Airport is about the only places that I have no problem with being Facial Recognition as long as the data is correctly handled because it contributes to the safety of so many parties.
A lot hardware startup that started from zero made a first product that can barely called a MVP (Gopro first product was a camera shell, DJI first product was flight controller) do you think such ultra minimalist product(yet very meaningful to understand customer) could have been done looking back now?
I agree with you that hands-on experience with manufacturing is crucial for getting your fist batch out. However,what stopped you from joining one of those hardware accelerators in shenzhen?
I kind of went through the same path as you and I am hooked. Are you building what you wanted to at this robot company? Can you describe the product vaguely?
I move out of china for college in japan and I feel I can view things without getting too emotional.
In practice when you are dealing with people from mainland they are ruthless about business and do not share/acknowledge the rules people follow in westerner and other Asian countries(most of they are not aware of it of course). We hear ton of story about Chinese company stealing IP.
China have this absence of culture in the last several decades that leave its people no core moral to follow. Whenever a business leader are portrayed in mass media, it is always about how well they are dominating the market, how fast they killed the competitors. While I talk to my Chinese relatives about business, all they care is profit.
Seems you are suffering from what a lot of Japanese married man have, no one gives a shit about your problems except that you bring back the bills.
There is a reasons people don't even date anymore here.
Take some time for yourself and don't stop hustling.
Sorry but I don't think that is a well-informed answer, and I am not speaking in favor of china. Speaking as a Chinese who studied aboard early-on here.
1.The government do promote innovation in a violent way and lays-down a lot of infrastructure. Start-up has hence became fashionable to do and they did produce a lot of useful product for domestic consumption which is a different playing field. A lot of time they don't need to go global (china have a bigger mobile game market than the US for instance) and that is part of the reason a lot of the products are not visible to the world.
2. Form my experience with Chinese start-ups they haven't accumulated the design thinking and attention to detail as SV does. They also lack the history of CS as the INTERNET got popular in china in the late 1990s. One exception of such lack of richness is DJI as the founder is dedicated and brought good culture.
So in short the Chinese are trying very hard, government are helping. They have the brain power but lacks richness and system to make real innovation, also sometimes they have no need to go global.