Nigeria Times

Editorial by People’s Daily

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged east China’s Jiangsu province, an economic powerhouse, to play a major role in the country’s overall development.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when he taking part in a deliberation with his fellow lawmakers from Jiangsu during the third session of the 14th National People’s Congress, China’s national legislature.

He also highlighted the province’s responsibility to take the lead and achieve even greater success. His remarks provide significant guidance as China seeks to secure a decisive victory in the final yearof the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and continues to open up new horizonsin reform and development.

Over the past year, China has accomplished the main goals and tasks for economic and social development. Stable performance was consolidated and sustained, and strong and solid progress was achieved. The country’s economically developed provinces have played a pivotal role in anchoring this progress.

Amid a multitude of uncertainties and challenges, China still faces the challenging tasks of advancing reform and development while maintaining stability. Last year’s annualCentral Economic Work Conference emphasized the need to support major economically developed provinces to play major roles, and encourage other regions to leverage their local conditions and advantages.

By calibrating each province’s comparative advantages within the broader Chinese national development framework, China is bound to fulfill the goals and tasks in the 14th Five-Year Plan with high quality and lay a solid foundation for a good start to the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030).

For instance, Guangdong, south China’s economic powerhouse,has played a pioneering and exemplary role in further deepening reform and opening up comprehensively. In 2024, the province’s foreign trade exceeded 9 trillion yuan ($1.24 trillion), an increase of 9.8 percent year on year, contributing to nearly 40 percent of China’s overall trade growth.

Jiangsu, anchoring itself as a major locality for developing new quality productive forces, has intensified the integration between technological innovationand industrial innovation. In 2024, 711 enterprises that use specialized and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products were established in the province, the highest provincial tally in China.

Shandong strives to become an important economic growth pole in north China. Capitalizing on its maritime assets, it is creating a highland for the development of a modern marine economy, projecting its marine GDP to hit 1.8 trillion yuan in 2024.

Chinese economic powerhouses are cradles for fostering new business forms, new growth drivers, and new quality productive forces. They are also major engines for China’s economic development.

From innovation hubs to revitalized industrial belts, many provinces are carving out their specialized roles in the country’s modernization agenda by amplifying local strengths while aligning with broader national priorities.

For example, Hubei province in central China is accelerating efforts to build a strategic fulcrum for regional growth. Its breakthroughs – including cutting-edge memory chips, hollow-core fiberoptics, and septal myectomy -are fueling its integration into China’s national innovation chain.

Liaoning province in northeast China is shoring up agricultural resilience while pushing industrial upgrades and service-sector expansion.As it enters the final year of its three-year action plan for comprehensive revitalization, it targets GDP growthabove five percent.

Shaanxi, as the ancient Silk Road’seastern gateway, is channeling its geographic legacy into modern logistics ambitions. The province is advancing a China-Europe freight train economic corridor designed to fuse transportation networks with cross-border trade and financial services, cementing its role in China’sunified national market.

This mosaic of localized strategies reflects a deliberate calculus: by leveraging comparative advantages – from technological prowess to geographic heritage – provinces are competing for strategic niches while avoiding homogenized development. The approach not only bolsters near-term goals like the 14th Five-Year Plan, but also lays groundwork for sustained, resilient growth.

China is advancing a series of interconnected regional strategies – including the coordinated regional development strategy, major regional strategies, the functional zoning strategy, and the new urbanization strategy – to foster localized economic modernization. Every province now falls under at least one of these national development strategies, ready to channel provincial strengths into a cohesive modernization drive.

These policies create favorable conditions, provide opportunities, and open up new space for different regions to explore high-quality development paths suited to their specific conditions.

Under the CPC Central Committee’s strategic planning and coordinated efforts, every region is covered by one or more national-level development strategies. By leveraging geographical advantages, resource endowments, industrial foundations, and scientific research capabilities, every region can maximize the opportunities presented by these national strategies, generating synergistic effects that drive Chinese modernization. As global trade headwinds persist, China’s economic architects have demonstrated that decentralized innovation – guided by central coordination – could provide the necessary resilience.

By Yang Xun, People’s Daily

At the Longping Rice Museum in Changsha, central China’s Hunan province, a 20,000 Ariary banknote from Madagascar bears silent testimony to an agricultural revolution.Emblazoned with hybrid rice imagery, this currency artifact – presented by Madagascar’s Ambassador to ChinJean Louis Robinson in 2022 – encapsulates a partnership transcending geography.

