风险共产主义 | 纽约时报在杭州创业小镇采风

Venture Communism: How China Is Building a Start-Up Boom

HANGZHOU, China — In Dream Town, a collection of boxy office buildings on the gritty edge of this historic city, one tiny company is developing a portable 3-D printer. Another takes orders for traditional Chinese massages by smartphone. They are just two of the 710 start-ups being nurtured here.

中国杭州。梦想小镇坐落在这座历史古城粗犷的边缘。一群方方正正的箱式办公楼中， 一家小公司正在开发便携3D打印机，另一家公司则通过智能手机接单，提供传统的中式按摩服务。这里孵化着710家初创企业，它们只是其中两家。

Anywhere else, an incubator like Dream Town would be a vision of venture capitalists, angel investors or technology stalwarts. But this is China. The Chinese Communist Party doesn’t trust the invisible hand of capitalism alone to encourage entrepreneurship, especially since it is a big part of the leadership’s strategy to reshape the sagging economy.

在其他地方，像梦想小镇这样的孵化器是风险资本家、天使投资人或技术拥趸的梦想之地。可这里是中国，中共不相信仅靠资本主义的无形之手就能鼓励创业，尤其这是领导层重振经济战略的重要组成部分。

Which is why the government of Hangzhou — a former royal capital that has been a major commercial hub for more than a millennium — built Dream Town and lavishes resources on start-ups. The businesses here get a slate of benefits like subsidized rent, cash handouts and special training, all courtesy of the city.

这正是杭州政府打造梦想小镇、投入大量资源鼓励初创企业的原因。杭州曾经是皇城，一千多年来一直是商业的中心。企业在这里可以获得一系列优惠，包括租金补贴、现金补助和特殊培训，全由政府买单。

Chemayi, which offers car repair services through a smartphone app, is staying rent-free at Dream Town for three years and is applying for as much as $450,000 in subsidies from city authorities to help pay salaries and buy equipment.

“车蚂蚁”通过智能手机应用软件提供服务，三年来一直得以免费使用办公场地，它正向市政府申请45万美元补贴，以支付工资、购买设备。

“From the central government all the way down to local governments, we have seen a lot of warm support,” said Li Liheng, co-founder and chief executive of Chemayi.

车蚂蚁的共同创始人、总裁李立恒说：“从中央到地方，我们得到了许多温暖的支持。”

For much of China’s long economic boom, young people flocked to manufacturing zones for jobs making bluejeans or iPhones. But today China is trying to move beyond just being the world’s factory floor. Policy makers want the next generation to find better-paying work in modern offices, creating the ideas, technologies and jobs to feed the country’s future growth.

中国经历了长时间的经济繁荣，年轻人拥进制造业地区，从事生产牛仔裤或苹果手机的工作，但如今，中国不想只做世界的车间。决策者们希望下一代人在现代化的办公室中找到收入更高的工作，创造思想、技术和就业岗位，推动国家未来的发展。

Premier Li Keqiang frequently calls for “mass entrepreneurship.” In March at the National People’s Congress, he bragged that 12,000 new companies were founded each day in 2015.

中国国务院总理经常号召“大众创业”。在今年3月的全国人大会议上，他声言2015年平均每天新增注册企业1.2万家。

The entrepreneurial embrace comes with lots of financial support. Across the country, officials are creating investment funds, providing cash subsidies and building incubators.

创业浪潮背后是财政的大力支持，全国各地的官员都在成立投资基金，提供现金补贴，建孵化器。

“Without these kinds of subsidies, you only rely on private money, and you wouldn’t see so many technology start-ups happening today,” said Ning Tao, a partner at Innovation Works, a venture capital fund in Beijing. “Without quantity, you cannot have quality.”

位于北京的风险投资基金创新工场的合伙人陶宁说：“没有这些补贴，你只能依靠私人资本，你就看不到今天这么多技术初创企业。没有数量就没有质量。”

But the heavy spending is adding to worries about an inflating bubble in the world of China’s tiniest companies. Along with the government funds, venture capital money is flooding the country. About $49 billion in deals were made last year, making China second only to the United States, according to the accounting firm Ernst & Young.

