Tracking China’s astounding venture capital slowdown

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.

Heading into the new year, it wasn't known that the coronavirus, known as COVD-19, would shutter much of China, slowing its industrial output, its services industry and more. But heading into 2020, China's venture capital world was already in steep decline. This morning we're exploring the country's Q4 2019 venture capital results and pulling in fresh data from 2020 to get a handle on what's happening in China today.

Some years ago, China's venture capital scene was a clear global leader, busy vying for the top spot in global venture capital activity. So great was China's rise in the venture world you could find investors and founders alike extolling working culture in China as superior to that of the United States, paeans to the scale that China's population offered technology startups and some concerns that China's venture market could surpass the United State's own, creating a new center of gravity in the world of technology.

Views on China have since changed. Let's figure out how much.