[leroy_masochist]

Wouldn't it be an abandonment of their duty of care to portfolio companies for them to poke the bear, though?

I get that if PG tweeted something like, "We're pulling out of China because they're violently repressing pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong and they run a re-education gulag archipelago for millions of Uighurs and they murder political prisoners so they can sell their organs through their state-administered transplant market", it would be satisfying to read -- but I'm not a YC alum. I don't run a company that could get screwed if YC lands on Beijing's shit list. Sure, that's probably a small slice of the portfolio, but this is still the right call from a business perspective.

Actions speak louder than words, and this decision was pretty clear.

[aguyfromnb]

>I don't run a company that could get screwed if YC lands on Beijing's shit list

The fact that not being on an oppressive country's "shit list" is at all a priority is exactly the problem here. If your company relies on making money from these places, you deserve to fail.

[Angostura]

> Actions speak louder than words.

Umm, your entire comment was pointing out how embarrassingly loud words can be, and therefore how it was better just to take a quiet action.

[leroy_masochist]

fair point, but I still think they did right by their portfolio companies here

[qtplatypus]

Also they had staff in China. So saying something like that could put that staff at risk.