"China's No.1 County" Wins 20 Consecutive Titles: Unlock the "Talent Code" Behind Kunshan's Miracle
Not long ago, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that he would offer a signing bonus of up to $100 million to recruit top - tier talent. Meanwhile, OpenAI also offered sky - high salaries and poached four well - known engineers from Tesla, xAI, and Meta.
Companies in Silicon Valley, USA, never hesitate to poach talents with high salaries.
These top - notch companies know well that talent not only determines the height of enterprises and industries but also decides the future of a city and a country.
In China, there is also a city that has taken talent recruitment to the extreme - that is Kunshan.
At the opening ceremony of the 9th Kunshan Entrepreneurship Week and the launch ceremony of the "Hundreds of Universities Visit Kunshan" event, as a county - level city, Kunshan presented highly sincere measures:
It established the "Zu Chongzhi Cup" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Outstanding contestants and project teams that win can receive 4 million yuan in entrepreneurial funding and the "green - channel qualification" for a 600,000 - yuan housing subsidy. They can also get priority investment from the Kunshan Angel Investment Fund, with a maximum amount of up to 10 million yuan.
Meanwhile, Kunshan jointly established the Kunyu Talent Development Fund with Suzhou Venture Capital Group, with a total scale of 1 billion yuan.
It can be said that this is the strongest support for innovative talents among county - level cities in China. The fund scale and application channels even exceed those of many prefecture - level cities and provincial capitals.
As the number - one county - level city in China's county - level economy, Kunshan occupies only one - ten - thousandth of the country's land but has created a GDP miracle of 538 billion yuan, ranking first in China's county - level economy for 20 consecutive years.
Why is Kunshan rich? To a large extent, it is because of its "rich talent resources".
Talent: The Foundation of Kunshan's Prosperity
"Kunshan has jade, and the jade lies in its people."
More than thirty years ago, the inscription by sociologist Fei Xiaotong revealed the secret of this city's success.
In 1983, Kunshan lagged far behind in the wave of township enterprises in southern Jiangsu. Its industrial output value was less than half of that of neighboring counties, and it was ridiculed as the "sixth - ranked in Suzhou".
The reason was that Kunshan was originally a land of fish and rice with abundant grain production, and people there were used to being content with a small amount of wealth for a long time.
Against the backdrop of the rise of township industries in southern Jiangsu, Kunshan remained an agricultural county.
This strong contrast made Kunshan reflect deeply.
Right after the New Year's Day in 1984, the Kunshan County Party Committee gathered more than 1,000 main cadres from the county, township, and village levels and made a groundbreaking decision of "three transfers". The most crucial one was to "transfer from a closed - economy to an open - economy" and focus on industrial economy.
But at that time, Kunshan had no industrial foundation. What should it do?
Kunshan set its sights on Shanghai, which was 40 kilometers away. County Magistrate Wu Kequan led a team himself and came up with the innovative idea of "exchanging land for technology", successfully attracting the First Shanghai TV Factory to jointly build a branch factory in Kunshan.
At that time, technical backbones from Shanghai came to Kunshan by slow - speed trains on weekends to provide guidance.
In order to make these backbones willing to teach local technicians whole - heartedly, Kunshan actively invited them to serve as senior executives and managers of joint - venture enterprises and gave the majority of profits to Shanghai's investment enterprises. With real money, it retained these "Sunday engineers".
In addition, without national investment and preferential policies, Kunshan raised funds on its own to build an industrial new area, attracting talents and enterprises to settle in, and became the "first self - funded development zone in China".
The headquarters of Kunshan Economic and Technological Development Zone from 1985 to 1990
With generous rewards, many backbones gathered.
In just two years, Kunshan introduced 14 projects with an investment of more than 5 million yuan each, and its industry started from scratch.
A greater breakthrough occurred in 1988.
That year, the whole country was having a fierce debate about "socialism or capitalism". Against all odds, 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, a flood of foreign investment poured into Kunshan.
In 1990, the first Taiwanese - funded enterprise in Jiangsu, Shunchang Textile, settled in Kunshan. Subsequently, giants such as Giant, Foxconn, and Compal followed one after another.
