A few days ago, Unitree Robotics captivated audiences with the world’s first robot boxing tournament, a spectacle that showcased the fusion of engineering precision and creative design. This event exemplifies the dynamic innovation landscape in China, where design and technology converge to push boundaries. It also underscores the opportunities available for UK innovators to engage with China’s burgeoning tech ecosystem.

The Design Intelligence Award (DIA), now in its 10th edition, stands as a testament to this spirit of innovation.  As one of the world’s most prestigious award programmes, the DIA offers a platform for designers, entrepreneurs and innovators to gain recognition and access to the Chinese market. This year marks the fifth consecutive partnership between the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) and the DIA, reflecting our commitment to fostering UK-China collaboration in design and innovation.

The DIA is inviting participants to explore how design can drive sustainable development, technological advancement, and societal well-being. With a total award fund of 5 million RMB (approximately £600,000), the DIA not only recognises outstanding design but also facilitates the commercialisation of innovative ideas.

The significance of engaging with China’s market cannot be overstated. According to the UK Department for Business and Trade’s “Trade and Investment Factsheet” published in May 2025, total trade in goods and services between the UK and China remained close to £100 billion mark in the four quarters to the end of Q4 2024.  China kept its position as the UK’s fifth-largest trading partner, accounting for 5.5% of total UK trade.

Peter Burnett, CEO of CBBC, emphasises the role of design in this context: “Design is a powerful enabler of innovation and a key strength of the UK’s global offer.  As China deepens its focus on high-quality growth, there is clear potential for British businesses to co-create solutions across priority sectors, from sustainable products to next-generation health technologies, and beyond,” he said.

New for 2025, the DIA introduces two entry routes: the established Product Group and the newly launched Innovation Incubation Group. The latter offers participants the opportunity to co-create solutions to real-world challenges with leading enterprises such as Alibaba, Unitree Robotics, Rokid, Fourier Intelligence, Deep Robotics, and BrainCo, unlocking unparalleled opportunities for collaboration and market entry.  For those eager to chart their own course, the X Track within the same group provides the freedom to develop and showcase independent innovations, making space for bold and original ideas.

It is worth noting that UK institutions have already established partnerships with these companies:

• Alibaba Cloud has collaborated with the University of Reading’s Henley Business School to launch a Skills Centre in the UK, focusing on cloud computing, big data, and AI.
• Fourier Intelligence has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UK’s National Robotarium to advance rehabilitation robotics.
• Unitree Robotics has engaged with the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s RACE team, showcasing their humanoid and quadruped robots.

These collaborations highlight the mutual interest and potential for UK innovators to contribute to and benefit from China’s innovation landscape.

As CBBC’s sector lead for tech and innovation, healthcare and life sciences, I encourage UK entrepreneurs, designers, and innovators to seize this opportunity. Participating in the DIA can open doors to new markets, partnerships, and avenues for growth.  With China’s emphasis on high-quality development and the UK’s strengths in design and innovation, the synergy between our nations has never been more promising.

The free submission deadline for this year’s DIA is 20^th June 2025. Late submissions will be accepted until 20^th September 2025, and by quoting the invitation code UK2025-1VCVSKF, applicants can waive the standard late fee. This opportunity for CBBC Focus readers reflects our shared mission to support UK innovators in accessing growth markets like China. If you’re not yet a CBBC member, now is the perfect time to explore our services and join a community committed to helping UK organisations succeed in China.

Click here to start the application process for the 2025 Design Intelligence Award

Elinor Greenhouse is CBBC’s Senior Adviser for Tech and Innovation, Healthcare & Life Sciences.  For inquiries, contact Elinor at Elinor.Greenhouse@cbbc.org.

The post From Robot Boxing to Real-World Impact appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.

I’ve lived in Asia for 18 years, with the majority of that time spent building my own headhunting company and working mainly in Singapore and Japan. After a while, I headed over to Hong Kong SAR for three years, before finally moving to mainland China in 2015. I’ve been here ever since, based in Shanghai.

I have one of those careers that looks great on paper — a corporate career in market research and conference production, followed by a decade of entrepreneurial success as a specialist headhunter. But the truth of the matter is that my career has been largely a result of circumstance and pragmatism. My move to China was no exception; my company’s growing reputation in mainland China meant that it made sense to base myself here. But that coincided with a number of other personal factors that weighed more importantly in my decision-making at the time.

Having spent so many years advising senior executives on their careers, I’ve seen too many people obsess over how their choices would be potentially interpreted by future employers. But that’s no way to live your life. I’ve always gravitated towards curious people whose first priority is to seek out adventure and experience above those who prefer to manage their careers in a more conventional manner. I daresay many Focus readers will have made similar life decisions, wherever practical, to seek out intellectual growth and personal contentment above linear career progression.

In 2019, my headhunting firm received investment from a Japanese company that allowed me to divest my entire share and exit completely. So I had the luxury of devoting my time to a passion project like a podcast, without the focus on making it into a commercial success from the outset.

Having spent the previous decade conducting intimate career discussions with senior executives, I had developed a personal interviewing style that lent itself to a podcast. I could transfer those skills to a platform that would allow me to engage with people in China from all walks of life, across the worlds of business, the arts, science, sports and academia. As an early fan of the podcasting genre, it didn’t take me long to formulate the idea for Mosaic of China.

