Technology should improve the working conditions of ordinary people
In the spring of 2026, a delegation of Global South officials, financiers, and scholars traveled to Ningbo, China, not merely to observe technology but to ask a deeper question: whether development must always mean choosing between the future and the past. Moving through graphene laboratories and craft workshops alike, they encountered a city that had arranged its identity as both argument and invitation — suggesting that innovation and tradition need not be rivals, and that the bonds of trust which once carried merchants across oceans might yet carry new partnerships across the Global South.
- A cooling vest made of graphene — designed to protect furnace workers from heat — became the unexpected symbol of what technology could mean when it serves ordinary people rather than abstractions.
- Mexican industrial park director Carlos Huerta arrived with modest expectations and left recalibrating entirely, naming Ningbo's advanced materials research as a genuine opening for bilateral cooperation he had not foreseen.
- Delegates slowed down in a painting workshop, learning that a peony requires layers, and that the discipline of making something by hand carries its own kind of knowledge.
- A museum tracing Ningbo's centuries-old merchant networks reframed the entire visit — history was not backdrop but blueprint, offering a model of trust-based global connection that resonated with present-day Global South ambitions.
- The delegation left with a composite image: a city that runs graphene research centers and still makes glutinous rice dumplings by hand, presenting coexistence as a development philosophy, not a compromise.
A delegation of government officials, financiers, and scholars from across the Global South arrived in Ningbo this spring as part of the 2026 Global South Financiers Forum, hosted by a city that had arranged its itinerary with deliberate intention — laboratories followed by craft workshops, research centers paired with heritage museums.
At the National Graphene Innovation Center, researchers walked the group through applications in energy, medicine, and industrial equipment. But it was a graphene-lined cooling vest — built to protect workers in extreme heat — that drew the most attention. Luis René Fernández Tabío of the University of Havana watched his fellow delegates turn it over in their hands and offered a quiet verdict: this was what technology should look like when it genuinely improves the lives of ordinary people.
Carlos Huerta, who directs an industrial park in Nogales, Mexico, admitted the visit had exceeded his expectations entirely. He had not anticipated Ningbo's depth in advanced materials research, and said so plainly — naming it as a real opening for deeper cooperation between Mexico and China in the sector.
The delegation also spent time painting peonies in the traditional style, weaving bamboo, and making glutinous rice dumplings alongside local artisans. Luz María García of Chile's Technology Information Association reflected that the painting process had slowed her down in a way that felt meaningful — each layer of the flower a reminder that cultures, like crafts, are built gradually and with care.
At the Ningbobang Museum, the group encountered the story of a city that had been a global trading port for centuries, its merchants building networks of trust across vast distances. Fernández Tabío saw the parallel immediately: the spirit that sent those merchants outward was not so different from what the Global South was trying to build today.
What the visit ultimately offered was a vision of development that refused the usual trade-offs — a city presenting itself as evidence that industrial sophistication and cultural continuity can occupy the same space, and that this combination might itself be the most transferable lesson of all.
A group of government officials, financiers, and business leaders from across the Global South arrived in Ningbo this spring to see what a Chinese city built on both innovation and tradition might teach them about their own development paths. They had come as part of the 2026 Global South Financiers Forum, and their hosts had arranged something deliberately dual: factories and museums, laboratories and craft workshops, the future and the past arranged in sequence.
The first stop was the National Graphene Innovation Center, where researchers explained how this material—sheets of carbon a single atom thick—was moving from theoretical physics into the everyday world. Energy systems. Medical devices. Industrial equipment. But what caught the delegates' attention was smaller and more human: a cooling vest lined with graphene that could absorb and dissipate heat, designed for workers laboring in furnaces or under the sun. They gathered around it, turning it over in their hands. Luis René Fernández Tabío, a professor from the University of Havana, watched them examine it and saw something that mattered. "This is what technology should look like, not just data in a laboratory, but something that genuinely improves the working conditions of ordinary people," he said.
Carlos Huerta, who directs an industrial park in Nogales, Mexico, found himself recalibrating his sense of what Ningbo had become. He had not anticipated this level of sophistication in advanced materials research. "I had not expected Ningbo to have advanced this far in new materials," he said. "This opens up real possibilities for deeper cooperation between our two countries in this sector." The visit, in other words, was already doing its work—creating the possibility of partnership where none had seemed obvious before.
But the delegation's itinerary was not all laboratories and supply chains. At the Red Peony International Home, they picked up brushes and attempted to paint peonies in the traditional manner. The work was slower than they expected, more meditative. Luz María García, executive director of the Chilean Technology Information Association, found herself thinking about what the process revealed. "A flower has many layers, just like a culture," she said. "The process slowed me down. I think that is what you call 'craftsman spirit.'" It was not a casual observation. She was naming something about the relationship between how you make things and what you become in the making.
In Zhenhai District, they moved through an artisan village making glutinous rice dumplings and learning bamboo weaving from the people who had done it for years. Then came the Ningbobang Museum, which told the story of a city that had been a major port for centuries and had produced merchants who traveled the world and built networks of trust across vast distances. Fernández Tabío stood in the museum and saw a parallel to the present moment. "The way they went out into the world back then shares much in common with what we discuss today about Global South cooperation, building connections on the basis of trust," he said. History, in other words, was not decoration. It was instruction.
What emerged from the visit was a particular vision of development—one that did not require choosing between innovation and tradition, between industrial capacity and cultural continuity. Ningbo was presenting itself as proof that these things could coexist, that a city could be both a research hub and a place where people still made dumplings by hand. For financiers and officials from countries trying to chart their own paths forward, that was a message worth traveling to see.
Notable Quotes
This is what technology should look like, not just data in a laboratory, but something that genuinely improves the working conditions of ordinary people.— Luis René Fernández Tabío, professor at the University of Havana
I had not expected Ningbo to have advanced this far in new materials. This opens up real possibilities for deeper cooperation between our two countries in this sector.— Carlos Huerta, director of the Nogales Industrial Park in Mexico
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did they bring financiers to see a cooling vest and a dumpling workshop? That seems like an odd pairing.
Because the message was that development doesn't have to be one thing or the other. You can have graphene research and still have craftspeople. The vest was proof that innovation serves real people—not just shareholders. The dumplings were proof that you don't lose yourself in the process.
But did anyone actually commit to anything? Or was it just a tour?
The Mexican director said it opened possibilities for cooperation in advanced materials. That's how these things start—you see what's possible, you imagine a partnership, then you go home and make calls. The real work happens after.
What struck you most about what they said?
Fernández Tabío comparing the old Ningbo merchants to modern Global South cooperation. He was saying: this isn't new. We've always known how to build trust across distance. We're just doing it again, with different tools.
So Ningbo was teaching them something about themselves?
Exactly. Not lecturing them. Showing them. There's a difference.