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Opinion | As US-led tech war heats up, connectivity is key to Beijing’s innovation ambitions
- The capital city must improve its coordination with nearby Tianjin and Hebei, and look to the Greater Bay Area tech cluster for lessons
- China must also establish outposts of innovation in friendly – or at least not so hostile – countries such as Singapore and South Korea
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As the US marshals its allies to starve China of access to leading-edge technologies as part of the tech war, China has been forced to upgrade its innovation capabilities. To that end, it plans to cultivate Beijing as a global tech hub through initiatives such as the Beijing International Science and Technology Innovation Centre. After all, Beijing’s Zhongguancun is seen as China’s answer to Silicon Valley, and the capital city has some of the country’s top universities.
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In the latest Global Innovation Index, Beijing is ranked third, higher than Silicon Valley, which is ranked fifth. But the Greater Bay Area is still recognised as China’s top science and technology cluster, second only to the Tokyo-Yokohama corridor globally. With extensive manufacturing capacities, the Greater Bay Area has a more complete innovation ecosystem than Beijing.
Overall, the United States is ranked as the world’s second most innovative economy (after Switzerland), while China is just outside the top 10. Importantly, the top 10 consists of mostly Western countries – other than South Korea and Singapore. No matter how capable China becomes, it would be difficult to single-handedly compete against the West technologically.
The US is ahead in innovation, although China boasts of two tech hubs ranked higher than Silicon Valley – why?
Both countries have 21 tech clusters each in the top 100. Perhaps the American clusters deliver better results collectively. For example, the constituents of the two innovation belts on the US coasts – from Seattle to San Diego, and from Boston to Baltimore – may interact better with each other. China’s supercorridor of innovation hubs, centred in Shanghai-Suzhou, extending to Nanjing and Hangzhou on the two wings, may collaborate less effectively.
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While Beijing itself may be a stronger tech hub than Shenzhen, the Greater Bay Area is matchless in China. The key to making Beijing a more effective innovation hub is not to elevate its pre-eminence, but to improve its coordination with Tianjin and Hebei, particularly in the promising Xiongan area. For China to advance its innovation performance, its role model should be the Greater Bay Area.
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