Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang has urged accelerated development of a national integrated computing network to empower high-quality economic and social development.
Ding, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during recent inspections of computing network construction in Beijing, Hebei Province, and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
During visits to a public AI computing center in Beijing and a multi-cloud computing resource monitoring and scheduling platform in Inner Mongolia, Ding learned about computing infrastructure planning and gained detailed insights into resource distribution.
He urged enhanced monitoring and scheduling of computing resources to enable integrated utilization and meet diverse computing needs.
As various traditional and emerging risks become increasingly intertwined, Ding stressed the need to strengthen the protection of facilities, models, data, and network security, and enhance the overall resilience of the computing power system.
Ding also visited China Unicom's data center in Langfang City of Hebei Province, China Mobile's intelligent computing center in Hohhot, capital city of Inner Mongolia, and the Hohhot base of a Hefei intelligent computing company to inspect their participation in the construction and utilization of the computing network.
He called for leveraging China's advantages in data resources and application scenarios to promote the coordinated development of computing infrastructure, model algorithms, and data resource supply.
Emphasizing self-reliance and self-strengthening, Ding urged efforts to foster a sound innovation ecosystem, accelerate breakthroughs in key technical challenges, and establish and refine standards.
During visits to Inner Mongolia Power Group and the zero-carbon computing center of Centrin Data in Ulanqab, Ding inspected the coordinated development of computing capacity and electricity supply, as well as the progress of low-carbon computing power.
Noting that the international energy market has experienced significant fluctuations this year, Ding called for ensuring stable domestic energy supply and prices to meet production and living needs, and maintain the stable operation of the economy and society.
Chinese vice premier urges accelerated development of national integrated computing network
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen, the "porcelain capital" in east China's Jiangxi Province, has shaped how the world understands porcelain, with even discarded shards preserving a living tradition.
Weng Yanjun, president of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, reflected on the scale and challenge behind Jingdezhen's historic creations.
"When I look at this gigantic dragon jar, I couldn't help going back to 600 years ago, when the emperor had this order to create something bigger than ever before. The failure rate of the dragon jar is so high. It could be nine out of 10. Even making failure products like this takes courage, takes techniques and takes commitment," said Weng.
Those failed attempts, once discarded, now preserve the evidence of how Jingdezhen pursued perfection.
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry has endured through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (960-1911). What has survived is not only its porcelain, but also a living heritage of raw materials, workshops, kilns and specialized craftsmanship.
Those firings produced masterpieces as well as failures, with the discarded pieces forming another kind of archive.
At the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, Weng told archaeology students that fragmented specimens sometimes provide more information than complete artifacts.
Weng leads the development of the world's first Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank, which extracts and catalogs the defining characteristics of each ceramic shard.
"For our institute alone, we have excavated more than 20 million pieces of shards for the past over 1,200 years. Among those shards, we do sorting, we do restoration, and we do scientific tests. And then we find, wow, a small shard can tell us much more information than even a whole piece," said Weng.
Using a standardized sample library and unified data framework, the project records each piece's shape, decoration, body material, glaze, color, firing marks and inscriptions, creating a valuable resource for authentication and research around the world.
"The whole city is a wonderful lab and space range makes Jingdezhen uniquely a wonderful example of how the handicraft ancient industry with porcelain as the focus survived even to today," Weng added.
Jingdezhen once helped establish benchmarks for how porcelain was made. Now, the gene bank is turning fragments into a language that can be read beyond the city. For French artist and researcher Yann Colleu, learning to read that language has also changed the way he creates.
"Since my childhood, my parents had these teapots, tea sets, plates and cups. I was very curious about the pattern, like the meaning, what was behind it? Actually when I discovered in Jingdezhen that it was a bat, because of 'fu' and 'fu' is fortune, but also you have the 'wufu,' like the five blessings. I was like a child with stars in the eyes, discovering the world for the first time," said Colleu, PhD candidate at Jingdezhen Ceramic University.
What once seemed abstract became part of Yann's own visual language. In his work, traditional Jingdezhen motifs and production scenes are reimagined through a contemporary, cross-cultural lens.
"Jingdezhen is a timeless city. The past, the present and even the future are tied together. This is one of illustration of 72 traditional steps developing during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The difference is, instead of using Chinese characters, I use foreigners. I want to use the past to talk about the present and even the future with Jingdezhen," said Colleu.
The Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on Saturday. The inscription recognizes not just a single kiln or masterpiece, but an entire production system, from its archaeological remains and traditional craftsmanship to its industrial knowledge and global influence.
Porcelain shards preserve Jingdezhen’s timeless legacy
