According to FT, HongShan, the Chinese arm of the Silicon Valley group, has set up an office in the city-state and is working on plans to use it as a base for investing in south-east Asia.A number of executives from HongShan have travelled to Singapore in the past six months.

The China unit, which is managed by renowned investor Neil Shen, who led early investments in Alibaba and TikTok owner ByteDance, has told people in Singapore meetings that it would initially look to support its existing Chinese founders who had international businesses in the city-state. However, it also expressed interest in investing in start-ups.