Welcome to the year of 2026, what if anything rewrites, the connection, the opportunity and the relations between UK/China. My China 2026 trip has been nothing short of eye‑opening. While the UK Prime Minister has just completed his first visit to China last week — a symbolic step toward reconnecting two economies that need each other more than ever — I found myself experiencing this reconnection on a very personal level. What began as a holiday became a deep dive into the forces shaping China’s next chapter, and perhaps the worlds.
Shenzhen has always been China’s most experimental city — a place where hardware, software, finance, and policy collide to create new economic models. Today, the city is entering a new phase of transformation, driven by the intergration of AI, fintech, and data‑infrastructure platforms (IOPs). This shift is not theoretical. It is unfolding inside the city’s most influential companies, from global tech giants to industrial innovators.
For investors, Shenzhen is no longer just a manufacturing hub. It is becoming a laboratory for AI‑native economies, where data is treated as a production factor and financial systems are rebuilt around automation, interoperability, and real‑time intelligence.
Four Shenzhen‑based companies — Unilumin, SF Technology, Tencent, and GAC Group — illustrate how this transformation is taking shape.
Before I go further, a small disclaimer: I am not an investment advisor, nor an AI‑fintech expert. My observations come from conversations with business associates, property investors, founders, and technologists I met along the way. These encounters left me with more to think about than I expected — especially after two challenging years in the UK luxury property market, where the cycle hit its lowest point. That downturn, however, gave me something precious: time to pause, reflect, and ask myself what comes next.
This journey began with a luxurious Christmas week in Limassol with friends, followed by New Year celebrations in Hong Kong and a month‑long immersion in Shenzhen — a city that, in my view, is rewriting the rules of economic productivity. Shenzhen’s core thesis is simple yet profound: AI + Data + Finance = New Productive Forces.
From what I witnessed, Shenzhen sees AI, fintech, and data‑infrastructure platforms (IOPs) not as separate industries, but as mutually reinforcing engines that will define China’s next competitive advantage. And perhaps, for those with the courage to look ahead, the next wave of global opportunity.
Seeing Shenzhen Through Fresh Eyes
As an outsider — and perhaps because I am an outsider — I found myself noticing things locals may take for granted. The speed, the confidence, the clarity of purpose. Shenzhen is not waiting for the future; it is building it.
If you are considering where the next unicorn might emerge, or whether Shenzhen should be your next basket for early‑stage bets, I hope my reflections offer a useful perspective. And if you ever want to discuss these ideas over tea, I would be delighted. Perhaps my next chapter is to serve as an intermediary — helping founders, investors, and analysts bridge the UK–China gap and navigate the emerging world of AI‑native industries.
A Journey Through the Greater Bay Area
My trip took me across Guangzhou, Nansha, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong — the heart of the Greater Bay Area (GBA). Each city is moving at its own rhythm, yet all share a sense of momentum.
Hong Kong, in particular, surprised me. Despite the departure of some American firms, I saw European companies opening new offices and expatriates continuing to collaborate across borders. Employment sentiment feels healthier, and the city’s major universities are undergoing much‑needed leadership renewal. I visited four institutions across the Pearl Delta, and the energy among students and faculty was unmistakable.
I also experienced the region’s technological leap firsthand: The no driver taxi, the AI-enabled logistic hubs like ShunFeng technology, one of the six major data centres, the headquarter of Tencent and the largest LED chip manufacturer in Shenzhen — the same company behind the ABBA virtual concert screens.
Standing inside these facilities, watching demos of AI‑driven hardware and next‑generation applications, I realised something important: you cannot understand China’s technological ambition until you see it with your own eyes.
Ironically, the previous trade tensions and foreign‑policy pressures seem to have accelerated China’s determination to innovate independently. What I saw was not a country retreating, but one becoming more adaptable, more resilient, and more economically confident.
Shenzhen’s worldview is remarkably coherent. The city believes that the next era of productivity will not come from labour or capital alone, but from the fusion of intelligence, data, and financial infrastructure.
Shenzhen is no longer just a manufacturing miracle. It is becoming the world’s most advanced experiment in AI‑native urban development, where data, finance, and industry operate as a single integrated system.
Companies like Unilumin, SF Technology, Tencent, and GAC Group are not isolated success stories — they are the building blocks of a new economic architecture.
For fund managers, the message is clear: Invest not in sectors, but in systems. Shenzhen is showing what that system looks like. For wealth managers, this means the traditional boundaries between tech, finance, and industry are dissolving. The winners will be companies that operate across layers: AI + data + fintech + hardware + infrastructure. This is where Shenzhen excels.
This trip brought me joy, clarity, and a renewed sense of purpose. It reminded me that the world is bigger than any single market cycle, and that innovation often emerges from places willing to take bold risks.
If you would like to learn more about my journey, discuss UK–China opportunities, or explore how Shenzhen’s AI‑fintech ecosystem might shape your next project, I would love to connect. I am actively exploring new business collaborations — and who knows, perhaps I can even be your five‑star Evassential tour companion on your next visit to Shenzhen.
Happy New Year — and welcome to the Year of the Horse. The official celebrations begin on 17 February, and I will be back in China soon for the next AI conference in Shenzhen and the Lantern Festival in Nansha. Let’s continue the conversation. Thank you for reading.
Eva@Evassential