04-02-2021, 11:27 AM
China’s fastest growing city wants to be the next Silicon Valley — local systems may get in the way
- As China tries to build up its own technology, it looks difficult for other cities to replicate the success of Shenzhen, home to tech giants such as Tencent and Huawei.
- For example, the city of Xi’an has many similar ingredients for success but has lagged so far as analysts point to the dominance of the state.
- Shenzhen also benefits from its proximity to Hong Kong.
BEIJING — As growing pressure from the U.S. pushes Beijing to build up its own technology, local systems are getting in the way.
Over the past forty years, experimentation with business-friendly policies in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen helped turn it into the equivalent of Silicon Valley with homegrown tech giants such as Tencent and Huawei. But so far, other cities have yet to repeat Shenzhen’s success.
Meanwhile, national urgency for self-sufficiency in tech is central to a five-year development plan announced in March, with ambitious goals for research and development in seven “frontier” technologies such as semiconductors.
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