Wuzhen emerges as model for cyberspace transformation

The 2025 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit will be held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, from Nov 6 to 9. Over ten years ago, Wuzhen was a quiet town of stone bridges and winding canals, a place where time seemed to pass slowly. Today, it has become a platform where nations convene to shape the future of cyberspace.

Over the past decade, the Wuzhen Summit has borne witness to the town's rise — a transformation that mirrors China's broader digital evolution. In Wuzhen, history and high technology don't collide, they converge. "Holographic digital roads" use real-time monitoring to cut average travel time by over 15 percent. Immersive projects developed by tech companies merge animation, gaming, and e-sports with centuries-old streets.

Wuzhen is not merely a backdrop for international conferences, it is a living model of how digital innovation can revitalize traditional economies and empower local communities. The town now hosts more than 44,000 private enterprises, forming a new industrial ecosystem that blends energy innovation with smart technologies.

Beyond its physical infrastructure, the Wuzhen Summit embodies a vision for global digital governance. In 2015, China proposed the concept of building a community with a shared future in cyberspace in Wuzhen. By 2022, the World Internet Conference became an international organization, now including more than 210 members from over 40 countries and regions.

Themed, "Forging an Open, Cooperative, Secure and Inclusive Digital Future — Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace", this year's summit will bring together leaders from cutting-edge tech companies, including rapidly-rising tech start-ups, Game Science, DeepSeek and Manycore Tech, to explore the next wave of intelligent technologies.

As AI and emerging technologies reshape economies, politics and daily life, forums like Wuzhen are no longer optional, but indispensable. The summit reminds us that only by building a community with a shared future in cyberspace can the benefits of digital progress reach more people, more fairly, across the globe.