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Shenzhen – 40 years of radical growth
As the Chinese Communist Party central committee meets to discuss the next Five Year Plan, KENNY COYLE takes a look at the extraordinary success of what is today a dynamic megacity and home to many of China’s cutting-edge companies
A view of skyscrapers in Shenzhen [Dutch National Archives / Creative Commons]

WHEN Chinese leader Xi Jinping returned to the southern metropolis of Shenzhen earlier this month, it was a visit to mark the city’s 40-year transformation and also to praise it as a pioneer of China’s “New Era.”

Shenzhen has grown from a collection of small fishing villages in southern China’s Guangdong province in the 1970s into a dynamic megacity of 13 million. 

Shenzhen’s growth is mind-boggling — see “China dynamo Shenzhen’s GDP swells 10,000-fold in 40 years” (Nikkei Asia, August 26 2020). 

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