IL42: Redefining Sovereignty in a Borderless Financial System ft. Zoe Liu
Top Traders Unplugged
Niels Kaastrup-Larsen
4.8 • 712 Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2025
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
China’s trade surplus with the US remains stubbornly large, but its appetite for Treasuries is fading. So where are the dollars going, and what does that say about the country’s evolving financial strategy? Kevin Coldiron welcomes back Dr. Zoe Liu for a nuanced look at how Beijing is managing external pressure, internal control, and the creeping disruption of dollar-backed stablecoins. Behind the headlines is a deeper story about surveillance, capital flight, and the boundaries of monetary sovereignty. As China builds shadow reserves and experiments with programmable money, the question isn’t just what it fears it’s what kind of system it’s trying to build instead.
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Episode TimeStamps:
02:11 - Introduction to Zoe Liu
04:15 - How U.S tariffs impact shipping costs and the deficit with China
17:27 - What is China actually doing with their earned dollars?
27:52 - Are FX entrusted loans reinforcing the dollar based trading system?
36:07 - What are stable coins and why are China worried about them?
42:31 - The second level of threat of stable coins
49:08 - How would a Hong Kong dollar backed stable coin look like?
54:37 - Are stable coins actually stable in Hong Kong or China?
Copyright © 2025 – CMC AG – All Rights Reserved
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Now they can basically connect your digital ID with official recognition |
| 0:11.0 | and with your banking activity almost instantaneously. |
| 0:15.0 | From a strengthening control perspective, that's pretty good. |
| 0:18.0 | But they are afraid of anonymous, freely moving |
| 0:22.2 | cryptocurrencies or stable coins. And more importantly, China doesn't issue dollar. Hence, |
| 0:27.9 | dollar backs a stable coin, freely moving in international system is going to be a threat |
| 0:33.7 | to the party, both domestically and internationally. |
| 0:39.6 | Imagine spending an hour with the world's greatest traders. |
| 0:43.6 | Imagine learning from their experiences, their successes, their failures. |
| 0:48.0 | Imagine no more. |
| 0:49.9 | Welcome to Top Traders Unplugged, the place where you can learn from the best hedge fund managers |
| 0:55.1 | in the world so you can take your manager, due diligence, or investment career to the next level. |
| 1:00.7 | Before we begin today's conversation, remember to keep two things in mind. |
| 1:04.7 | All the discussion we'll have about investment performance is about the past, |
| 1:08.1 | and past performance does not guarantee or even infer anything |
| 1:11.8 | about future performance. |
| 1:13.4 | Also understand that there's a significant risk of financial loss with all investment strategies, |
| 1:17.6 | and you need to request and understand the specific risks from the investment manager |
| 1:22.2 | about their product before you make investment decisions. |
| 1:25.5 | Here's your host, veteran hedge fund manager, Niels Kostrup Larson. |
| 1:34.7 | For me, the best part of my podcasting journey has been the opportunity to speak to a huge |
| 1:39.9 | range of extraordinary people from all around the world. |
... |
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