At the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting, nearly a hundred robots were active in welcoming, hosting, performing and other scenes, providing services for the attending guests.
In the capital city of Beijing, spring is gradually growing, with magnolias, green peaches, and early cherry blossoms blooming in full bloom.
From March 27th to 31st, the Zhongguancun International Innovation Center and the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting were successfully held. Focusing on the annual theme of "New Quality Productivity and Global Technology Cooperation", Beijing opens the door to innovation cooperation with the world, welcoming new and old friends from more than 100 countries and regions, and enjoying spring scenery and discussing innovation together.
President Xi pointed out that technological innovation can stimulate new industries, new models, and new driving forces, and is the core element for developing new quality productive forces. Zhongguancun is the first national independent innovation demonstration zone in China, and the Zhongguancun Forum is a national platform for global scientific and technological innovation exchange and cooperation. The "Top Ten Scientific Advances in China" and major scientific and technological achievements in 2024 have attracted the attention of global innovators; Outside the Changchun Hall, domestically produced humanoid robots wearing "smart volunteers" credentials shuttle back and forth inside and outside the venue.
A batch of world-class achievements' debut ', a series of innovative technology intensive' new releases'... Facing the spring breeze of innovation, this technological feast in Beijing's spring leaves people lingering and reminiscing.
Robots perform a technology show Creating a technological 'barometer'
At the opening ceremony of the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting, the song "Towards the Future Together" seemed to open the door to a future world -12 humanoid robots stood in the center of the stage, dancing and practicing Tai Chi to the music, occasionally doing a few push ups and a Ip Man squat, becoming one of the most eye-catching scenes of the whole event. At this year's Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting, artificial intelligence was undoubtedly one of the main characters. At the main venue of the annual meeting - Zhongguancun International Innovation Center, reporters may inadvertently collide with robots. Dr. Hu, a bionic robot, imitates the expressions of the audience while chatting with everyone about the story of AI; The calligraphy robot studied under the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage and was seen holding a brush in its hand, writing the three characters "Zhongguancun" one stroke at a time; The chess playing robot skillfully controls the robotic arm, effortlessly picking up chess pieces and playing games between humans and machines... A future vision of "human-machine symbiosis" is presented to the reporter.From AI big models and embodied intelligence to quantum technology and biomedicine, to 6G and brain computer interfaces, all the parallel forums held during the annual conference are closely related to the theme of "new quality productivity". The "Future Artificial Intelligence Pioneer Forum" focuses on the development trends of artificial intelligence in the new era, and discusses the entire industry chain including humanoid robot algorithms, ontology hardware, and dexterous hands; The "Innovation and Development Forum on Cross border Data Flow" has released the first comprehensive supporting reform document to promote the facilitation of cross-border data flow, marking a new stage in the reform of facilitating cross-border data flow in Beijing; The establishment of the embodied intelligence research institute and the debut of the general intelligence platform "Huisi Kaiwu" demonstrate the deep exploration of Chinese scientists in the field of AI
Leaving the main venue of the annual meeting, the reporter walked to the permanent exhibition of Zhongguancun Exhibition Center and personally felt that the 'future has arrived'. The scene of using "mind" to control dexterous hands to tightly grip a water cup, allowing the computer to successfully decode the "thoughts in the brain" of a aphasia patient... This scene is not a science fiction movie clip, but an innovative achievement of brain computer interface technology application that the reporter saw at the permanent exhibition. Implant "Beinao No.1" into the body of patients with aphasia caused by ALS, and the system will start for about 3 days to collect data, recognize high-frequency words that patients are exposed to in their daily lives, and conduct language decoding model training. Patients can output short sentences such as "I want to eat" through the brain computer interface. The Beijing Institute of Neuroscience and Brain like Research has completed the human implantation of brain computer systems in three hospitals in Beijing, achieving new breakthroughs in exploring the boundaries of human-machine symbiosis. In addition, among the more than 490 exhibits, the "Tiangong" embodied intelligent robot showcases biomimetic intelligence, the "1 base+2 platform" of Beidian Shuzhi drives the dual track upgrading of traditional and emerging industries, and the reusable rocket of Zhuque-3 showcases new developments in the aerospace industry... The dense presentation of 5 major exhibition areas and 20 cutting-edge clusters is a brilliant answer presented by Beijing: leading the construction of a modern industrial system with technological innovation and assisting the high-quality development of the capital.
Opening the 'District Chief's Reception Hall' to Receive Guests and Improve Innovation 'Conversion Rate'
The team from the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University brings flexible and elastic multimodal sensing electronic skin, the Industrial Innovation Center of the School of Engineering at China Agricultural University brings dryland laser weeding robots, and a technology company in Beijing brings an artificial intelligence cross-border e-commerce marketing platform. Some people ask about funding, some ask about space, some ask about upstream and downstream industries... In the conversation, the government, enterprises, and universities have reached consensus one after another.
