China's Silicon Valley to expand

[TaiShang]

Local firms target Chinese scientists from Silicon Valley
By Ouyang Shijia (China Daily) October 27, 2016

A man interacts with an artificially intelligent (AI) robot at the 2016 AI World Expo, held in Beijing on Oct 18, 2016.[Photo/People's Daily Online]

Race on to hire expertise, researchers with big salaries to boost AI and other tech sectors

Chinese companies are actively targeting overseas scientists and researchers in California's Silicon Valley, in a move to attract them to China and boost the development of the country's information technology industry, according to a recent report.

The quarterly report for October to December, released by Hays, a leading global specialist recruitment group, shows that the rapid development of the country's IT industry is providing golden opportunities for well-educated overseas Chinese nationals to seek developing their careers back in their home country.

"Artificial intelligence scientists with broad experience are highly in demand by Chinese companies," said Simon Lance, managing director of Hays in China.

"In order to boost their future skills pool, Chinese companies are also looking to form partnerships with top international engineering universities in a bid to secure future graduates."

Lance added that as information technology has become one of the main driving forces of China's economic progress, employers were trying to lure more overseas returnees to help them tap into a market with huge potential.

"In the so-called 'first year' of new technologies, virtual reality, augmented reality, intelligent driving and other new technologies gradually have entered into the public's sight," said Zhao Ziming, an analyst at Beijing-based internet consultancy Analysys International.

"Backed by abundant funds, IT firms and internet companies now have a high demand for expertise," Zhao added.

"Compared with Western countries, China is more likely to develop and introduce these new technologies, which to some extent attract more overseas Chinese to seek opportunities back in China."

Hays also noted that with a belief that the burgeoning local market would benefit their career development, there was now a trend of overseas Chinese returning home.

"Aside from the lure of potentially higher salaries offered by Chinese employers, overseas candidates are also convinced about the potential of the market, given the rising popularity of the internet and the fast-growing penetration of smartphones," Lance said.

"They also have a sense of achievement, since their knowledge and skills are critically needed by Chinese organizations to spur economic growth."

A report released by 2016 China (Shenzhen) IT Leaders' Summit Organizing Committee showed that last year the revenue of China's IT industry totaled 15.4 trillion yuan ($2.3 trillion), an increase of 10.3 percent year-on-year.

According to the report, technological innovation will promote industrial restructuring, and intelligent technology will open up a new industrial era. In addition, drones, self-driving technologies, artificial intelligence and other intelligent technologies were expected to enter the stage of application and large-scale production.

@GS Zhou , @cirr , @AndrewJin , @Shotgunner51

 

[F-22Raptor]

Silicon Valley’s Culture, Not Its Companies, Dominates in China

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The majesty of the Golden Gate, the windy chill of Alcatraz, the tourist hubbub of Pier 39 — Zhao Haoyu’s itinerary for San Francisco had it all.

Yet when Mr. Zhao, a Chinese tourist, arrived with his wife in September, they spent their first day wandering the humdrum suburban office parks that Facebook and Google call home.

Joining a guided bus tour with a dozen other Chinese visitors, the two became part of the steady flow of Chinese tourists to Silicon Valley that represents — despite pervasive censorship and outright hostility from the Chinese government — the tremendous influence Silicon Valley wields in China.

“You hear so much about these companies in China,” said Mr. Zhao, a native of the southern Chinese city of Kunming who is in his 30s. “We just wanted to experience it.”

China in recent years has given rise to a vibrant and innovative tech industry that in some ways surpasses what Americans can do online. But it has done so despite a culture dictated by Confucian conformity and, more recently, the strict rules of the Chinese Communist Party.

Neither prizes rebellion or disruption, so China’s young entrepreneurs and investors have looked for guidance and inspiration in a place that does: Silicon Valley.

China’s tech world has copied the valley’s innovator-meet-investor network of incubators, accelerators and venture capitalists. Start-up employees and leaders actively seek to question authority and think outside the box — two attributes widely discouraged in corporate China.

