Digital News

At the exhibition area of Shangrao, a guest of honor city of the event, a visitor is trying out a robot that mimics her movements to grab a toy. (Photo by Shi Chenjing)

At the 9th Digital China Summit, Tianjin, Ningxia, and other guest of honor provinces and cities such as Jinan (Shandong), Xiaogan (Hubei), Shangrao (Jiangxi), and Qingyang (Gansu) took center stage, presenting an exhibition of achievements powered by digital and intelligent technologies. The showcase offered a vivid portrait of Digital China’s development, ing region-specific approaches and collaborative progress.

Pooling Computing Power, Driving Progress

With the rise of large AI models, demand for computing power is increasing exponentially, and the National Integrated Computing Network is rapidly taking shape.

Stepping into the exhibition area of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a guest of honor province, the theme of “computing power” is apparent everywhere. “Although we are located inland, Ningxia is the only province in western China to serve as both a hub node of the National Integrated Computing Network and a national new-type Internet exchange center,” a guide explained on site. Thanks to its unique advantages, including abundant green electricity, a cool climate, stable geological conditions, and low network latency, Ningxia is focusing on building a nationwide computing power support base. So far, leading technology companies such as Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent have implemented 13 large-model training and inference projects in the region, while nine national ministries and commissions, along with eastern provinces, have launched key projects in Ningxia, including intelligent computing centers and data backup facilities.

Exciting news came from the exhibition floor. Following the launch of “Minning Cloud,” Fujian and Ningxia are joining forces to establish the Minning Green Electricity and Digital Intelligence Application Center, which is scheduled to begin operations in June. The project will further advance a new collaborative model, “Data from Fujian, Computed, Backed up, and Utilized in Ningxia,” enhancing coordination across computing, backup, and practical applications.

Similarly, Qingyang, Gansu Province, a guest of honor city, is also focusing on the computing power sector. Once a traditional energy city on the Loess Plateau, Qingyang is now deeply integrated into the development of Gansu’s hub for the national “East Data, West Computing” initiative and is striving to become China’s Computing Valley.

Inside the exhibition area, a digital sandbox offers a panoramic view of the local “East Data, West Computing” industrial park, showing that the computing power industry chain is beginning to take shape. From a traditional energy hub to a new computing city, Qingyang’s transformation provides a vivid example of how western cities are seizing digital opportunities and fostering new quality productive forces.

At the exhibition area of Xiaogan, Hubei Province, another guest of honor city, computing power is no longer an abstract concept; it has become a tangible, interactive “research accelerator.”

Du Kang, a senior official at the Yangtze River 3D Scientific Computing Center, pointed to a chip board on display and said, “With our domestically developed MaPU chip architecture, we have created Tianqiong, China’s first general-purpose 3D scientific computer. Its computing efficiency is two to four orders of magnitude higher than that of traditional supercomputers, and it can support over 90% of mainstream scientific computing scenarios, helping researchers tackle the challenges of limited computing power, slow processing, and high energy consumption.”

Du Kang said that Tianqiong acts like a dynamic digital microscope for scientific research. Using high-precision simulations, researchers can track molecular interactions in real time. This significantly accelerates the process from drug target discovery to candidate screening and boosts drug development efficiency by five to ten times.

Since its launch in 2023, the Yangtze River 3D Scientific Computing Center has supported over 200 leading research teams worldwide and helped more than 20 companies accelerate breakthroughs in fields such as biomedicine and new materials. Fueled by this computing power engine, a biomedicine industry chain is rapidly taking shape in Xiaogan.

Digital Benefits for the People

Digital development should ultimately focus on improving people’s lives.

At the exhibition area of Tianjin, another guest of honor province, a “Physical Constitution Analyzer” attracted considerable attention from visitors. “With just a simple photo, a tongue check, and a hand raise, the machine can complete facial, tongue, and pulse assessments and generate a personalized Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) health report in five minutes,” explained Liu Xiaoyue, a staff member of Tasly’s Digital TCM division. Using high-definition imaging, highly sensitive sensors, and in-depth analysis powered by the Herbal AI model, the device can accurately identify individual constitutions and offer personalized guidance on diet, daily wellness routines, and other health recommendations.

On the other side of the exhibition area, the service platform presented by Yunzhanghu (Tianjin) Sharing Economy Information Consulting Co., Ltd. focuses on workers in new forms of employment, such as food delivery couriers and ride-hailing drivers. Leveraging cloud computing and its proprietary compliance review model, the company has provided over 120 million such workers with one-stop services for online tax filing, income settlement, and rights protection, and has partnered with more than 37,000 enterprises. The vast employment data it has collected also serves as an important foundation for industry governance and policy improvement.

Digital technology is transforming everyday life. Across the exhibition area, practical applications unfold one after another, spanning travel, payments, healthcare, education, and elderly care. Powered by initiatives such as “AI +” and “Data Elements ×,” digital technologies have quietly permeated every corner of daily life while playing an increasingly central role in urban governance.

Participating as a guest of honor city for the second time, Jinan, Shandong, shared its experience in building a “Digital Governance City.” The city has established an integrated “sky-ground-space” sensing network, enabling real-time, intelligent risk warnings across the urban environment. Its 24-hour AI social worker, “Quan Xiao Zhi,” serves more than 600,000 residents across over 680 communities and villages. Meanwhile, 58 digital civil servants operate in more than 200 intelligent government service scenarios, truly realizing “more data exchange, fewer in-person visits.”

Amid a wide range of digitally enabled products and practical, citizen-focused applications, the concept of “digital benefits for the people” becomes more tangible, making the advantages of digital technology both visible and palpable.

