Two sides of the coin

Amid rising protectionist and anti-trade rhetoric, the DSR, however, could easily fall into the narrative of the race for global technological supremacy. At stake is the future of technologies that will reshape the world in flux.

Geopolitical storms continue to flag mounting concerns over data security, cyber sovereignty, and espionage, "leading some economies to approach Chinese technology with caution", Li warns. Regulatory differences and varying data protection laws also make it challenging to navigate the intricate world of compliance, says Zou Shujun, executive president of the National Eastern Tech-Transfer Center (NETC).

While addressing gaps in infrastructure and digital literacy remains a lofty goal of the initiative, Zou says it will not be an easy task to help BRI economies with underdeveloped digital infrastructure and limited access to terminal equipment.

Li sees such challenges as two sides of the same coin. On the flip side, "geopolitical pressures can serve as a catalyst for domestic innovation, pushing China toward breakthroughs in critical technologies," she reckons. "Additionally, escalating geopolitical tensions incentivize China to diversify its global partnerships by engaging with a broader range of countries."

Li and Zou point to stronger protection of intellectual property rights as a policy trend, a pressing issue and a new way to foster international trust.

China's leading role in innovative fields, such as telecommunication, high-speed rail, renewable energy, electric vehicles and battery, and drone technology is what fundamentally positions the nation as "a central player in global technology networks", Li notes.

Collaboration remains the name of the game, says Zou, who sees opportunities arising from expansion of the digital economy along BRI countries and strategic partnerships in life sciences and renewable energy.

At a critical historic juncture, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has all the elements needed to be major contributing factors, more significant than ever before.

The southern China tech powerhouse, home to a constellation of prominent tech companies in the world's second-largest economy, is known for possessing the finest minds and impeccable strengths in research and development. Li highlights the region's unique combination of different legal and tax systems, currencies, and customs regulations that presents a complex environment for policy implementation, capital flow, talent exchange, and business operations.

"This diversity enables the GBA to serve as a large-scale testing ground where regulatory bodies can collaboratively develop policies and measures to minimize cross-border friction," she says. "In this sense, the GBA acts as a practical laboratory for addressing the cross-border business challenges that are likely to arise on an even larger scale along the DSR."

Hong Kong, the digital gateway of the DSR, sits at the center of the region's tech success, Zou says, betting on the city's financial hub status to support digital finance and cross-border transactions for the DSR, and its capability of enhancing regional connectivity with smart logistics and infrastructure.

The 11-city cluster Greater Bay Area has been a witness and contributor to, as well as a participant in China's technology transfer that has come a long way since humble beginnings in the 1980s. "Leveraging foreign technology was a major characteristic during the initial phase," Li says.

This learning process contributed to the long-held stereotype that once saw China derisively dubbed a copycat, notes Li, citing jokes in those days suggesting that "B2C" meant "Bring to China" and "C2C" meant "Copy to China".

Embracing innovation

China has charted its course of commercializing scientific and technological achievements, and fostering closer collaboration between academia and industry in the 1990s.

But, it wasn't until the 2000s that the country embraced the longed-for strategic shift to indigenous innovation, placing strategic emphasis on domestic research and development and technology transfer within its borders, Li recalls.

Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Shanghai's Pudong district, Zou says, stands as testament to regional innovation efforts at the time.

The next turning point came with an innovation-driven strategy calling for a fundamental shift from manufacturing to high-tech and innovative industries in the 2010s, according to Zou. The turnover in technology transfer in Shanghai, where NETC is based, hit 485 billion yuan ($66.8 billion) last year, accounting for more than 10 percent of the financial hub's gross domestic product.

With the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) outlining ambitious technological goals and a burning desire for greater self-reliance, especially in key areas like AI and quantum computing, semiconductors, and biopharmaceuticals and health tech, innovation has been recognized as a core economic driver of national strategic importance.

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