China’s decision to host next year’s APEC Summit in the innovation hub of Shenzhen reflects Beijing’s “resolve to uphold openness”, according to analysts. Highlighting the southern city’s spectacular growth over the past few decades, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the decision at the end of the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, on November 1. “Located on the Pacific coast and adjacent to Hong Kong, Shenzhen has transformed from a backward fishing village into a modern international metropolis in just a few decades,” Xi said. “Together with surrounding areas, it forms the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which can be considered a growth pole of the world economy.” Zhu Feng, Executive Dean of Nanjing University’s School of International Studies, described Shenzhen as “a landmark city symbolizing China’s economic integration with the world”.
Selecting Shenzhen would demonstrate to the world “the alignment and integration of China’s economic development with the global economy following reform and opening up”, Zhu said. It was also announced that next year's G20 Summit will be held in Miami. Zhu said that if there was frequent high-level dialogue between the two countries next year, “the likelihood of Trump attending a summit in Shenzhen is considerable”. In that case, the Shenzhen summit would serve as “a significant diplomatic opportunity to further strengthen the strategic relationship between the two nations’ leaders”, he said. Zhu added that a summit in Shenzhen could also provide “a crucial diplomatic occasion for further integration into the global and Western spheres” for U.S.-sanctioned enterprises, including telecommunications firm Huawei Technologies, which is headquartered in the city. This would also enable China to “further reduce the excessive focus on security in U.S.-China relations”, according to Zhu.
Shenzhen has grown exponentially from its fishing village roots more than four decades ago to become a city of nearly 18 million people. It is also one of China’s leading centers for hi-tech innovation, including artificial intelligence (AI). But while it is China’s “most successful special economic zone”, it simultaneously “endures the most severe blows from trade protectionism and technological decoupling”, according to Peng Peng, Executive Chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform. According to Peng, selecting Shenzhen as the APEC host city demonstrated China’s “resolve to uphold openness and continue guiding the direction of globalization”. Shenzhen is one of nine cities in Guangdong that make up the Greater Bay Area, which also includes the special administrative regions (SARs) of Hong Kong and Macao. In recent years, Beijing has sought to transform the Greater Bay Area into a world-class economic and innovation hub, the South China Morning Post reports.
Shenzhen will be the third Chinese city to host the APEC meeting – Shanghai hosted it in 2001 and Beijing in 2014.
