China's annual Central Economic Work Conference, which was held in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday, outlined nine priorities for maintaining steady economic growth in 2025.
In a speech at the conference, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, reviewed the country's economic work in 2024, analyzed the current economic situation and arranged the economic work for the next year.
The conference listed the priorities in nine aspects as follows:
The first is to vigorously boost consumption and make investment more productive.
The second is to lead the development of new quality productive forces through scientific and technological innovation, and build a modernized industrial system.
The third is to leverage the leading role of economic structural reform, and ensure the implementation and effectiveness of key reform measures.
The fourth is to pursue higher-standard opening up.
The fifth is to effectively prevent and resolve risks in key areas, safeguard the baseline of preventing systemic risks, and continue to vigorously stabilize the real estate market.
The sixth is to advance new urbanization and all-round rural revitalization in a coordinated manner, and promote integrated urban-rural development.
The seventh is to intensify the implementation of regional strategies and enhance the vitality of regional development.
The eighth is to make concerted efforts to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, expand green areas, and accelerate the all-round green transformation of economic and social development.
The ninth is to strengthen efforts to guarantee and improve people's livelihood, and increase people's sense of gain, happiness and security.
Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi, members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the conference.
Premier Li Qiang made a concluding speech, putting forward requirements for implementing the spirit of Xi's important speech and doing a good job in the economic work next year.
Central Economic Work Conference outlines nine priorities for 2025
Intelligent driving systems powered by advanced artificial intelligence are stealing the spotlight at the ongoing 2026 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, also known as Auto China 2026, with industry insiders predicting this technology could come to revolutionize our roads.
With the theme of "Future of Intelligence," this year's edition of the world's largest auto show opened on Friday and is scheduled to run until May 3, with over 1,450 vehicles on display, including 181 debutants and 71 concept cars.
Chinese autonomous driving startup ZYT is among the many firms speeding ahead to this high-tech future, with its intelligent assisted driving mode allowing a driver to completely take their hands off the wheel. For those who have experienced it, perhaps the most impressive aspect is how the system can handle complex city traffic, moving steadily like an experienced driver behind the wheel.
This progress has been driven by the rapid iteration and advancement of AI models, according to ZYT's senior product manager Zhang Zeyu.
"This U-turn is enabled by our data-driven technology, an advanced solution in the industry. It handles oncoming vehicles and speed control with exceptional smoothness. Trained on massive driving data from seasoned drivers, the AI delivers mature and stable performance. Besides, our foundational model is adaptable to far more scenarios than just urban roads and highways," said Zhang as he sat at the wheel of one of the firm's autonomously-driven vehicles.
ZYT has publicly unveiled its state-of-the-art 'Native Multimodal Foundation Model' for the first time at the Beijing Auto Show, and the company says it is confident in the development of this next-generation intelligent driving system.
"You can see on our booth, we empower everything that moves, from a truck to a last-mile delivery vehicle to a passenger car to a humanoid robot. So everything that moves is powered by our brain. In order to work in different verticals, as we call it, the model has to be trained with different input data. Like your human brain, you train on different input data, so you get smarter. And this is the same logic we use for our multi-modal foundation model," said Nils Oldemeyer, Head of Europe for ZYT.
Auto China 2026 is also highlighting China's supply chain breakthroughs in areas such as ultra-fast charging and cockpit-driving integration but the AI revolution is evident at the event, where the concept of 'in-vehicle AI' is no longer a gimmick but has become a standard feature.
As well as ZYT, other driving technology brands including Horizon Robotics, Momenta, and Huawei are all showcasing their cutting-edge strengths at increasingly affordable prices, and for these Chinese brands, developing their own homegrown chips could be the key to success.
With the arrival of the J6 chip developed by Horizon Robotics, top tier computing power has reached an impressive 560 TOPS (trillion operations per second), going head to head with AI chip leader NVIDIA, while Chinese new energy vehicle giants including NIO, Li Auto, and Xpeng are also all equipping their cars with self-developed chips.
Xpeng's GX model features four self-developed Turing AI chips delivering local computing power of 3,000 TOPS.
The firm's founder He Xiaopeng stressed that the era of physical AI in automobiles has truly arrived and predicts it will bring a profound impact with it.
"We've all seen massive shifts in digital AI across China, the U.S., and the world over the past three years. Digital AI is changing our digital world, but I believe physical AI will truly change how we experience life and impact many jobs. It can make things easier—like driving, through intelligent assisted driving. Physical AI will change the role of traditional drivers and also create diverse new roles," said He, who is Chairman and CEO of XPENG Inc.
Amid this wave of automotive intelligence, numerous mainstream joint-venture and luxury brands are also partnering with local Chinese tech firms to tap into the latest Chinese technology, all with the aim of creating better driving experiences.
Intelligent driving takes the wheel at world's largest auto show in Beijing