Many of those copying the model have never worked in Silicon Valley, so their understanding comes secondhand. Yao Shuqi, a 28-year-old entrepreneur, is one of many who cite “The Pirates of Silicon Valley,” a 1999 made-for-TV movie about Bill Gates of Microsoft and Steve Jobs of Apple, as a guiding force. (In some instances, reflecting an era before Apple’s resurgence, it is translated into Chinese as “The Heroes of Microsoft.”)

“I was having difficulty finding a partner who specializes on the technology side,” said Mr. Yao, who estimated that he watched the movie more than 10 times in 2013 and 2014. “I started to wonder how people in ‘The Pirates of Silicon Valley’ found their partners. So I watched the film over and over and learned a lot from it.”

Silicon Valley’s soft power in China is unlikely to help Facebook or Google get back into China. But it demonstrates the sort of influence China seeks for itself. Despite its innovations, China’s online renaissance has taken place largely within its own borders, and the country’s ambitions to create companies with global influence so far have been largely unsuccessful.

It also provides a model for a new type of Chinese business guru, politician and thought leader, in the vein of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Already the Chinese tech world has created figures like Jack Ma, the founder of the e-commerce giant the Alibaba Group, and Lei Jun, a founder of the budget smartphone maker Xiaomi, who derive their influence from channels outside the Chinese Communist Party. The party in turn courts them even as it seeks to contain them, often holding them up as examples of Chinese innovation.

Baidu, one of China’s largest tech companies and often called the Google of China, owes a heavy debt to the valley. One founder, Eric Xu, made a documentary about Silicon Valley in the late 1990s and helped model the company around an unstructured, meritocratic — and thoroughly non-Chinese — organizational style its founders admired.

Employees receive copies of a book called the “Baidu Analects,” said Kaiser Kuo, a former spokesman for Baidu and the host of the China podcast Sinica. “It’s anecdote after anecdote of these borderline insubordinate employees who stuck to their ideas in spite of pushback, and the enlightened manager who let them do it, and ultimately they triumph,” Mr. Kuo said. “It’s almost this libertarian, Ayn Rand ethos.”

At times it seems to embrace Silicon Valley clichés more eagerly than Silicon Valley itself.

A prominent techie cafe in Beijing has a large wall with a timeline charting the initial public stock offerings of American tech companies alongside those in China. Some companies have created Apple-style product unveilings that are ticketed, cultural events. A developer in China is planning to start work on “tech towns” — planned communities where the innovative-minded can live and work together. Start-up offices often have open seating plans with office pets, foosball tables and a boss sitting with the employees.

“Silicon Valley has become a kind of beacon of cultural change in China,” said David Chao, a partner at the venture capital firm DCM. “Hollywood could impact what kind of handbag a lady buys in China, but it never impacted corporate culture like Silicon Valley has.”

Even so, most Chinese companies have not fully absorbed the culture. Many are still highly top-down and bureaucratic, and open office plans often mask more deeply conservative customs. In place of California’s sunny suburbs, China’s innovation hub sits in the traffic and smog-choked northwestern part of Beijing, crammed into office towers above malls that sell all manner of electronics.

The trend is nonetheless driving young people to take more risks and demand more from employers, even as it brings with it a problem familiar to Silicon Valley: hangers-on more interested in being a part of the scene than anything else.

“There are people choosing technology not because they love it or want to do a start-up,” said Jesse Lu, a Chinese entrepreneur who spent time at Y Combinator, a prominent start-up accelerator in the United States. “They just do it because they enjoy the lifestyle of a start-up. They enjoy choosing their hours, having small teams, not listening to anybody, doing what they think is right. It’s a new fashion.”

Silicon Valley seems largely unaware of its cultural influence in China and appears to do little to cater to it.

Last year, Facebook fired an enterprising Chinese employee who played to the unmet demand and charged one group of tourists $20 each to tour the campus and eat in the company’s cafeteria. Now, the only thing notable for tourists to see is its thumbs-up sign.

In Mountain View, Mr. Zhao and the tour group snapped photos of a cluster of brightly painted plaster statues designed after various Google corporate mascots. Next door is Google’s visitor store, a sort of swag graveyard set up in converted office space where the company sells all manner of clothes and trinkets — including Frisbees and water bottles — imprinted with the Google logo.

“They used to not let our buses on the campus, but now they built this area where we can come and take pictures,” said Ken Guan, the leader of the tour group.