This is how I envisaged the podcast that I wanted to produce: the guest from one season would refer a new guest in the next season. With this idea of ‘connectivity’ in mind, the image percolated that each guest could represent a tile, connecting to another tile, which eventually builds out to form a ‘Mosaic of China.’ I have incorporated this visual idea into the audio DNA of the podcast, where I’m always listening out for connections between the guests and the stories that they share.

I really enjoy most facets of this undertaking, including managing the pre-production process, conducting the interviews, and editing down the recordings to make a professionally crafted product. But promotion is the part of this project that I enjoy the least! Until now I have always worked in B2B environments, so I’m still intimidated by the B2C aspect of growing the listenership. Having said that, the podcast received its 100,000th download at the beginning of October 2021, so I’m happy with the pace at which it has grown until now.

LinkedIn has been surprisingly useful for promoting the podcast since it has been the one place online where people inside and outside of China can casually interact with one another. So it’s going to be a big loss when this functionality is removed from the platform in China once it fully converts to being just a job board.

Mosaic of China has developed a strong community of both podcast guests and listeners

The key challenge of running a podcast is the sheer amount of work that’s needed to keep it moving forward and up to a high quality. By the end of my headhunting career, I was less heavily involved in the day-to-day running of the company. But now I could work seven days a week, and there would still be more that could be done. In this way, my advice to future podcasters is the same that I would give to future headhunters. The barrier to entry is pretty low: almost anyone can be a podcaster, just like almost anyone could be a headhunter. But there is a vast difference between being an average one and being a good one. I just hope that I’ve done enough to put myself in the latter category!

There are of course specific challenges to podcasting in China, the key one being that you need to cater for two distinct internet ecosystems. So I need to have one version of the show hosted in China, and another hosted overseas. Other than that, I just need to make sure that the content of the conversations in the show is as open as possible while also being within the boundaries of the regulations governing content creation in China.

If I could give future China entrepreneurs one piece of advice, it would be that the path of least resistance is often the best path. If you’re in insurance, yes you can quit your job and set yourself up as a lion tamer. It is possible to go from 0 to 100 like that. But this is the exception rather than the rule. It’s a much better idea to start your own business in an area where you already have a substantial overlap in skillset or market knowledge. So maybe the insurance salesman could start a business selling insurance to theme parks, zoos and circuses. Then they could make a separate transition in a few years’ time into lion taming, once they have built enough knowledge of the business and established themselves in the market.

This is especially the case in China, where relationships and market reputation are arguably more important than in other parts of the world. Take your time, and preserve your equilibrium. And at those times where you need to work with a higher level of intensity, always keep one eye on your line of natural equilibrium, and get back to it as soon as you practically can.

The post Entrepreneur spotlight: Oscar Fuchs, Mosaic of China podcast appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.

I moved to China in 2014 to work on a growth project as a specialist marketing consultant for sustainable travel company WildChina. At the time I was 5 years into my career in consumer marketing in the tourism sector. I studied PR and started working for the New Zealand tourism board after graduation. They groomed me to become an Asia and China market specialist but I was based in New Zealand working with our China teams and I wanted to get more in-market experience, so this consulting opportunity seemed perfect.

My plan was to come to China for one year and then look to starting my own business in the tourism sector. After the project finished, the CEO asked me to stay on to become the company’s head of marketing, an opportunity that was too good to pass up, so I stayed on in Beijing. Eventually, I did become an entrepreneur, but I never would’ve guessed it would be in food!

The concept for Yeyo came about in 2016. After my move to China, I started experiencing some health issues which spurred a big lifestyle change where I needed clean, plant-based yoghurt to heal my gut and balance my immune system. I developed something delicious and nourishing for myself and I wanted to share it with others.

I had moved from Queenstown, a pristine alpine town with a population of 20,000, to smoggy 2014 Beijing, population 20 million. My immune system went into overdrive and I became very allergic to various things, including dairy and eggs. My energy was always low and I suffered from severe eczema which had me wearing long sleeves and pants all through the sweltering summers so I could keep my sores from infection. I was desperate to get better. Through research, I learned about the importance of gut health to fortify immunity and discovered the perfect source of nourishing comfort in sugar-free coconut yoghurt on one visit home.

Yeyo markets to a target audience of 25-35-year-old Tier 1 city fashion and fitness-loving women

When I came back to Beijing, I couldn’t find anywhere to buy coconut yoghurt, so there was no other option but to make it myself. Being a foodie, I was focused on making it taste like a delicious yoghurt that just happened to be dairy-free so I could also share it with regular dairy-consuming friends. Turns out I didn’t do a bad job of it. Some friends with extra kitchen space in their restaurant invited me to make it there, and another friend who ran a gourmet farmer’s market invited me to sell it there – so I designed a brand for it, and Yeyo was born.

My entrepreneurial experience has been a journey with many chapters. It started out as a fun side project where I could hang out with chefs and create delicious food as a balance to a more corporate career. The business was small, simple and cash-flow positive. We were community-focused and only aimed to make enough yoghurt for our regular customers so we were often sold out. After a couple of years in this mode, I started to feel a growth in interest from the wider market for plant-based products and one day realised that the energy I was spending on my ‘side hustle’ was starting to equal that of my real job, so I needed to choose which path to go down. I discussed the business case with my sister (now my co-founder), who had a decade of experience in business strategy and FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) and we decided to go for it. I went out to raise some seed funding, she quit her job as a top exec at Heineken, and we set out on the path we’re on now.

