Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tptacek 2408 days ago
What elephant? Can you be more specific about what's controversial about this? Expansion into China would at least be a coherent basis for this stuff; then, sure, you'd want to know what compromises YC might be forced to make to stay in the good graces of their new host. This is YC withdrawing from China.
2 comments
ivalm 2408 days ago
Totalitarian actions of the regime primarily against Muslim minorities (Uighurs), including concentration camps with >1M people.
link
rtpg 2408 days ago
Beyond the merits of "don't do business with anyone in China because of the actions of its government", I think that YC has not been known to take such strong ethical stands in the past.

The simpler explanation is probably that the business climate is super risky if you're the foreign partner in any sort of JV with China, and they thought they could work through it through ... charisma and sweat and tears. And it turns out that in fact it is hard even if you're some techy VC or w/e.

I think few question what the gov't is doing, but the question is more whether YC in particular was affected by actions in the past year that caused them to reverse course.

link
DiogenesKynikos 2408 days ago
That would be like a company withdrawing from the US because of its killing of a million people in Iraq, global kidnapping and torture program, or instigation of coups in Latin America. It's not a likely reason.
link
tptacek 2408 days ago
Yeah, no, I've read a newspaper in the last year. What exactly does that have to do with YC? They're withdrawing from China.
link
ivalm 2408 days ago
They made a mistake of going into China. The abhorrent behavior of the Chinese government was highlighted in recent events, so YC decided to pull the plug. Perhaps change in leadership also played a role in this. There is definitely an up-tick in public outrange in the West vis-a-vis China.
link
derekdahmer 2408 days ago
He's saying its weird they are withdrawing without saying why, when the human rights atrocities are likely a big factor.
link
ivalm 2408 days ago
If they overtly offend China this would negatively impact YC current portfolio companies, discourage current/future LP, and other make their business more difficult. So they went with an intermediate approach.
link
aguyfromnb 2408 days ago
>If they overtly offend China this would negatively impact YC current portfolio companies

Don't you see that this mentality is exactly the problem? Some of these comments are really surprising.

link
ivalm 2407 days ago
I agree with you. It's a tragedy of the commons, no one want to be "the one" who offends China if all their competitors do not. It's the same thing that drove the mad rush for Chinese market share.

However, despite realizing this problem, it is not clear what to do about it. Clearly, YC did not choose to become leaders on the issue.

link
aguyfromnb 2408 days ago
>Yeah, no, I've read a newspaper in the last year.

Did you read one prior to Summer 2018? Because when YC decided to go into China, there were people in internment camps then too. This stuff didn't start last year:

https://chinatribunal.com/

link
tptacek 2407 days ago
Again: this is YC leaving China, not expanding further into it.
link
icelancer 2408 days ago
The Chinese statement reads more like it is being renamed.
link
arcticfox 2408 days ago
I think you might be misinterpreting the parent. Nothing is controversial about the move itself, the elephant in the room is why they're doing it. They mention a change of strategy, but don't really spell out why.

It's pretty obvious why; everyone would be in China in a huge way if it wasn't for their trade abuse and/or human rights abuses.

link