“People are surprised,” he added. “They think it will be a booming commercial area, but it’s just a bunch of offices.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/04/technology/china-silicon-valley-culture.html?_r=0

 

[Shotgunner51]

China Chases Silicon Valley Talent Who Are Worried About Trump Presidency
by Eric Baculinao
Dec 4 2016, 10:02 am ET

BEIJING — China is trying to capitalize on President-elect Donald Trump's hardline immigration stance and vow to clamp down on a foreign worker visa program that has been used to recruit thousands from overseas to Silicon Valley. Leading tech entrepreneurs, including Robin Li, the billionaire CEO of Baidu, China's largest search engine, see Trump's plans as a huge potential opportunity to lure tech talent away from the United States.

The country already offers incentives of up to $1 million as signing bonuses for those deemed "outstanding" and generous subsidies for start-ups.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post last month reported on comments made by Steve Bannon, who is now the president-elect's chief strategist, during a radio conversation with Trump in Nov. 2015. Bannon, the former Breitbart.com publisher, indicated that he didn't necessarily agree with the idea that foreign talent that goes to school in America should stay in America.

"When two-thirds or three-quarters of the CEOs in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think ...," Bannon said, trailing off. "A country is more than an economy. We're a civic society." ​

Baidu CEO Robin Li. Imaginechina​

Comments like Bannon's and the president-elect's campaign pledges are music to the ears of tech leaders like Li.

"I read that an adviser to President-elect Donald Trump openly complained that three-quarters of CEOs in Silicon Valley are Asian immigrants," the influential entrepreneur said in a recent keynote speech at a state-sponsored conference, a copy of which was provided to NBC News by Baidu.​

"Many entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley have expressed worries, especially after Trump's election, about the harm to the United States' capabilities in innovation," Li told the audience at China's third annual World Internet Conference.

"I truly hope that these excellent talents from various countries will migrate to China and help China play a more important role on the stage of global innovation." ​

He added: "I hope everybody will come to China, let's innovate together." ​

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump tours a Carrier factory with Vice President-elect Mike Pence in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.,
December 1, 2016. MIKE SEGAR / Reuters​

As part of the plan for his first 100 days in office, Trump has vowed to prioritize immigration issues and "direct the Department of Labor to investigate all abuses of visa programs that undercut the American worker."

On the campaign trail, he denounced the H-1B visa program, which admits 85,000 foreign skilled workers and graduate students annually — many of whom work in the tech industry and eventually become legal U.S. residents or citizens.

"It's very bad for business … and it's very bad for our workers and it's unfair for our workers. And we should end it," he said.​

He sparked more uncertainty by naming Sen. Jeff Sessions, a long-time critic of the skilled-worker visa program, as his pick for attorney general. Sessions has accused tech firms in Silicon Valley of exploiting the program to pass over American labor for foreign workers to cut technology costs.

China's efforts to attract foreign workers has traditionally been hurt by Beijing's web censorship and strict government control of the internet. China has around 700 million internet users — who type a mind-boggling 35 billion words every day, according to the latest survey examining the behavior of the country's netizens.

But Li argued that the "global center of innovation is shifting," describing the world's second-largest economy as the "biggest and fastest growing internet market."

A Baidu spokesperson told NBC News that the company has a program to attract "top-tier talent" in China and abroad, to advance "Baidu's technological leadership in areas including artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning and autonomous diving."

A Baidu sign is seen during the third annual World Internet Conference in Jiaxing, China. ALY SONG / Reuters

Hugo Barra, a Brazilian computer scientist, stunned the technology world in 2013 by leaving his post as Google's vice-president in charge of its Android division to join a private Chinese startup called Xiaomi.

As Xiaomi's international vice-president, Barra has taken charge of global expansion for the smartphone company that has been compared to Apple for its slick marketing and management.

The Beijing-based firm has now become the world's fourth-biggest smartphone maker and is broadening its businesses to mobile apps, laptops and Wi-Fi-enabled consumer electronics.

Analysts have also noted China's emergence as the world's biggest e-commerce market and a leading innovator in mobile services, on the strength of the country's estimated 600 million smartphone users, which is expected to reach 700 million by 2019.

