Mary Harms on Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and China's Innovation Strategy

Summary

Journalist Mary Harms reports on her ten-day research trip to Shenzhen and Hong Kong. She describes Shenzhen as an ultramodern innovation city with continuous digital surveillance, efficient infrastructure, and cutting-edge drone technology. In contrast, Hong Kong presents itself as a Western-influenced financial hub with its own identity. Harms analyzes how China's disregard for data protection and state-sponsored open-source strategies accelerate innovation, while simultaneously illuminating the complex perceptions of these developments on the ground.

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Detailed Summary

Shenzhen: The Ultramodern Innovation City

Mary Harms describes her arrival in Shenzhen as overwhelming. The city presents itself as a futuristic metropolis with extreme modernity and technological pervasiveness. The most striking feature is the nearly completely electrified transport infrastructure – on highways, thousands of electric cars drive with minimal noise emissions. Houses are equipped with millions of chips on their facades, which create spectacular light effects in the evenings. At the same time, the city appears surprisingly clean, green, and partly empty – despite more than 20 million people living there.

The System of Digital Control

The heart of Shenzhen is the so-called "Shenzhen Smart City Group" – a company that captures and controls the entire city as a digital twin. Every aspect of city life is monitored: from trash on the street to defects in the subway. Cameras are ubiquitous. As a German journalist, Harms initially found this permanent surveillance unsettling, but adapted relatively quickly. She emphasizes that her personal behavior did not change as a result – it was more of an inner acceptance of the situation.

The efficiency of this system is impressive: if trash lies on the street, it is detected, located, and quickly removed. When subway defects occur, repairs are automated. New districts are planned based on data from other areas – from the placement of helicopter landing pads to the optimal distribution of subway stations.

Drone Logistics and Low-Altitude Economy

A particularly striking phenomenon is the drone delivery service. At various stations in Shenzhen, large DJI drones regularly land to deliver packages – multiple times daily. Harms spontaneously ordered from McDonald's, and the food arrived within minutes by drone. These drones fly at approximately 150 meters altitude over citizens' heads – a normality that seems surreal to Western visitors.

Innovation Through Data Protection Disregard

Harms analyzes that China's disregard for data protection is a massive innovation driver. The digital twin system enables planning based on real data. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city could precisely estimate how many people live where and optimize medical care accordingly. The efficiency is unprecedented – but at considerable cost to individual freedom.

Open-Source as State Innovation Strategy

A second, less well-known innovation driver is China's state-sponsored open-source strategy. The Chinese state promotes companies through its five-year plan if they disclose their source code. This means: a company develops something, publishes the code, and the next company builds on it. This massively accelerates innovation – at the cost of individual firms' competitive advantage. A company quickly loses its unique selling points when competitors can copy and improve the code. Nevertheless: companies can build on these improved versions themselves, remaining part of the system.

Shenzhen vs. Other Chinese Zones

Harms identifies several factors for Shenzhen's success: less data protection, open-source strategies, massive state subsidies, and a clear strategic vision. The city was transformed from a fishing village to a megacity through consistent political and financial investments.

Hong Kong: The Western Alternative

Hong Kong, only an hour's drive away, is a "completely different world". The English colonial past shapes it to this day: Western architecture, international banks, English language influences. Hong Kong is a global financial hub and gateway to mainland China.

Crucial is the political situation: When Hong Kong was returned to China, the Chinese government introduced the national security law – which led to massive protests. These protests were often depicted one-sidedly in Western media (including Harms' own earlier reporting) as pro-democracy and anti-China.

Complex Perspectives in Hong Kong

Harms conducted intensive conversations with leading figures from Hong Kong media companies and learned that perceptions on the ground are more nuanced. In newsrooms sit journalists from various conflict regions (Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, Tibet) who hold different perspectives. While some criticize police violence during protests, others argue that not all police officers were brutal and that demonstrators also used chemicals. Some hold the view that stronger ties to mainland China are economically advantageous.

Harms admits that as a Western journalist, she did not adequately reflect this diversity of perspectives initially.

Hong Kong's Relationship to Shenzhen

Previously, Hong Kongers dismissed Shenzhen and viewed their own city as superior. Today this has reversed: Shenzhen has "overtaken" Hong Kong in several areas. Hong Kongers now look with respect at Shenzhen's development and recognize that closer cooperation could also benefit Hong Kong.

Journalistic Conclusions

Harms emphasizes that critical issues – self-censorship, lack of opposition voices, bounties on critics – remain relevant and must be documented. At the same time, she calls for differentiation: "freedom" is defined differently in China than in the West. She learned from citizens whose grandparents lived in poverty and who today live in prosperity – which she does not want to defend, but wants to understand as part of reality.

Her core message: Many truths coexist. Perspective is decisive. Journalism should remain multi-perspectival without avoiding critical questions.

Key Statements

• Shenzhen is an ultramodern city with continuous digital capture of all aspects of life – from traffic to trash
• The lack of data protection culture enables efficient city planning and rapid problem-solving, but costs individual freedom
• Open-source strategies, state-sponsored, accelerate innovation through knowledge sharing between companies
• Drone technology is already everyday in Shenzhen – delivery services regularly fly over pedestrians' heads
• Hong Kong differs significantly from Shenzhen through Western influences, but increasingly remains bound to mainland China
• Perspectives on China's development are more nuanced and less polarized on the ground than often portrayed in Western media
• Prosperity gains (700 million people lifted from poverty) are central for many Chinese and cannot be ignored
• Journalism should ask critical questions while simultaneously seeking to understand systems rather than merely judge them

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