"Die erste Grafschaft Chinas" gewinnt 20 Mal hintereinander. Entschlüsseln Sie das "Talent-Geheimnis" hinter dem Wunder von Kunshan.

Recently, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta, announced that he will offer a "signing bonus" of up to $1 billion to recruit top talents. Meanwhile, OpenAI has also offered astronomical salaries and poached 4 well - known engineers from Tesla, xAI, and Meta.

Companies in Silicon Valley in the United States never hesitate to poach top talents with high salaries.

Because these top companies know: Talents not only determine the height of a company and an industry but also the future of a city and a country.

In China, there is also a city that has managed to take "talent hunting" to the extreme - and that is Kunshan.

At the opening ceremony of the 9th Kunshan Entrepreneurship Week and the launch event of the "Hundred Universities Visit Kunshan" campaign, Kunshan, as a county - level city, has taken extremely ambitious measures:

The "Zu Chongzhi Cup" for innovation and entrepreneurship was established. Successful participants and project teams can receive a startup subsidy of 4 million yuan and the "special privilege" of a 600,000 - yuan real - estate bonus, and they have priority in the investment of Kunshan's angel investment fund, with the maximum amount reaching up to 10 million yuan.

At the same time, Kunshan, together with Suzhou Venture Capital, established a Kunyu Talent Development Fund with a total volume of 1 billion yuan.

It can be said that this is the strongest support for innovative talents among county - level cities in China. The capital volume and the application process even surpass many prefecture - level cities and even provincial capitals.

As the first county - level city in China in the field of county - level economy, Kunshan only accounts for one - ten - thousandth of the country's land area, but has achieved a GDP of 538 billion yuan and has ranked first in China's county - level economy for 20 years.

Why is Kunshan rich? To a large extent, it is because it is "rich in talents".

Talents - The Foundation of Kunshan's Prosperity

"In Kunshan, there are jades, and the most important thing is the people."

More than thirty years ago, the dedication of sociologist Fei Xiaotong revealed the secret of this city's success.

In 1983, Kunshan was completely left behind in the wave of rural and urban enterprises in southern Jiangsu. The gross industrial value was less than half of that of the surrounding counties and was ridiculed as "the sixth son of Suzhou".

The reason was that Kunshan was originally a rice - growing and fishing area, and grain production was always abundant. People were satisfied with a modest level of prosperity for a long time.

Against the background of the rise of rural and urban industries in southern Jiangsu, Kunshan was still in a state of an agricultural city.

This strong contrast also made Kunshan think deeply.

Right after the New Year in 1984, the Party Committee of Kunshan gathered more than 1,000 leading cadres from counties, townships, and villages and made the groundbreaking decision for the "three transitions". The most important point was the "transition from a closed economy to an open economy" and the concentrated development of the industrial economy.

But at that time, Kunshan had no industrial foundation. What should it do?

Kunshan set its sights on Shanghai, which is 40 kilometers away. Mayor Wu Kequan personally led a delegation and, with the groundbreaking idea of "land for technology", managed to attract the No. 1 Shanghai TV Factory to Kunshan to set up a branch factory.

At that time, technical experts from Shanghai came to Kunshan by the old train on weekends to give advice.

To convince these experts to teach local technicians, Kunshan actively invited them to serve as leading employees and managers of joint - venture companies and gave most of the profits to the investing companies from Shanghai. With real money, it retained these "Sunday engineers".

In addition, without state investment and favorable policies, Kunshan built an industrial park with its own funds to attract talents and companies and thus became the "first self - financed development zone in China".

The headquarters of the Economic and Technological Development Zone of Kunshan between 1985 and 1990

Where there are high rewards, experts gather.

Within just two years, Kunshan introduced 14 projects with an investment of over 5 million yuan, and the industry started from scratch.

A bigger breakthrough came in 1988.

In that year, there was a fierce debate across the country about "socialist or capitalist". Under pressure, Kunshan approved the opening of the first foreign - owned enterprise at the county level in the province - Suwangni Glove Co., Ltd. Once this door was opened, foreign investments poured into Kunshan.

In 1990, the first Taiwanese company in Jiangsu, Shunchang Textile, set up its base in Kunshan. After that, giants like Giant, Foxconn, and Compal followed one after another.

The groundbreaking policy triggered the wave of Taiwanese investments. The model of "attracting Taiwanese companies through Taiwanese companies" developed by Kunshan has made 100,000 Taiwanese entrepreneurs settle in Kunshan. Kunshan has supported the Taiwanese entrepreneurs, and the Taiwanese entrepreneurs have also built Kunshan. The city and the Taiwanese entrepreneurs have developed a symbiotic relationship.

Subsequently, more than 70% of the top 100 manufacturing companies from Taiwan have built factories here. Raw materials are brought into the Economic Development Zone of Kunshan, and the finished products are directly transported to the port and shipped to the world.

In 1992, the development zone of Kunshan was named a national - level development zone. Throughout the year, 850 groups of businessmen came to negotiate investment projects. The total investment was $406 million, and the contractually utilized foreign capital was nearly $300 million, exceeding the sum of all previous years.

A county - level city has thus been integrated into the wave of the global value - added chain, shed the shame of being the "sixth son", and become the first city in southern Jiangsu and the first city in China.

