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On Reflection | Shenzhen’s success story holds lessons even as US-China tech war bites
- China’s ‘Silicon Valley’, home to the likes of Huawei and Tencent, was once ridiculed for harbouring hopes of becoming a tech and innovation hub
- Its transformation is the result of a talent scheme by a city government that has learnt to tango with the private sector
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When I was first sent to Shenzhen as the Post’s correspondent 16 years ago, it was a city in crisis.
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Today people may view the rise of China’s “Silicon Valley” as a smooth success. The real story is much more complicated. At the turn of the century, Shenzhen – the poster boy of China’s economic miracle – was a lost adolescent.
Two decades of breakneck growth had transformed the sleepy village into one of China’s most dynamic cities, but increasingly it struggled to find a new direction. Up till then, the city’s growth was largely a result of Beijing’s preferential policies and its proximity to Hong Kong.
Yet, by 2004, these policies had already been extended to the rest of the country. Foreign investors began to venture deep into the country’s vast hinterland. Rising costs drove many manufacturers to cheaper places like Dongguan, threatening to hollow out Shenzhen’s economy.
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Politically, Shenzhen was in an embarrassing position of being sandwiched between the nation’s new darling Hong Kong and Guangdong’s traditional seat of power, Guangzhou. A proposal to elevate Shenzhen to a municipality was rejected by the central government.
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