Eric Schmidt, 33, moved to Beijing in 2002 after graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. Schmidt didn't speak Chinese and knew little about business. His first entrepreneurial ventures included a basketball camp that had middling success: 'I made a lot of mistakes, ' he says.
岁的施密特(Eric Schmidt)从纽约州特洛伊(Troy)的伦斯勒理工学院(Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)毕业后在2002年搬到北京。当时他并不会说中文，对经商之道也不甚了了。他一开始创办的企业中包括一个篮球训练营，这个训练营做的还算成功。施密特说，我曾犯过很多错误。
But as China's market grew, Schmidt noticed that a little entrepreneurship club he had established in 2003 was getting standing-room-only crowds. In 2009 he turned the club into a business that focused on corporate networking and training. While such companies abound in the U.S. and Canada, the field was wide open in Beijing. Today, Schmidt's Cebex Group holds 100 conferences, forums and training sessions a year with companies like Microsoft, Citibank, KPMG and Lenovo. As for China? 'Once you get in, you don't want to leave, ' Schmidt says.
但随着中国市场不断壮大，施密特注意到他在2003年创立的一家小型创业俱乐部已经变得人满为患。2009年施密特将这家俱乐部变成了一家专攻公司社交网络和培训的企业。虽然此类公司在美国和加拿大比比皆是，但这一领域在北京还处于拓荒阶段。如今，施密特的Cebex Group每年举办百场会议、论坛和培训，其客户与合作伙伴包括微软(Microsoft)、花旗银行(Citibank)、毕马威(KPMG)和联想(Lenovo)。那么施密特现在如何评价中国？他说，只要你进入中国市场，你就不想离开。
Is the next Mark Zuckerberg going to be living in China? Seems that way, despite the negatives. In China, many rules for business are unclear or ill-defined, companies must operate under the whim of an authoritarian government, and founders can even go to jail for illegally borrowing money. But on a recent trip to Beijing and Shanghai, we met with entrepreneurs who were adamant they wouldn't be anywhere else.
下一位扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)有可能生活在中国吗？虽然有人持不同意见，但看起来差不多就是这样。在中国，许多商业规则制定的不甚明晰，企业必须学会和反复无常的中国政府打交道，企业创始人甚至可能因为非法借钱而被关进监狱。但最近在访问了北京和上海之后，我们见到了一批坚定看好中国的企业家。
Take Chinese-born Eric Wang, 26. Though he was brought up in Seattle and earned degrees in the States, when it came to starting an Internet car-sharing business, he didn't even consider the U.S. One reason had to do with scale: Recall the infamous highway snarl-up in 2010 that caused a 62-mile, nine-day traffic jam outside Beijing. His master's thesis was on solving transportation problems, and 'that traffic jam was just stuck in my head, ' says Wang. In 2011 he bought a one-way ticket to Beijing.
比如现年26岁、在中国出生的Eric Wang。虽然他在西雅图长大并在美国获得了学位，但当他冒出创办一家网络租车公司的想法时，他甚至没有考虑美国。其中一个原因与规模有关：回忆一下2010年京藏高速公路上发生的那次恶名远扬的大堵车事件。堵塞的车辆绵延大约100公里，堵车时间长达九天。Eric Wang的硕士论文就是有关解决交通堵塞问题的，他说，交通堵塞问题一直“堵在”我的头脑中。2011年他买了一张飞往北京的单程票。
Wang's parents, university professors in Seattle, were furious. 'They called me stupid, ' he says. One reason his parents left China was wide-open opportunity for their son in the U.S. But times change. 'You only have a few times in your career where you can shape an industry, ' says Wang.
Eric Wang的父母都是西雅图的大学教授，他们对儿子的行为感到愤怒。Eric Wang说，他们认为我很蠢。他的父母离开中国的一个原因是，他们认为儿子在美国有大把的机会。但时代在变。Eric Wang说，你的职业生涯中只有寥寥几次机会可以塑造一个行业。
The brain drain that has brought so many well-educated Chinese to the U.S. over the years is still alive and well -- but it's losing momentum. As of 2009 (the most recent year tracked), 89 percent of Chinese recipients of U.S. doctorates stayed in the U.S. at least five years after graduating -- down from 98 percent in 2001, according to Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. And in a 2011 Kauffman Foundation survey of American-educated Chinese entrepreneurs who returned to China, 81 percent said that superior opportunity was their chief reason.
多年来很多受过良好教育的中国人都去了美国，这种人才流失现象仍然较为严重，但势头正在减弱。橡树岭科学与教育研究所(Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education)的数据表明，截至2009年（这是所能获得的最新数据），在美国取得博士学位以后至少在美国待上五年的中国人有89%，这一比例低于2001年的98%。考夫曼基金会(Kauffman Foundation)2011年对在美国接受教育却回到中国的中国企业家进行的调查显示，81%的受访者表示，更好的机会是他们回国的首要原因。
China clearly wants to encourage that thinking. The government understands the drawbacks of state-controlled enterprise and is loosening its grip on small business, notes Colin Wu, a Chinese national who is vice chairman of the U.S. China Business Association. 'It realizes it has been too nosy, ' says Wu. One sign of progress: Several years ago, getting a business license could take more than six months and was so complicated that Schmidt's Cebex Group held seminars on the process. Now it's simpler and takes less than two months, Schmidt says.