Billion - Talent Program - A Boost for Development

If attracting talents was the beginning of Kunshan's path to prosperity, then cultivating talents determines today's "height of Kunshan".

In 2008, Kunshan launched the eye - catching "Billion - Talent Program" - 1% of the tax revenues are used each year to set up a special fund of at least 100 million yuan for the introduction and cultivation of talents.

In the first year after the implementation of the policy, it had already attracted hundreds of doctoral projects. Among them, Visionox, founded by the group around Zhang Deqiang, is now one of the leading companies in the global OLED industry.

In 2013, Kunshan, together with Duke University in the United States and Wuhan University, founded Duke Kunshan University - this is the only international university in China located in a county - level city.

Bringing in world - class top academic resources with the strength of the whole county is not only a city's hope for the future but also Kunshan's practical action to actively connect with global innovation centers with an open attitude.

In 2018, Kunshan's talent strategy was upgraded again, and the "Head - Goose Talent Program" was launched - the maximum subsidy for platform projects is 200 million yuan, for teams is 100 million yuan, and for individuals is 20 million yuan, with the focus on overcoming "headache technologies".

So far, Kunshan has supported a total of 22 projects of the "Head - Goose Talent (Team)", and the results are impressive.

For example, the team around academician Nan Cewen from Tsinghua University received 100 million yuan from Kunshan's "Head - Goose Program" for its project on solid - state lithium batteries. From this project, QingTao Energy emerged, which is now on the Forbes list of fast - growing gazelles in China and has been among the top 50 leading automobile technology companies in China for years. The project has also brought Kunshan's new energy industry to a scale of over 100 billion yuan.

During an interview with Li Zhongjun, the Chief Technology Officer of Kunshan Guoxian Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. (6th round of the "Head - Goose Talent Program"), Zhengjieju also learned that Kunshan not only has "strength" in talent policy but also "warmth" in service.

For example, the provision of school places for children, housing supply, and living environment are all complete. More importantly, there is an all - round service platform like "Kunruyi" that accompanies the project development of talents from start to finish and handles all formalities in one go.

Kunshan has established the first self - operated one - stop service center for talents and technological innovation among county - level cities in China - the Talent and Technology Development Service Center. With the established "Kunruyi" talent management and service platform, it provides all - round accompaniment and one - stop service for talents and projects. Since its operation in 2019, it has handled a total of over 9,000 service matters for talents such as school - place provision for children, housing supply, and living environment, and the application amounts for the talent and enterprise support policies exceed 7 billion yuan.

The Talent and Technology Development Service Center of Kunshan

Li Zhongjun directly said that the financial support from Kunshan is a decisive factor for the successful implementation of the project in Kunshan.

So far, the "Head - Goose Program" has received a total of over 500 million yuan in financing from Kunshan, which has brought the total investment of the enterprises to nearly 3 billion yuan and achieved a turnover of nearly 2 billion yuan. It has really achieved the goal of driving a "big industry" with "small state capital".

If e - commerce, delivery services, and car - pooling services in the market gain a foothold through "billion - dollar subsidies", then Kunshan's urban development is based on "billion - talent subsidies".

From the World Factory to the Global Talent Pool

Where there is abundant water, fish and dragons gather; where the forest is dense, birds gather.

Today, Kunshan has transformed from a "world factory" to an "aggregation point for global talents".

A series of data shows the strength and height of Kunshan in the field of talents:

The total number of talents is 565,000, which is equivalent to the population of a medium - sized county - level city. The number of high - quality talents is 58,200. The average age is only 36.18 years old, making it the youngest county - level city in Jiangsu.

896,000 young people start businesses here, and more than 21,000 foreigners, 100,000 Taiwanese entrepreneurs, their families, and relatives live and work in Kunshan.

The annual "Kunshan Entrepreneurship Week", which has been held for nine years, has attracted a total of more than 22,000 international elites and global entrepreneurs and enabled the implementation of over 1,800 talent and technological innovation projects.

A city's ability to attract talents depends on both its economic foundation and industrial support and its open attitude and strategic vision.

In 2023 and 2024, Kunshan won the title of "the best city in China for attracting talents" for two consecutive years.

On July 11, 2025, the 9th Kunshan Entrepreneurship Week and the "Hundred Universities Visit Kunshan" campaign officially started.

At the event, Kunshan showed its ambition to become a "talent - friendly city" through a series of tough policies.

For example, top talents and projects can receive up to 200 million yuan in project funds and a 5 - million - yuan real - estate bonus. Young AI talents can receive a maximum real - estate bonus of 200,000 yuan and a 100,000 - yuan living subsidy. For AI companies, a "zero - rent incubator" is established, which provides free computing resources.

At the same time, Kunshan has built an all - round talent policy system of the "1 + N + X" type: From the provision of housing, registration, infrastructure to entrepreneurship, financing, and development, all aspects are covered. A catalog for the classification and recognition of talents has been created, and individual service programs for 73 types of talents from category A to F have been developed. In the "high - quality talent community", there are international schools and joint laboratories. More than 20 free stations provide young talents with a 30 - day "free" accommodation option. The innovative financial instrument "Kunke Credit" provides talent - based enterprises with a loan of up to 15 million yuan without collateral, which ranks top in the Yangtze River Delta region.

These "extraordinary investments" are based on...