Can Beijing reinvent Zhongguancun, China's Silicon Valley, while still replicating its past success?
In September 2014, Cho-Nan Tsai, a software engineering manager in Pasadena, California, got a phone call that felt like the beckoning of history. A fellow alumnus from Columbia University had an idea for a startup that could disrupt China’s wild digital marketing scene. Did Tsai want in?
“He told me there are a lot of these [venture capital firms] popping up in Beijing, and companies were getting funded very easily,” Tsai recalls.
Kai-fu Lee at Disrupt Beijing 2011. Credit: TechCrun
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Bob Fu's relationship with China has gone through phases. First, he thought money would solve his problems there; then he joined protesters at Tiananmen Square, thinking the politics could change. In the end, he determined, only God could save China, and he's been fighting for religious freedom in China ever since he resettled in Texas. With his nonprofit, ChinaAid, prospering like never before, he says the U.S. is finally catching on.