但巨大的支出加剧了对于中国小企业世界中泡沫膨胀的担忧。除了政府资金，风险投资也在涌入该国。安永会计师事务所称，去年协议额达490亿美元，仅次于美国，排名世界第二。

Some economists and entrepreneurs are concerned that the government is helping fuel a frenzy that might ultimately result in failed businesses, wasted resources and financial losses. Just one city, Suzhou, near Shanghai, has announced it will open 300 incubators by 2020 to house 30,000 start-ups.

一些经济学家和企业家担心，中国政府正在推动这种狂热，最终会导致企业破产、资源浪费和资金亏损。距离上海市不远苏州市，宣布到2020年将开设300个孵化器，容纳3万家初创企业。

Beijing’s policy makers have a long history of giving favored companies easy access to loans and subsidies to propel certain industries, with both good and bad consequences. Though that tactic lubricated the nation’s industrialization, it also contributed to the excess that has buried the country in empty apartment blocks, mothballed cement plants and sputtering steel mills — all of which threaten the economy’s stability.

北京的决策者们长期向受优待的企业提供贷款和补贴便利，以推动特定产业发展，其结果好坏参半。尽管这一策略加速了中国的工业化，也导致了过剩现象，出现了大量空置的办公楼、闲置的水泥厂和火花四溅的小钢铁厂，威胁着经济的稳定。

“I think the subsidies shouldn’t be a long-term policy,” Jin Xiangrong, an economist at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, said of the start-up support programs. “They can lead to overcapacity like the kind we see now in China’s manufacturing sector, which is largely a result of government support.”

浙江大学经济学家金祥荣说：“我认为补贴不应该成为一种长期政策。补贴可能导致我们现在制造业领域出现的产能过剩，这很大程度是政府支持的结果。”

The Children of 

At Dream Town, Mr. Li, 39, frets more about his own business. He got the initial idea for Chemayi in 2009 after a car accident. To find a trustworthy mechanic, he searched online, asked friends for advice and visited repair shops.

在梦想小镇，39岁的李立恒为自己的生意忙活。2009年出了一次车祸，他想到创建“车蚂蚁”。为找到值得信赖的机制，他上网搜索，咨询朋友，造访修理厂。

But Mr. Li found it difficult to judge who was reliable. A car culture — and all the services that come with it — is relatively new in China.

但李发现很难判断谁更可信，汽车文化及其衍生产业在中国还相对新鲜。

Aiming to fill the information void, he and three friends set up Chemayi in 2013 with 5 million renminbi (currently $750,000) of their own money. For an annual fee, Chemayi sends out staff members to help fix flat tires, paint scratches or repair broken-down engines.

为了填补信息空白，2013年，他和三个朋友自行筹资500万元创办了“车蚂蚁”，约合75万美元。车蚂蚁收取年费，派送员工给轮胎充气，修饰划痕，修理发生故障的引擎。

“Henry Ford is gone for so many years, but we are still driving his cars,” Mr. Li said. “I felt that I also must pursue a cause that will persist after I’m gone.”

“福特死了那么多年，我们还在开他的车。我感觉我要追求一个身后还能继续的事业。”

Chemayi beat out more than two dozen other start-ups for a coveted space in Dream Town in a 2014 competition. Another co-founder, Ouyang Feng, delivered a 40-minute presentation to a panel of judges who peppered him with questions about Chemayi’s business model and future prospects. The provincial governor watched over the grilling.

2014年的竞争中，“车蚂蚁”击败近三十家初创企业入主梦寐以求的梦想小镇。另一个创始者欧阳锋，给裁判们做了40分钟的演讲，其间裁判插话问他车蚂蚁商业模式和未来前景，省长观看了整个质问过程。

In the end, the committee awarded Chemayi a three-foot golden key that symbolically opened the doors to Dream Town.

最后，委员会授予“车蚂蚁”一把三英尺长的金钥匙，象征着打开了梦想小镇的大门。

Chemayi now has 284 employees in four cities, with plans to reach 1,000 by the end of the year. Mr. Li said his company had raised $22 million in private money and turned a profit of about 10 million renminbi last year.

如今，车蚂蚁在4个城市拥有284名雇员，计划年底扩张到1000名雇员。李表示他的公司私募到2200万美元，去年盈利1000万元。

“A lot of Chinese people want to be successful. They want to initiate change through innovation,” Mr. Li said in his spacious corner office, while fussing with a traditional Chinese wooden tea-making set. “That is a formidable power.”

