Wenzhou’s factories are going smart: what we saw on 10 September 2026

The innovation exhibition held alongside the 2026 Private Economy Innovation and Development Conference in Wenzhou^⁠[1] featured more than 120 companies, nearly 70% of them from Wenzhou, according to the Wenzhou Evening News.^⁠[2] Many were established manufacturers from the city’s traditional industries, now showing AI glasses, electronic door locks, footwear with electronics and robotics.^⁠[2] The shift matters beyond Wenzhou: a connected product is usually radio equipment, and in export markets it meets radio, cybersecurity and software-support rules that the mechanical version never carried.^⁠[3,4,5,6]

Wenzhou’s eyewear, lock, footwear, auto-parts and electrical makers are selling connected and AI products, and on 10 September 2026 we walked the exhibition where many of them showed their new lines. This is what was on the stands, and what the city’s own plan says it is aiming for.

The exhibition, briefly

The 2026 Private Economy Innovation and Development Conference was held in Wenzhou on 8 and 9 September, hosted by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and the Zhejiang Provincial Government, with more than 600 invited guests.^⁠[1] Its main session took place on the morning of 9 September at the International Conference Centre in Wenzhou Garden Expo Park,^⁠[1] and the same day an exhibition of companies’ achievements, titled “Innovating in Zhejiang, Everything Grows” (浙里创新 万物生长), opened in the park’s China Pavilion.^⁠[1,2]

The Wenzhou Evening News counted more than 120 exhibitors across three areas (new energy and new materials, artificial intelligence, and life sciences), nearly 70% of them Wenzhou companies.^⁠[2] We walked the exhibition on 10 September.

What the traditional industries showed

Eyewear: AI glasses

Wenzhou eyewear companies had a row of AI glasses on show, and the Wenzhou Evening News described the city’s long-established eyewear industry as fertile ground for AI wearables.^⁠[2]

Wenzhou Kaishun Eyewear (温州凯顺眼镜) presented AI glasses for myopia prevention and control, which the Wenzhou Evening News described as the first of their kind in China. According to the newspaper, they combine posture correction with control of reading distance: when a child reads or writes too close, the glasses give a reminder, and a companion mini-program records how the child is using their eyes. It put the weight at a little over 30 grams and the retail price at around 1,000 yuan, and reported that the next generation will also record ambient light and send parents tips on the study environment.^⁠[2]

EnterTech (浙江回车科技) is the company behind the LOOKTECH AI glasses, launched on 16 November 2024. Coverage of the launch described a 13-megapixel camera, natural conversation and real-time translation through an AI assistant called Memo, and voiceprint recognition so that only the owner’s voice activates the assistant, which the company presents as a privacy safeguard. It also described a platform on which third-party developers can build their own applications.^⁠[7] At the exhibition, the Wenzhou Evening News reported, the company’s glasses offered object recognition, menu translation, voice memos and an AI assistant on domestically made main-control and image-processing chips, and the company had moved quickly from prototype to volume production by drawing on Ouhai’s established eyewear industry.^⁠[2]

Locks and footwear: electronics inside

Three lock makers, TONYON (温州市通用锁具), Yeeka (温州一卡锁具科技) and VOC (浙江威欧希科技), showed electronic door locks. On the next plinth, Wenzhou’s leather and footwear industry research institute (温州鞋革产业研究院) displayed shoes and insoles fitted with small electronic modules.^⁠[8] The Wenzhou Evening News listed smart locks and smart shoes among the AI exhibits from local companies.^⁠[2]

Auto parts: a bionic arm from a chassis-parts maker

GSP (冠盛股份), which the Wenzhou Evening News describes as having worked in vehicle chassis-system parts for decades, showed an intelligent bionic arm. According to the newspaper, its joints follow the mechanics of human joints and draw on the company’s own universal-joint technology, to reduce vibration and inertia and raise the load the arm can carry.^⁠[2]

Beside it, Wenzhou Kunbu Robotics (温州鲲步机器人) showed its first product, the Qianbuwen (千步稳) ankle exoskeleton. The Wenzhou Evening News reports that the company was founded in June 2025 by a second-generation member of an auto-parts family with ten years’ experience as a clinician, after seeing how few home-rehabilitation options stroke and Parkinson’s patients had. It describes a purely mechanical design that needs no battery, weighs 380 grams and is worn on the outside of the shoe.^⁠[2] A published product review describes it as a spring-assisted ankle-foot orthosis in carbon-fibre composite for stroke rehabilitation, addressing foot drop and inward or outward rolling of the foot.^⁠[9]

Electrical: materials and energy equipment

Zhejiang Taiyi New Material Technology (浙江泰镒新材料科技), a CHINT Group (正泰集团) company working on graphene alloy materials,^⁠[10] exhibited under the CHINT brand and showed graphene high-conductivity copper winding wire for new-energy-vehicle motors.^⁠[11] The Wenzhou Evening News also named FUDAR (福达合金) among the new-materials companies showing electrical-contact materials.^⁠[2]

The plan behind it

One of the exhibition’s own panels, photographed below, set out Wenzhou’s industrial plan. It lists the city’s traditional industries for upgrading as electrical equipment, footwear, garments, auto parts, and pumps and valves.^⁠[12] Under the heading “one zone, five parks” (一区五园), it describes a Yueqing park moving the traditional electrical industry toward sensors, connectors and controllers; a Ruian park moving auto and motorcycle parts from machining components toward integrated “hardware, controllers and algorithms” solutions; and a Yongjia park moving Wenzhou’s pumps and valves toward system process equipment.^⁠[12]

Those are policy aims rather than measurements. They do match what was on the stands.

What it suggests

Three things stood out, and they are our own observations rather than findings about any company.

• The move is from components to complete products. Companies known for frames, locks and chassis parts were showing finished products with sensors, software and apps,^⁠[2,8] which is also the direction the city’s plan describes.^⁠[12]
• A new generation is building on old industries. Kunbu, founded in 2025 by the second generation of an auto-parts family, is one example of a young company growing out of an established Wenzhou business.^⁠[2]
• Connected products bring new rules with them. A product with a radio, an app or an AI feature meets requirements in export markets that the mechanical version never did, and those differ by market.^⁠[3,4,5,6] The FAQ below gives the outline for the EU, the UK and the US.

A note on the companies named

The companies named on this page were exhibitors. We have no commercial relationship with any of them, and naming a company here is not a recommendation. Product descriptions and figures are the companies’ own, as they present them, as reported by the Wenzhou Evening News or the coverage listed in the sources, or as shown on their panels.

Quick FAQ

What was shown at the September 2026 innovation exhibition in Wenzhou?

The exhibition held with the 2026 Private Economy Innovation and Development Conference opened on 9 September 2026 in the China Pavilion at Wenzhou Garden Expo Park. The Wenzhou Evening News reported more than 120 exhibitors, nearly 70% of them Wenzhou companies, across new energy and new materials, artificial intelligence, and life sciences. Established Wenzhou manufacturers showed AI glasses, electronic door locks, footwear with electronics and robotics.^⁠[2]

Do smart locks and AI glasses face different rules from the ordinary versions?

Often, yes, because a connected product is usually radio equipment. In the EU the Radio Equipment Directive applies, and since 1 August 2025 internet-connected radio equipment, and wearables that process personal data, have also had to meet requirements on network protection, personal data and privacy, and fraud; from 11 December 2027 those requirements give way to the Cyber Resilience Act. In the UK, relevant consumer connectable products have had to meet baseline security requirements since 29 April 2024. In the US, radio-frequency devices must be authorised before they are marketed or imported.^{⁠[3,4,5,6,13,14]}

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