The policy breakthrough triggered a wave of Taiwanese investment. Kunshan's unique model of "attracting Taiwanese investment with Taiwanese investment" attracted 100,000 Taiwanese businessmen to settle in Kunshan permanently. Kunshan helped Taiwanese businessmen succeed, and Taiwanese businessmen also contributed to Kunshan's prosperity. The city and Taiwanese businessmen formed a symbiotic and prosperous model.
Subsequently, more than 70% of the top 100 manufacturing enterprises in Taiwan set up factories there. Raw materials are sent to the Kunshan Economic Development Zone, and finished products are directly transported to ports and then to the world.
In 1992, the Kunshan Development Zone was upgraded to a national - level development zone. Throughout the year, 850 groups of business people came to inspect and negotiate investment projects, with a total investment of 406 million US dollars and a contracted foreign investment of nearly 300 million US dollars, exceeding the total of previous years.
In this way, a county - level city integrated into the wave of the global industrial chain, shed the label of the "sixth - ranked", and became the number - one county in southern Jiangsu and the whole country.
One - Hundred - Million - Yuan Talent Initiative: Stirring Up a Pool of Spring Water
If attracting talents was the beginning of Kunshan's journey to prosperity, then cultivating talents determines today's "height of Kunshan".
In 2008, Kunshan launched the "One - Hundred - Million - Yuan Talent Initiative" that shocked the whole country - it set aside 1% of its fiscal revenue every year to establish a special fund of at least 100 million yuan for talent introduction and cultivation.
In the first year when the policy was implemented, it attracted hundreds of doctoral projects to settle in. Among them, Visionox, founded by Zhang Deqiang's team, has now become one of the leading enterprises in the global OLED industry.
In 2013, Kunshan cooperated with Duke University in the United States and Wuhan University to establish Duke Kunshan University - this is the only international university in a county - level city in China.
Spending the whole county's efforts to introduce world - class academic resources is not only a city's hope for the future but also Kunshan's practical action to actively connect with global innovation high - grounds in an open attitude.
In 2018, Kunshan upgraded its talent strategy again and launched the "Leading - Goose Talent" project - the maximum subsidy for platform projects is 200 million yuan, 100 million yuan for teams, and 20 million yuan for individuals, focusing on the breakthrough and research of "neck - choking" core technologies.
As of now, Kunshan has supported 22 "Leading - Goose Talent (Team)" projects in total, achieving fruitful results.
For example, the team led by Academician Nan Cewen of Tsinghua University received 100 million yuan in funding from Kunshan's "Leading - Goose Initiative" for its solid - state lithium - battery project. This project incubated QingTao Energy, which has been included in the Forbes China High - Growth Gazelle List and has been among the top 50 leading automotive technology companies in China for many consecutive years, driving the new - energy industry in Kunshan to exceed 100 billion yuan in scale.
During an interview with Li Zhongjun, the Chief Technology Officer of Kunshan Guoxian Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. (the sixth batch of "Leading - Goose Talents"), Zhengjieju also learned that Kunshan not only has the "strength" of policies in talent services but also the "warmth" of services.
For example, there are comprehensive services such as children's enrollment, housing security, and living facilities. More importantly, there is an all - chain comprehensive service platform like "Kun Ruyi", which provides full - process tracking and one - stop handling for talent projects.
Kunshan has established the first one - stop talent innovation and entrepreneurship service institution with physical operation among county - level cities in China - the Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Service Center. Relying on the "Kun Ruyi" talent management and service platform, it provides full - process tracking and one - stop handling for talent projects. Since its operation in 2019, it has handled more than 9,000 talent - related service matters such as children's enrollment, housing security, and living facilities, involving more than 7 billion yuan in application funds for policies beneficial to talents and enterprises.
Kunshan Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Service Center
Li Zhongjun said straightforwardly that the financial support from Kunshan was one of the key factors for the successful implementation of the project in Kunshan.
