China has its sights to be the World’s SV.
Editor’s Note:
The New York Times business bestseller Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle which explores the roots of Israeli innovation has garnered global attention and won its co-authors Dan Senor and Saul Singer worldwide fame overnight. In a recent interview with Global Times reporter Zhang Ni (GT) in Beijing, Singer (S), who served as an adviser to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee before moving to Israel in 1994, said he believes China is more innovative than people think. He suggested that China is ahead of the US in some aspects, as Facebook is now trying to copy China’s WeChat.
GT: Do you think China is a start-up nation? Do you think China is an innovative country?
S: The process that happened first in the US and then in Israel is happening now in a very big way in China. Entrepreneurship is growing rapidly in China. There are probably thousands of start-ups already. In addition to this natural growth, the Chinese government is strongly encouraging people. Entrepreneurship is very risky and difficult. When you have encouragement from the government, it makes things easier. China is already producing some very innovative companies as well as a lot of start-ups. This process has moved fast in the past five years and is going to move tremendously as well in the next five. I think China is much more innovative than people think. They just don’t realize how innovative Tencent, Huawei and Xiaomi or many start-ups are.