李坐在宽敞的角落办公室，把弄着中式传统的木制茶具，他说：“许多中国人想要成功，他们想通过创新改变。这是令人敬畏的力量。”

Hangzhou is a natural center for China’s start-up fever. After China embraced capitalist reform in the 1980s, Zhejiang province, of which Hangzhou is the capital, emerged as a leading base for the export industries that fueled the country’s rapid growth. Factories pumped out products like socks and plastic Christmas trees.

杭州自然而然地成为中国初创企业热潮的中心。中国八十年代引入资本主义以来，以杭州为首府的浙江省一跃成为出口产业的大本营，驱动着国家的快速增长。这里的工厂大量产出袜子、塑料圣诞树等产品。

Now that zeal for commerce is being channeled into technology start-ups. Hangzhou is home to China’s most famous internet company, the e-commerce giant Alibaba, which has become a training ground for would-be entrepreneurs.

如今，这种商业热情正转向技术创业。杭州拥有中国最著名的互联网公司、电子商务巨头阿里巴巴——阿里巴巴已成为未来企业家的训练场。

The neighborhoods near Alibaba’s sprawling campus, once a poorly developed area on the city’s outskirts, now make up a budding tech center with newly built office parks like Dream Town, dominated by ambitious college graduates, angel investors and venture capitalists. The local restaurants have become hangouts to exchange ideas and gossip over fried squid and stewed pork and eggs.

阿里巴巴园区不断扩张，其周边原本是杭州郊区的欠发达地区，现在已经是欣欣向荣的技术中心，像梦想小镇这样的新建办公区拔地而起，雄心勃勃的大学毕业生、天使投资人和风险资本家行走其间。当地的餐馆成为交流思想的巢穴，人们吃着炒鱿鱼和元宝肉谈天说地。

Feng Xiao is typical of this new breed. Mr. Feng, 39 and a Hangzhou native, spent 11 years at Alibaba, mainly in sales and marketing.

冯晓正是这一新生人类的一员。39岁的冯是杭州本地人，在阿里巴巴工作了11年，主要从事销售和市场。

“There is a Chinese proverb, ‘The soil is too rich,’” Mr. Feng said. Alibaba “offered you a lot of opportunities. It was easy to have a sense of success. But I wanted to be able to start from scratch.”

“老话说的好，土太肥。”冯说，阿里巴巴“给了你太多机会，很容易产生成功感。但我想白手起家。”

His start-up was born in Alibaba’s cafeteria, where he ate meal after meal. “I really missed Mom’s cooking,” he said. He figured that many other people, trapped working for long hours far from home, felt the same.

他的创业公司诞生于阿里巴巴的食堂，他每天在那里吃饭，“我怀念妈妈做的饭。”他想到许多在外打拼的人也和他有着同样的想法。

Mr. Feng and two other Alibaba employees left their jobs in 2014 and opened a food delivery service, Mishi. Their plan was to connect people willing to prepare homemade meals with on-the-go professionals who were too busy to cook. They set up shop in a friend’s empty house, decorated with secondhand furniture and photos from home.

2014年，冯和两个阿里员工离职，开了食品配送公司“觅食”。他们计划让想自己做菜的人和忙忙碌碌没时间做菜的职场人士搭上线。他们在一个朋友家的空房中开了张，用二手家具和家里的照片装饰起来。

Along with raising $19 million from private investors, Mishi caught the eye of the Hangzhou city government. In 2014, district officials awarded Mishi 5 million renminbi to help pay the bills. Its rent in a Hangzhou office park is also subsidized.

“觅食”私募到1900万美元，并获得杭州市政府的青睐。2014年，区政府奖励“觅食”500万元用于支付日常费用，公司在杭州办公区的房租也得到补助。

“The most important thing on the part of the government is whether they are open” to new types of businesses, Mr. Feng said. “We are glad to see they are aggressively supporting us.”

“作为政府，最重要的事在于是否”对新型企业“保持开放”，“我们非常高兴地看到，他们大力支持我们。”

Hangzhou represents what Chinese leaders see as the nation’s economic future. The country used to generate astronomical growth rates by depending heavily on low-cost exports and extremely high investment in apartment towers, factories and highways. China built so many steel mills that it can produce 10 times as much steel as the United States.

