Liu Chuanzhi, founder of China's largest PC maker, the Lenovo Group, advised his peers to "stay out of politics and only talk business" in a recent private gathering. Liu represents a group of entrepreneurs who support businessmen should focus on business. Jack Ma, founder of the Alibaba Group, was reported to have made a sensitive comment in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post, but in general, Ma stays "away from politics."

Some other entrepreneurs, who actively engage in shaping public opinion over politics, form a sharp contrast with business tycoons like Liu and Ma. Public opinion online has been divided, with a bigger part opposing the latter.

We think Liu's remarks are based on reality and reflect entrepreneurs' clear-sightedness and sense of responsibility.

Business in fact cannot be isolated from politics, but the attitude and approach to participating in politics could be different.

Liu and Ma are both groundbreakers who emerged since China's economic reforms. The two gained tremendous success in IT and e-business. They have profoundly influenced the market environment, governmental decision-making and the formation of industrial policy.

Economic reform as a whole cannot be separated from politics. Those involved have complicated experiences and feelings toward this.

Entrepreneurs like Liu assumed the role that the time expected them to take, and they managed their success despite tough realistic environment, set a strong example and inspired the latecomers.

However, the other category of entrepreneurs plays a more active role in public opinion, even though their enterprises contribute less in pushing China's economic reform than Lenovo and Alibaba, but they exaggerated their business influence in the sphere of public opinion. Some hold that they do so to further pursue commercial interests.

The choices of both categories are legal. But we want to emphasize that entrepreneurs rarely dominate public opinion in any country.

The restraint of Liu on commenting politics is in accordance with the common practice of most successful entrepreneurs. The public shouldn't force the politicization of entrepreneurs. Some do so due to their superficial understanding on the responsibilities of entrepreneurs, while some want to divide businesspeople into political camps.

The prime responsibility of entrepreneurs is to create more job opportunities and contribute more tax revenue. They could serve the society in a different way from politicians and opinion leaders.

Having experienced numerous successes and failures, entrepreneurs have their own profound understandings of society.

A majority of them choose to concentrate on business while keeping silence in public debate. They may hope to keep out of trouble, but most of them understand the complexity of Chinese society, in which problems cannot be solved through mere slogans. That's why they bury themselves in seeking success in business.