China’s national logistics hubs have delivered significant progress, with development shifting toward innovation and quality and showing robust vitality, according to a report released Thursday by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP).
In 2025, the average cargo throughput of national logistics hubs increased by 5.5 percent year-on-year, a growth rate 2.3 percentage points higher than the national average freight volume. Infrastructure gaps are being filled at an accelerated pace, with nearly 80 percent of hubs equipped with railway yards or dedicated railway lines.
Meanwhile, the railway access rate for land-port and port-type hubs reached 97.2 percent and 89.7 percent respectively. Port-type hubs collectively operated more than 2,700 cargo shipping routes, the report said.
Additionally, technological innovation continued to empower the upgrading of hubs, accelerating the widespread adoption of digital and intelligent technologies.
In 2025, intelligent equipment and facilities were applied on over 90 percent of hubs, with unmanned gate systems, intelligent dispatching, and automated operations being widely implemented. The pace of green and low-carbon transformation is also quickening.
Also in 2025, over 70 percent of hubs were equipped with new energy freight vehicles, and more than half of hubs used renewable energy for power generation. Green logistics and low-carbon operations have become a new trend in the industry.
"At present, China’s national logistics infrastructure has largely aligned with the needs of economic development. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, achieving high-quality economic growth will require national logistics hubs to systematically enhance their capacity, driving a transformation from mere existence to excellence, and from simple connectivity to smooth, efficient flows. Efforts must focus on dismantling data barriers among road, rail, water, and air transport, while building a collaborative mechanism that enables logistics hubs to operate in an integrated, networked manner," said Hu Dajian, vice president of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.
To date, China has cumulatively released seven batches of 181 national logistics hubs, accounting for approximately 79 percent of the planned total.
China's logistics hubs see robust throughput gains, accelerated modernization
As artificial intelligence (AI) shifts from an "auxiliary tool" to an "intelligent partner" in daily life, youth in China are pressing for clear governance, highlighting that they will live longest with its consequences.
They stress that human agency must remain central, data barriers be broken, and intelligent agents properly constrained. These expectations set the tone ahead of the 2026 World AI Conference and High Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in Shanghai, scheduled from Friday through Monday.
Feng Erhu, assistant professor at the School of Artificial Intelligence at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, stressed that AI must remain under control, with human beings making the final decisions.
"AI cannot replace human beings in making final decisions. A controlled AI is a good AI. Of course, in this process we need to strike a better balance - determining what tasks AI can undertake and what boundaries AI can operate within. We need to build a more comprehensive governance system oriented toward large models and AI," he said.
On governance cooperation outcomes expected from the conference, Guo Muze, a 2024 master's student at the National School of Engineering Excellence at Tongji University, expressed hope for progress on data sharing and standardization.
"I am quite looking forward to seeing more concrete outcomes from this conference regarding data sharing and data norms. AI fundamentally requires the feeding of raw data. Our country leads internationally in infrastructure construction and can provide excellent data samples and references for global development, at least in the field of artificial intelligence and civil engineering, breaking down data silos," he said.
Xu Kehao, a student at the School of Computing and Intelligent Innovation at Fudan University, highlighted concerns about agent safety.
"What I am most concerned about is the safety of intelligent agents. In programming, we often use an agent to provide recommendations for various processes. Sometimes it executes some strange commands on the terminal, leading to various engineering mistakes and errors. At such moments, how do we constrain this agent? How much authority should we grant it? I hope this year's conference will feature relevant discussions and experience sharing," he said.
Themed "AI Partnership for a Brighter Future," the 2026 World AI Conference will feature more than 140 forums and bring together 1,400 guests from home and abroad. It will span six sections: Conferences and Forums, Exhibitions and Showcases, Awards and Competitions, Application Experiences, Innovation Incubation, and Talent Attraction.
Chinese students call for human‑centered AI governance, defined boundaries
