The 2026 World Digital Education Conference (WDEC) opened in Hangzhou on May 11. Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng delivered a keynote speech titled “Transforming and Advancing Education in the Age of Intelligence” at the opening ceremony.
Huai noted that the Chinese government prioritizes education and technological advancement. He recalled President Xi Jinping’s remarks on the significant role of education in shaping the future and on the need to robustly promote integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in education as a means to bolster educational transformation and innovation.
Huai said that China has implemented the National Strategy for Digital Education since 2022, under which the White Paper on Smart Education was released in 2025 and the “AI Plus Education” Action was launched in 2026 to continuously explore the potential of AI empowerment in the field of education. He added that China has worked to develop a wealth of high-quality and publicly accessible educational resources, build platforms for personalized learning experiences, promote cross-sector and interdisciplinary collaboration to boost innovation, and push forward digital transformation across the whole education sector.
Huai said that China has established the goal of building itself into a leading country in education by 2035. He also stressed that education should always play its fundamental role of promoting well-rounded development of individuals and serving economic and social development. He underscored the need to enhance values education, facilitate the training of intelligent thinking and creativity, boost commercialization of research outcomes, and enhance teachers’ digital competence.
Huai called on countries to work together to address the opportunities and challenges brought by AI on the basis of mutual trust. He proposed three initiatives: 1) increasing international cooperation to build consensus on AI-empowered educational transformation; 2) jointly developing new models for educational development; and 3) jointly building a new ecosystem for educational governance. He expressed hope that countries would join hands to create a better future for education worldwide.
