Beyond Huawei, Scientist’s Death Hurts China’s Technology Quest
The loss of renowned physicist Zhang Shoucheng highlights tensions over Chinese venture capital investments in U.S. technology startups.
China has a wall of venture capital money, including from chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
The death of a prominent Chinese scientist in the U.S. has passed comparatively unnoticed beside the blizzard of global headlines devoted to the Huawei dispute, yet the tragedy bears upon another important aspect of Beijing’s quest for technological leadership.
Zhang Shoucheng, an internationally recognized Stanford University physicist and venture capitalist, died on Dec. 1, the same day that the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co. was arrested in Vancouver. The 55-year-old had been battling depression, the South China Morning Post reported, citing an email from the Shanghai-born scientist’s family. In a later statement, the family said there was no truth in speculation on Chinese social media that Zhang’s death was connected to a possible U.S. government investigation into his venture capital fund, the newspaper reported.