
Y Combinator Abruptly Shutters YC China - thisisbrians
https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/21/y-combinator-abruptly-shutters-yc-china/
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saagarjha
Discussion from last week:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21597763](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21597763)

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ixtli
I'd love to assume this had something to do with government abuses and
overreach that YC couldn't condone, but call me cynical, im not holding my
breath.

Also, I wonder if when asian businesses consider starting up something in the
US if local news write articles like this. E.g.:

"That there is no mention of the uncertain international politics and
U.S.-China relations right now, nor the explosive situation in Hong Kong, or
ongoing human rights issues elsewhere in the country, seems a deliberate
choice to make this move seem as ordinary as possible. But those things are
major questions for anyone looking to do business in [the US], and it’s hard
to believe none had any bearing on the decision to abruptly pack up and leave
a major enterprise behind."

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ThinkBeat
If that was the case, then YC should certainly think about exiting the US
market as well. Due government abuses and overreach. Wars.... Always we have
wars... Concentration camps for immigrants. Torture sites (EU and Asia) and
people locked up with no judicial oversight (Gitmo (operated in a communist
country).. Mass surveillance.

Operating out of Sweden or Switzerland would be much more desirable if they
care about human rights and government brutality.

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ixtli
I agree. But they don't care. Nor do they care about anything happening in
China. That was kinda my point. In a way i guess i'm happy they didnt claim it
was for some sort of humanitarian reason like many have in the wake of the
blizzard thing. They're all lying.

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anaphor
The author seems to be trying to drum up controversy where there isn't really
any.

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eznoonze
All businesses in China beside your neighborhood street vendors, noodle
joints, corner stores, etc, are required to have a Communist Party Commissar
stationed at their top management to control the company when needed.

Major companies (e.g. Huawei, BABA, BIDU) are already "Party owned" (via some
complex ownership structure to hide the party behind), or in the process of
being transferred to Party owned. Note: Party owned, not state owned. In
China, the Party owns the State, and the army. (Can you imagine Republican (or
Democrats) owned the US Army?!)

You may start out as a "no-one-cares" startup business, but once you get to
certain size or they recognize you as a potential unicorn, they will coerce
you to give up part or all of your ownership or insert their Commissar,
because the Party cannot stand anyone beside itself to have any influence.

It is the policy of China under Xi Jinping since he gained power, and we are
now seeing the effect of it.

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seanmcdirmid
Huawei sure, no one knows who really owns/controls them. But Baidu, Alibaba,
actually have fairly transparent ownership structures, they aren’t that
subject to party control beyond say an American company operating a branch in
China.

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eznoonze
China would not hesitate to use your Chinese branch as a leverage to influence
your business even in the US, e.g. Airlines, NBA, etc. Unless you are
decoupled from China, you are not immune.

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nashashmi
Same goes for the US. US will use branches of foreign companies to leverage
its rules.

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PaulHoule
Funny enough, I was thinking about this last week and noticed that they hadn't
said anything at all about YC China in a long time. I had figured that they'd
quietly abandoned the effort, walking it back the same way that the media is
letting Mike Bloomberg walk back his presidential campaign.

People jumped all over them when they announced it. I think every city and
town in the world has been asking for YC to come and when they refuse
everybody in countries where there is rule of law, private property, etc. and
then endorse communism that was a problem.

For instance in most countries if we have a labor union somewhere or regulate
something it seems we are not liberal enough so capitalists will invest
elsewhere. China doesn't pretend to have free markets at all but billionaires
want to invest there.

It is nice seeing people who were up in arms about Trump's abortive "Muslim
ban" are waking up to issues of ChiComs vs Hong Kong, Tibet, Uyghurs, etc.

In the meantime it is a source of extreme stress on western democracies that
we're told we will lose investment if we are not neoliberal but then see that
investment go to a place that doesn't believe in any rights for anyone
whatsoever.

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ilaksh
People should be more concerned about the possibility of a future war with
China.

There needs to be some kind of political and cultural integration. If not,
resource and territorial contention as well as worldview differences may come
to a head and be resolved through violence.

These are extremely difficult problems and a very dangerous potential outcome
of we fail. We should be making dramatic efforts towards integration.

One idea: the lunar mission should be prioritized and be led by a joint
China/US team.

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DoreenMichele
The article is looking for gossip where none exists. If the guy leading the
charge into China is stepping down, that's entirely sufficient to drop it.

If it's not a well-established and ongoing concern, a bus factor of one is
wholly plausible.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor)

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throwaway2048
The the question arises why did he (Sam Altman) step down?

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heyoni
Cause it's a 14 hour flight each way.