For decades, Madagascar’s struggle with food self-sufficiency persisted, constrained by seed limitations, antiquated farming methods, and infrastructural gaps. The breakthrough came through a strategic handoff: China’s hybrid rice expertise, honed by the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, transitioned to Yuan’s High-tech Seed Co., Ltd. for commercial deployment via their Madagascar branch. This pivot catalyzed nationwide adoption of high-yield rice cultivation.

According to Wan Jueming, executive deputy general manager of Yuan’s High-tech Seed Co., Ltd., the company has established a fully localized hybrid rice industrial chain in Madagascar, covering seed production, breeding, planting, processing, and sales. In Nigeria’s Kano State, it has set up a joint venture seed company to independently manage the entire hybrid rice industrial chain. Besides, in Malanje province, Angola, the company is collaborating with local enterprises to develop a 10,000-hectare hybrid rice industrial park. To date, Yuan’s High-tech Seed Co., Ltd. has promoted hybrid rice cultivation across 80,000 hectares in Africa.

The collaboration yielded an unexpected synergy. While transforming rice cultivation, the company recognized Madagascar’s premium yet undervalued mutton. In September 2024, history quietly unfolded as the first African lamb shipment reached Hunan – a tangible symbol of reciprocal exchange emerging from agricultural innovation.

Another key player in supporting African agricultural development with advanced technology is Longping High-tech, a Chinese agricultural company named after Yuan Longping, affectionately known as the “father of hybrid rice”– the revered pioneer whose hybrid rice breakthroughs reshaped global food security. This modern inheritor of Yuan’s vision is redefining South-South cooperation through innovative partnership models that intertwine technology transfer with human capital development.

The company’s footprint now spans 53 African nations, where its 200+ training initiatives have cultivated expertise among 7,000 agricultural specialists from Kenya’s highlands to Tanzania’s fertile plains. These programs transcend conventional aid frameworks, creating an intercontinental knowledge network where Chinese agronomists work shoulder-to-shoulder with African counterparts in experimental fields and processing facilities.

Weng Yong, a key architect of this initiative at the company’s international training academy, articulates the philosophy underpinning their approach: “Superior seeds form the foundation, but true agricultural resilience blossoms only when paired with adapted cultivation wisdom.” This dual focus – marrying cutting-edge biotechnology with context-sensitive implementation – reflects a maturation in China-Africa collaboration, moving beyond transactional exchanges toward sustainable capacity building.

Beyond the realm of technological innovation, structural frameworks now anchor the deepening symbiosis between Chinese and African economies. The China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo –institutionalized through its permanent exhibition hall in Changsha’s Yuhua District–manifests this evolution. Within its vaulted spaces, visitors navigate a sensory mosaic of transcontinental commerce: South African vintages aging in oak barrels, Guinean djembe drums whispering ancestral rhythms, and countless other artifacts of cultural-economic exchange.

Hunan Province, having hosted three iterations of the Expo, leverages this platform to recalibrate South-South trade dynamics. The Yuhua block of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone Changsha Area has transformed into a living atlas of African commerce, its shelves curating goods from all 53 African nations.

The block has also launched the “African Brand Warehouse” project and, in 2024, expanded imports to include cassava, pineapples, avocados, and other African agricultural and food products.

Additionally, Hunan Xiangjiang New Area has inaugurated a China-Africa Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base, providing office space and a full suite of supporting services, including property management, business assistance, and resource matchmaking, to help young entrepreneurs grow and thrive.

The evolution of Sino-African collaboration now manifests through institutional alchemy – where entrepreneurial incubators transmute raw ambition into cross-continental enterprise. In Hunan’s Xiangjiang New Area, the China-Africa Youth Innovation Base operates as a catalytic chamber, offering subsidized workspace and operational scaffolding from legal compliance to market bridging. This ecosystem birthed narratives like that of Mali’s Aboubacar Garba Konte– graduating from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, he joined the base in June 2023 with his solar-powered motorcycle project, embarking on his entrepreneurial journey in Hunan.

“Today, I am not only a key manager at Mali’s project incubation station but have also successfully facilitated the export of Malian sesame to China,” said Konte. He is now in discussions with a Hunan-based new energy company to jointly launch a solar power system project in Mali, aiming to alleviate local electricity shortages.

