China's Silicon Valley

On the second and final day of CHINICT, China’s biggest tech conference (which TechCrunch has been streaming and organizers tweeting) it's evident that some of the hottest tech innovations are occurring in Beijing's backyard.

As CHINICT organizer Franck Nazikian tells TechCrunch, “China is now challenging Silicon Valley’s supremacy on two fundamentals which once made Silicon Valley the global brand for tech innovation and entrepreneurship."

Not only is China "challenging Silicon Valley’s supremacy by becoming a leading hotbed for tech innovation of global impact, as Nazikian puts it; tomorrow’s Google, Microsoft, or BlackBerry-maker RIM (all CHINICT 2010 sponsors) are now incubating in China.

"The era of the Chinese copy/paste model, if there ever was one, is definitely over: the Western propaganda arguing there is no innovation in China does not change the facts," Nazikian contends. "China is challenging Silicon Valley supremacy as a magnet to attract top-tier entrepreneurs coming from all over the world.”

Jameson Hsu, CEO of MochiMedia, a Silicon Valley company that was just acquired by Chinese gaming company Shanda for more than $80 million, adds: “I had the opportunity to sell my company to several major players in the US, including Google, but I chose Shanda to start understanding better the Chinese market – where I plan to start my new venture at some point.”

China is the tech world's new economic "black." It also helps that the global downturn hasn't affected its economy and consumers to the extent of other nations, as KPMG recently found. Interestingly, China is now second to the U.S. in billionaires. That's a lot of cash and energy to inspire the next Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or other tech entrepreneur in Beijing, Shanghai or beyond.