Star Market at 7: tech-centric stock exchange powers China’s innovation rise
Attracting capital behind breakthroughs in frontier fields, the market is a key part of Beijing’s drive for technology self-reliance President Xi Jinping gave investors a surprise in 2018 when he floated the idea of a tech-focused board on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE). He also gave China a powerful asset, as the board – later dubbed the Star Market – has become a financial engine powering breakthroughs in frontier technologies including artificial intelligence, robotics and semiconductors. The Star Market, officially known as the Sci-Tech Innovation Board under the Shanghai bourse, now forms an important part of China’s US$16 trillion stock market. With a combined market capitalisation of 15.5 trillion yuan (US$2.3 trillion), it is home to a litany of domestic companies that Beijing is counting on to break out of dependence on cutting-edge technologies that Washington is determined to restrict. From the beginning, the Star Market established itself as an example of deepening reforms in China’s stock market, which had often been criticised for failing to give investors access to the most vibrant parts of the economy, as well as for rigid regulations that resulted in an exodus of new-economy companies to overseas listings.