杭州代表了中国领导人眼中国家经济的未来。国家过去严重依赖低成本出口和大量投资房地产、工厂和公路来实现高增长率，中国的钢厂产量是美国的10倍之多。

But today, costs are rising, eating away at the competitiveness of many export industries. The long investment boom has saddled the economy with too many factories and a mountain of debt.

但如今，成本上升削弱了众多出口企业的竞争力。长期的投资热让经济体拥有太多的工厂，负担巨额的债务。

Instead, policy makers are encouraging a shift to new growth engines, like services and high tech. The entrepreneurial focus is providing an economic boost for Hangzhou.

相反，决策者鼓励经济向新的增长引擎转换，例如服务业和高技术产业。着力于创业正在给杭州经济提供动力。

The city’s gross domestic product rose 10.2 percent in 2015, compared with the 6.9 percent national growth rate. Hangzhou’s service sector, which includes many start-ups, was the main engine of that strong performance, surging 14.6 percent.

2015年，杭州的GDP增长10.2%，而全国只有6.9%。杭州的服务业，其中许多是初创企业，成为强劲表现的引擎，增长达14.6%。

“The Chinese know that state-owned enterprises are not going to employ everybody,” said Hans Tung, a managing partner at GGV Capital, a venture capital firm that operates in both Silicon Valley and China. “They need young people to create jobs for themselves, so they are encouraging them to try something new.”

在硅谷和中国都有业务的风投公司GGV资本的任事股东Hans Tung说：“中国人明白国企不会雇佣所有人，他们需要年轻人为自己创造岗位，因此鼓励他们去尝试新的东西。”

Mishi, the food delivery start-up, has created 100 full-time jobs, and has bolstered the incomes of more than 10,000 home chefs.

食品配送初创企业“觅食”创造了100个全职工作，增加了10000名家庭厨师的收入。

Cai Liangen, a retired businessman turned Mishi cook, learned about the start-up when a marketing team visited his apartment complex seeking to enlist new chefs.

蔡连根（音）是个退休的商人，他现在是“觅食”的厨子，市场团队造访了他的住所，希望招募他为厨师，他这才知道了这家初创企业。

Last November, he and his wife began making local specialties in their kitchen, including a sliced pork dish prepared with “my mother’s secret recipe,” Mr. Cai said. They now receive 40 orders a day and earn 5,000 renminbi a month, increasing their total income 70 percent.

去年11月，他和妻子在厨房里做当地特色菜，其中一道菜是用“我妈妈秘方”烹饪的肉丝。他们现在每天接40单，一个月赚5000元，总收入提升70%。

“We do it because we love to cook,” Mr. Cai said, “but the money is good to have, too.”

“我们爱做饭，所以我们去干的，但赚钱也是不错的。”

A Swell of Subsidies

After submitting a 10-page proposal in 2014 to join a Hangzhou incubator, Ai Binke sat nervously before a committee of tech industry executives who questioned his future prospects. His software company, Yun Ran Internet of Things, had only four employees, and its business deals had been small. But his start-up, Mr. Ai explained to the committee, had great potential.

2014年为了加入一个杭州的孵化器，艾宾客（音）提交了10页的计划书，忐忑地坐在一个由技术公司的经理人组成的委员会面前回答问题，他们将决定自己的未来。他的软件公司“云然”物联网，只有四个员工，业务额还很小。但艾向委员会解释，他们潜力很大。

That was sufficient for the judges to award him 100,000 renminbi in subsidies. The bulk, roughly 70 percent, was instantly transferred into his corporate bank account. “As long as you run projects that are encouraged by the Hangzhou government, you can get the subsidies,” said Mr. Ai, 29. “It’s not very difficult.”

这足以让委员会给了他10万元补助，其中约70%立即转到他的公司账户内。“只要你运营杭州市政府鼓励的项目，你就能拿到补助。”29岁的艾说。“这并不难。”

Local governments around China are spending heavily on start-ups. In Shenzhen, authorities are offering to subsidize up to 70 percent of rent for “creative” start-ups. Local officials in the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu are setting up a 200 million renminbi “entrepreneurship and innovation development fund” and promising subsidies of up to 5 million renminbi.

中国地方政府对初创企业慷慨解囊。在深圳，政府补贴“创新性”初创企业的房租达70%。成都地方官员设立2亿元“创业和创新发展基金”，承诺支出补贴500万元。

Officials in Guangdong province in China’s south will cover part of a start-up’s losses. Even the lesser-known city of Yingtan, in an area of Jiangxi province mainly known for its ancient Taoist temples, is planning to build an incubator.