On that day, as an important event of the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting, the opening ceremony of the Zhongguancun International Technology Trading Conference and the Global Technology Trading Ecological Partner Conference kicked off the curtain of "global buying, global selling", building a bridge for the integration of industry, academia and research: 100 new technologies and products, 100 international technology trading innovation projects were released, the "Beijing Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Intelligent Service Platform - Zhuanguoguo" was officially launched, and 11 key cooperation projects were signed on site.
The transformation of technological achievements is the only way to transform technological innovation into new quality productivity. How to promote original and disruptive technological achievements from universities to enterprises, from laboratories to production lines, from bookshelves to shelves, is an important topic of the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting.
Before paying a penny, a hydrogen energy storage company in Beijing obtained the right to use solid-state hydrogen storage related achievements from North China Electric Power University. We have signed a 'use first, pay later' agreement, which uses deferred payment of licensing fees to allow the technological achievements to be used first, "said Cheng Yongpan, the founder of the company. By utilizing relevant technologies, the company has developed multiple products such as hydrogen powered bicycles and hydrogen powered ships.
Nowadays, the "pay before use" reform has been promoted throughout the Zhongguancun Demonstration Zone, and more than 440 scientific and technological achievements from universities and colleges have been used by small and medium-sized enterprises through this method.
The reporter learned at the parallel forum "Global Intellectual Property Protection and Innovation Forum" of the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum that in 2024, the transaction volume of technology contracts in Beijing will exceed 900 billion yuan, and the value of intellectual property will continue to be released, moving towards the trillion yuan level.
At present, the effective number of invention patents in China has reached 4.846 million, making it the first country in the world to exceed 4 million. Shen Changyu, Director of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, said that with the in-depth implementation of the special action of patent transformation and application, patent technology achievements are accelerating to enter the industrial chain, and the level of intellectual property transformation rate and industrialization rate continues to improve.
Beijing has nearly 30000 high-tech enterprises, consolidating its position as the world's third largest technology cluster, "said Deng Hongsen, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization. On the day before the opening of the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting, he watched the movie" Ne Zha 2 "in Beijing, which drew on China's rich and complete cultural heritage and used the latest technology." The key to future innovation success lies in the combination of software and hardware, as well as the combination of technology and content.
Industrial relics meet 'future', sparking a 'science popularization fever' throughout the city
In the western suburbs of Beijing, within Shougang Park, a century old industrial heritage leads directly to the 'future'. The tall and cool mecha 'Great Wall Dragon' is transforming from a golden Great Wall into a roaring giant dragon; The bipedal bionic robot "Illusion" engages in a fascinating AI interaction with the host; A giant square suspended by helium gas and controlled by drones moves up and down with the movements of dancers... During the annual conference, the magnificent blast furnace and robots collide in the Shougang International Convention and Exhibition Center, interweaving industrial and technological styles, as if arriving on a sci-fi planet in a movie. A 'dinosaur crisis' is about to erupt in the warehouse space not far from the Shougang International Convention and Exhibition Center. At the immersive science fiction exhibition "Fantasy Gathering: Multidimensional Universe", visitors can act as members of the Time and Space Management Bureau's mission team, travel back to the Jurassic era, and engage in battles with over 10 species of dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures in virtual reality space, experiencing heroic stories of saving the world.
As one of the important events of the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting, the China Science Fiction Conference attracts numerous visitors to explore the future world, experience technological innovation products up close, and feel the charm of cutting-edge technology.
Technological innovation and scientific popularization are the two wings of achieving innovative development, and scientific popularization should be placed in an equally important position as technological innovation. Without the universal improvement of the scientific literacy of the whole nation, it is difficult to cultivate a high-quality innovation army and achieve rapid transformation of scientific and technological achievements. At the end of last year, the newly revised Science and Technology Popularization Law came into effect, clarifying that "popularizing science is the common responsibility of the whole society". In recent years, the Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting has focused on promoting the coordinated development of science popularization and technological innovation, allowing audiences to approach and understand cutting-edge technology in a perceptible and easily accepted way.
During the annual conference, the technology landmark Zhongguancun Square transformed into a light show stage. The light show using naked eye 3D technology takes the audience to a futuristic visual feast.
In the Haidian Park (Zhongguancun Science and Technology Theme Park) next to the main venue of the annual conference, the Haidian Household Surgery General Activity with the theme of "AI in Haidian Intelligent Creation and Science Popularization" was held as scheduled, featuring conversations with humanoid robots, tasting delicious food such as pancakes and ice cream made by robots, and experiencing unmanned intelligent vehicles. Experts and "science popularization experts" walked into the park and met with the general public, especially young people, face-to-face. Through technology exhibitions and science popularization performances, they brought rich and colorful immersive experiences.
In the promotional video about robots at the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting, it is said that "metal does not have emotions, but can refract light." This "light" is the spirit of innovation that continues to thrive.
