context: To up-skill Chinese workers admist a demographic shift and economic trainsition, Xi Jinping 习近平 has previously stressed the need to thoroughly implement the national education digitalisation strategy, build a learning society and promote the cultivation of skilled workers. Ding Xuexiang 丁薛祥 State Council vice premier and CPC Central Committee Politburo Standing Committee member and Huai Jinpeng 怀进鹏 Minister of Education both remarked the importance of international collaboration in digital education at the 2025 world digital education conference in Wuhan on 14 May.
Ding Xuexiang 丁薛祥 State Council vice premier and CPC Central Committee Politburo Standing Committee member promotes
- understanding the trend of educational development in the intelligent era
- deepening international cooperation in digital education
- accelerating the implementation of the 'Global Digital Compact'
- the achievement of the United Nations 2030 sustainable development goals
He proposes
- jointly build a high-level international open cooperation system for digital education
- collaboratively advance the empowerment of educational transformation through digital technology
- working together to promote the inclusive sharing of digital education achievements
- jointly strengthen ethical and security guarantees for digital education
The PRC and many other countries are embracing digital education reform and using AI to empower education, explains Huai Jinpeng 怀进鹏 Minister of Education. This includes
- focusing on quality integration
- widely gathering and efficiently developing quality educational resources
- embracing AI to comprehensively empower educational transformation
- deepening international cooperation
Huai argues that we are currently witnessing a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, with AI technology accelerating its iteration and experiencing explosive development. This is profoundly changing human production and lifestyle methods, knowledge supply models and scientific research paradigms, thereby reshaping thinking patterns and concepts.
Education has entered an intelligent era characterised by changing fundamental logic, reshaping educational ecosystems, resource co-creation and sharing, bridging digital divides, reconstructing qualities and abilities to promote comprehensive development and global open cooperation to promote cross-civilisational learning.
Huai calls for collective efforts to
- build an AI value system
- share AI development achievements
- jointly safeguard AI ethics and security
- construct an open, inclusive and mutually beneficial global intelligent education ecosystem
What education should be in the intelligent era is a question that needs to be answered collectively, stated Huai.
Hun Manet, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, also attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech.
Before the opening ceremony, Ding visited the education digitalisation achievement exhibition and interacted with representatives from exhibiting organisations.
The 2025 world digital education conference, themed 'educational development and transformation: the intelligent era', brought together over 600 participants including government officials from the PRC and abroad, representatives from relevant international organisations, primary, secondary and higher education institutions, as well as experts and scholars.