Chinese, UK students explore future cities at Guangzhou smart factory

Students from leading Chinese and British universities explored what future cities might look like during a tour of a smart factory in Guangzhou, southern China’s Guangdong Province.

Flying cars, humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles often dominate the headlines, but inside the exhibition hall of XPENG, a Chinese technology company known for electric vehicles and robotics, the students found that the real conversation about tomorrow’s cities goes far beyond these high‑tech products.

The visit was part of a summer camp held for Chinese and British college students, which started on Monday in Guangzhou. Over 21 days, students from leading institutions on both countries are traveling through Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, to explore how technological innovation intertwines with urban development, social governance and cultural heritage.

For many visiting students, the factory tour was their first up-close look at China’s rapidly evolving innovation landscape. What they saw, from advanced robotics and electric vehicles to smart manufacturing systems, challenged preconceptions.

“I didn’t realize flying cars were beyond the sort of concept stage. So that was really cool. You could bring in flying cars or robots into shops and that completely changes the city’s dynamic, and also, what people do in the city. I think that’s an interesting new question. Like, what’s the place of the person versus what’s the place of automation,” said Sophie Collingham, a student from the Lucy Cavendish College of the University of Cambridge.

Artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as a central theme of discussion, with students weighing both its transformative potential and its risks.

“It’s been quite nice to have conversations about both its use cases and the risks. China is like a massive power within AI. So, I hope to learn more about what can be done about those risks,” said Sara El Khamlichi, a student from the St. John’s College of the University of Cambridge.

For other students, future cities also bring new questions about governance.

“I think there will be more automation in the future, and for me, what I’m interested in is probably the governance of those technologies, in terms of like how should we protect the people, how should we protect these technologies, for example, copyright, patents and everything,” said Lam Chen-jun, a student from the Jesus College of the University of Cambridge.

For the educators accompanying the group, visits like this matter because today’s students will be among the people tackling some of the biggest challenges of the 21st century.

“I think what’s good for the students is they get to see such a range of contemporary China. And the other is to interact with students from China, from academics here, and for that cross-culture dialogue and exchange,” said Liam Saddington, a teaching associate of the Lucy Cavendish College.

“Things like AI, aging populations, our relationship with the environment, the insights that many different societies and many different cultures can have onto these fundamental questions that we all share, I think that’s really, really valuable to learn from each other,” said Ashley Walters, an academic registrar of the New College of the University of Oxford.

Over the next few weeks, they’ll travel across five cities, meeting entrepreneurs, researchers and engineers, and seeing how new technologies are finding their way into everyday life.

The United States conducted further strikes against multiple Iranian targets on Saturday following its attacks on Friday, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

U.S. military aircraft targeted Iranian military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities, according to a statement from the command.

The strikes were a direct response to “continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Saturday that its naval forces had struck U.S. military positions in West Asia in response to recent U.S. airstrikes on southern Iran.

In a statement published on its official news outlet Sepah News, the IRGC said the United States had carried out attacks on Iran’s southern coastal areas under the pretext of an incident involving a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran said it was enforcing maritime control arrangements under a recent Iran-U.S. memorandum of understanding (MoU), while accusing the United States of violating the agreement.

The IRGC warned that further U.S. attacks would trigger a stronger response.

Furthermore, CENTCOM said in a post on social media platform X that its forces had conducted strikes against Iran Friday night “as a powerful response to yesterday’s attack on a commercial ship that was transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”

CENTCOM said that Iran’s actions had “violated the ceasefire.”

The exchange of accusations and military actions between the United States and Iran came amid the ongoing tensions following a recently signed ceasefire agreement and continued negotiations between the two sides.

Mohsen Rezaei, a senior advisor to Iran’s supreme leader said on Saturday that the United States has violated a recently signed peace MoU between Tehran and Washington by continuing to create tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.

Rezaei, who is also a former commander of the IRGC, made the remarks in a post on X hours after the United States carried out airstrikes on Iran’s southern coastal areas.

He said “The United States, by supporting the actions of its proxy force (Israel) in the region and continuing to create tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, has violated the first and fifth paragraphs of the (peace) MoU.”

Under the first paragraph of the MoU signed on June 18, Iran and the United States, as well as their allies, declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertook not to initiate any war or military operation against each other. According to the fifth paragraph, Iran is responsible for arranging the safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days, at no charge.

Rezaei warned that Iran’s response to the violation of each paragraph of the MoU will be “swift and crushing.”

In another development, flights between Iran’s capital Tehran and Dubai of the United Arab Emirates will resume on July 1, Iranian media reported Saturday, citing Iran’s Civil Aviation Authority.