A first trip to Shenzhen, a key technology hub in the Greater Bay Area, by China's executive vice-premier signalled Beijing's strong hopes for the city and the region to help break intensifying US technological containment efforts, analysts said.

Ding Xuexiang's three-day inspection tour featured a visit to US-blacklisted drone maker DJI, local laboratories and a tech cooperation zone with Hong Kong, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

The trip, which concluded on Sunday, suggested there will be "no-limits support" from local authorities and central government ministries to tackle sanctions and implement a tech self-reliance drive, said Li Jin, an academic with the Renmin University of China.

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Shenzhen has a large swathe of tech companies, including Huawei Technologies, widely seen to have broken through the US ban on selling advanced semiconductor technologies to China by releasing its Mate 60 Pro smartphone in September.

China's largest exporting city is also home to the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone.

Last month, China's State Council reaffirmed efforts to turn neighbouring cities into national innovation engines by 2035, with the cooperation zone set to play a key role.

"The Greater Bay Area shoulders the mission of heralding tech innovation and self-sufficiency," Yuekai Securities said in June.

"It will be a frontier in the international competition of electronic and information technology, software and pharmaceuticals."

The Greater Bay Area is the Chinese government's scheme to link the cities of Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Zhongshan, Dongguan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing into an integrated economic and business hub.

Ding's visit follows Li Qiang's inspection tour in China's economic powerhouse of Zhejiang province earlier this month, which included a trip to surveillance system maker Hikvision Digital Technology.

China's premier balked at unfair blacklists and restrictions after Hikvision was sanctioned by the US Department of Commerce earlier this year due to alleged human rights abuses.

Ding, the sixth-highest ranking member of China's ruling Communist Party after being elevated to executive vice-premier in March, is Beijing's top official for Hong Kong and Macau affairs.

Such high-profile visits by state leaders are seen as Beijing's public endorsements for China's tech sector.

Earlier this month, the US Department of Commerce placed 42 Chinese firms on its blacklist for supporting Russia's military and defence industrial base.

During his visit to DJI, Ding called for collaborative innovation of upstream and downstream industries, as well as the integration of industry, academia and research. He also said enterprises should assume a leading role.

Ding's tour of Hetao - a special zone that straddles the border between Shenzhen and Hong Kong - also indicated Beijing's hopes of tech synergy, development and recruitment.

He also urged increased and broader partnerships among institutions, tech firms and manufacturers from both cities.

The zone is already home to a quantum computing centre, as well as data exchange and lab clusters operated by leading universities in Hong Kong.

Beijing's measures tailored for Hetao include a special data channel for Shenzhen researchers to access overseas websites and streamlined immigration procedures.

Many believe Beijing aims to replicate the success of DJI in Hetao, with the drone maker often hailed by state and regional officials as the epitome of collaboration between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Frank Wang Tao founded DJI after graduating from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2006, with Shenzhen seen as offering a fertile base to propel his start-up to become a world leader.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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