China made a name for itself as a manufacturing and technology hub in recent decades, but has experienced a slowing of the economy in the last few years. Regulations including restrictions on Edtech, antitrust rules, and data protection impacted the tech sector in a nation that was also stalled by strict COVID-19 policies.

China has since loosened some of these regulations and is making efforts to improve the economy, but the GSER 2023 global rankings confirm its overall decline as a startup nation. Three of the four cities ranked in the top 30 and runners-up report dropped from the previous year, including tech hub Shenzhen, which fell 12 places despite more than doubling its number of unicorns from six to 13. Beijing, Asia’s leading ecosystem, fell two places in the top 30 ranking, but remains the regional leader in ecosystem value and exit value.

However, this does not mean that there isn’t significant activity in China. The economy may have slowed, but the nation is still home to numerous thriving tech startup hubs. Here are the top Chinese startup ecosystems.

To create the 2023 rankings, we measured six Success Factors in each ecosystem:

• Performance
• Funding
• Market Reach
• Connectedness
• Talent & Experience
• Knowledge

Each of these factors is assessed and awarded a score of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. For more information, please see the Methodology.

Learn more about how China compares to other global ecosystems in the GSER 2023.