If China is abandoning the Silicon Valley model, what will it replace it with? Insiders suggest it will be less founder-driven and more China-centric. U.S. antitrust action often focuses on strengthening consumer protections, but China’s crackdown is ultimately geared toward protecting government policy. Alicia García-Herrero, a top economist in Hong Kong at investment bank Natixis, notes that neither
Huawei nor
ZTE, which together have a lock on the Chinese telecom networking market, have been targeted so far, likely because they maintain
closer ties to government officials. “Full alignment with China’s leadership is a must to operate in China,” she says.