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Notes from China, Q3 2026 | Milan Cvitkovic

milan.cvitkovic.net · 1,058 words · saved by 1 readers

Context: I recently spent 2.5 weeks in China visiting universities, research institutes, clinical sites, companies of all sizes, and investors. Most meetings focused on biotech, neurotech, and AI. Conventional wisdom my trip corroborated US cities feel medieval compared to Chinese cities. I was expecting the cleaner, safer, greener cities with better trains, EVs, consumer electronics, etc. But I was surprised that Chinese cities didn’t feel bleak. I thought that would be the required tradeoff. China : Orwell :: US : Kafka VC is different in China. Well covered elsewhere: Chinese VCs avoiding losses rather than seeking power-law returns, the role of financial advisors, personal liability for founders, redemption rights, etc. Chinese and US tech entrepreneurs are more similar to each other than to either the modal Chinese citizen or the modal US citizen. At least in terms of personality, interests, and motivations. They might be similar in politics, too, but people were less open with me about that. They’re dissimilar in information diet. US entrepreneurs consume US media. Chinese entrepreneurs consume all the media the US entrepreneurs do plus Chinese media. This is mostly an issue of lack of interest, not lack of access, on the US side. Chinese companies feel less obliged than US companies to differentiate themselves or define themselves by a core competency. Hence the abundance of near-clone products, even in capital-intensive industries like implantable BCI. China and the US seem equally capable at translational biotech and neurotech R&D, overall. The standard caricature of comparative advantage seems right: The US funds a more diverse portfolio of companies and academic projects. China has more efficient regulators and clinical trials and supply chains and lab construction and just generally has more industrial fervor. The US’s market for therapeutics dwarfs China’s (and everyone else’s), and accordingly has larger pharma incumbents and more late-stage capital. F

Context: I recently spent 2.5 weeks in China visiting universities, research institutes, clinical sites, companies of all sizes, and investors. Most meetings focused on biotech, neurotech, and AI. Conventional wisdom my trip corroborated US cities feel medieval compared to Chinese cities. I was expecting the cleaner, safer, greener cities with better trains, EVs, consumer electronics, etc. But I was surprised that Chinese cities didn’t feel bleak. I thought that would be the required tradeoff. China : Orwell :: US : Kafka VC is different in China. Well covered elsewhere: Chinese VCs…

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