“China-Africa cooperation is bringing tangible improvements to our lives,” he told People’s Daily.

According to Li Weimin, director of the foreign science and technology exchange center of Hunan Xiangjiang New Area, the base has established connections with over 200 government agencies, business associations, and enterprises from more than 50 African countries. It has also introduced innovation and entrepreneurship incubation stations from 8 African nations, including Tanzania, Egypt, and Nigeria.

The base has facilitated the export of drones, solar products, wigs, and bags from Mali’s incubation station while continuously expanding imports of Ethiopian, Rwandan, and Kenyan coffee, as well as Rwandan dried chili peppers.

In June this year, Changsha will host the fourth China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo. Rebecca Miano, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife of Kenya, emphasized that economic and trade cooperation lays a solid foundation for China-Africa mutual benefit and win-win development, helping both sides move towards a more competitive and sustainable future.

By He Yin, People’s Daily

“We are now in a world where almost every energy story is essentially a China story.” This remark by Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, underscores China’s pivotal role in global green transition.

Through sustained international green cooperation, China is enabling global modernization with Chinese modernization of harmony between man and nature, offering a tangible illustration of Birol’s statement.

China has collaborated withmore than100 countries and regions to implement sustainable energy solutions, evidenced by landmark installations worldwide.Solar arrays spanning desert landscapes in Oman, cross-continental transmission infrastructure traversing Brazil’s Amazon basin, wind farms harnessing steppe winds in Kazakhstan’s Shelek region, and South Africa’s pioneering Redstone solar thermal facility all bear testament to this cooperation.

The nation has additionally supported African climate observation through satellite technology deployment, implemented energy-efficient lighting systems in small island countries, and established carbon-reduction pilot programs in ASEAN communities.

These multilateral efforts are transforming renewable energy from a “luxury” into an accessible article of daily use, converting ecological preservation into tangible economic opportunities while redefining energy infrastructure paradigms.

The global shift toward sustainable energy systems has become an undeniable necessity, with technological advancement emerging as the primary catalyst for this paradigm change. Chinese breakthroughs in renewable energy solutions have dramatically accelerated worldwide deployment of clean power infrastructure, slashing decarbonization expenses and contributing to what is widely recognized as a form of “technological inclusiveness.”.

Recent analysis from the the International Renewable Energy Agencyreveals a striking 60% reduction in wind energy costs and an 80% decrease in solar photovoltaic expenses globally over the past decade — a transformation overwhelmingly driven by Chinese technological leadership, unparalleled manufacturing scale, and infrastructure development proficiency.

In 2024, China witnessed a remarkable surge in wind turbine exports, with an increase of over 70 percent.Photovoltaic product exports surpassed the 200 billion yuan ($27.45 million) mark for the fourth consecutive year,while lithium-ion battery exports hit an all-time high. As noted by a Swiss publication, examining China’s export figures offers a revealing snapshot of global leadership in energy transition.

China’s contributions through its green products and technologies have been instrumental in accelerating the worldwide shift towards renewable energy. This progress echoes an observation made over three decades ago by economist Ronald Coase, who stated, “The struggle of China is the struggle for the world.”

The rapid expansion and leadership of China’s green industry in the global energy transition can be attributed to several factors: robust market demand, effective government policies, mature industrial ecosystems, and intense market competition. These elements underscore China’s commitment to modernization that emphasizes harmony between human development and environmental sustainability.

In 2024, China achieved a significant milestone by surpassing its 2030 target for installed wind and solar power capacity, reaching over 1.4 billion kilowatts ahead of schedule. For the first time, the nation’s annual production of new energy vehicles eclipsed 10 million units, marking respective increases of 34.4 percent in production and 35.5 percent in sales compared to the previous year. Moreover, energy consumption per unit of GDP decreased by 3.8 percent, while carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP fell by 3.4 percent from the prior year.

These achievements underscore China’s unwavering dedication to ecological progress, a principle deeply embedded in the country’s cultural heritage of harmonizing human activity with nature. They also highlight China’s pivotal role as a participant, contributor, and leader in fostering global ecological civilization.

The heart of a successful green transition lies in sustained effort and adherence to commitments, while the most formidable obstacles are inconsistency and broken promises. As international observers have noted, discussions about green transformation have persisted for decades,but translating policies into tangible development outcomes has proven challenging. It was only when China took decisive steps toward green development that the world truly reached a “historical turning point.”

