China's startup ecosystem has almost completely collapsed in the last 5 years
twitter.com
twitter.com
Singapore understands this.
Ownership rules are clear, and if under dispute, the courts are viewed as reasonable and fair. Business rules are predictable, you don't have to worry about making an investment based on assumptions that no longer hold next year.
China is the opposite as of the last few years. It's no surprise capital goes elsewhere.
Is it, though? China isn't immune from bad economic policy, but its per capita GDP growth still remains globally impressive[0]. In spite of recent difficulties they're still on an amazing trajectory.
Sure, maybe their chickens are about to come home to roost and they're finally in for a reckoning. I feel like that's the wrong take, though. We've spent the last 30 years with a smirk on our face waiting for China to realize their mistake of eschewing democracy and liberal economics. Somehow they've become the second most powerful nation in the world instead.
They're playing an entirely different game, over there. We underestimate them at our own peril.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_...
the updated 2023 estimate is in mandarin
They are nowhere close to the Us or Europe.
The average income in China is around $1000/month, and I frankly don't trust your claim that more than half the population lives on just 10% of that.
I think you are mistaking total GDP with "most powerful".
If you disagree, which country is #2 if not China?
If you mean geopolitical influence, id say the major European countries are ahead of China.
Russia, that just tried to take over a country with 1/14th of the economy and 1/4th of the population, failed, and is at this very moment having its own territory invaded in turn? Meanwhile, China has roughly double the military spending, 50% more active personnel, more weapons, and almost definitely more morale and discipline. And while China's military might be less tested, Russia's was just tested and it broke.
It was also really funny when their elite mercenary corps turned around and bum-rushed Moscow.
> If you mean geopolitical influence, id say the major European countries
China's Exim Bank finances more than the total export financing of the G7, combined[0]. China's foreign aid program rivals members of the G7 as well.
But it's not fair to compare the G7 or the whole European bloc against a single country. So let's say Germany. Sure, they're popular with the US and their continental brethren, but their influence on countries outside that sphere, particularly developing countries, does not match China's.
For instance, they don't have anything like China's $100-billion Belt and Road initiative. China has also invested all over the world in everything from infrastructure to mining projects, even in G7 countries. And in spite of the West's pullback, they're still the "world's factory", while Germany has had difficulty keeping its (recently declining) manufacturing industries competitive against China's[1]. Germany, like many countries in the world, also relies on China as its largest trading partner.
So given the data I've seen, I can't say any one European country, or even a handful, matches up to China. This would make sense given China's much larger population, staggering industrial capacity, aggressive worldwide investment strategies, and leadership among dozens of developing countries.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export%E2%80%93Import_Bank_of_...
[1] https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/german-consumer-is-poo...
Is it just that those companies were founded during the peak?
Easier to have zero business leaders that might tip the boat with suggestions.
This is ‘let it rot’ in action.
I think ad-tech has been a massive disaster for our society. I quit Instagram recently, I logged on the other day to message someone in the walled garden, I was shocked at what I saw and I couldn't believe I spent any time on it at all!
Of course tiktok, byd ev’s, solar, ai models coming out of China are doing fine, so it’s not all bleak.
well that's one thing we can agree on.
> Founders are also now required to be personally liable for their company’s loans.
> Hard to imagine why anyone would start a company under these conditions.
Whow. They introduced accountability! That would be incredibly harmful to all the crooks out there.
Well done
"Limited Liability" coupled with Venture capital, which was willing to take risky bets, was one of the greatest innovations unshackling a lot of entrepreneurship.
> Whow. They introduced accountability! That would be incredibly harmful to all the crooks out there.
Be careful what you wish for. Founders being personally liable essentially means you are going to get only a fraction of startup activity.
Exactly. Limited liability is a big worry. Crooks everywhere
Nonsense. Sure, there's lots of bad reporting about China in the West but generalizing as you do is as absurd as swallowing the latest from Fox News and taking it as gospel. There's also lots of astute, reasoned and well-analyzed reporting about China in the west and elsewhere.
For example, about the region of the world I've been living in for nearly two decades, I see lots of excellent reporting, and much of it comes from external sources; some of the best in fact. It's possible to do this without being within a given system.
What alternative sources should people use for China then? Name a few instead of lazily criticizing to feel superior.
The only two sources you can trust on this subject matter are actions of countries, and the the use of the thing between your ears. There is a political game that is played and the only thing that matters are the moves made. All of the words wasted in so-called “news” are irrelevant. That’s just entertainment for the masses devoid of reality. The things that matter are actions and inactions of countries. The straight moves, the misdirects, and the jukes along the way. Whenever you are gloating about how a country is doing something dumb, you are saying that you cannot read the hand they are about to play. Keep this in mind, and act accordingly.
Analysis of other's texts and selective reading from well curated sources is absolutely useful and important in knowing what's going on in a place or what might come. Many historical examples of this abound and what you say is literally just nonsense, as if it were something invented by a dramatic teenager who hasn't actually read anything of history outside a Robert Ludlum novel (if that).
Many excellent analyses by informed outsiders with insider sources or by people who just used good investigative procedure, existed of Nazi Germany, the USSR under the bolsheviks, the USSR pre-collapse, and other countries, that if they had been read by people with a discerning eye, could have yielded powerful information about what these countries would eventually do and how. News, as in general run of the mill reporting, is often just blather, but in between it, or distilled from it and from other sources, much important information can be gleaned.
If you want to know about China, the SCMP is a decent source. Caixin is also good, but it's more focused on economics. Also, speaking Chinese and following Chinese social media is a thousand times more informative than any Western news source about China.