This essay is part of my Stanford MBA application. I didn't get an offer, but the idea and story here is still worth sharing.

Throughout my upbringing, my parents told me not to be political. For them, the memory and horror of barely surviving the Tiananmen Square massacre was still alive. They constantly reminded me to lay low and mind my own business. Our upstairs neighbor, Cui Jian, now known as the father of Chinese rock, was their prime example. His song, “Nothing to My Name,” had become an anthem for the student protestors after he performed for them in 1989; the government sanctioned him from releasing albums or performing publicly for over 15 years following that performance. “If you get involved in politics,” my father likes to say, “only one of three things will happen: get censored, get jailed or get killed.”

Growing up with someone like Cui Jian so close by was inspiring, but I listened to my parents and avoided the political sector—until I arrived in California in 2008. I was a 16-year-old student with almost no understanding of US politics, but I couldn’t escape the excitement and hope that electrified the country when its first black president was elected: Barack Obama.

It took me 7 years and a lot of courage, before I jumped in with both feet. Apart from joining Hillary for America’s San Francisco office as volunteer, I became an advocate for fair regulations on the shared economy. Innovation, new technologies and new business models, can be disruptive and policy makers tend to overreact. When I was a software engineer at Uber, I designed a new feature for the company’s mobile app: it allowed tens of thousands of Uber riders and drivers to participate in the political debate and submit their public opinions. When New York law makers heard their constituents’ voice that Uber helps them get a ride in the city’s outer boroughs, the administration stopped a ban. In fact, Uber drivers are 57% more likely to drive to poorer neighborhoods than taxi drivers. Outside of work, I volunteered against the contentious Proposition F, which sought to restrict Airbnb rentals and was funded by the hotel industry. These experiences showed me that I didn’t need to pick between a career in tech and my budding interest in politics, and I want to shape public policy through tech and business innovation so that new technologies help the entire society instead of simply creating conflicts. Participating in politics this way is what matters most to me.

In the spring of 2017, I returned to Beijing as the head of Mobike’s mobile engineering team, knowing that I probably wouldn’t be able to influence the public sector anymore. As an outsider and non-party member, I remembered my parents’ guidance and focused only on the business. In six months, I grew the mobile engineering team from three to thirty and made our app the most downloaded and highest rated in China; our daily active users and daily trips quadrupled and the company overtook Uber to become the world’s largest online transportation platform. It was thrilling to participate in this growth, but frustrating to navigate the chaotic externalities that came with scaling a dock-less bike share without any regulation. As we grew, so too did the mountain-like piles of our bikes that formed in front of subway stations during rush hour. As Beijing city committees began to consider shutting us down, I wondered how we could leverage our leadership in this new market to shape public policies around it.

After talking to government officials, I understood what they need: more information to help them regulate the bikes, as well as a granular system that incentivized individuals to park their bikes in a more orderly fashion. So I initiated two projects. First, we created a data visualization platform with geo-fencing that feeds directly to the mayor’s office and urban administrative officers’ mobile devices so they can work with our city operations team instead of just fining us. With this platform, our company won a request for proposal at Beijing Dongcheng district.

Second, I leveraged my background in statistics to create a “civil credit score” system that includes not only user behavior, but also works in conjunction with existing financial credit agencies and other shared economy partners. The system still has a long way to go before it is fully integrated into Beijing or Chinese society, but in their 2017 White Paper, the Ministry of Politics stated that they see a path for shared economy to become a driving force behind China’s burgeoning credit system.

I’m happy to report that I got involved with a small part of Chinese politics without getting jailed, censored or killed. In the future, I hope to continue my civic engagement through technology and business.