China holds steadfast to the principle that safeguarding the environment is synonymous with protecting productive forces; enhancing the environment equates to bolstering these forces. Through proactive reshaping of its industrial framework, China has transformed the once-perceived dichotomy between ecological preservation and economic growth into a mutually beneficial scenario. This approach adds a new and compelling chapter to the annals of human modernization.

Mankind stands at the threshold of a green revolution, one that will shape the trajectory of its survival and development. Achieving sustainable progress through the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature emerges as the sole viable path forward.

Committed to advancing its renewable energy sector, China advocates for international green cooperation. It collaborates with global partners to lay the foundation for ecological civilization, propelling the world toward green modernization. This endeavor not only underscores China’s dedication to environmental stewardship but also highlights its role in leading transformative change on a global scale.

By People’s Daily reporters

Data serves as a crucial lens for observing economic development. Let’s explore four sets of data from different sectors to gain insight into the resilience and vitality of the Chinese economy.

56.707 Million: Private Enterprises Driving Economic Dynamism

The private sector is a vital component of China’s economy.

The metamorphosis of China’s economic musculature finds its most dynamic fibers in the private sector’s silent revolution. Fresh regulatory data reveals an exponential leap – from 10.857 million private enterprises in 2012 to 56.707 million by January 2025, a 420% surge mirroring the nation’s tectonic economic shifts.

Yet the true seismic activity occurs in innovation’s fault lines. Private tech enterprises now dominate the landscape, their numbers ballooning from 28,000 to 420,000 in thirteen years. What began as scattered foothills now forms an innovation mountain range, private firms constituting over 92% of national high-tech entities compared to 62.4% in 2012.

“These enterprises exhibit biological adaptability,”observes Zhang Lianqi, president of the Enterprise Financial Management Association of China.”Their DNA contains codes for perpetual reinvention – migrating from industrial lowlands to cognitive highlands through relentless R&D mitosis.” This upward mobility through industrial strata transforms entire value chains, private ventures becoming both architects and beneficiaries of China’s technological orogenesis.

9 Million: Computing Power Unlocking Development Potential

In the algorithmic age where silicon replaces steam, China’s computing infrastructure undergoes silent continental drift. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s latest survey maps 9 million standardized server racks now humming across data centers – tectonic plates of the digital economy shifting beneath society’s surface.

Zhang Li, director of the China Center for Information Industry Development, deciphers this terrain: “Each rack deployment acts as neural expansion, multiplying computational muscle fibers.” His metrics reveal a nervous system nearing completion – 58.3% of computing nodes pulse in sync through national neural pathways, while 65% of provinces and municipalities in Chinaexist in a five-millisecond reality horizon, their digital synapses firing at relativistic speeds.

The raw numbers translate to 280 EFLOPS of concentrated cognitive might – equivalent to 280 quintillion calculations per second crystallizing into competitive advantage. This invisible forge now ranks among Earth’s mightiest computational engines, its distributed firepower melting analog industries into liquid data streams.

In the algorithmic crucible where silicon reshapes institutional DNA, DeepSeek’s integration patterns reveal biological imperatives. Corporate organisms spanning governmental nervous systems to automotive chassis and smartphone ecosystems have achieved symbiotic integration – not mere partnerships, but full genomic splicing with this artificial cognition platform.

AI-driven applications are expanding rapidly across various sectors, including industry, education, healthcare, and energy, with over 13,000 computing power-driven projects already in operation.

4.756 Million: Patents Highlighting Innovation Strength

Patents are a key indicator of a country’s innovation capacity.

China’s patent landscape has undergone tectonic shifts, with the National Intellectual Property Administration reporting 1.045 million invention patents granted in 2024 – a year-on-year surge of 13.5%. This milestone positions China as the inaugural nation to amass over 4.76 million valid domestic invention patents, eclipsing the 4 million threshold through sustained innovation momentum.

Turning coal into electronic casings, clothing fabrics and tires, the pioneering methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology has yielded transformative results after 40 years of innovation efforts.

The methanol-to-olefins (MTO) conversion breakthrough exemplifies this technological metamorphosis. Four decades of chemical alchemy now transform coal into electronic components, textile polymers, and synthetic rubber compounds. Liu Zhongmin, director of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reveals how persistent R&D investments have scaled this technology across 20 industrial facilities, achieving annual production capacities exceeding 13 million metric tons.