WeChat, China's smash-hit messaging app owned by Tencent, the country's most valuable tech company, has also become a mobile payment giant that is chasing market leader Alipay. The two companies had the lion's share of last year's mobile transactions of $235 billion, pushing China ahead of the U.S. where the market was $231 billion, according to data provider Euromonitor International.

China is also leading the global innovation race. Of the 2.9 million patent applications worldwide in 2015, about 1 million of them came from China. In comparison, 526,000 applications came from the U.S., according to data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Success stories include Dajiang Innovations (DJI) — the world's biggest maker of consumer and small commercial drones. The Chinese start-up boasts three factories in the booming city of Shenzhen, a marketing office in Los Angeles that works with filmmakers, and a Frankfurt office which deals with content partners.

Drones on display at the headquarters of DJI in Shenzhen, China, in April. Stringer / Imaginechina

Paul Pan, DJI's product manager, saw the potential of the company and moved to Shenzhen from Silicon Valley in 2013. During a factory visit last year, he demonstrated to NBC News why DJI was an industry leader. From humble beginnings in a dorm room in 2006, the private company is now valued at over $10 billion.

Shenzhen itself is now widely considered "China's Silicon Valley" and has taken the lead in rolling out a massive subsidy program to attract high-tech talent. The southern city is currently led by Communist Party boss Ma Xingrui, a space scientist and former chief of China's moon mission. His ambition is to make the city a leading innovation hub as it sheds its image as a manufacturer of cheap goods for export.

Shenzhen's recruitment program has attracted 1219 "high-level talents" as of last year, according to Shenzhen Daily newspaper, of which 74 are "foreign experts."

Under a multi-category scheme updated in October last year, the highest incentive for so-called "Outstanding Talent" — a designation open for foreigners from 24 countries, including the United States, if the individual won a Nobel Prize in economics or physics — is an outright lump sum allowance of close to $1 million or 10 years free housing in a 2,200-square-foot apartment.

A lower category, an "Overseas Talent" who starts a business in the city, can receive a subsidy of up to $150,000.

In the past, Chinese companies could only attract Chinese engineers who studied abroad, Baidu's Li lamented.

But he pointed out that Trump's plans have created hope for China to attract "more and more talents from various countries and various nationalities."


http://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/c...ey-talent-who-are-worried-about-trump-n688271

 

[liall]

Talent leaving US for China is a good sign. It brings balance!

 

[shadows888]

Silicon valley culture is look up to for many Chinese and to the rest of the world, it's an envy to both Chinese and Europeans, i duno why anyone is surprise with this. Its a two way trade, a lot of Chinese talents in silicon valley usually also end up working for Chinese firms or startups later when they gain more experience or when they hit the real or perceived "bamboo ceiling".

 

[Shotgunner51]

Silicon valley culture is look up to for many Chinese and to the rest of the world, it's an envy to both Chinese and Europeans, i duno why anyone is surprise with this. Its a two way trade, a lot of Chinese talents in silicon valley usually also end up working for Chinese firms or startups later when they gain more experience or when they hit the real or perceived "bamboo ceiling".

Agree, cross-influence between different cultures is nothing unusual. My own impressions of Zhongguanchun (north-west Beijing) "style" are like able to think outside the box, adventurous, kill first ask question later, no respect for seniority, and of course tech savvy ... well sometimes ideas may even sound crazy. Is that "Silicon Valley"? Don't know, but definitely differs from cultures I've see in traditional tech/engineering houses or industrial firms.

 

[shadows888]

Agree, cross-influence between different cultures is nothing unusual. My own impressions of Zhongguanchun (north-west Beijing) "style" are like able to think outside the box, adventurous, kill first ask question later, no respect for seniority, and of course tech savvy ... well sometimes ideas may even sound crazy. Is that Silicon Valley? Don't know, but definitely differs from cultures I've see in traditional tech/engineering houses or industrial firms.

Silicon Valley used to be like that, but i feel as it matures, it's becoming much more "corporate" rigidity. of course, there so many talents in the valley, your bound to have great ideas. I been disappointed with some of the biggest firms there recently, like google's pixel phone (wtf google, is this a joke?) or iphone 7.. which is basically the same as iphone 6..with the same mistakes as the 6. Tesla is still awesome, but thats mainly cause elon musk is still running the show much like when steve jobs were running apple.