Back then, I had no idea what the playbook for fundraising was, but I figured it was all about presenting the right idea to the right people so I drew on media pitching and PR principles from my previous career. First, you identify what your key story angle is and what community would be interested, then you network your way to presenting it to the most influential people in that community. Of course, there’s also luck involved and for me, I managed to connect with some influential players very early on, which was very fortunate as I was fundraising by myself since my sister had still not come on board full time. We’re currently in the process of closing our second round of funding and I would say one of the biggest differences is having a partner to work with – it makes the process more solid. Two brains are definitely better than one.

We’re currently in the process of closing our second round of funding and I would say one of the biggest differences is having a partner to work with. Two brains are definitely better than one.

We’ve faced so many challenges along the way, as with all startups. From financing to sourcing to hiring, we needed to build everything from scratch and it’s the first startup for both of us, so the learning curve is steep. The growth is what we live for though.

There’s certainly been significant growth in the market for dairy-free/plant-based products in the last couple of years. Sales for plant-based drinks grew 800% on Taobao in 2020, and there have been many new product launches since as the market grows more confident the trend is here to stay.

Yeyo co-founder Christiana Zhu

We started out online with our Tmall (Taobao) store so we could build some targeted brand awareness. We are now beginning to expand to offline channels in Shanghai and Beijing, starting with premium supermarkets. We’ve gone with a very niche brand play for our first product line, an indulgent sugar-free spoonable coconut yoghurt, so we currently focus our marketing efforts on working with influential brands and KOLs that resonate with our target audience of 25-35-year-old tier one city fashion and fitness loving women.

Fortunately for us, we were at the R&D stage for our commercial product during the worst of the pandemic so it did not derail our sales plans too much. If anything, it has been beneficial for packaged foods and premium foods in general as consumers are seeking healthier lifestyle upgrades now due to the pandemic. 

If I could give future China entrepreneurs one piece of advice, it would be to always be listening. The market changes fast and you will need to keep up both on product design and how to play to stay in the game.

The post Entrepreneur Spotlight: Christiana Zhu, Yeyo appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.

I first became interested in a zero-waste lifestyle in the summer of 2016 when I came across a video by Bea Johnson, author of the book Zero Waste Home. One of the reasons I was viewing this kind of information in the first place was that in early 2016 I was moving apartments. I was in my tiny bedroom looking at clothes that still had tags on, books that I had never read, and mountains of other stuff… all self-imposed drains on our freedom and the environment.

The Bulk House is a social enterprise, registered at the start of 2017. At the time of starting it, there was very little mention of official recycling going on in Beijing, let alone the concept of zero waste. I saw the piles of waste building up in my old housing community and I realised that I was part of the problem and I was adding to that pile every day.

When we began, the overall idea was to promote the concept of zero waste and make it accessible and convenient for all. How to do this was the challenge. We put on events and workshops, made reusable products, created zero waste group chats, created content, did interviews, went on TV, took part in documentaries, and even tried our hand at consulting for companies. The idea is to be a one-stop-shop for all things zero waste while also promoting the philosophy behind it. 

The Bulk House has grown from selling one reusable metal straw to 100s of zero waste products. We went from a tiny store to our Beiluoguxiang location, which is about four times the size of our original store with online customers from across China. However, the real growth has been our knowledge of the concept of zero waste and the number of people we have been able to pass that on to.

The true philosophy of zero waste involves multiple Rs: refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle and rot. The second R, reduce, is perhaps the most important and is the essential idea of zero waste. We want more people to get into the zero-waste lifestyle, but we don’t want people to own zero waste items that they don’t need and so won’t use. I would encourage FOCUS readers to go to our WeChat Account at TheBulkHouse_China or our Weibo @thebulkhouse to see what we talk about, how we think, questions we’ve answered over the years, interviews we have done, and see the products we sell and why we sell. From the products, you can understand why they are made from certain materials, why they have little to no packaging, and why they have a very minimalist design.

The challenge for us has always been the ability to focus. There are a million and one ways to solve environmental problems, and it seems very obvious looking back that the way we are now doing it is the one that is suitable for me, but it wasn’t always that cut and dry. It took us some time to realise the cliché of “you can do anything, but you can’t do everything.”

Now, we do one big thing at a time and focus on that for a long time until it is running smoothly. Right now, that big thing is our physical store in Beijing. We also have two online stores on Taobao and Weidian (on WeChat). Both of these are running quite well and we will come back to those and improve them once we have spent some more time on improving our offline store.

Another challenge has been hiring. From our past mistakes, we have now realised that the main attribute to take into consideration when hiring is attitude. We don’t really care about your CV or which university you went to; hire based on attitude and you will place yourself in a much better position to succeed as a team. If you hire someone and they make a mistake but have a good attitude and are willing to learn and improve, then praise that person and look after them in your company. If they have a bad attitude, ask them to leave; if you are going into an office/store five to seven days a week you don’t want a negative atmosphere polluting all the actual problems you face every day.

