Beyond China's borders, Byte-Dance's flagship product TikTok has expanded to more than 100 countries and regions, while Doubao's overseas version, Dola, has become a widely discussed topic on international social media platforms.
Meanwhile, Zhipu AI has launched large-model infrastructure projects in countries including Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, helping more overseas users access the convenience of AI-powered digital services.
"We are witnessing extraordinary breakthroughs in technology today, particularly in AI innovations," said Joe Weinman, founder of the International Institute for Future Industries.
"China in general, and Beijing in particular, is leading the world in many of these technologies through a powerful combination of government support, academic excellence, entrepreneurial innovation and highly talented individuals. By bringing together data, algorithms, computing infrastructure and human talent, these new productive forces are creating highly capable yet affordable solutions that will benefit not only China but also the wider world," he said.
According to Jiang Xiaojuan, professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, these breakthroughs stem from China's innovation model, which prioritizes openness, sharing and serving people's needs — principles that increasingly define the evolution of the digital economy in the AI era.
Unlike the manufacturing era, when companies often expanded overseas only after achieving scale at home, large AI models are inherently global from the outset, Jiang said.
Open-source AI models can rapidly narrow capability gaps among companies in different countries, significantly reducing the cost of cross-border innovation and collaboration while creating new opportunities for economic growth worldwide, she added.
China is accelerating the deployment of digital and intelligent technologies across its entire economic landscape.
The country's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) calls for strengthening core digital economy industries and fostering internationally competitive digital industrial clusters. It also emphasizes leveraging digital technologies and data resources to enrich people's lives and improve public well-being through deeper integration in education, healthcare, elderly care, culture and tourism, employment and consumption.
Facing complex global challenges such as data security, cross-border data flows and increasingly blurred technological boundaries, experts attending the conference called for the establishment of regular multilateral dialogue mechanisms and industrial cooperation channels to jointly build a secure and trustworthy digital future.
The 2026 Global Digital Economy Cities Report, released during the conference, identified people-centered digitalization, industrial collaboration, data openness, mutual recognition of standards, cybersecurity and alliance-based cooperation as key priorities for future digital economy partnerships. The report also called for continued efforts to foster a trustworthy, inclusive and sustainable environment for digital development.
"Whether it is the digital economy or AI, neither is an end in itself — both are agents for promoting the sustainable development of humanity," said Gong Ke, executive president of the Chinese Institute of New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Strategies.
