Wang Dongfeng, vice-chairman and secretary-general of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), led a team to Beijing Zhizhe Tianxia Technology Co Ltd, the operator of Zhihu, on July 25 for a study survey on the development of the digital economy. 

The visit focused on accelerating the development of institutional mechanisms to support the digital economy. Zhihu is a major Chinese online community for knowledge sharing, whose founder and CEO Zhou Yuan serves as a CPPCC member without party affiliation.

The team toured an exhibition on Zhihu's history and corporate culture, and was briefed on the company's content production, platform operations, and achievements in artificial intelligence (AI), cultural and creative industries and education. They also held discussions with tech professionals.

During the meeting, Zhou introduced the latest progress in large-scale AI model development and shared insights into the evolving trends of the internet industry. Five CPPCC members also shared their views on the digital economy. 

They noted that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has placed high priority on developing the digital economy, elevating it to a national strategic level. They emphasized the importance of participating in major national scientific and technological projects in the digital field to ensure the benefits of digitalization are widely shared.

They also called on CPPCC members to leverage their expertise, align their efforts with Party and government priorities and respond to public needs. They stressed conducting in-depth research and offering forward-looking, targeted and practical recommendations, and building consensus around critical issues such as driving technological innovation, fostering new quality productive forces and developing a modern industrial system, thus contributing the CPPCC's strength to the high-quality development of China's digital economy.