How to buy Tencent shares

I don't see that using a China index just because it partly holds some of the things you like, is particularly useful. What about the other things you have to hold, to get the things you want?

The way you describe the index, it has about 33% in four stocks to which you'd like to get exposure, but is skewing the weights somewhat hilariously towards two of the four, so that you have literally ten times as much money in the first two (0700, BABA) as you do in the second two (BIDU, JD). And then having got a third of your money allocated to those four things (but mostly just two of those things), you have two thirds of your money in things that you don't know much about and haven't mentioned a particular desire to hold.

The index is majorly skewed towards certain industries: 70% in communications plus consumer discretionary plus banks/financials. But more than half the communications and consumer discretionary sector allocation comes from just Tencent and Alibaba. Are Chinese banks and insurance companies a particularly good bet? At 22% of the index, they'll represent a third of the money that you don't put into the four stocks you mention.

The problem with buying a single-country emerging-markets tracker with a heavy skew to certain industries, just to get access to a small number of assets that you like the sound of, is that you get all the dross in the index which people are buying just because it exists and is represented in the index. And you are getting it just because you want to gamble on China tech-driven businesses being better than Korean or Taiwanese or Japanese or US tech driven businesses.

Some might say that buying a load of stuff you probably don't want or need, just to follow through on a gamble when buying some stuff you think you might like or need, can be a false economy (pun partially intended).

SMT is one way to access a few shares you like, bundled with some other things that the SMT managers like; and they will have some volatile stocks and polarising punts among their portfolio, along with a large dose of companies which are not listed on a stock market at all.

MSCI China is one way to access a few shares you like, along with a bunch of other stuff that some people might like and a lot of people have bought simply because it exists and they are throwing money at China generally so it lands on the biggest companies.

An actively managed global emerging markets fund is one way to get somewhat less access to the stuff you like while having your money spread over places which might share some opportunities and risks with China while also giving some geographic diversity away from China and from developed markets.

It's horses for courses really. I wouldn't say SMT is a default option for China Tech because it contains plenty of stuff that is not China Tech, as does a China Index, as do any number of global or EM funds which have a couple of China brands at a noticeable weighting.