By Shen Mengzhe
At a Beijing symposium on private sector dynamism in mid-February, two figures symbolised China’s shifting entrepreneurial landscape: Wang Xingxing of Unitree Robotics and Liang Wenfeng of DeepSeek. Born in 1990 and 1985 respectively, these founders epitomise a new wave of Chinese innovators reshaping emergent industries through boundary-pushing technologies.
Their companies anchor an ambitious cluster in Hangzhou–Zhejiang province’s answer to Silicon Valley–alongside peers like Game Science, BrainCo, Manycore Tech, and DEEP Robotics. Dubbed the “Six Little Dragons of Hangzhou” by online communities, this coalition has transformed the historic city into an innovation crucible.
Since the beginning of this year, from Unitree Robotics’ humanoid robots becoming the most talked-about performance at the Spring Festival Gala to DeepSeek’s AI large model capturing global attention, a wave of groundbreaking innovations has thrust the name of the “Six Little Dragons of Hangzhou” into the global spotlight.
The phenomenon has prompted rigorous analysis among municipal governments in China. Some cities have begun reflecting on why such companies did not emerge locally, leading to deep introspection on factors such as business environment, talent support, innovation investment, and government guidance.
With cutting-edge products and thought-provoking questions, this wave of innovation can aptly be called the “Six Little Dragons of Hangzhou” phenomenon.
At its core, the phenomenon underscores China’s capacity to cultivate world-leading enterprises at technology’s cutting edge. The cohort spans disciplines from artificial intelligence to neurotechnology and cloud-native systems engineering, with members advancing existing paradigms while charting unexplored scientific frontiers.
Amidst patent thickets and technological chokepoints, the ascent of these enterprises reaffirms China’s capacity to surmount developmental constraints through autonomous innovation.
The “Six Little Dragons of Hangzhou” phenomenon further illuminates the prodigious dynamism latent within China’s vast domestic ecosystem. These ventures epitomize a vanguard of agile private-sector innovators—youth-led teams who forged operational frameworks during metro commutes and prototyped systems amidst urban bustle, their digital architecture rising through coded logic and algorithmic frameworks.
If China’s industrial foundations were forged through multigenerational endeavor, its future horizons now beckon with equal intensity of purpose.
The “Six Little Dragons of Hangzhou” phenomenon also sends a clear message to the world: China is committed to running its own affairs well and benefiting humanity as a whole.
DeepSeek’s open-source AI models lower the barriers to AI applications; Unitree Robotics reshapes robotics economics by challenging cost-prohibitive market structures; and BrainCo pioneers neural interface breakthroughs with cross-border humanitarian implications.
These enterprises collectively embody China’s vision for “technological egalitarianism” – positioning emerging innovations as universal assets within humanity’s intellectual commons.
Amid global economic stagnation and fractious geopolitics, China’s paradigm answers the critical dichotomy: Should nations pursue exclusionary supply chain policies or collaborative technological leaps?
The “Six Little Dragons of Hangzhou” phenomenon offers inspiration for global development: Humanity does not need short-sighted speculation or fleeting stimulation, but long-term vision, perseverance and the courage to push boundaries. The future of humanity does not lie in isolation behind closed doors or in building walled gardens, but in the commitment to standing firm at the forefront and the audacity to pioneer new paths.
Photo shows the West Lake in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang province. (Photo by Long Wei/People’s Daily Online)
Photo shows the Hangzhou Future Sci-Tech City in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang province. (Photo from Qianjiang Evening News)
