China’s entrepreneurial class is tackling the worst economic downturn in decades as the government’s Zero-COVID policy closes cities and keeps prospects home. Still, they seem to disagree on how loud they should complain, or even at all.
High-tech entrepreneurs wrote in a large group chat in May that many members were too critical. “What people here do every day criticizes the government and the system,” she wrote. “I don’t see any entrepreneurship in this.”
A top venture capitalist told his nearly nine million social media followers that he should try to stay away from negative news and information as much as everyone suffers from a pandemic.
Their approach is equivalent to an ostrich sticking its head into the sand, but Zhou Hang doesn’t make sense. High-tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Zhou has questioned how peers pretend to be business as usual in the face of political and economic turmoil. He urged him to stop putting up with the ridiculous reality. It’s time to raise your voice and ask for change.
Zhou has put hundreds of millions of people under some sort of blockade in the past few months and has publicly criticized the government’s Zero-COVID policy at the expense of employment and income in China’s business community. Rarely. He says many others are whispering privately, but he’s afraid to say it in public.
“The question we should ask ourselves was censored within an hour of posting, but wrote in a widely shared article in other formats. Who should be responsible for this? And how can it be done? Can you change? “
He said the blockades in Shanghai and other cities revealed that wealth and social status had little meaning for governments determined to pursue the Zero-COVID policy. “We are all people who can be sent to quarantine camps and our homes can be invaded,” he writes. “Still, if we choose to adapt and put up with this, we all will face the same fate: trapped.”
For Zhou, leaving politics is no longer an option for Chinese business leaders. But some of his peers are reluctant given the potential penalties.
The Chinese Communist Party has always been wary of business class impacts when trying to hire member states to strengthen the country’s economy. Under China’s current top leader, Xi Jinping, the party’s attitude towards private citizenship has taken a more hostile direction, making the entrepreneurial class a socially ill boogeyman.
Over the past few years, the government has moved away from the market economy and cracked down on some industries. It demonstrated entrepreneurs and chased some of their most prominent people. Then, when a mild, contagious but Omicron variant of the coronavirus emerged in China this year, the government interfered with free enterprises as it did decades ago.
The blockade and restrictions have caused so much damage to the economy that Prime Minister Li Keqiang has summoned about 100,000 executives in an emergency. meeting In late May. He called the situation “serious” and “urgent” because of the sharp decline in employment, industrial production, electricity consumption and freight transport.
Many business leaders believe that if the government does not stop the Zero-COVID policy, it will be difficult to undo the damage. Still, they feel that there is nothing they can do to change the course of Beijing.
The chairman of a major internet company told me that there were pandemic restrictions and he and others behaved as if they were dancing in bondage, hoping that the blockade sword would be struck at any time. .. He said it would be too risky to speak out because it is run by a large publicly traded company. He wanted economists to be more frank.
The chairman of a listed conglomerate, which has many consumer companies, said that revenues have fallen off the cliff and some companies have to be closed and people let go. He is not a Christian, he said, but he prays to God every day to help him overcome this difficult time.
There are good reasons to be afraid to speak. Zhou’s post was censored, as did other couples of entrepreneurs who advocated a more balanced approach between anti-pandemic measures and economic activity. James Liang, chairman of travel site Trip.com and a trained economist, has written several articles. article We compared the pros and cons of various pandemic policies. Then, in mid-May, his social media Weibo account was suspended.
Your stakes can be much higher than some censored articles and suspended social media accounts.
Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has largely disappeared from public after criticizing banking regulators in late 2019. Last year, Alibaba was fined a record $ 2.8 billion.
Ren Zhiqiang, a retired real estate developer, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for requisition, bribery, misuse of public funds, and abuse of power. His supporters say his real crime was criticizing Mr. Xi’s response to the outbreak of the coronavirus in early 2020.
Zhou, 49, is known as a heretic in the Chinese business world. He started his first business in stereo systems with his brother in the mid-1990s when he was still in college. In 2010, he founded Yongche, one of the first ride-hailing service companies.
Unlike most Chinese bosses, he didn’t require employees to work overtime and didn’t like liquor-filled business meals. He refused to fund hundreds of millions of dollars and refused to participate in the subsidy war because it was financially meaningless. He eventually lost to his more aggressive rival Diddy.
He later wrote a bestseller about his failure and became a partner in a venture capital firm in Beijing. In April, he was appointed chairman of Caocao, a ride-hailing company that is a subsidiary of Geely Automobile Group, a major automobile manufacturer.
In an interview, Zhou is a Chinese citizen with a family in Canada, and in the past many wealthy Chinese like him moved some of their families and assets abroad, but because of the many opportunities they worked in China. Said.
Currently, some of the top talents are trying to move their business abroad. It’s not a good omen for China’s future, he said.
“Entrepreneurs are good at survivors’ instincts,” he said. “Now they are forced to look beyond China.” He coined the term “passive globalization” based on discussions with other entrepreneurs. “Many of us are starting to do that,” he said.
The prospect depressed him. China was once the best market in the world. Full of big, vibrant, ambitious entrepreneurs and hungry workers, many have rethought due to the meaningless and destructive Zero-COVID policy and business crackdowns.
“Even if your company is a so-called giant, we are not all in front of greater power,” he said. “The smell of the wind can crush us.”
All the business leaders I spoke to said they were reluctant to make long-term investments in China and were afraid that they and their company would be the next victims of government Tekken. .. They are focusing on their international activities if they have them or are looking for opportunities abroad.
Zhou rushed to Vancouver, British Columbia in late April, when Beijing was blocking many areas. Then he wrote an article and urged his peers to speak out and try to change their helpless position.
He said he understood the fears and pressures they faced. “To be honest, I’m scared too.” But if he didn’t do anything, he would probably regret it more. “Our country cannot continue this way,” he said. “It cannot be degraded in this way.”
In recent years, Zhou’s article and some of his social media accounts have been deleted. He said his candidness caused anxiety among his friends. Nothing changed, and some told him to shut down because he was causing unnecessary risks to himself, his family, his company, and his business stakeholders.
However, Mr. Zhou cannot help himself. He is worried that China will be like Mao Zedong’s time and become poor and oppressive. Entrepreneurs of his generation owe much of their success thanks to China’s reform and open policy, he said. They are responsible for making changes, not waiting for a freeride.
Maybe they can start by talking, even a little bit.
“Any change begins with disagreement and disobedience,” he said.