Based on all 7151 investment events of venture capital (VC) on startups in China, the article built the Chinese VC network over the years. It examined the characteristics of the dynamic evolution of the Chinese VC industry from the viewpoint of social network structure and compared them with those of silicon valley. As a result, three conclusions are drawn. Firstly, despite the increasing VC network size in China, the network quality is declining. Secondly, the VC firms with different ownership have significant distinction in network position. Thirdly, in cooperative VC networks the Chinese VC firms are disadvantageous compared with foreign VC firms which positively capture the core position of the networks and with joint VC firms which gain more and more importance in network position with strong learning capability. Further analysis indicates that the rapid increase in Chinese VC firms without much emphasis on network building influences the quality of the Chinese VC networks. Hence, it is critical to give directions to the inexperienced Chinese VC firms. ©, 2014, Systems Engineering Society of China. All right reserved.