SHANGHAI – August 31, 2026 – The 12th World Educators Conference (WWEC), held alongside the 2026 Sustainable Development Business Conference and the GLEE Global Life and Education Expo, concluded Friday at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) after three days of intensive dialogue. The events collectively drew more than 10,000 delegates and visitors from over a dozen countries, bringing together government officials, education scholars, technology experts and business leaders to discuss talent strategy, education advancement, sustainable development and industrial innovation.
The conference was guided by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce Private Education Investors Chamber of Commerce, and the Shanghai Private Education Association. It was co-hosted by the Shanghai Modern Service Industry Federation, Guosheng Think Tank, and the UNITAR CIFAL Shanghai International Training Center, among others.
Zhou Hanmin, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body, delivered a keynote address alongside Alexander Mejia, Director of the Division for People and Social Inclusion at UNITAR, and Hu Wei, Senior Advisor to the Shanghai Municipal Government.
Over the course of three days, the conference produced a series of internationally oriented think tank deliverables spanning artificial intelligence in education, industry-education integration, global health cooperation and sustainable development — reflecting the diverse pathways through which Chinese think tanks are engaging in global governance through knowledge production, dissemination and institutional development.
Six parallel forums ran concurrently. An AI education forum, with participation from the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), explored the transformation of educational paradigms in the artificial intelligence era. An international education forum addressed cross-border talent development in the context of globalization. A science education forum examined early identification and cultivation of top innovative talent. Additional forums on health education and home-school-community collaboration addressed pressing concerns in education reform from multiple dimensions. The breadth of topics and the caliber of participating institutions underscored the conference’s depth as a premier international platform for professional dialogue in education.
Knowledge Production: Three Think Tank Reports Address Frontier Issues
Three think tank reports were released during the conference.
The Global AI Creativity Development Report 2026: AI Education Special drew on research contributions from more than 130 experts across 19 countries and concluded that global AI education has moved beyond fragmented experimentation into a phase of “systemic restructuring.” The report identified four distinctive national approaches: China’s state-coordinated, system-wide deployment from primary through higher education; the United States’ polycentric innovation driven by universities and corporations; South Korea’s rapid implementation of digital textbooks and intelligent teaching platforms; and Finland’s consistent commitment to digital literacy, teacher autonomy and humanistic values.
The report also flagged four critical risks — cognitive outsourcing, unreliability of machine-generated information, algorithmic bias, and adolescents’ emotional dependence on anthropomorphized AI — and advanced a core thesis: the more powerful AI becomes, the more essential human agency remains.
The Think Tank Report on AI + Education and Industry-Education Integration: Empowering Education Development offered policy and practice recommendations across three dimensions — technology application, industry alignment and policy coordination — providing a decision-making reference for digital transformation in education and innovative talent development.
The Think Tank Report on the Health Silk Road and Sustainable Development used internationally recognized naked oat whole-life-cycle processing technology as its entry point to construct a four-pillar sustainable development framework encompassing technology, industry, community and international cooperation, with a focus on international health cooperation pathways under the Belt and Road Initiative.
All three reports were jointly produced by Guosheng Think Tank, Xinhua News Agency’s Listed Company Research Institute, CIFAL Shanghai and other partner institutions.
Knowledge Dissemination: From Academic Publishing to Cross-Border Cultural Exchange
At a dedicated launch ceremony, Shanghai Far East Publishers released the first batch of results from the Chinese Business History Library, a major scholarly publishing initiative encompassing five series covering modern financial archives, classical works on Chinese public finance, and international academic translations in fiscal theory.
On the same day, Xu Yunfeng, Executive Director of Guosheng Think Tank and Deputy Director of the Center for Comparative Economic Studies at Central University of Finance and Economics, and Cao Jian, President of Shanghai Far East Publishers, jointly launched the Belt and Road Think Tank Library project. The initiative aims to channel curated think tank publications and academic works into educational and cultural exchanges with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, establishing a standing mechanism for the circulation of knowledge resources.
Shanghai Far East Publishers will supply core titles from its Nation-Building Library series and provide monthly curated reading lists on an ongoing basis. The Nation-Building Library, edited by Dr. Wei Jigang, Deputy Director of the Institute of Market Economy at the Development Research Center of the State Council, has published 14 titles to date, including Toward an Industrial Powerhouse and Toward a Science and Technology Powerhouse. Toward an Education Powerhouse — closely aligned with the conference’s central theme — is currently in production.
Institutional Development: New Consortium to Advance Sustainable Development
On Aug. 22, the Chinese Business History Society and Guosheng Think Tank jointly launched the Silk Road International Sustainable Development Innovation Consortium at the Sustainable Development Business Conference. Structured around five pillars — industry, technology, finance, talent and brand — the consortium brings together think tanks, research institutions, financial organizations and leading enterprises to translate the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into industrial practice across Belt and Road economies.
From knowledge production to dissemination, from research to institutional implementation, this year’s conference marked a systemic evolution in the role of Chinese think tanks in global governance — moving beyond the delivery of research reports to building frameworks that enable knowledge to flow continuously across borders, contributing intellectual resources and actionable solutions to global education reform and sustainable development.
About WWEC
The World Wide Educators Conference(WWEC), now in its 12th edition, is one of China’s largest international gatherings of education professionals, held annually in Shanghai alongside the Global Life and Education Expo (GLEE).
Chinese Think Tank Advances Global Governance Through Knowledge Production and International Partnerships,12th World Educators Conference Convenes in Shanghai, Producing AI Education and Sustainable Development Deliverables
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