 

[Shotgunner51]

Silicon Valley used to be like that, but i feel as it matures, it's becoming much more "corporate" rigidity. of course, there so many talents in the valley, your bound to have great ideas.

Good to know. And now even better, as US is pushing them away, China welcomes these talents with open arms, even with material incentives. After all as the article says, 3/4 of Silicon Valley CEO's are of Asian background, which should help them assimilate into new homes here.

Just as Robin Li (CEO of Baidu.com) says "I hope everybody will come to China, let's innovate together."

 

[shadows888]

Good to know. And now even better, as US is pushing them away, China welcomes these talents with open arms, even with material incentives. After all as the article says, 3/4 of Silicon Valley CEO's are of Asian background, which should help them assimilate into new homes here.

3/4 silicon valley CEO's are of Asian background is fake news. It is closer to 14%. there are alot more asian middle management/engineers, again due to real or perceived bamboo ceiling. the 3/4 is what Steve Bannon said. You can call him the alt-right leader and named senior adviser to trump. This guy is VERY smart but all his statements, true or false are intentional framed to carry a message. He's going to be the real master mind behind the trump administration, i'm getting a bush-Cheney vibe from him. Trump is the face, Bannon is the mastermind. See his shit is already working, because people just blindly believe fake news.

 

[Jlaw]

When Whites apply pure cronyism, racism, and fraud to push themselves to the top, it's "merit"
When Asians beat them at their own rigged game, they need to build a "civic society"

@F-22Raptor @SinoSoldier

White america is in the defensive recently because their empire is dying. These recent posts by American lackeys are just feel good news. US is going down....

 

[ahojunk]

White america is in the defensive recently because their empire is dying. These recent posts by American lackeys are just feel good news. US is going down....

I enjoy reading some articles posted by @F-22Raptor which helps to give the "other" view. But this article from New York Times isn't worth the paper it's printed on, it is full of inaccuracies and propaganda. However, it does serve a purpose, i.e. its readers will feel good reading it (even while the Titantic is slowly sinking...). Please choose better articles before posting, okay?

Hugo Barra, a Brazilian computer scientist, stunned the technology world in 2013 by leaving his post as Google's vice-president in charge of its Android division to join a private Chinese startup called Xiaomi.

As Xiaomi's international vice-president, Barra has taken charge of global expansion for the smartphone company that has been compared to Apple for its slick marketing and management.

The Beijing-based firm has now become the world's fourth-biggest smartphone maker and is broadening its businesses to mobile apps, laptops and Wi-Fi-enabled consumer electronics.

If Hugo Barra applies for Chinese citizenship, he should be granted it given his contribution to Xiaomi.
So should the other "high-level and outstanding talents" who have made tangible contributions to China.

Under a multi-category scheme updated in October last year, the highest incentive for so-called "Outstanding Talent" — a designation open for foreigners from 24 countries, including the United States, if the individual won a Nobel Prize in economics or physics — is an outright lump sum allowance of close to $1 million or 10 years free housing in a 2,200-square-foot apartment.

A lower category, an "Overseas Talent" who starts a business in the city, can receive a subsidy of up to $150,000

Ha ha, one is only considered "Outstanding Talent" if you have a Nobel Prize in economics or physics (or medicine) but not some other bullshit such as the Nobel Peace prize.
If you are a Chinese and have won the "correct" Nobel Prize or any other prestigious prize, I wonder if you still get this award from China. And how does one apply for it?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

If Hugo Barra applies for Chinese citizenship, he should be granted it given his contribution to Xiaomi..

Hugo Barra is leaving Xiaomi
Former Googler plans a return to Silicon Valley
http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/23/14355260/hugo-barra-is-leaving-xiaomi

 

[ahojunk]

Hugo Barra is leaving Xiaomi
Former Googler plans a return to Silicon Valley
http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/23/14355260/hugo-barra-is-leaving-xiaomi

Yeap, sad news.

On a brighter note, a number of my talented and highly skilled Aussie friends are going over to work in China.