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STORY: As foreign funding dries up in China amid souring relations with the United States, Chinese bankers and business executives are taking to a novel way of unlocking domestic capital: by “throwing eggs”.

That’s the rough translation for guandan, a poker-like card game that has been around for decades.

But it took off among venture capitalists a few years ago, when they realized it was popular among wealthy local government officials in eastern regions.

Lawyer and guandan trainer Li Keshu said businesspeople like it because they can deepen relationships with others by playing.

“When dealing with different departments in the financial circle, people can build friendships with each other by playing guandan. As a way to communicate, people prefer using entertainment to communicate.”

Guandan has four players who pair up in teams.

Using two decks, players race to throw down various card combinations to empty their hand before their opponents.

Games can stretch for hours.

And during this time, potentially useful connections can be made, and nuggets of information shared.

Total U.S.-based venture-capital investment in China plummeted to $9.7 billion last year from $32.9 billion in 2021, according to market data firm PitchBook.

And domestic private capital has also dwindled as President Xi Jinping signaled his preference for a bigger state presence in the economy, by cracking down in areas from technology to real estate over the last few years.

So, financiers now see the game as a way to build what’s called 'guanxi', or connections, with officials who hold the purse strings on local projects.

A guandan bar was opened in Beijing earlier this year.

Owner Hua Min said her customers range from retirees to young professionals seeking to break into new social circles.

“You can reach out to society by playing guandan, to reach out to all kinds of people, and then re-discover your identity. I feel that under such circumstances, playing guandan allows you to do that with minimal trial and error.”

The players Reuters spoke to say they do not gamble.

Though it’s not unheard of - Chinese officials in the past have been censured for receiving bribes through card games.

But for now, Beijing does not seem to be bothered by the game’s growing popularity, with China's national sports authority organizing the first nationwide guandan competition earlier this year.