Strategic patent proliferation is catalyzing next-generation industries. High-value invention patents ballooned to 1.978 million in 2024, marking an 18.8% annual expansion. Concurrently, strategic emerging sectors witnessed 15.7% growth in patent holdings, reaching 1.349 million protected innovations.

“China has become a true intellectual property powerhouse. The next step is to enhance the commercialization of intellectual property and integrate it with new quality productive forces,” observed Shan Xiaoguang, Professor at the Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property, Tongji University.

3.8 percent: Energy Efficiency Underscoring Green Commitment

China’s economic transformation is being rewritten through the prism of ecological calculus. While the nation’s GDP expanded at a 6.1% annual clip between 2013 and 2023, its energy appetite grew at barely half that pace—a 3.3% yearly increase that redefines the arithmetic of modern development. The 2024 figures reveal deepening momentum: each unit of economic output now requires 3.8% less energy than the previous year, even after excluding non-fossil sources and industrial feedstocks.

Beneath these statistics lies an industrial metamorphosis. The world’s most comprehensive renewable energy ecosystem now generates electricity through wind turbines and solar arrays with a combined capacity surpassing 1.4 billion kilowatts. This energy revolution manifests in tangible environmental dividends: urban centers have breathed cleaner air for five consecutive years, while over 90% of surface waters meet stringent quality benchmarks. Forest canopies now blanket a quarter of the nation’s terrain, creating carbon sinks that offset emissions.

“The numbers tell a story of synchronized evolution,” observes Tsinghua University environmental scholar Chen Lyujun. “China isn’t merely balancing economic and ecological priorities—it’s engineering their convergence.” From particulate matter reductions to watershed revitalization, these parallel achievements form the substructure of a development model where carbon neutrality timelines and economic modernization roadmaps are becoming inextricably intertwined.

By Ye Zi

Hangzhou News Broadcast, operated by east China’sZhejiang province’s Hangzhou Culture, Radio and Television Group, has integrated AI-synthesized virtual anchors into its programming—a pilot initiative reporting zero operational errors during broadcasts, provoking robust public debate on automation’s role in journalism.

A “virtual human” denotes a digitally engineered entity replicating anthropomorphic traits within non-corporeal environments. Accelerated by advancements in 5G networks, artificial intelligence, and immersive simulation technologies, these constructs now exhibit heightened perceptual and analytical capabilities, permeating quotidian societal functions with growing sophistication.

Hangzhou News Broadcast has deployed six such synthetic news presenters, engineered with uncanny human verisimilitude in facial micro-expressions and kinetic fluidity, according to disclosed technical specifications.

Following an intensive data acquisition and algorithmic calibration phase, these synthetic anchors now execute live news delivery with operational reliability, enabling human counterparts to temporarily step down during peak leave periods without disrupting output—a milestone in automated broadcast logistics.

Liu Yuchen, an anchor at Hangzhou News Broadcast, disclosed that her digital simulacrum “Xiaoyu” employs DeepSeek-V3 architecture, endowing it with multimodal capacities spanning natural language processing, teleprompter narration, and automated editorial functions including script vetting and source aggregation.

Media analysts note virtual presenters have transitioned from experimental applications in streaming platforms and digital-first media to institutionalized roles within terrestrial television’s daily programming cadence.

Wu Suoning, a member of the expert advisory committee of the Internet Society of China, observed that AI-driven anthropomorphic systems now constitute a transformative vector within China’s media ecosystems, operationalizing what industry protocols term a “bifurcated human-AI workflow paradigm.”

Under this framework, articulated Wu, automated precision in standardized content generation—spanning meteorological bulletins and rapid incident dispatches—allows journalistic resources to be strategically allocated to interpretive domains: investigative narrative construction and critical analysis.

The analyst projected that evolutionary leaps in large language models’ cognitive architectures, particularly in inferential reasoning and self-optimizing operational parameters, will catalyze synthetic correspondents’ capacity for adaptive interactivity and -specific customization. Such advancements, he contended, are poised to reconfigure content supply chains through hyperdynamic production protocols and precision-targeted dissemination matrices.

Beyond conventional broadcast domains, synthetic media entities are gaining traction within China’s real-time digital commerce ecosystems.

