Why Microsoft Reactor Shanghai is a Big Mistake

I’ve been tracking the Microsoft Reactor project for a few years. I have to say it’s a nice marketing project to show visibility to the public daily/weekly. And I did join a Reactor event in Redmond. It was so nice and I met one of the product managers (I don’t remember the name).

The Location of Shanghai is not So Good

Although Shanghai is a super-international city in China mainland, there are a few problems while putting this Reactor in Shanghai. (Btw, Shanghai is my hometown and I know it very well).

After the Shanghai lockdown 2022, a lot of foreigners I know left Shanghai (or we can say escaping Shanghai). Gubei (古北) area used to have a huge foreigner community. However, it's now almost empty and house renting becomes harder. Without foreigners, how can you say Shanghai is still an international city? If it’s not international, why does Microsoft put a Reactor there?

The Internet in Shanghai is a LAN because you have to visit YouTube, facebook, Twitter with a VPN, which is illegal for personal use according to China Internet law. This makes this Reactor almost impossible to cover the rest of Asia area and South East Asia area (ASEAN area).

If you take a look at this Reactor global map, you will see that Shanghai Reactor is planned…