Currently, the "Leading - Goose" projects have received more than 500 million yuan in fiscal support from Kunshan, leveraging a total corporate investment of nearly 3 billion yuan and achieving sales revenue of nearly 2 billion yuan. It has truly achieved the goal of using "small - scale fiscal input" to drive "large - scale industries".
If e - commerce, food delivery, and ride - hailing services rely on "billion - yuan subsidies" to expand their market share, then Kunshan's urban evolution history relies on "billion - yuan talent subsidies".
From a World Factory to a Global Talent Agglomeration Area
Where there is a large body of water, dragons and fish will gather; where there is a dense forest, birds will flock.
Today's Kunshan has transformed from a "world factory" into a "gathering place" for global talents.
A set of data summarizes the depth and height of Kunshan in terms of talent:
The total number of talents is 565,000, equivalent to the total population of a medium - sized county. The number of high - level talents reaches 58,200. The average age is only 36.18 years old, making it the youngest county/county - level city in Jiangsu.
896,000 young people are innovating and starting businesses here, and more than 21,000 foreigners and 100,000 Taiwanese businessmen, compatriots, and their relatives live and work in peace and contentment in Kunshan.
The "Kunshan Entrepreneurship Week", which has been held for nine consecutive years, has attracted more than 22,000 international elites and global makers in total, resulting in the implementation of more than 1,800 talent - related innovation and entrepreneurship projects.
A city's talent - attracting ability depends not only on its economic foundation and industrial support but also on its open - mindedness and strategic vision.
In 2023 and 2024, Kunshan won the title of "China's Best City for Talent Recruitment" for two consecutive years.
On July 11, 2025, the 9th Kunshan Entrepreneurship Week and the "Hundreds of Universities Visit Kunshan" event officially kicked off.
At the event site, Kunshan demonstrated its ambition to build a "talent - friendly city" through a series of powerful policies.
For example: Top - notch talents and projects can receive 200 million yuan in project funds + 5 million yuan in housing subsidies; young AI talents can enjoy a maximum of 200,000 yuan in housing subsidies + 100,000 yuan in living subsidies; a "zero - rent incubator" is set up for AI enterprises, providing free computing power resources.
Meanwhile, Kunshan has also established a full - cycle talent policy system of the "1+N+X" type: covering all elements from housing, household registration, and supporting facilities to entrepreneurship, financing, and growth: formulating a talent classification and recognition catalog and customizing service plans for 73 types of talents from Class A to Class F; the "high - quality talent community" is equipped with international schools and shared laboratories; more than 20 free stations provide a 30 - day "zero - cost" living experience for young talents; the innovative "Kunke Loan" financial tool provides a maximum of 15 million yuan in unsecured loans for talent - related enterprises, ranking first in the Yangtze River Delta.
These "unconventional investments" essentially represent an unconventional talent strategy: to recruit top - notch talents, one must show top - notch sincerity; to build the best talent ecosystem, one must dare to break away from traditional thinking.
Kunshan spares no expense in investing huge amounts of money with the aim of starting anew from being "China's Best City for Talent Recruitment" to becoming a "talent - friendly city", upgrading the "high - ground of Taiwanese investment" to a "global talent magnetic field", and providing strong talent support for Kunshan to take the lead in realizing Chinese - style modernization.
The competition among county - level economies ultimately boils down to the competition of talent ecosystems.
While some places are still competing in "tax incentives" and "land dividends", Kunshan has set its sights on a more long - term goal - building an innovation ecosystem comparable to the world's top - notch ones in a limited area.
In 2024, the number of high - tech enterprises recognized in Kunshan reached 1,054, and the cumulative number of effective high - tech enterprises exceeded 3,300, achieving the "four firsts" in terms of the number of applications, recognitions, net increases, and effective numbers within the Suzhou area.
Kunshan's 40 - year practice has proved that:
In the era of the knowledge economy, the upper limit of a county - level economy does not depend on its administrative level but on the "oxygen content" of its talent ecosystem.
As long as the air is fresh enough and the soil is fertile enough, even a county - level city can grow towering trees.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Zhengjieju", and the author is Zhengjieju. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.