Your main point is the straw man. No one has said that social problems are better in China. The reason he was shocked over social problems in SF is because he is from Sweden and he idolized SV.
> As a Swede coming to the States, I was disillusioned. I had, as I think many young entrepreneurs have, idolized Silicon Valley as a utopian vision of an idealistic but well-meaning band of technocrats building the foundations for a just and democratic society, but in its place I found vanity, pettiness and greed. Not only did the emperor have no clothes, but the naked corpus revealed was unappetizing to my Swedish quasi-socialist ideals. Ultimately, I felt alone in Silicon Valley... I left.
The reason he's staying in Beijing isn't because it doesn't have social problems, but because he finds it more rewarding.
> "[...] I founded a tech startup in Beijing and chances are I'll stay there. Why? Because in many ways, Beijing has been a better breeding ground for my startup and for my own personal growth than I think Silicon Valley could be today.
> Before you object, I am by no means saying that China is a more just society than the States, or more technologically advanced - it was just clearly moving faster - and you immediately got the impression that Beijing was a city concerned with statecraft and the future of its people, rather than the latest hot gadget. For all its warts (and there are many), Beijing is a city with its eye on the future and a place that you can help shape.
> As a Swede coming to the States, I was disillusioned. I had, as I think many young entrepreneurs have, idolized Silicon Valley as a utopian vision of an idealistic but well-meaning band of technocrats building the foundations for a just and democratic society, but in its place I found vanity, pettiness and greed. Not only did the emperor have no clothes, but the naked corpus revealed was unappetizing to my Swedish quasi-socialist ideals. Ultimately, I felt alone in Silicon Valley... I left.
The reason he's staying in Beijing isn't because it doesn't have social problems, but because he finds it more rewarding.
> "[...] I founded a tech startup in Beijing and chances are I'll stay there. Why? Because in many ways, Beijing has been a better breeding ground for my startup and for my own personal growth than I think Silicon Valley could be today.
> Before you object, I am by no means saying that China is a more just society than the States, or more technologically advanced - it was just clearly moving faster - and you immediately got the impression that Beijing was a city concerned with statecraft and the future of its people, rather than the latest hot gadget. For all its warts (and there are many), Beijing is a city with its eye on the future and a place that you can help shape.