How US and Chinese tech will thrive through connection, not competition – if officials stay out of it

For years, Chinese entrepreneurs would speak bashfully about the Chinese technology ecosystem, saying they just wanted to learn. This was widely recognised not as typical Chinese humility but as a pragmatic admission of reality.

Then, in 2014, Alibaba’s initial public offering made headlines globally. In 2016, Didi Chuxing shocked the world by beating back Uber in China. Nonetheless, these were isolated events, so the general unassuming narrative persisted. However, 2018 has been Chinese tech’s coming out party. On Forbes’s 2018 Midas List of companies, six of the top 10 are Chinese, including the top spot.

This year, nine of the largest 20 internet companies globally by market cap have been Chinese, according to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker’s annual report. Companies such as Bytedance, Didi Chuxing and Meituan Dianping are valued comparably to their American peers and sometimes better, as in the case of SenseTime, now the most valuable artificial intelligence start-up in the world.

Binance, a Chinese start-up, was possibly the fastest start-up to reach unicorn status (over US$1 billion valuation) while profitable. Meanwhile, Bird, widely considered the fastest unicorn of all time, based its electric scooter-sharing business model on Ofo, a Chinese bike-sharing firm.

It’s not surprising that investors from Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, to Sequoia Capital’s Mike Moritz are enthusiastic about the potential of Chinese business. According to Pitchbook, Chinese companies attain billion-dollar status 18 months quicker than their American counterparts. And the IPOs of Xiaomi and Pinduoduo mean that two of the top five tech exits this year are Chinese, with Dropbox barely squeaking past iQiyi to claim fifth place.