During seasonal demand peaks such as the Spring Festival, brands increasingly deploy anthropomorphic avatars — modeled after commercial ambassadors — to circumvent operational bottlenecks. Industry analyses indicate scarcity and cost inflation among skilled human anchors during high-volume periods, prompting adoption of algorithmic alternatives. These AI-driven proxies reportedly reduce expenditure while sustaining 24/7 operational cadences, mitigating fatigue-related inefficiencies inherent to biological labor.

Integrated neural language frameworks enable real-time semantic parsing, automating customer query resolution while optimizing engagement through predictive interaction protocols. Metrics from recent commercialization trials reveal conversion metrics (CVR) surging by ≥50% during AI-anchored livestreams, validating the “low-input/high-yield” operational paradigm.

Technical specifications from Baidu-affiliated digital anthropomorphism developers outline a streamlined synthesis pipeline: biometric training via 3-40 minute source footage, followed by script automation and kinematic synchronization protocols. Post-configuration, avatars achieve audiovisual congruence in lip articulation, prosody, and gesture—approximating human-presented broadcasts at scale.

Industry diagnosticians note that while synthetic presenters demonstrate superior cost efficiencies and creative scalability, they remain deficient in the nuanced adaptability of organic interlocutors—particularly in managing intricate discursive exchanges. Industry diagnosticians stress that such synthetic systems still require extensive algorithmic refinements. Concurrently, emergent debates surrounding biometric data governance, surveillance capitalism implications, and anthropomorphic ethics frameworks persist as critical impediments to sectoral maturation.

Currently, avatar personas for entertainment, real-time retail narration, and corporate service automation constitute the most monetizable implementations of anthropomorphic AI. Analytical projections from the inaugural China Digital Human Conference indicate the nation’s core virtual human sector will attain 48.06 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) by 2025, with peripheral ecosystem valuations forecast to expand to 640.27 billion yuan—underscoring accelerated enterprise adoption despite extant technical constraints.

By Xu Jun, People’s Daily

As China convenes its annual “two sessions”- the gatherings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s legislative process has once again come under the spotlight.

In China’s legislative system, the NPC and its Standing Committee serve not only as the lawmakers but also as conduits for public sentiment. But how are these voices channeled into the heart of law-making?

The answer is found in a meticulously designedinstitutional framework that ensures public sentiment is woven into every stage of the law-making process.

Proposing legislation

During the second session of the 14th NPC in 2024, deputies submitted 298 motions, with 292 directly addressing legislative issues ranging from the formulation and revision of laws to theirrepeal and interpretation.

When formulating its legislative plan, the NPC Standing Committee carefully reviews deputies’ motions and suggestions alongside expert analysis and public feedback.Since NPC deputies come from all walks of life, this process allows public voices to directly contribute to the legislative process.

Drafting law

Many might be surprised to learn that even high school students’ recommendations can influence Chinese national legislation. A 2020 proposal from teenagersat the High School Affiliated to East China University of Political Science and Law was relayed through a local legislative outreach office. It later appeared in revisions to China’s Minor Protection Law.

Such outreach offices was first launched in 2015. Since then, over 90 percent of laws drafted or amended by the NPC and its Standing Committeehave incorporated feedback from these offices, which collect opinions from businesses, villages, and schools. Officials describe them as “direct hotlines” for democracy.

The process was tested during the drafting of China’sCivil Code, a landmark law enacted in 2020. Over 425,000 people made 1.02 million recommendations online.The final text added the “Personality Rights” section – a win for advocates who emphasized the need for enhanced protection of personal information, privacy, and reputation in the digital age.

Adopting law

Draft legislation generallyundergoes several rounds of scrutiny by the NPC Standing Committee, and in some cases, is also examined during an NPC session.

Even technical provisions can ignite fierce discussions. In 2015, for instance, deputies clashed over a single sentence in draft revisions to China’sLegislation Law, as they discovered that the third reading had removed the clause requiring tax rates to be established by law.

Why did this detail matter?

Some deputies argued that tax rates are an essential element of taxation – without a statutory mandate, the principle of statutory taxation would be compromised. In response, the NPC’s specialized committees meticulously examined each suggested revision and ultimately restored the provision mandating that tax rates be set by law.

