For the first time, the Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou science and technology cluster has leapfrogged Japan’s Tokyo–Yokohama cluster to top the Global Innovation Index 2025, which was released yesterday in Hong Kong by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The index defines an innovation cluster as a geographic concentration of inventors, researchers, and venture capital that turns bold ideas into breakthrough technologies. The trio-city cluster had ranked second for five consecutive years before this ascent. WIPO Director-General Daren Tang credits its rise to “a distinctive civic spirit and seamless, cross-border collaboration among the three cities”