Chinese drones in Silicon Valley show governments' startup fever

New York

EHANG, a Chinese drone maker, raised money in the US from online crowdfunding and venture capitalists. Back home in Guangzhou, the government pays its rent. Marketed in the US as playthings for a 12-year-old, the drones sell in China as state-subsidised surveillance tools used by police departments.

A public-private blend, Ehang is either a dilemma or a model for states around the globe seeking to recreate the secret sauce of Silicon Valley. The debate is often cast as one between creative libertarians demanding that governments stay out and officials who counter that innovation dies on the vine without state fertilisation. It turns out that the hidden hand of government has been more significant than inventors like to acknowledge - yet subtler and less predictable than advocates realise.