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Regulatory Ramblings

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 62 – The Green Belt and Road Initiative/Open-Source Intelligence & Non-English Language Online Research with Dr. Oriol Caudevilla and Skip Schiphorst

In the first part of this episode in our Regulatory Ramblings Spotlight section, we’ll speak with legal scholar Dr. Oriol Caudevilla on the green aspects of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, as it is more colloquially known. We’ll follow that up with a chat with Skip Schiphorst, a former Dutch Marine, Iraq War veteran, and master linguist, about his penchant for languages and doing online, open-source research in languages other than English—especially Russian, Arabic, and Mandarin Chinese—and how English isn’t necessarily the easiest language to search in.

Dr. Oriol Caudevilla is a highly regarded voice on all things fintech. He is an Honorary Fellow at HKU’s Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL) and a Board Director and Secretary General at the Global Impact FinTech Forum (GIFT).
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Oriol has published articles and has been cited by international media outlets such as Reuters, Forbes Middle East, the SCMP, Outlook India, China Daily, Asian Investor, Forkast News, and Cointelegraph. He has also hosted The Digital Tomorrow podcast for the past three years.

He shares his views on the potential environmental benefits of Beijing’s BRI with Regulatory Ramblings host Ajay Shamdasani.

Much has been said about the BRI, known in China as the One Belt, One Road—and sometimes labeled the New Silk Road. A global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in more than 150 countries and international organizations, the scheme is composed of six urban development land corridors linked by road, rail, energy, and digital infrastructure and the Maritime Silk Road connected by the development of ports.

The idea was simple: transport raw materials to China while carrying its manufactured wares to participating nations.

Oriol fleshes out what he means by the “Green BRI” because, on the surface, the concept seems counterintuitive, as vast amounts of carbon/energy are expended to carry resources toward China and goods from it. As he points out, there are green efficiencies and other benefits to be had from the BRI that will meaningfully impact the planet’s climate.

Skip Schiphorst is the course coordinator and instructor for the Swiss-based firm I-Intelligence’s Arabic, Russian, and Chinese open-source intelligence (OSINT) courses. He served 17 years in the Dutch Marine Corps, the elite corps of the Royal Netherlands Navy, one of the four Armed Forces of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

While serving, he was deployed to several regions, including the Second Iraq War, as a Reconnaissance Marine. Having operated in multiple theaters, his language and cultural skills were extensively used. Skip holds a university degree in Chinese Studies and is keenly interested in incorporating languages within the OSINT/online spectrum.

He shares with Ajay the importance of being able to search for OSINT in languages other than English and how it has a direct application to lawyers, compliance officers, and investigators in regional hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore—and the banking and financial institutions and multinational corporations they serve. As he emphasizes, it is often easier to navigate the internet in Chinese than in English due to the simplicity of the structure of the former language.

Skip describes what it was like to grow up in Switzerland as a young man of Dutch ancestry, his decision to join the Marines in 1997, and how his views on the world and the degree to which outside powers can use military force to change cultures and nations changed over the course of his service. He believes this to be the Asian century, as many Western nations pursue more nativist and isolationist policies.

He also discusses the value of OSINT and multilingual research for due diligence in mergers and acquisitions and know-your-customer searches in anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctions compliance for banks.

Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

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