Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Non-Fiction 2020complete | Page 90

port is premised upon the principles of transparency and openness, and to claim that these values would be
eroded is unfounded at best. However, Hong Kong’s technological sector has seen limited fanfare as
opposed to the symphony of inventions across the border: a major example was when DJI CEO Frank
Wang, a student at the HKUST founded his company in Shenzhen after not being able to get financial
backing in Hong Kong, due to sky-high costs and a lack of government support. Despite these constraints,
however, Hong Kong Science Park has still nurtured quite a few innovative companies, and SenseTime’s
success is a testament to this when it was founded in 2014. In a mere five years, the company has defied
expectations and now is the world’s most valuable A.I. start-up at $4.5 billion, with joint research programs
with acclaimed universities such as Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Tsinghua University, and
Peking University. Learning from examples like these, the governments of both cities have agreed to
commence construction of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park, a vanguard for
technological exploration located on the border.
Moving northwards, Hong Kong’s younger counterpart shines enthusiastically as a metropolis ready for
change. Often referred to as “China’s Silicon Valley” and home to titans such as Tencent, Huawei and
Alibaba, Shenzhen’s attention to investment in research and development is almost unparalleled: its use of
4% of its GDP in 2018 is rivalled only by the innovative economies of Israel and South Korea. For instance,
Tencent’s brainchild Wechat is the most popular social media network in the world, connecting around a
billion users. However, to suggest that it is a social media application would be a vast understatement: it
offers a multitude of features, ranging from online payments to video calls to options for advertising. In
reality, it means that one can pay for groceries, book an appointment to the doctor, and send anyone a
voice message while catching up with your friends’ latest adventures, not to mention to pay for utilities in
case you’ve forgotten, all without leaving the app. It is then no surprise that Tencent is one of the miracles
of the past decade: its Hong Kong-listed stock price increased up to 12,200 percent since its inception in
2014. In addition, the smartphones that are used for accessing this expanding network could take a radically
different form: Huawei, another tech giant headquartered in the vibrant city of Shenzhen, which stretches
from the smartphone industry — in which it is neck and neck with the global leader, Samsung — to the
nascent 5G sector, a subject that has attracted global attention. It is then easy to foresee a future where you
can call a taxi and pay the driver in advance, when you tap on your Huawei that boasts a smorgasbord of
features, including a top-class semiconductor chip that could be manufactured by Alibaba, which recently
released the Hanguang 800 chip that the firm claims to be the fastest in the world. Although the artificial
intelligence chip right now is being used internally for product search and advertising, it is not impossible to
envision a future where the two titans join forces and create a chip that could be used both for supporting
smartphones and digital infrastructure.
These electronics could be assembled just a few miles up north in the city of Dongguan, which is suffering
from its overreliance on migrant workers: some 75% of its 8.3 million population are migrants who leave the
city deserted during festivals such as during Chinese New Year. Instead, it has repositioned itself as a
production base, as more enterprises are attracted to its allure. It is already home to about 9,000 enterprises
according to the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council, and it is readjusting to meet the demand of
neighbouring cities. Spanning an area of 60 square km, the emerging district of Binhaiwan will be a hotspot
for innovative industries, including university startups which have seen increased engagement in the
technological sphere. One in five smartphones in the world are made in Dongguan due to its large
workforce and abundant supply of materials, and this is set to accelerate as semiconductors are in the
spotlight of the city's development. A major reason for this is the “Made in China 2025” plan: China aims to
produce 40% of the semiconductors it uses by 2020 and 70% by 2025. Self-sufficiency is significant as the
global economy is still volatile in the wake of the US-China trade war, and Dongguan is a prime actor in
realising that goal in the years to come.
Hop on a state-of-the-art high-speed rail and you could be minutes away from Guangzhou, the
provincial capital of Guangdong and the region’s most populous city. Apart from the spectacular
transportation network that solidifies its position as a gateway city, its culture which had been shaped by
decades of change is also worthy of attention. The Wuxian Guan, a Taoist temple engraved with sculptures