Following China's market reforms and its 2001 accession to the World Trade Organization, the city of Shenzhen and the surrounding Pearl River Delta grew into one of the world's most important centers for electronics manufacturing and assembly. Dense networks of component suppliers, contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, and logistics providers allowed multinational technology companies to design products abroad while assembling them at scale in the region. This clustering made Shenzhen a key link in globally dispersed electronics supply chains supplying smartphones, computers, and other consumer devices worldwide.
Relevance to Trade History
Shenzhen's rise exemplifies how global supply chains for electronics became geographically concentrated yet globally distributed, a hallmark of late-twentieth and early-twenty-first-century trade.
Read the full story in our article How Historic Trade Routes Continue to Shape Modern Cities.
Source: OECD. See our Sources & Methodology page for how we select and verify references.