The Legislation Law, which governs how laws are made, stipulates that legislation shall uphold and develop whole-process people’s democracy, respect and protect human rights, and safeguard and promote social fairness and justice.

From the initial proposalof a legislative project to the drafting and deliberation of bills, the input of public voices is actively sought and integrated – a clear demonstration of whole-process people’s democracy.

Legislative power is lies at the heart of national governance. Through science-based and effective institutional arrangements, China ensures that the people exercise state power through the system of people’s congresses, firmly placing the country’s future firmly in the hands of its people.

By Du Yifei, People’s Daily

In Shenzhen’s Futian district, a cohort of 70 artificial intelligence systems designated as “digital personnel” has initiated a paradigm shift in administrative operations. Engineered with DeepSeek’s cognitive architectures, these systems achieve document processing precision exceeding 95% while reducing processing times by up to 90%, concurrently optimizing interdepartmental coordination through 80% improvements in task distribution efficacy.

Operational parameters extend across 240+ governance scenarios, encompassing document management, civil services, crisis response protocols, and economic development initiatives. This technological implementation reflects China’s accelerating adoption of generative AI solutions, with multiple municipalities now integrating neural network systems to refine bureaucratic processes and elevate civic service standards through automated governance frameworks.

Beijing’s Economic-Technological Development Area has implemented neural network systems for market supervision, tripling operational throughput in regulatory enforcement. Hangzhou’s healthcare insurance AI interface manages approximately 70% of citizen inquiries through voice recognition protocols, with its textual counterpart resolving 90% of written consultations through semantic analysis frameworks. Nanjing’s emergency management platform demonstrates 95% regulatory adherence in producing incident documentation within 300-second operational windows.

Many provincial-level jurisdictions including Shenzhen and Guangzhou now operationalize DeepSeek’s cognitive architectures within administrative ecosystems, establishing automated content generation pipelines to optimize administrativeresponsiveness. This nationwide integration of neural networks signifies China’s systematic transition toward data-driven governance models, with intelligent systems progressively replacing manual workflows across regulatory enforcement, public health coordination, and crisis mitigation operations.

China’s intelligent governance frameworks now extend beyond administrativeoptimization to reengineer metropolitan management paradigms. Guiyang, a topographically constrained municipality historically burdened by chronic road network saturation, has implemented a cognitive traffic orchestration platform showing operational efficacy.

The system synthesizes municipal surveillance infrastructure with commercial navigation telemetry, utilizing predictive analytics to model vehicular movement patterns. During peak transit intervals, this architecture enables automated signal timing recalibrations across 31 arterial junctions. Preliminary metrics indicate measurable reductions in congestion metrics, with one urban dweller noting “tangible improvements in roadway fluidity.”

Professor Wu Yiping of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics’ School of Public Economics and Administration hailed the initiative as a pivotal advancement in administrative innovation. “Embedding generative AI systems such as DeepSeek into civic operations could revolutionize service delivery through optimized content production and responsive digital interfaces,” he asserted, emphasizing the technology’s potential to recalibrate urban management frameworks for contemporary demands.

While acknowledging these operational benefits, analysts caution that workforce implications require rigorous scrutiny. Industry observers concur that although AI-enhanced governance may streamline repetitive functions, persistent limitations surround dataset reliability, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and implementation scalability. Crucially, they stress that human competencies in strategic innovation, empathetic engagement, and nuanced policy adjudication remain irreplicable assets in public administration.

“AI systems function as administrative instruments operating within defined human oversight protocols rather than autonomous policymaking entities,” clarified Gao Zeng, deputy director of Futian District’s Government Services and Data Administration.

In Shanghai’s Putuo District, official Lu Yao noted a persistent preference for interpersonal engagement despite technological advances. “While algorithmically generated responses demonstrate technical proficiency, constituents consistently value the irreplaceable interpersonal rapport cultivated through direct human exchange,” Lu observed, underscoring the enduring significance of empathetic dialogue in civic affairs.

Lu maintains that AI’s principal contribution to community governance resides in its capacity to alleviate bureaucratic redundancies. By automating administrative workflows, public servants gain critical bandwidth to prioritize participatory neighborhood initiatives and resolve complex societal challenges, he argued.

As algorithmic solutions increasingly reshape institutional frameworks, policymakers confront the imperative of harmonizing operational automation with inherently human competencies in ethical discernment. This delicate symbiotic equilibrium, analysts suggest, could potentially redefine public sector effectiveness by merging computational precision with psychologically attuned service paradigms.

