With 30 days to go until the 2026 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Shenzhen, the region faces a familiar question: how to keep the Asia-Pacific open, innovative and cooperative amid rising uncertainty.
This year's theme, "Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together," places trade facilitation, digital and AI governance and sustainable development at its core.
For Kishore Mahbubani, Former Ambassador of Singapore to the United Nations and a participant in the first APEC meeting in Seattle, Shenzhen's transformation offers a compelling answer after his personal visit to the region.
"I'm genuinely astounded by the amount of progress that Shenzhen and Zhuhai have made," he says. "In 50 years, Shenzhen has clearly become the fastest-growing city in world history."
Mahbubani recalls driving two BYD cars and visiting startup incubators—one using insect larvae for animal feed, another developing precision lens-checking technology. In Zhuhai, Gree left him "mind-blown."
"It began with about 20 million yuan in revenue. Now it has 2,000 billion yuan," he notes. He credits the Greater Bay Area's success to sound economic management, long-term strategy and role of open cities Hong Kong and Macao.
Mahbubani believes APEC leaders will be equally impressed. "They will say, 'Hey, you must all visit Shenzhen.'" And for the rest of the world, he adds, what Shenzhen and Zhuhai have experienced "can be a source of inspiration."
As the countdown continues, Shenzhen stands as a living example of the openness, innovation and cooperation the APEC agenda seeks to advance—a city that turned a fishing village into a global innovation hub in a single lifetime.
Reporter: Guo Zedong
Video editor: Guo Hongda
Cameraman: Guo Hongda
