On October 11, the 21st Tsinghua University Public Management Frontier Forum, with the theme of “Governance Modernization in the Digital and Intelligent Era”, was held. Yang Bin, vice chancellor of the Tsinghua University Council, and Luis Vassy, president of Sciences Po, attended the opening ceremony and delivered remarks.
Yang Bin stated that artificial intelligence (AI) is driving profound and far-reaching social changes, posing new challenges for the modernization of national governance. Tsinghua University has actively advanced AI research and talent cultivation, while the School of Public Policy and Management (SPPM) has drawn on its think tank resources to conduct extensive forward-looking research on global AI governance. Looking ahead, he expressed his hope that SPPM would further leverage its disciplinary and think tank strengths, align its work with national strategic priorities, advance theoretical innovation, better coordinate development and security, and explore new paradigms of governance transformation in the AI era.
Luis Vassy noted that public administration in the digital and intelligent era needs to strike a balance between efficiency and legitimacy. He emphasized that AI should serve as a lever to enhance human judgment rather than a crutch that replaces human decision-making. He highlighted the importance of maintaining humility, making well-grounded decisions, and protecting diversity of thought. He called for integrating law, the humanities, and computational science to cultivate public leaders capable of raising meaningful questions and taking responsibility for their decisions, thereby building more accountable and trustworthy institutions.
Xie Jin, secretary of the CPC Tsinghua SPPM Committee, and Zhu Xufeng, dean of Tsinghua SPPM, presided over the forum. During the keynote speech session, relevant experts and scholars from China and abroad delivered presentations on topics such as global and national governance transformation and governance theory and practice in the digital and intelligent era.
Venue of the forum
The six parallel forums were conducted under the themes of “The Global System, Mechanism and Rules of AI Governance,” “Chinese Intellectual System and National Governance,” “Emerging Technology Development and Risk Governance,” “Empowering the Dual Control of Carbon Emissions with Digital and Intelligent Technologies Under the National Governance Framework,” “The 15th Five-Year Plan and the Effective Investment Expansion,” and “Governance Transformation in an Intelligent Society and the Building of a Law-Based Government,” respectively.
Organized by Tsinghua SPPM, the forum was part of the School’s 26th anniversary celebrations and was also an international forum held in conjunction with the annual meeting of its Global Advisory Board (GAB). Some GAB members, representatives from China’s public administration academic and professional communities, as well as faculty members, students, and alumni of Tsinghua SPPM, participated in the event.
Editors: Li Han, John Paul Grima
