From The New York Times:
When Joe Schoendorf, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, was in Shanghai a few years ago to hear a pitch from a Chinese start-up company, he sensed something familiar. He interrupted the meeting, walked to the window and pulled back the curtains.
“What are you looking for?” he remembers the would-be entrepreneurs asking.
“I just wanted to make sure I was in China and not back in Palo Alto,” he responded.
China’s high-technology community, with its brains and competitive spirit, is probably more like its counterpart in Silicon Valley than any other in the world.
Yet Silicon Valley’s views of investment in China have tended to swing between wild optimism and deep anxiety – with the anxiety going beyond a fear of losing money. Some worry about helping Chinese start-ups move up the technology food chain.
These days, the Valley venture capitalists are sharply divided in two camps: one rushing into China and one holding back.
