Last week I went to a conference at the Royal Garden Hotel where some Chinese government officials from Wuxi spoke to London’s postgraduate students about setting up businesses in an industry called “the Internet of Things”.

Two things struck me as particularly odd.

Firstly, I must confess rather embarrassingly, that the concept of the Internet of Things has remained completely foreign to me up till now. And secondly, considering that the government is giving away potentially 2,5m RMB ($366,000) to each new business, the amount of media coverage for this opportunity is curiously low.

But first, let me explain to you what the Chinese government is pitching.

Wuxi - The “Silicon Valley” of the East

In 2001, an Australian educated student Dr Shi Zhengrong returned to China with a business vision. His dedicated visits to different cities seeking government support all resulted in disappointments until he arrived at Wuxi. With the Wuxi government’s help, his company Wuxi Suntech Solar Energy Power Co. became the first private enterprise in China to list on the New York Exchange.

Almost a decade later, Dr Shi’s story is still widely viewed by ambitious young entrepreneurs as the model for success. It is also the pride of the Wuxi government, which is now travelling all around the world seeking more high-tech projects that can be turned into successful businesses like Dr Shi’s.

In 2009, Premier Wen Jiabao visited Wuxi’s Internet of Things research institute and was deeply impressed. He made the Internet of Things a national focus and almost overnight it became particularly fashionable for local governments to support overseas educated students setting up their businesses. But of course, Dr Shi’s example demonstrated that the Wuxi government mastered the technique years ago. It has already introduced 276 projects and 2000 overseas professionals by 2008, and following the country’s growing emphasis on the Internet of Things, Wuxi sat its new target to receive 1000 overseas professionals in the next 5 years and become the “Silicon Valley” of the East by 2020.

Application Policies

The Wuxi government is currently selecting new projects twice a year. The key is innovation, and that comes from cutting edge technologies often developed from student’s postgraduate research. The minimum criteria for applicants are: either master’s degree + 5 years of overseas work experience, or, PhD + 3 years of overseas work experience.

If successful, each project will then receive a maximum of 2.5m RMB in aid. In addition, entrepreneurs will receive support in all aspects of life, such as education for their children and housing. Science and technology professionals will also receive entrepreneurial training so that they may turn their research into profitable commercial products.

China and the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things is considered the third wave in the information industry since the introduction of computers and Internet. It is a network of Internet-enabled objects, supported by technologies such as RFID (radio frequency identification), sensors, and smart phones.

Although the concept itself has a long history, it is only recently that substantial developments in this technology are made. IBM is a leading company, currently offering a range of RFID and sensor technologies that have commercial use. For example, In Feb 2010, it announced a deal with a Danish transportation company to monitor plant temperature with sensor technology during transportation.

Traditionally, China has suffered the disadvantage of purchasing expensive technology copyrights from the US and EU countries. However, because the Internet of Things is a new field, China is keen to get ahead. Its determination is well demonstrated by the recent launch of the first Internet of Things centre in Shanghai with a total investment of 800m RMB ($120m).

Why the Internet of Things Matter

Is the Internet of Things really so powerful and does it truly benefit average citizens on a day to day basis? To find the answer, I spoke to Dr Wu Yan who is soon to launch his business Wisen Innovation in Wuxi.

Dr Wu’s business specialises in producing wireless bridge sensors using the Internet of Things technology. These bridge sensors will automatically detect the strength of bridges, saving the costly process of manually examining bridge quality that currently takes place twice a year in China.

To determine bridge strength by implanting wired sensors into bridges at the time of construction is a technology already widely available. However, because many bridges are constructed already, adding wired sensors to them is costly. Therefore, Dr Wu’s team is developing a wireless sensor that can be used to monitor existing bridges externally.

“In China, about 4 million bridges are built each year, but unfortunately many faulty ones are not detected by bridge experts. In addition, to examine bridges using wireless sensors as opposed to manually will condense 2-3 months of work into 2-3 days”, said Dr Wu. For him, to develop a cost-effective bridge monitoring system is vital to support the economy and safety of China.

This sensor technology is Dr Wu’s current research at Cambridge University. “When I asked the university about turning my research into a business in China, they gladly agreed”, he said. “If my business becomes successful, it will make Cambridge proud too.” But this, of course, requires purchasing intellectual properties from the university, a task the Chinese government too would happily assist.

The Wider Picture

To see the wider picture I’d like to revisit my initial observation that this 4 hour intense discussion between the government and top graduates received very little publicity.

I first noticed this event when I received a 100 word email briefly describing it through my university’s Chinese students’ organization. The email asked interested candidates to send in their proposals and out of the 100+ applicants only 30 were selected to attend the conference.

Believing that this is an informal session due to lack of more information, I was completely taken back to discover the students’ structured and focused business ideas and the Wuxi government’s professional advices. It substantially changed my assumption that the Chinese government are bureaucratic officials to almost believe that they may be science and entrepreneurial experts.

This same government team visited Cambridge the day before and already selected four projects to invest in. As the conference ended I saw the team getting on the bus to the airport, as that they have many trips ahead of them including Oslo and Edinburgh, and will be touring Australia and the US later in the year.

It seems that the Wuxi government is fully committed to their task, but at the same time has wisely chosen to keep it quiet on an international level. Rather than putting up frequent internet adverts, it is touring the world’s leading cities to communicate face to face with a niche group just as focused on the same mission.

So here I leave you, dear readers. If one day China becomes the future technology leader, you shall not be surprised. And if you wish to take advantage of this curious and exciting trend in China that is currently emerging from the darkness before dawn, now is the perfect time.

Cecily Liu