China founds world artificial intelligence body in Shanghai.
Today's events
Global artificial intelligence body.
Twenty-nine countries signed the founding agreement in Shanghai; Xi called the new organization a milestone in his opening keynote.1Jul 17 · MFAConsumption plan.
The State Council approved the five-year consumption plan, targeting roughly 60 trillion yuan in annual retail sales by 2030.2Jul 13 · State CouncilTianjin sentencing.
Former Tianjin Party standing-committee member and organization chief Zhou Derui drew fourteen years for taking 43.19 million yuan in bribes.3Jul 13 · CCDIHealth plan.
A new five-year national health plan sets average life expectancy at 80 years by 2030 and cuts adult smoking to 20 percent.4Jul 13 · State CouncilStatistics falsification.
Central inspectors publicly named two Fujian cities for faking data; one district overstated industrial output by 28 percent this year.5Jul 15 · XinhuaScience push.
Qiushi commentary, July 15, frames Xi's July 8 speech to the science academies as a nine-year sprint to technological self-reliance.6Jul 15 · QiushiResource assets.
Party leadership and the cabinet issued the first unified framework for state-owned natural-resource assets, covering 164 surveyed mineral types.7Jul 14 · CCDIEnvironment code.
China's first ecological and environmental code takes effect August 15; regulators are stripping out rules that conflict with its 1,242 articles.8Jul 14 · NPCSolar record.
Chinese Academy of Sciences chemists certified a 28.04 percent perovskite–organic tandem solar cell — a world record for the design.9Jul 14 · CAS
Voices
“We must support the national strategic science forces and other forces in joint breakthroughs, forming a systematic push spanning basic research, applied development and commercialization.”
Xi Jinping, at the national science awards and academies congress · July 86
“The World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization has emerged in Shanghai — a major move answering the Global South, and an important milestone in the history of artificial intelligence.”
Lin Jian, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson · July 171
“This is a programmatic document for natural-resource asset management. It builds the load-bearing framework for exercising, in unified fashion, the whole people's ownership of those assets.”
Zhang Wentong, Vice Minister of Natural Resources · July 147
“The Ecological and Environmental Code is a major landmark achievement of the new era in advancing ecological civilization along the track of the rule of law.”
Lu Xinshe, Chairman, NPC Environment and Resources Committee · July 148
“Hold to expanding domestic demand as the strategic anchor, give full play to the advantages of a super-large market, and follow the laws and stage characteristics of consumption.”
15th Five-Year Plan for Expanding Consumption, State Council · July 22
“Some social organizations have strayed from their founding purpose, treating festivals, exhibitions and forums as ‘treasure bowls’ and ‘money trees,’ burdening localities and enterprises.”
Central formalism-reduction mechanism, public notification · July 155
Sources
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian's Regular Press Conference on July 17, 2026,” July 17, 2026. mfa.gov.cn/wjdt/fyrbt/…/20260717-lin-jian
- State Council, “Reply of the State Council on the 15th Five-Year Plan for Expanding Consumption” (Guo Han [2026] No. 66, dated July 2, 2026), published July 13, 2026. gov.cn/zhengce/content/…/expanding-consumption-plan
- Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, “First-Instance Verdict Announced in the Bribery Case of Zhou Derui, Former Member of the Tianjin Municipal Party Standing Committee and Head of its Organization Department,” July 13, 2026. ccdi.gov.cn/yaowenn/…/zhou-derui-verdict
- State Council, “Notice of the State Council on Issuing the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Health” (Guo Fa [2026] No. 23, dated July 7, 2026), published July 13, 2026. gov.cn/zhengce/content/…/national-health-plan
- Xinhua (via China Military Online), “Public Notification of Three Typical Cases in Rectifying Formalism to Ease the Burden on the Grassroots,” July 15, 2026. 81.cn/ss/…/formalism-notification
- Qiushi, Commentator, “Fight the Decisive Battle to Build a Science and Technology Power,” July 15, 2026. qstheory.cn/20260715/…/science-technology-power
- Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, “State Council Information Office Briefing on the Opinions on Improving the Natural Resource Asset Management System,” July 14, 2026. ccdi.gov.cn/yaowenn/…/natural-resource-assets
- National People's Congress, “Safeguarding the Unity of the Legal System: The Clean-Up Work Is on the Agenda” (symposium on implementing the Ecological and Environmental Code), July 14, 2026. npc.gov.cn/c2/c30834/…/environmental-code
- Chinese Academy of Sciences, “Progress in Research on Perovskite-Organic Tandem Solar Cells” (Institute of Chemistry), July 14, 2026. cas.cn/syky/…/perovskite-organic-tandem