Empowering Industries with Digital Technology

The deep integration of the digital and real economies is a crucial pathway for cultivating new quality productive forces and driving high-quality development. At the exhibition areas of the guest of honor provinces and cities, this integration is flourishing and full of potential.

At the exhibition area of the guest of honor city Jinan, the “Five Senses and One Brain” intelligent tunnel boring machine (TBM) model drew significant attention. This smart system equips the “underground giant” TBM with “senses” and a “brain,” allowing it to probe geological conditions, detect anomalies, and sense gases. It can accurately identify karst cavities, faulted and fractured zones, water bodies, and other hazardous geological features, providing risk warnings and decision-making support to ensure safe tunneling operations.

To date, this series of equipment has been used in over 20 major subway and tunnel projects in China and abroad, and has become a prominent showcase of Jinan’s high-end manufacturing capabilities.

One in every two industrial lenses produced worldwide comes from Shangrao, and the world’s largest photovoltaic module base is running at full capacity here. Stepping into the exhibition area of Shangrao, Jiangxi, the power of digital empowerment is immediately palpable. Leveraging intelligent platforms such as the “5G Factory” and the “Industrial Brain,” this inland city, neither coastal nor border-adjacent, is overcoming geographic constraints and leading the world in optical lens production and photovoltaic shipments.

The power of the digital economy extends far beyond this. In the cultural sector, the “new trio” of online literature, online dramas, and online games, which is rapidly gaining momentum overseas, is becoming a new hallmark of Shangrao. “The pilot zone alone has attracted more than 1,000 digital enterprises and nurtured the province’s first listed Internet company,” explained Lian Gang, Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee of the Shangrao High-Speed Rail Economic Pilot Zone. In 2025, the city’s core digital economy industries generated revenues of 188.44 billion yuan, while exports of digital cultural products surpassed 1.5 billion yuan.

At the Tianjin exhibition area, the 8-channel brain-computer interface (BCI) headband showcased by China Electronics Cloud Brain (Tianjin) Technology Co., Ltd. offers a more tangible glimpse into the industries of the future.

“Just put on the headband and tap the button on the tablet to start the test, and within 10 seconds, real-time data on fatigue, focus, and stress will appear on the screen,” explained Wang Wei, a staff member at the booth. With its real-time, multi-dimensional state recognition, the BCI headband can be used in sectors such as rail transit and aerospace to monitor the mental state of personnel in high-risk positions, helping prevent operational errors caused by fatigue.

Empowered by digital technology and enhanced by intelligence, each city is finding its place amid the digital wave. The summit clearly reflects this progress, as digital “seeds” grow into a flourishing forest of new quality productive forces.

Insights from the Summit

Enable enterprises to take center stage

Ma Danfeng

The 9th Digital China Summit saw greater involvement from enterprises.

According to summit data, nearly 75% of delegates were from enterprises, and corporate speakers accounted for over 65% of all presentations. The share of sub-forums organized by enterprises rose from 20% in the previous edition to 56%, and, for the first time, private companies hosted sub-forums.

A summit is not only a platform for exchanging ideas, but also a showcase for technology and a hub for industry collaboration. Achieving these three functions depends heavily on the active involvement of enterprises. How quickly is technology evolving? How are large models being applied in real-world scenarios? What are the bottlenecks in the circulation of data elements? The solutions to many pressing issues rest with enterprises. Especially, as the digital economy now enters a more mature and complex stage, application scenarios are highly specialized, and industry demands vary widely. Only those closest to the market and most familiar with the technology truly know what to discuss and which connections matter. With greater participation and influence, enterprises can bring real technical challenges and genuine industry demands to the summit, enabling exchanges to shift from breadth to depth along the industrial chain and turning connections from mere intentions into tangible results, thus fully realizing the summit’s value.

Enabling enterprises to take center stage goes beyond the summit. As both the intellectual source and practical starting point of Digital China, Fujian has consistently kept enterprises at the forefront of its digital economy development. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the number of innovative digital economy companies in Fujian, i.e., the so-called “unicorns” and “gazelles,” rose from 89 in 2020 to 350 in 2025, an average annual growth of over 30%. Five cities, including Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Longyan, were selected as national pilot cities for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises. In February 2026, Fujian introduced ten measures to further foster innovation-driven digital economy enterprises, aiming to nurture more than 500 digital innovation companies and establish over 300 benchmark and pioneering data-driven enterprises by 2027.

Looking ahead, further efforts are needed to empower enterprises to take an even greater leading role in building a digital Fujian.

It is essential to further reform systems and mechanisms while optimizing the business environment. The government’s role should shift from “regulator” to “enabler,” and a full-life-cycle support system for digital innovation enterprises―featuring tiered classification, dynamic management, and targeted services―should be established. In addition, the approach should shift from “enterprises seeking policies” to “policies seeking enterprises.” Meanwhile, a prudent and inclusive regulatory framework should also be fostered to reduce institutional transaction costs.

Furthermore, talent support and infrastructure development need to be reinforced, with enterprises recognized as the primary drivers of talent deployment. The talent education system should be closely aligned with enterprise needs to ensure deep integration. Computing power resources should be consolidated and optimized to meet the practical demands of the province’s AI industry and digital innovation enterprises with precision and efficiency.

Finally, promoting open application scenarios and co-building digital ecosystems remains essential. The government, state-owned enterprises, and industry leaders are expected to play an exemplary role, while a mechanism for publishing and dynamically managing scenario lists should be established. This will foster deep integration of digital technologies with industrial development, social governance, public services, and other typical scenarios, creating a portfolio of replicable and scalable digital application models.