Will China overtake the West or has it already? – part 2

The United States is the land of Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook. But Silicon Valley has had 50 years to get to where it is today. China has had less than a dozen, which gives us an idea of where it’s headed and how fast it’s going there.
美国有谷歌、亚马逊、苹果和脸书。但硅谷花了50年才走到今天的地步，而中国只用了不到6年的时间——这让我们见识到中国的发展目标，以及发展速度。

We nailed venture capital, but we don’t have the answer to everything — and it would be dangerous to think we do. We’ve shown that we can raise money and spend money, but that could skew our expectations and lead to bubbles in valuation. I worry that American entrepreneurs feel good based on how much they’ve raised rather than what they’re actually producing.
我们得到了风险投资，但钱并不是所有问题的答案——如果这么想将是极其危险的。我们已经展现了融资和花钱的能力，但这会扭曲我们的期望，使估值泡沫化。我担心美国企业家会因他们融资的多少而感觉良好，而不关心他们实际能制造些什么。

Let’s look at how we stack up when it comes to those ingredients for success. Right now, in Silicon Valley, we have a talent shortage. We need more access to capital. Our resources are more expensive. And we’ve condensed our start-up culture into 60 miles in one valley, or in New York City, or Austin or Los Angeles while we should have had 50 Silicon Valleys in America.
让我们看看我们拥有哪些以上所提及的成功要素吧。目前，不仅硅谷面临人才短缺问题，而且我们还需要更多的融资渠道。同时，我们的资源日益昂贵，而我们又把整个创业文化压缩在一个60英里的山谷中，而不是纽约、奥斯丁或洛杉矶，其实美国本应该有50个硅谷。

Then there’s attitude. When I’m in Beijing or Shanghai, I have a happy sense of enthusiasm about what we can do in the future, and its insatiable; it’s palpable.
接下来是心态的问题。当我在北京或上海时，我对未来能够做的事情充满愉悦的热情，这种感觉永无止境，且非常明显。

In Silicon Valley, the feeling seems to be that if you haven’t raised a billion dollars, you’ve failed. The question is, do we still have that necessary hunger for success, or has entrepreneurism become this industry that needs to feed itself?
而硅谷给我的感觉似乎是，如果你不能筹集到10亿美元，那你就是失败的。问题是，我们还有那种对成功的渴望吗？企业家精神去哪儿了？

But the fact is, any of China’s rising start-ups could easily be the next Alibaba — and they won’t just be catering to the Chinese market. Which means the question is not so much whether China can keep up with the West, it’s whether we can keep up with China.    

但事实上，中国任何一家蒸蒸日上的创业公司都能很轻易地成为下一个阿里巴巴，而且它们将不再仅仅关注中国市场。因此，问题不再是中国能否赶上西方，而是我们能否追上中国。

I’m not trying to alarm anyone. But we need to rethink the idea that the West is ahead of everybody else. Yes, we have more companies, but China is catching up — and doing it with less capital.
我并没有给任何人制造恐慌的意思。但我们须重新审视西方领先所有人的想法。的确，我们有更多企业，但中国正在迎头赶上——而且所花资本更少。

This has implications for governments, multinational companies, and anyone who cares about the future success of the world’s technology powerhouses. What’s happening in China is fascinating, and we need to be more mindful of it. If we know more about it, we’ll be able to make better decisions.
对于政府、跨国企业、以及任何关心中国这个世界科技强国未来成就的人而言，这都意义重大。中国发生的一切令人叹为观止，我们需要对此投入更多的注意力。对中国了解的越多，我们就能作出更好的决策。

I want the rest of the world to feel the same kind of optimism that I feel when I’m in China. But if only one or two countries are keeping up with China, the rest are falling behind. I don’t want us to think we’re ahead in a game that we’re not actually winning.
我希望其它国家能感受到我今天在中国感受到的这种乐观态度。但如果只有一两个国家能与中国齐头并进，那么其它所有国家就被落在后面了。我不希望我们在这场并未获胜的游戏中自我感觉遥遥领先。