades of Hong Kong being used as a tax haven has put a lot of pressure and regulation on the banks there to not bother with anybody but very large players. You'll be trying your luck with smaller lesser known banks willing to go out on a limb for you, but you need to be prepared to already show years of existing income, capital/angel investments, grants/patents, etc that makes it worth their time.

 

[demonic_man]

I think Switzerland for some good views from the ballcony and while being a guy intersted in tech, I would love Japan and China also

 

[ggmopa]

What can you build with OpenClaw though? Social media bots? Is that what China wants to invest in?!

Automation, Software engineering, everything really. There is going to be like an AI bot epidemic across the internet. Everyone and their grandma will be their own software engineering expert. Securing them at this time is a massive weak point. Hence the need for experts. But we will see plenty of no-code Agentic AI solutions soon I think.

The real space to watch is Hardware and Natural Resources. Ruthenium prices already went through the roof yesterday as a result of all this. We will need a mindblowing amount of processing power to power the coming AI bot age. If the claim about silicon valley wanting Greenland to power this new Age of AI bots, I think they might turn their attention to it once again, once they are are done with whatever 4D Chess game is going on in the Middle East right now that i'm not even goong to pretend I understand

 

[SilverClouds]

Just a heads up... opening a company in HK is the easy part, getting a bank account to operate there could be borderline impossible, and you'll need to be on the ground applying to the banks in person.

Like everywhere... It's fuckin impossible to open bank account anywhere unless you're already rich and get kyc 50 times in a row