When we first started, people called us the “recycling guys,” and we had to educate them that “yes, recycling is part of zero waste, but it is a long way down the line of zero waste concepts.” There have been many developments since then. Garbage classification has now been implemented, for example, and I think the food bins are working really well. We just need to stop a few bad apples (pun intended) from dropping their plastic waste into the food bins, thus making it even more difficult for the hard-working men and women whose jobs it is to ensure those resources get sent to the correct places each day.

Like everyone, we lost lots of business in the first few months of the pandemic, including months and months of paid events all being cancelled. However, you aren’t an entrepreneur if you can’t pivot and make the best of a bad situation. We used the time to focus on developing better products and released a new zero-waste bathroom brand called Lagom Planet. Lagom is a Swedish word/philosophy that means “Not too much, not too little, just right,” which seemed perfect for what we are trying to promote.

If I could give future China entrepreneurs one piece of advice, it would be to solve actual problems. Don’t come up with an idea and then make up a problem that your money-making idea will solve.

The post Entrepreneur Spotlight: Carrie Yu, The Bulk House appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.

In this series we look at China-based entrepreneurs, the businesses they have developed and how they have coped with recent obstacles created by the pandemic. Media, entertainment and sports expert and author of “Bamboo Goalposts,” Rowan Simons recounts his China journey

I first came to China in September 1987 to study Chinese as part of the undergraduate degree programme at Leeds University.  I chose Chinese partly because the course at Leeds offered a full year in China, providing an early chance to get a feel for the country. I enjoyed my time here so much and saw so many opportunities, that I decided to stay in the country. I started working with the BBC in a commercial capacity and then established a media business that was involved in the import of TV programmes and commercial sponsorship. The 1990s was the golden era of TV in China and the opening and reform policies meant there was great interest in foreign content and many international companies looking to promote their brands here.

My first career was in the media, and I was invited to become a guest commentator on Beijing TV’s live coverage of the Premier League and FA Cup. People would stop me on the street to say how much they loved football and I would ask them, “do you play?”. The answer was usually negative and I started to realise that China did not have the grassroots network of social clubs that is common in all developed football nations. After some years, I decided that the most practical way to show China that football is a participation sport, not just TV entertainment, was to actually build a grassroots club from scratch.

ClubFootball was established in 2001 and is the longest-running foreign-invested football club in China. We focus on providing all-round education courses for kids aged between 3.5 and 18 years old. We employ mainly British fully qualified coaches supported by local assistant coaches and deliver services to over 30 international, bilingual and local schools as well as directly to parents at multiple facilities across Beijing and neighbouring cities. We have also developed a coach education programme and operate a ClubFootball Culture Store on Taobao that focuses on introducing authentic British and global sports memorabilia to the China market. We also have a charitable initiative called Football for Life, which brings the joys of sport to disadvantaged kids — a fantastic opportunity for British companies in China to get behind our national sport as part of their CSR activities.

ClubFootball’s mission is to inspire, educate and energise China’s football enthusiasts — making them truly feel part of the global football community, and establishing a sense of ownership and passion for the game. Our USP is that we follow a British model and our coaches all have professional qualifications from the UK and other European countries. We are pioneers of the concept of “Play Football, Speak English,” which has proven very effective in encouraging Chinese parents and kids to join our programmes.

I think we have faced and largely overcome all possible challenges over the last 20 years. When we started, sports were not an important component of regular education, so very few parents saw the value in terms of its physical, psychological, technical and social benefits. As the first foreign company in a new space that we were creating, we also faced challenges in working with the government system. Culturally, China did not have the history of civic societies that we take for granted in the UK, so it took time before a new generation of parents started to embrace this philosophy.

There have only been two times when that growth has suffered significantly. The first was in 2008 when Beijing held the Summer Olympics and Paralympics. What should have been a golden time for sports turned out to be the opposite as almost all social activities were cancelled for security reasons. The second is Covid-19, which led to the closure of schools and public sports facilities.

In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, we were quick to move online with a video series called Skills in Small Spaces, which enabled our members to continue practising by themselves. However, football is fundamentally an offline group activity, so there is no alternative to getting out onto the pitch to play. We have used this downtime to improve our internal systems and streamline our operations, so we are well placed to expand again once the situation stabilises. The key to that expansion is a change in the visa situation, so we can bring more coaches into the country.

Beyond generating short term revenue from sponsorship and licensing deals, the real opportunity for international football businesses and brands is to support the growth of China’s own football culture. China is already an important commercial market for big European leagues, clubs and their superstars, and there is fierce competition between them. However, the main problem is that China has still not developed wide-based participation at grassroots levels and this is the key if football is to become a viable industry in the long term. This is a long term project and few brands (foreign or Chinese) seem to have the patience required to take that path.

Everything has totally changed since I first came to China. Back in the 1980s, almost all the products and services that make up a modern consumer society were yet to be developed, so the opportunities were endless. Now, China is far ahead in many aspects, particularly the digital economy, so the opportunities are more limited. Though my media and sports businesses have grown independently as foreign-owned enterprises, my advice for entrepreneurs coming to China now would have to be the importance of finding a trusted local partner who can help navigate the many differences in this market.

The post Entrepreneur Spotlight: ClubFootball appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.

Five years ago, after a management buy-out I became the owner and CEO of MB it-Consulting China, a company that specialises in business consulting and sales and implementation services of human capital management cloud technology software. Prior to that, I mainly worked in a corporate environment.

