korrents
Pieter Levels

What Pieter Levels thinks about China

@pieter-levels · 179 positions · 2 changes of mind · On ppll ↗

Dutch bootstrapper who builds and runs his internet startups alone — Nomads.com, Remote OK, Hoodmaps, Photo AI and Interior AI — and has written about it at levels.io since 2013. Posts as @levelsio.

Pieter Levels did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

Filter China · Newest first
Topic
All 179Europe 17startups 15SaaS 9creativity 7AGI 6China 6government 6vibe coding 6AI agents 5
50 more topics
Anthropic 5capitalism 5health and fitness 5LLMs 5immigration 4social media 4chat interfaces 3coding agents 3management 3politics 3self-driving cars 3simplicity 3taste 3AI alignment 2AI and jobs 2ambition 2behavioural science 2benchmarks 2censorship 2friendship 2ideas vs execution 2investing 2Japan 2open source 2team size 2the cloud 2agency 1AI slop 1America 1Apple 1aviation 1degrowth 1design 1developer tools 1electric vehicles 1Google 1happiness 1housing 1JavaScript 1MCP 1motivation 1OpenAI 1personal websites 1product management 1remote work 1robotics 1semiconductors 1Silicon Valley 1stock market 1venture capital 1
Sort
NewestOldest

Only Pieter Levels on China. See everyone on China

6 dated positions, 2025 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Pieter Levels has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingWeChat won't let foreigners sign up unless another Chinese WeChat user vouches for them with a QR code.

    Their wordsIt's not too difficult WeChat simply won't work for foreigners As a foreigner, you need another Chinese WeChat user to vouch for you with a QR code or it won't even let you sign up!

    ↗@levelsio on Xx.com

  2. 12 days earlier

  3. Our readingRegulatory capture will next ban open source and/or Chinese AI models.

    open source

    Their wordsNext in regulatory capture will be banning open source and/or Chinese models, mark my words

    ↗With regulatory capture we will speedrun to a new feudalist timelevels.io

  4. 6 weeks earlier

  5. Our readingThe West's biggest blindspot is repeatedly underestimating China's speed and capabilities.

    Their wordsThe West's biggest blindspot is repeatedly underestimating China's speed and capabilities

    ↗The West's biggest blindspot is repeatedly underestimating China's speed and capabilitieslevels.io

  6. 7 days earlier

  7. Our readingFrance and Germany will ban Tesla's full self-driving to protect their own car industry.

    self-driving carselectric vehicles

    Their wordsThe French and Germans will ban Tesla FSD to protect their car industry that's being decimated by Chinese EVs and Tesla Allowing Tesla full self driving would make it so popular that it'd probably the end of their car industry Because no French or German car has self driving like Tesla, many customers would probably flock to Tesla

    ↗The French and Germans will ban Tesla FSD to protect their car industrylevels.io

  8. 5 days earlier

  9. Our readingRestricting US AI models does not work: China builds better ones and everyone switches to them.

    Their wordsUS: restricts US AI model because too dangerous China: builds better Chinese AI model Everyone: switches to Chinese AI model This is why restricting models probably doesn't work, it's much more preferable (for US) to have everyone on US AI models so at least they can monitor what everyone is doing

    ↗US restricts AI models so China builds better ones and everyone switcheslevels.io

  10. 8 months earlier

  11. Our readingOnly the US and China have substantial startup activity left; the rest of the world cannot really do startups.

    startups

    Their wordsI just realized the only 2 countries left with actual substantial startup activity now are literally only the US and China The rest of the world can't really do startups, doesn't have the funding, can't grow them and it's more like performative hobby projects for their governments Which might tell us where the future wealth will be concentrated in the world

    ↗Only the US and China have actual substantial startup activity nowlevels.io