HONG KONG -- For decades, China's southern Pearl River Delta has been a manufacturing hub, supplying TVs, refrigerators, garments, toys and gadgets to the world. The factories employ tens of thousands of people and have helped make Guangdong the country's richest province.
But Beijing's ambitions for the industrial cluster don't stop there. It wants to transform the region into a high-tech megalopolis with a snazzy new name: the Greater Bay Area. The initiative, the brainchild of President Xi Jinping, aims to create a rival to Silicon Valley. The plan envisions a different role for each of Guangdong's nine big cities, as well as the territories of Hong Kong and Macau.
