Why 2019 will be a bellwether year for tech entrepreneurs in China

The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Americans who flocked to China 15 to 20 years ago to build factories and open restaurant chains have despaired of the soaring labor costs, creeping regulation and the sour mood brought about by the Trump administration’s hostility toward China.

As many old-school US business people and merchants give up on China, new-economy entrepreneurs and digital nomads from around the world are settling down in China’s main metropolitan centers.

The turmoil of past weeks appears, paradoxically perhaps, to strengthen the resolve of Western startup founders who have already made the decision to grow their companies in China. The vast market size; founders’ assessment that the country’s opening up is for real—these are a call to action for gutsy folk to grab the opportunity here and now and set themselves on path to win first-movers’ luscious fruit.

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