中国显然希望能让更多的人产生这种想法。担任美中商业协会(U.S. China Business Association)副主席的华裔人士吴高林(Colin Wu)说，政府了解国有控股企业存在的缺点，目前正在放松对小企业的控制。他说，政府意识到它太好管闲事了。中国在这方面取得进步的一个迹象是：几年前，获得一份商业许可证可能需要六个月以上的时间，相关手续极其复杂，施密特的公司Cebex Group曾专门就这个问题举行了几场研讨会。施密特说，这方面的手续现在已经简化，只需不到两个月就能办妥。
Raising capital is another notorious problem under China's state-run capitalism. The government-run banks generally loan only to the low-risk state businesses -- and the below-inflation interest rates they pay to depositors discourage savers who yearn for higher returns. Angel investors and venture capital funds are allowed, but don't come close to meeting the burgeoning demand for loans. What's more, many business founders are reluctant to give up ownership.
在中国的国家资本主义经济制度下，筹集资金是另一个出了名老大难问题。由政府经营的银行一般只向那些低风险的国有企业发放贷款，这些银行的存款利率常常低于通货膨胀率，这令希望获得更高投资回报率的储户感到失望。虽然中国允许天使投资者和风险投资存在，但这些资金远不能满足中国企业快速增长的贷款需求。此外，中国的许多企业创始人都不愿意放弃对企业的所有权。
As a result, many entrepreneurs have only a few financing options: Their own savings, borrowing from immediate family or turning to the country's huge (and illegal) shadow banking system. Emblematic of the issue is the widely publicized case of Wu Ying, a 32-year-old entrepreneur who was sentenced to death for fraud after raising money from investors and failing to pay them back. Following a public outcry, the courts reduced her sentence to life in prison.
其结果就是，许多企业家只有屈指可数的几种融资选择：或是依靠自己的存款，或是向至亲借钱，或是求助于中国规模巨大（但也是非法的）影子银行系统。最能体现出这一问题的就是尽人皆知的吴英案。32岁的企业家吴英曾以集资诈骗罪被判处死刑，此前她从投资者手里筹集资金但却未能偿还这些钱。在公众对吴英的死刑判决表示不满后，法院将该案改判为无期徒刑。
The government is wrestling with bank reform to give cash-starved companies access to loans, according to Colin Wu. At a news conference this spring, Premier Wen Jiaboa called for allowing private capital into the financial sector and breaking up the 'monopoly' of big banks, and he endorsed bringing private finance into the open. In a pilot program in one city, investors have been permitted to set up private banks.
吴高林说，中国政府目前正努力进行银行业改革，以便能让急需资金的企业有机会获得贷款。温家宝总理今年春季在一个新闻发布会上呼吁允许民间资本进入金融领域、打破大型银行对金融业的“垄断”，他还批准民间金融业由地下经营转为合法经营。根据政府在一座城市推出的试点计划，投资者获准建立私营银行。
Turning on the capital spigot couldn't come too soon for Huiling Cheng, 48. Cheng borrowed from every member of her family to start CitiKing Trading, a Shanghai company that makes window-surfacing and wood products; within three years, she paid them back. Cheng says her 11-year-old firm, which has 300 employees, could be double its size if she had access to capital, but banks won't lend to her. 'It's very frustrating, ' says Cheng. 'We give our life to this business.'
对48岁的企业家陈慧玲来说，资金龙头的打开不可能太快到来。当初为创办生产窗膜和木质产品的企业上海德硅贸易有限公司，她向家人借遍了钱，后来她用三年时间偿还了这些钱。陈慧玲说，她成立11年的这家公司目前有300名员工，如果她有办法筹集到资金，公司规模有可能扩大一倍，但银行却不肯向她贷款。陈慧玲说，这真让人懊恼，我们把自己的生命都献给了这家企业。
Yifeng Hu, 35, started his mobile Internet company, iEdge, several months ago with his and his partner's savings, and may seek angel investors once the business gets some traction. In a Shanghai coffee shop populated mostly by students, Hu speaks French-accented English, a by-product of years working in the Paris office of Boston Consulting Group. He's drawn to a market where smartphone-application use is soaring. But he's also aware that the government can make rule changes overnight that could wreak havoc on his business plan. Even so, the opportunity outweighs the risk. 'Every company in the world is restricted in some way, ' Hu says, 'but still you can do something.'
35岁的胡一峰（音）几个月前创办了移动互联网公司iEdge信息科技有限公司，资金来自他以及合伙人的储蓄，在公司业务初具规模后，他有可能会寻找天使投资者。在上海一家顾客大多是学生的咖啡馆里，胡一峰说着带法国口音的英语，这是他长期在波士顿咨询公司(Boston Consulting Group)驻巴黎办事处工作的“后遗症”。吸引他投身中国手机互联网市场的是中国智能手机应用软件使用的快速攀升。但他也知道政府有可能一夜之间就改变游戏规则，而这有可能给他的业务计划造成巨大破坏。尽管如此，中国市场的机会还是多于风险。胡一峰说，世界上的每个公司某种程度上都是受到限制的，但你依然能做些事情。
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