How China’s Yangtze River Delta became a tech powerhouse

Start-ups rise fast where traditional manufacturing once ruled – powering Beijing’s innovation and self-reliance push

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Published: 6:00am, 25 Jun 2025Updated: 3:29pm, 15 Jul 2025

This is the second story in a three-part series exploring how China is betting on regional hubs to counter global trade risks and reshape its economy. In this piece, we focus on the Yangtze River Delta’s evolution into a hi-tech heartland central to China’s ambition for greater self-reliance.

In Suzhou, eastern China’s Jiangsu province, the start-up Magic Lab specialises in full-sized humanoid robots designed to interact with people and work in factories – just one example of the Yangtze River Delta region’s transformation into a national innovation hub.

“More than 90 per cent of the components, including critical parts like torque motor joints, actuators, control units and dexterous robotic hands, are developed in-house and locally manufactured,” said Wu Changzheng, the company’s president and a graduate of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. “The other 10 per cent is in central processing units (CPUs).”

Magic Lab is one of thousands of cutting-edge ventures reshaping Jiangsu and neighbouring Zhejiang province. Once known for producing textiles, chemicals and machinery, the Yangtze River Delta is now home to a new generation of firms developing technologies critical to China’s future.

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How China’s Yangtze River Delta became a tech powerhouse

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Start-ups rise fast where traditional manufacturing once ruled – powering Beijing’s innovation and self-reliance push

Start-ups rise fast where traditional manufacturing once ruled – powering Beijing’s innovation and self-reliance push