Shenzhen: From reform's window to APEC's 2026 hub

My visit to Shenzhen in May 2025 was no ordinary tour — it was an immersion into the core of China’s modern development model.

From BYD’s green-energy revolution powering millions of EVs, to Leju Robotics’ labs where humanoids leap with intelligence, through Shenzhen Polytechnic University training tomorrow’s engineers, to the Shenzhen Museum chronicling the “fishing village that changed the world,” and finally to Shenzhen Daily, the city’s English voice to the globe — I saw innovation not as a buzzword, but as a way of life.

Shenzhen is more than a metropolis. It is a living experiment in integrated development — merging speed with vision, economy with identity, and local ambition with global responsibility. Born from China’s reform and opening-up in 1980, it has risen as “China’s Silicon Valley,” home to Huawei, Tencent, and DJI.

Thus, its selection to host APEC 2026 is no surprise — it is global acknowledgment of its unique capacity to embody the Asia-Pacific’s shared future. Shenzhen truly reflects APEC’s core ideals: open cooperation, responsible digital transformation, and inclusive green growth.

When regional leaders gather in Shenzhen in November 2025 , they won’t meet in just another city — but within a living model of tomorrow that proves progress need not erase identity, and that innovation can be a bridge, not a barrier.

In this way, Shenzhen fulfills its historic role: China’s window to the world, and the world’s mirror to a future built on cooperation — not competition.

I was deeply impressed by the global promotion campaign launched by the city of Shenzhen: “Make it Shenzhen” – APEC Global Promotion Campaign, which I read about in Shenzhen Daily.