China, Once a Major Polluter, Goes All-In on Eco-Friendly Tech

There is a saying in China: "To see China's past, go to Beijing; for its present, look at Shanghai; and to see its future, go to Shenzhen." If the United States has Silicon Valley, China has Shenzhen. Located just north of Hong Kong, Shenzhen was little more than a rural village relying mostly on fishing and agriculture until it was designated as a special economic zone under the reform and opening-up policy in the 1980s. In fact, millions once risked illegal immigration to Hong Kong in search of jobs. Today, however, Shenzhen has transformed into an entirely different city.

China's leading high-tech companies, including Tencent, BYD, Huawei, and DJI, are all headquartered in Shenzhen, alongside a dense cluster of research complexes. Long established as a mecca for young entrepreneurs, the city's iconic Huaqiangbei electronics market is famously known for a saying: order an electronic component sample in the morning, and it will be ready by evening. It is often called China's Silicon Valley, drawing young Chinese individuals armed with technology and ideas. Now, Shenzhen is undergoing yet another transformation, pouring its capabilities into eco-friendly development beyond advanced industries. An environmental protection zone has been designated covering 970 square kilometers, which accounts for more than half of the city's total area and is 1.5 times the size of Seoul. Considering that administrative districts of Chinese cities are relatively vast, this is a massive scale. Right in the middle of the urban center lies a dense forest spanning 3 square kilometers, roughly the size of Yeouido. This is not merely a designated reserve or forest; advanced technologies are mobilized to manage it. Drones fly around to monitor the health of mangrove trees, which have a high carbon absorption rate, and the information collected by these drones via AI technology is frequently shared with environmental authorities. This system is the result of collaboration between DJI, which holds 70 percent of the global drone market, and AI developers based in Shenzhen.

[DJI Official: This drone can identify the chlorophyll distribution of crops. It is primarily used alongside agricultural drones. Analytical maps captured by drones show areas with poor crop growth and regions with high pest incidence rates.]

Drones can also directly suppress small-scale fires and spray eco-friendly supplements necessary for plant growth.

Shenzhen is also pushing hard to introduce electric vehicles with the goal of becoming a "carbon-neutral city" by 2035.

[Ni Ping / Shenzhen Resident: All of them are electric vehicles. Even cargo trucks are electric trucks. Taxis and buses are all new energy vehicles. The entire city of Shenzhen is like this.]

Achieving carbon neutrality requires efficient electricity supply across the entire city. To this end, urban power substations have either been placed underground or converted into ecological parks. Changing the environment surrounding the substations has also minimized magnetic field generation. I personally tested the magnetic field levels inside a substation, and it registered a mere 0.01 microteslas, about one-hundredth the level of a hair dryer.

So, why is Shenzhen going all-in on eco-friendly policies? Underlying this is China's strategic calculus. Once called the world's factory and notorious for spewing pollutants, China has now risen to a stage where it engages in strategic competition with the United States over AI, robotics, and semiconductor technologies. Taking it a step further, China has revealed its ambition to lead the world in environmental issues as well. Shenzhen serves as an ideal model to showcase this. In particular, the APEC Summit will be held in Shenzhen this coming November. The intention is clearly to promote Shenzhen as an eco-friendly, high-tech city in front of leaders from around the globe. Ahead of the APEC Summit, China has been hosting various APEC ministerial meetings in Shenzhen to promote its eco-friendly, advanced achievements. Last month, the APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Forestry was held in Shenzhen, where the main agenda naturally centered around the environment.

[Park Eun-sik / Minister of the Korea Forest Service: I suppose the Chinese government thinks that since Shenzhen is a highly developed region where China's reform and opening-up policy was first implemented and numerous high-tech companies are based, and as seen during the preliminary meetings, it strongly emphasizes how well it protects ecological reserves, marine natural resources, and mountainous natural resources. Therefore, from that perspective, I think they believe Shenzhen can effectively showcase the development in harmony with nature emphasized by President Xi Jinping.]

The Chinese government has shown particular interest in forest resource protection, expressing a desire to share information and learn from South Korea's wildfire suppression capabilities and systems. This can be seen as part of a desperate struggle to shed the image of fine dust and environmental pollution long associated with China and transform into an eco-friendly nation.

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