There are pros and cons to being an entrepreneur. My main job is working with companies as a business consultant, and I really enjoy the flexibility and different areas of business I can work in, however being in the consulting business is not always so stable and being fully responsible for a team of consultants and projects especially during the past year has sometimes be a challenge.

I’ve been in China since 1991 and of course seen many changes, in terms of the business environment, social environment and of course our natural environment. I think it’s this ever-changing environment that has provided me with so many great opportunities to learn and grow professionally and personally. Change is definitely a constant in our lives here, and even after 30 years this still challenges as well as motivates me.

I’ve always been positively influenced by many women in my family; strong hardworking women that pursue their dreams, travel, work hard and take care of their family at the same time. I believe that if you don’t stretch yourself you’re contracting, both in body and mind. Keep pushing limits, keep on learning, work hard, go out and explore, and step out of that comfort zone.

I’m grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to work with a few very good leaders, who have taught me valuable functional and practical lessons such as how to lead a team, how to communicate with customers, how to close a difficult sales deal, how to balance work and life, even how to dress for success. It’s from those mentors that I’ve learned to evaluate people’s personal style, behaviour and communication preferences and to align that to my own style to enhance effective communication and cooperation.

I’ve mainly worked in male-dominated industries, but I don’t think being a woman has been a disadvantage. Especially in China which has a large female working population, I think if you know your industry or professional field, people respect you and want to work with you because of your knowledge and not necessarily because you’re a man or a woman.

Diversity in general is very important to any organisation. Different groups of people bring different value to the business and it’s proven that diverse teams deliver better results. This applies to the board of an organisation, a company’s management team as well as functional teams, and should preferably be reflected in all layers of the organisation. Having said that, I’m not necessarily a firm believer in a diversity quota or percentage. I think organisations should hire the best person for the job (taking the team and business needs into consideration), regardless of age, gender, or nationality. “Don’t hire me because I’m a woman, hire me because I’ll bring the most value to your organisation.”

I’m an active member of the ‘women in business’ community in Beijing, but one of the most rewarding experiences is my volunteer work as China Coordinator for Magic Hospital. This not-for-profit organisation aims to bring play and laughter to hospitalised and disadvantaged children, to those who are temporarily or permanently deprived of a carefree childhood. In 2003 we started the clinic clowns programme in China’s largest children hospital and grew our activities from there. However as we are now restricted by Covid regulations, we’re constantly searching for other opportunities to bring some joy and compassion to those who need it so much.

I have always found it’s important to network, within the organisation as well as outside. Search for and build good relationships with the person or people that you can learn from and who can support you in your career progression. Don’t only look upwards, also embrace opportunities that may arise in other functional areas, it will broaden your experience and skills. Pursue further education and training – doing an MBA for example is not only an investment in knowledge but also will expand your network and relationships.

The post Entrepreneur Mirjam Thieme on what makes a great female role model appeared first on Focus - China Britain Business Council.

The future curator

Carrie Chan, Senior Curator of the Design Society

Carrie Chan

Establishing China’s first design museum was always going to be a challenge. As China moves from imitator to innovator, Carrie Chan and the Design Society team have helped the Sea World Culture and Arts Center (SWCAC) make sense of the changes underway, with a little help from London’s V&A.

“It’s one of a kind in the whole world, it’s pioneering,” said Chan of the Shenzhen-based SWCAC. It’s a mix of galleries, retail, performance space and local government arts offices – a totally new model for China.

“The Shenzhen audience typically only has a basic understanding of what design is. They are more familiar with architecture design or furniture design, which are more tangible,” Chan said. “We wanted to showcase design through a topic, as an activator of social change and how it’s relevant to social development, so we’re trying to broaden the understanding of design’s power in the economy or society, rather than just as an object for appreciation or to raise aesthetic standards.”

We wanted to showcase design through a topic, as an activator of social change

As an international institution, Chan and her colleagues have worked hard to build relationships to embed SWCAC in the global design scene. They have also had to steer the sponsor China Merchants Shekou on their first cultural project in their 145-year history. “The government has the ambition of building an entire bay area, and I could see this happening,” said Chan of her own interest in joining the project, referring to China’s plan for a Greater Bay Area encompassing Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and neighbouring cities.

The Center is home to a gallery run by the V&A, which itself was founded when Britain was going through a similar shift from industrial manufacturing to design.

The big data security expert

Xie Yinglian, CEO & Co Founder of DataVisor

Xie Yinglian

“My goodness, that’s a lot of mathematics, have I made a mistake?” is how Xie Yinglian recalls her feelings when she saw the course details of the computer science degree she had signed up for. She had made the decision after a recommendation from an uncle in IT after only using computers in a very limited fashion at middle school. Now she runs a fraud prevention service with clients all over the world, including the UK.

Despite coming from towns just half an hour apart in Zhejiang, Xie and her company’s cofounder Fu Yang did not meet until they both started working at Microsoft at a similar time after completing their PhDs. They specialised in big data security just as the field was starting to emerge.

As some of the first people working in this area, we realised we could transform the industry with new ideas

“As some of the first people working in this area, we realised we could transform this industry with new ideas,” Xie explained. Their skills at solving big data issues meant they were sought out in the industry. “We felt we didn’t want to do all this problem-solving in our spare time, we wanted to find a paradigm that solved the root of the problem rather than solving issues one at a time,” Xie continued, explaining the approach that proved to be DataVisor’s breakthrough.

