Founder of China's 'Silicon Valley' dead

Chen Chunxian, who set up China's first private technology development company and founded the communist nation's 'Silicon Valley' in Zhongguancun, has died, media reports said on Tuesday.

He was 70.

Chen, who died on Monday, was China's eminent plasma physical scientist. He entered Sichuan University in southwest China at the age of 17 and, two years later, studied at Moscow University.

Chen worked at the elite Chinese Academy of Sciences for more than two decades and helped set up the nuclear fusion base in the academy.

After China's reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, Chen, nearly in his 50s, was inspired by America's Silicon Valley and proposed to set up China's 'Silicon Valley' at Zhongguancun area in north Beijing in 1980.

Against various reproach and pressure, Chen left the CAS and set up China's first non-governmental technology development company focusing on plasma technology.

He took the lead among Chinese technicians to start their own business and laid the foundation for Zhongguancun 'electronic street,' which has nurtured many high-tech enterprises, director of Beijing Non-governmental Entrepreneurs Association, Ji Shiying said.

With over 55 Fortune 500 companies establishing branch offices or R&D centres in Zhongguancun Science Park, Zhongguancun has become an important location for multi- national companies.