China absurdities overheard in Silicon Valley, courtesy of Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra

Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra speaking at Startup Asia Singapore 2014.

During a recent trip to Silicon Valley, Xiaomi vice president and former Google exec Hugo Barra took to Twitter to post some entertaining yet saddening misconceptions about China that he heard from Valley veterans. While these “absurdities” are by no means representative of everyone in Silicon Valley, they certainly show how in the dark many people in both Silicon Valley and elsewhere can be about China.

We decided to post these tweets to see if we can shed some light on where these delusions came from and why they’re wrong, as it’s certainly not the first time we’ve heard them.

China absurdities heard in Silicon Valley: #1 Chinese gov owns 51% of all companies in China

— Hugo Barra (@hbarra) November 1, 2014

This is probably the most forgivable assumption. No, the Chinese government does not own 51 percent of all companies in China. Most companies are completely private and operate as such.

The “51 percent” idea stems from state-owned entities that list on domestic stock markets. To maintain control of those enterprises and channel funds to them as it sees fit, the government keeps a majority share ownership, but this does not extend to private companies.

All three major of China’s telcos are majority-owned by the government in this way, as are most major utilities and oil companies in the country.

China absurdities heard in Silicon Valley: #2 Chinese gov owns all IP created after 5 years

— Hugo Barra (@hbarra) November 1, 2014