The models they build monitor data in real-time and identify threats and fraud automatically, without being programmed to look for specific issues.

The pair never paid much attention to the fact they were two women in IT until they formed their own startup and found women entrepreneurs get a lot more attention than their male computer science counterparts. Xie encourages both girls and adult women to try computer science – and to stick with it, as it wasn’t something that came naturally to her.

The eco-transporter

Zhang Yanqi, Co-founder and COO of ofo

Zhang Yanqi

The bright yellow hire bikes operated by ofo can be seen across most major Chinese cities and have also been popping up on the streets of London, Sheffield and Cambridge as the company expands worldwide. Started as a way to deal with bike shortages on a Beijing university campus, the company now has bikes in 21 countries with users clocking up over 32 million rides a day. Unlike previous hire bike schemes, ofo’s cycles can be left anywhere – no docking required.

“It’s great to see how a simple idea of making the world a greener place by promoting cycling can make such a difference to people’s lives and the environment,” Zhang Yanqi said. The company had a much humbler goal when it started out. “ofo was founded in 2014 by five students at Peking University, with a desire to provide fellow students with a convenient, efficient and environmentally-friendly way to travel,” said Zhang, who worked at Uber in China before local rival Didi Chuxing acquired it.

It’s great to see how a simple idea of making the world a greener place can make such differences to people’s lives

Entering the UK has been a project close to Zhang’s heart partly because he also studied at the University of Manchester. “The cycling culture in the UK and cities’ willingness to adopt greener urban transportation solutions has made it easier for us to get the message across,” he said. Expect to see far more of ofo’s bikes on the streets.

The food techie

Matilda Ho, Founder and Managing Director of Bits x Bites

Matilda Ho

“Food safety is a global issue. As the world’s largest food consumer and producer, China’s food safety problems certainly reflect the scale of its food industry,” Matilda Ho, founder of food tech startup indicator Bitx x Bites explains. “What sets China’s food safety landscape apart is the breadth of food fraud and product counterfeiting compared to other safety challenges such as environmental hygiene issues.”

It was when Ho went to the US to study that she realised, partly as a result of having to cook for herself for the first time, how important the choices we make when buying food are. In China she began working in the food industry and learnt more about the supply chain before setting up her own online farmers’ market, Yimishiji.

China was missing an ecosystem to accelerate innovation in food technology. I figured I could play a part to help build this

“When you grow up with 1.3 billion other people, there is a sense that you have to be ultracompetitive to break away from poverty, and for some, that means taking shortcuts with little regard for a food provider’s incredible responsibility,” said Ho.

“With China’s scale, it was missing an ecosystem to accelerate innovation in food technology. I figured I could play a part to help build this ecosystem by creating its first food tech accelerator VC,” said Ho about her decision to launch the Bits x Bites incubator in Shanghai in 2016. And she is already noticing a difference. “What has been evolving in the past two probably is less to do with the perception of food problems. Instead, we’re noticing a more practical optimism – that it’s possible to do something about it, whether you’re an investor, a food company, an engineer, a designer or a consumer.”

The social entrepreneur

Dong Fen, General Manager of Hua Dan

Dong Fen

Not having the right papers to get an accounting job in her provincial capital Kunming, it was by chance that a despondent Dong Fen heard an announcement back in her village for Chinese New Year in 2004. Beijing’s Rural Women College was offering training opportunities for women in the capital, some 2,000km away.

After a rigorous application process, Dong Fen got a place and once in Beijing, signed up for a workshop run by British social entrepreneur Caroline Watson who was just starting experiments with drama techniques as a way of empowering and giving self-confidence to migrant women workers in China’s cities. The workshops proved a success and Dong Fen kept attending. Caroline established Hua Dan and asked Dong Fen to work with her. Hua Dan was the first organisation in China to use participatory drama and art techniques in this way.

Our workshops are a low-cost tool that helps us help lots of people deal with challenges

“One particular benefit of using drama, especially for children and women, is that the first time they get up on stage and tell their story, it gives them a huge boost and helps them discover how to communicate with others,” Dong Fen said.

Dong Fen has become general manager and continued innovating on new ways to work with children and women. “Over the last 14 years I’ve seen how hard it is for people to make changes to their confidence, self-awareness, and build their skills in cooperation and leadership. Our workshops are a low-cost tool that helps us help lots of people deal with challenges.”

The organisation has brought its migrant participants to the Edinburgh Festival three times to put on highly-acclaimed shows and Dong Fen and Caroline Watson run workshops for corporate clients to fund the migrant projects.

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The crime stopper

Cheng Tao, Director of SpaceTimeLab, UCL

Cheng Tao

Professor Tao is turning the stuff of futuristic spy movies into real life crime fighting with her work as director of SpaceTimeLab at University College London. ‘Intelpol’ or ‘intelligent policing’ (as opposed to Interpol – the International Criminal Police Organisation), is the future for the Metropolitan Police, which in collaboration with UCL, already uses a ‘big data’ based algorithm that pinpoints crime hotspots to within a street or even part of a street.

Going forward however, that technology will grow more advanced, creating live-predictions of where crime will happen. This will be based, in part, on historical crime data but will also reconfigure in real time, as crime happens, giving live instructions to both the policemen on the ground, and to those with the big picture in central command rooms.

