The Inside Story of China's High-Tech Industry: Making Silicon Valley in Beijing
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 Cover | |
| Author | Yu Zhou |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Asia/Pacific/Perspectives[1] |
| Subject | Economics, regional sciences, geography, planning, sociology, information technology, Chinese clusters of innovation (COIs), technology and society |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Published | 2007 |
| Publisher | Rowman & Littlefield |
| Pages | 214 |
| ISBN | 978-0-7425-5579-2 |
The Inside Story of China's High-Tech Industry: Making Silicon Valley in Beijing is a 2007 book by Chinese-American economic geographer and academic Yu Zhou. Zhou examines the early transformation of Beijing's Zhongguancun (ZGC) Science Park from an academic district with China's leading research institutes and universities to a technologically innovative entrepreneurial center in the information and communication technology (ICT) sectors since the 1980s. The author argues that the synergy of China's domestic and export markets have been crucial to technological learning and industrial competitiveness in China, challenging the notion that export and foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) are the primary drivers of progress in less developed countries.[2] The book was published by Rowman & Littlefield and is part of its Asia/Pacific/Perspectives series.[1]
Zhou is a professor of geography in the Earth Science and Geography Department at Vassar College. She lived in ZGC from the 1970s until her graduation from Perking University in 1989.[3][4] She received her PhD in geography at University of Minnesota.[3]
Summary
In 8 chapters, Zhou examines the development of the high-tech industry in ZGC, Beijing, between the 1980s and the mid-2000s—a critical transition period of China's technological growth and political changes. She explores the unique growth trajectory of ZGC, contrasting it with other East Asian export-oriented economies by highlighting China's blend of domestic and export market synergies. The book is divided into phases, documenting the birth of nongovernmental technology firms in the 1980s (also known as minying firms),[5] the impact of MNCs in the 1990s, and the rise of returnee Internet entrepreneurs in the 2000s. Zhou introduces a quadrangle innovation system involving domestic companies, MNCs, the state, and research institutes. The author analyses the role of MNCs, the influence of returnee entrepreneurs, and the state's efforts to set technological standards (e.g., its national standard for Wireless LANs WAPI), its third-generation mobile communication standard TD-SCDMA). Zhou interviewed more than a hundred of various enterprises in ZGC. While the book is academic, it is also highly readable by referring to the personal background of the author and many stories of entrepreneurs and other actors the author encountered in ZGC.
