Web Summit's Casey Lau on Why China is Moving Faster Than Anyone Realizes

Casey Lau, EVP at Web Summit and co-founder of Startups HK, shares observations from a month-long tech tour across five Chinese cities. He provides perspective on why “the only race that really matters right now is US versus China” and Europe’s sidelining, describes shock at frictionless payments and pace of change, details inside a Geely/Zeekr “dark factory,” explores China’s generative video AI landscape (MiniMax, Kling, Alibaba’s Happy Horse), discusses Pop Mart Land and global expansion potential, examines the F&B wave westward (Heytea, Mixue, Luckin), and emphasizes the consistent differentiator across categories: “speed of iteration that no one else in the world can match.”