This ‘Integrated Platform for Intelligent Policing’ is what Professor Tao’s SpaceTimeLab is currently developing with the Metropolitan police. It has been in testing for the last year and is soon expected to be in operational use.

Tao’s SpaceTimeLab is currently developing ‘Intelligent Policing’ with the Metropolitan police

“No one else has done location-based prediction like this”, explains Tao. On a digital version of this platform, police officers would receive daily patrol instructions that would change and modify according to realities on the ground. While alerting officers to nearby crimes, for example, the programme’s algorithm recalculates the best re-deployment and redistributions in space and time.

The aim, says Cheng, is to reduce crime overall, and the intelligence even more city-specific, taking all the environmental factors into account. “It’s specially developed for the London weather”, explains Cheng. In the future, Cheng is keen to make the software available in China and hopes that collaborations with a Chinese partner will yield further fruits in China’s big cities, changing the way crime is tackled there as well. 

The space engineer

 Fujia Chen, founder of Oxford Space Structures

Chen Fujia

Fujia Chen is driven today by the same intellectual hunger that brought her to the UK as a postgraduate student at Oxford University in 2006. Having come from an engineering background in China, she came to Oxford to embark on a PhD in zoology. Ten years later and Dr Chen is now straddling the fields of engineering and space design to produce innovative… baby products.

Chen creates products that use “space technologies to revolutionise baby products.” Her company’s first product to market is the SpaceCot – a travel cot that unfolds in one second and folds again in three. Chen was inspired by “the European Space Agency satellite that uncurls 30,000 miles above the earth”, she says. So far, SpaceCot has secured more than £200k from The European Space Agency, UKTI and Innovation UK, and with a further £600k from private funding.

My goal is to connect great UK design and innovation with the Chinese market

Chen is grateful to her alter mater Oxford University, and the Said Business School, for instilling in her the entrepreneurial spirit. “It was from there that I got the idea of entrepreneurship in technology,” she says. Her MBA programme at the school was tailored to PhD students working in the sciences and nurtured the transfer of tech skills.

Chen, who is from Shanghai, also sees her background in China as “a blessing” in her road to entrepreneurship. It not only helped her set up factory and supply chains in China, it also “helped me to connect with the Chinese market, which is really keen on UK baby products,” she says. The future for Oxford Space Structures is greater collaboration between China and the UK. “My goal is to connect great UK design and innovation with the Chinese market,” she says.

The social media scientist

Vivian Chan, CEO and founder of Spharrho.com

Vivian Chan

Imagine Facebook for scientists. A one-stop shop where you can find 60 million scientific articles all in one place, and a newsfeed of science news tailored specifically for you. This is Sparrho.com, a scientific search engine created by Vivian Chan.

Chan who got her PhD in biochemistry from Cambridge University, created the platform out of frustration that finding up-to-date and relevant scientific information was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Sparrho gives users personalised results that come from “blending AI with expert human curation”, says Chan. Therefore users can find the science that matters to them and see it in an easily digestible newsfeed. In Chan’s view, scientific knowledge should be accessible to the wider population, who are indirectly paying for much of the research through taxes, as opposed to just an elite few who are trained in it.

I realised how difficult it was for taxpayers to find, access and understand cutting-edge science

“I was working in venture capital and we were investing in life science research,” she says. “I realised how difficult it was for taxpayers to find, access and understand cutting-edge science.” Sparhho’s aim therefore, is about “democratising the information industry in a way that’s never been done before.”

Chan, a former investment process manager originally from Australia, now operates her company out of Cambridge, where she went to university. Her decision to set up her company in the UK was due to the tech talent and the community of “problem solvers” that exist here. Chan also sees the UK’s strong links with China to be promising, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence. “As CEO of an AI-driven start-up, I’m keeping a close eye on China’s excellent work in artificial intelligence and would love to work more closely with Chinese partners in the future,” she says.

The techno mum

Colleen Wong, founder and CEO of Techsixtyfour

Colleen Wong

In the summer of 2015, Colleen Wong took her two children to a farm park where a seed of an idea was planted. “I saw a mum running around looking for her child, and I wondered why we were not more connected with our younger children when we were so connected with everyone else,” she says.

As a mother herself, Wong knew that giving kids smartphones was not the solution. “The problem is that over 95 percent of parents dislike their younger child using smartphones because of the accessibility to the internet, social media and games,” Wong tells FOCUS. “But for peace of mind, they want to stay connected.”

Wong began her search for an innovative answer, and created a wearable ‘mobile phone’ for young children. By April 2016, she sold her first Gator watch through her company Techsixtyfour.

I wondered why we were not more connected with our younger children when we were so connected with everyone else

The watch is now one of the leading ‘wearable phones’ for kids in the UK – it can make and receive calls, but from no more than 13 people, and it acts as a tracker but is not connected to the internet.

Originally from China, Wong has worked in France, Canada, Singapore as well as in the UK and China and has an MBA from INSEAD. Her background in investment banking has given her a good grounding in entrepreneurship and, she says, her China language skills have worked as “a catalyst.”

Since most consumer electronics products are still made in China, she says. “It has helped me bring my product to market and bridge the gap between the two countries.”