广东省政府还会弥补初创企业的部分亏损。江西省鹰潭，除了有不少道观外少有人知，如今也计划设立孵化器。

Hangzhou’s government has been one of the more active. Officials are forming a venture capital fund of 4.7 billion renminbi , with contributions from companies, according to the city’s website. This year, Hangzhou announced that it would give 100 million renminbi annually to help start-ups pay expenses.

杭州政府是最积极的。政府网站显示，它建立了47亿元风投基金，由多家公司出资。今年，杭州宣布将每年支出1亿元帮助创业公司支付企业运营开销。

But governments historically have a spotty record of using state-directed money to generate business success stories.

历史上，政府用国家的钱创造商业成功故事，结果并不总能成功。

During Japan’s high-growth decades, its bureaucrats tried to “pick winners” by selecting certain industries for support. Though they nurtured a few internationally competitive industries (shipbuilding and steel), they also had significant failures (chemicals and computer software). The Obama administration got a black eye for its financial aid to , which sank into bankruptcy.

日本高增长的几十年中，官僚们试图选择特定产业给予支持以“挑选赢家”。尽管培育了几个在国际上有竞争力的产业（造船和炼钢），也遭遇了败绩（化工和计算机软件）。奥巴马政府同样自食其果，他用财政支持Solyndra等太阳能科技公司，公司却陷入破产。

In China, government efforts to assist new businesses have often led to waste and excess. Too much investment pours into favored industries, spawning poorly conceived projects in areas like hotels and solar panels.

在中国，政府支持新商业的努力经常导致浪费。大量投资涌入受鼓励的产业，在酒店和太阳能板等领域都推进了计划不周的项目。

By trying to spur start-ups, the state is also engaging in a high-risk business that even for the most experienced venture capitalist is prone to produce more failures than successes.

国家试图鼓励初创企业，可涉足的是高风险行业，即便最有经验的风险资本家也失败多、成功少。

Hangzhou officials are trying to avoid such pitfalls. At Dream Town, the financial aid is often linked to a start-up’s performance. The amount of free rent depends on how much private capital a company can raise. Cash handouts are tied to revenue targets or top-selling apps.

杭州的官员试图避免这样的失误。在梦想小镇，财政支持与初创企业的业绩挂钩。租金减免的额度要看公司能筹集到多少资本，现金奖励与利润目标和销售额关联在一起。

Government officials also enlist professionals to help allocate the city’s money. The committee that judges applicants to Dream Town is usually made up of tech executives, financiers and academics.

政府官员还请专家帮忙，分配城市的资金。判断谁能入主梦想小镇的委员会通常包括技术公司经理、投资家和学者。

Ye Feng, a manager at another incubator who has sat as a judge on three occasions, said she quizzed the contenders on their technology, business plan and even product pricing.

某家孵化器的经理叶枫（音）三次当评委，她说她会在技术、商业计划甚至产品定价等方面拷问竞争者。

Usually about 30 start-ups appear at each competition. No more than four make the cut to enter Dream Town. “The competition is quite fierce,” Ms. Ye said. “Sometimes it’s hard to make a decision.”

每次竞赛一般有30家初创企业，只有不超过四家企业达标进入梦想小镇。“竞争相当激烈，有时很难做出抉择。”

But some in Hangzhou fear that the government is doling out too much money, and it is flowing to start-ups with weak business plans and feeble prospects. Mr. Ai of Yun Ran said that two neighbors also received city subsidies. One, a robotics start-up, failed to attract private capital and closed, while the other, a mobile game company, is struggling to stay afloat as its business withers.

但杭州也有人担心政府分发的钱太多了，钱流向那些商业计划不佳、前景渺茫的初创企业。“云然”的艾宾客说两家邻居也获得了城市补助。一家是机器人初创企业，因为筹不到私人资本而倒闭，另一家是手游公司，业务萎缩，苟延残喘。

The government money, Mr. Ai said, often cannot replace the private capital necessary for start-ups. “Without financing, it would be very hard for them to survive,” he said.

艾说，政府的钱不能代替初创企业所需的私人资本。“没有融资，他们很难存活下去。”