A Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Abstract

The cornerstone of China's strategy for developing high-technology activities is construction of scientific parks to create conditions emulating the successful High-technology clusters in the West. This is a comparative case study of biotechnology clusters in Guangdong province and the better documented ones in Beijing and Shanghai and Shenzhen. The experience of the government-controlled and supported ‘construction' and evolution of biotechnology clusters in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province is compared with high-tech clustering in the West. The paper documents the existence and performance of the hitherto largely ignored Guangzhou biopharmaceutical cluster. Despite the rapid development of biopharmaceutical activities in Guangdong province, biotechnology is not yet a significant high-tech/high value-added alternative to Guangdong's specialization the labor-intensive export industries.