The future of design

Huishan Zhang, designer and founder of fashion label Huishan Zhang

Huishan Zhang

Huishan Zhang is the UK’s hottest design import from China. With a professional ascent in the fashion world described as a “meteoric rise” by various media outlets, Zhang is more inspired than ever by his cultural roots.

“My Chinese heritage is very important to me, and the influence in the collections comes very naturally and spontaneously,” says Zhang, who grew up in the coastal city of Qingdao, and moved abroad at the age of 17. “I feel very honoured to have a platform to represent and promote what makes China special,” he says.

His East-West inspirations are subtly visible in the many pieces he has created since graduating from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art in London. Feminine and ethereal, the designs are not a mere ‘modern twist’ on traditional Chinese styles. His pieces flirt with textures, layers and embellishments by weaving in hints of the East whilst remaining wildly varied in colour and structure.

His work has very much more been in keeping with the idea of ‘Innovative China’ than ‘Made in China

Chinese craftsmanship and quality is something Zhang wants to showcase as a young, modern fashion designer, and so far, Zhang’s work has very much been more in keeping with the idea of ‘Innovative China’ than ‘Made in China’.  But his appreciation of the past is still where his muse is to be found, Zhang reveals. “It often begins with me in a library, researching through the eras, reading literature and watching old and modern films from a mix of cultures. I never know what rabbit hole I’ll find myself down”.

London is where his brand is based. “I love London as a city, there is a diverse mix of cultures, and it’s hard not to feel inspired here. I’ve been very supported by the industry and encouraged to create and push the boundaries – as a designer, that’s very uplifting.”

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The landscape of innovation in China has been changing at break-neck speed in recent years. This is partly as a result of decades of investment, but also thanks to more recent policies from central government. ‘Made in China 2025’, launched in 2016, puts innovation as one of its core tenets; the ‘Innovation Driven Development Strategy’ and the ‘New Generation AI Development Plan’, announced in July 2017, are all aimed at driving innovation and pulling China further up the value chain.

As well as an increase in government support and funding, there has also been a boost from private money. Significant investment from private Chinese companies, a vibrant venture capital (VC) scene and the emergence of an entrepreneurial class is further contributing to the end of the copycat era and the start of indigenous innovation in China.

China is shifting away from an investment and export-led model, and instead innovation, together with consumption, is now seen as the main driver for current and future growth.

The country has stated its intention to join the world’s top innovative nations by 2020; to then become a leading country in innovation by 2030, and a strong global leader and international hub of science and innovation by 2050.

The themes of the recent UK industrial strategy –  AI, an ageing society, clean growth, mobility – match China’s sector priorities and reflect the fact they these are global themes addressing global challenges

A number of factors combine to make China an increasing likely leader in some aspects of innovation. Firstly, the sheer size of the Chinese market enables even niche technologies to be commercially viable. In addition, the unique needs and challenges of the Chinese market give potential for innovation to blossom. Upgrading the manufacturing sector, solving environmental problems and dealing with a rapidly ageing population are all major issues China is facing and require innovation to be addressed effectively. China also has an unparalleled supply chain that allows for rapid production to market; it has a huge talent pool of highly qualified graduates; and it has huge data sets that can now be captured thanks to the recent digitisation wave.

China’s innovation capabilities are demonstrated by a number of indicators.

R&D

Research and development is a commonly used measure of innovation and as a marker of investment in technology and future capabilities. According to a report published earlier this year by the US National Science Foundation, China overtook the US in 2016 to become the global leader in the number of scientific publications. China is also the second-largest performer in terms of R&D spending on a country basis, and accounts for 20 percent of total global R&D expenditure.

Talent

China had 4.7 million recent STEM graduates in 2016 while the US had 568,000.

Another measure of innovation and technological advances is the number of students in science and technology. According to the World Economic Forum, China had 4.7 million recent STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) graduates in 2016 while the US had 568,000. Recent programmes by China such as the ‘Thousand Talents Plan’ also strive to bring Chinese talent overseas back home.

A vibrant private sector and VC market

Impetus for innovation has come from the incredible speed of digitalisation in China. The development of digital infrastructure, AI and big data are powerful enablers of many vertical industries. Traditional industries can digitally transform to become more efficient, but China is also seen as a leader in key emerging industries such as autonomous vehicles.

The famous BATs (Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent) led the digital revolution, and all are investing heavily in AI and Big Data, capitalising on the huge amount of data they hold. But many new players are also contributing to this rapidly evolving ecosystem, from bike-sharing companies to face or speech recognition start-ups. 

The VC market further supports the development of innovative applications and solutions.

After huge technology deals in Q3 2017, many in AI, VC investment for Q4 included two £2.8 billion mega-deals in China, one by Didi-Chuxing (transportation) and the other by Meituan-Dianping (e-commerce). Latest trends forecast continued appetite for investment in autotech and AI, whilst many of the big tech giants in China are increasingly looking to Southeast Asia for growth opportunities.

An opportunity for the UK to collaborate with China

The themes of the recent UK industrial strategy –  AI, an ageing society, clean growth, mobility – match China’s sector priorities and reflect the fact they these are global themes addressing global challenges. It also presents the UK and China with the opportunity to collaborate, building on their respective strengths. This was recognised last year when the UK-China Joint Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation was officially launched on 6^th December 2017, outlining the commitment for both nations to take science and innovation collaboration to a new level.

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