By He Yin, People’s Daily

China has unveiled a 2025 action plan to stabilize foreign investment, outlining 20 policy initiatives across four strategic priorities: phased expansion of autonomous market opening, enhanced investment facilitation, functional upgrades to open-economy platforms, and service system optimization.

International observers have largely interpreted the move as reinforcing China’s commitment to institutional opening-up, with analysts noting its alignment with global investors’ calls for predictable regulatory frameworks.

Opening up is a fundamental national policy of China and a defining feature of Chinese modernization. It profoundly enriches the path and unlocks new frontiers of Chinese modernization.

This trajectory builds on four decades of calibrated openness – from the experimental zones of the 1980s to today’s network of 21 pilot free trade zones and cross-continental BRI corridors. Each phase has systematically addressed structural bottlenecks while creating new value chains,  aligning with the trend of economic globalization and shaping new models of international cooperation.

Since the start of the new era, China has pursued more proactive opening up policies, achieving historic milestones and transformations. The country has advanced a broader agenda of opening up across more areas and in greater depth.

According to theGlobal Soft Power Index 2025 released by British consultancy Brand Finance, China has ranked first globally for four consecutive years in “easy to do business with” and “future growth potential.”

Through continuous opening up, China’s economy has become deeply integrated with the global economy, serving as a major engine for global growth. Over the past five years, China has contributed around 30 percent to global economic growth, being the largest driver of global development.

Research by the International Monetary Fund indicated that China’s economic growth has a spillover effect — when China’s growth rate rises by 1 percentage point, growth in other countries increases by around 0.3 percentage points.

China’s strategic pursuit of high-level economic openness is transforming its colossal domestic market into a catalyst for global growth. Recent corporate expansions underscore this shift: Tesla has commenced operations at its inaugural overseas energy storage Gigafactory in Shanghai; Siemens Healthineers is developing a cutting-edge medical equipment research and production hub in Shenzhen; while Yum China aims to nearly double its mainland outlets to 20,000 within two years.

The nation’s expansive, multi-dimensional consumer base continues to fortify foreign enterprises’ long-term commitments. Notably, China’s December 2024 implementation of zero-tariff access for 98% of imports from eligible least-developed nations triggered an 18.1% monthly surge in procurement from these economies. This policy framework not only enhances trade reciprocity but systematically integrates emerging markets into value chains.

China now serves as the principal commercial partner for more than 150 nations and regions globally, cementing its position as a pivotal node in global commerce. This trajectory of openness positions China’s growth as an accelerant for worldwide economic advancement.

The nation’s commitment to elevated openness transcends conventional economic policies, encompassing the sharing of developmental frameworks, institutional innovations, and transnational public goods. Amid a global climate of escalating unilateralism and protectionist measures, China persists as a stabilizing force—methodically deepening international collaboration through its domestic progress while championing structural reforms to fortify an inclusive global economic architecture.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), conceived as a transnational public good, originated from China’s drive for enhanced openness in its contemporary era. It has catalyzed deeper global economic interdependence and reciprocal growth, garnering international acclaim as a “revitalized paradigm of economic globalization.”

By pursuing elevated openness, China not only disseminates the dividends of its progress but also assumes a proactive role in recalibrating global governance frameworks—advancing the realization of a community with a shared future for mankind through institutionalized cooperation. This approach underscores an alignment of national development with multilateral imperatives, reinforcing China’s stewardship in shaping equitable international systems.

Spanning infrastructure interconnectivity, trade liberalizationand facilitation, financial harmonization, regulatory alignment, and cultural exchange, China is systematically propagating the ethos of open development and reciprocal collaboration across nations. This multidimensional engagement not only fosters collective prosperity among emerging economies but also advocates for an equitable, rules-based multipolar world order—advancing an inclusive model of economic globalization that prioritizes broad-based dividends.

Guided by a novel paradigm of universal benefit, China positions openness as a conduit and mutual advancement as the connective tissue of international relations. By synchronizing its institutional reforms with global developmental imperatives, the nation is poised to propel sustained momentum into worldwide growth trajectories, architecting a future where cooperative frameworks underpin shared prosperity. This calibrated strategy reaffirms China’s role as both participant and innovator in redefining 21st-century economic governance.