September 13, 2025, Beijing – Under the framework of the 2025 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), the thematic forum on "Building Smart Cities and Space Infrastructure in a Changing World" was successfully held at Shougang Park in Beijing.
The forum was co-hosted by the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding (iGCU) at Peking University, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, and the Institute for Urban Internationalization Studies at Zhejiang International Studies University (ZISU). It was co-supported by Harbor Overseas, the Center for Science & Technology Development and Governance at Tsinghua University, the School of Public Policy at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and the National Engineering Research Center for Geomatics.
During the event, two significant reports, the 2025 BRICS Smart City Ranking and the 2025 Global Space Infrastructure Review, were released by Prof. Xi Chen, Distinguished Professor and Director of Institute for Urban Internationalization Studies at ZISU as well as Founder of Harbor Overseas. These reports aim to provide a “China Framework” and an “Action Guide” for the development of global smart cities and space infrastructure.
According to the reports, Chinese cities demonstrated outstanding performance, with Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen ranking among the top 5% in the assessment, alongside global cities such as New York, Munich, Chicago, Paris, London, San Francisco, and Singapore. This underscores China’s leading strength in smart city development globally. Meanwhile, the United States, China and Russia are top 3 in the 2025 Global Space Infrastructure Review, as the world’s first report to evaluate the potential path of exploring the space among 43 economies. The system covers the critical modules including survival, propulsion, transportation, energy, communication, production, and governance.
Prof. Xi Chen, the author of the reports, presented the core concept of “Earth-Space Synergy” - a visionary framework proposing that smart cities (regional integration orientation) and space infrastructure (interstellar connectivity orientation) collaborated for combating global fragmentation. “This is not merely a technical issue, but a fundamental choice in developmental models,” Prof. Xi Chen stated. “Our research provides a practical and open methodology to turn this vision into actionable pathways.”
The reports were met with strong endorsement by academy and government in China and the world, including Peking University and the Beijing Municipal Administration of Government Services and Data Management. The forum drew senior officials from 42 economies, including 10 incumbent Ambassadors or leaders of international organizations, underscoring the global influence of the agenda.
After the release of the reports, Prof. Xi Chen, Prof. Dong Wang from Peking University and Prof. Xufeng Zhu from Tsinghua University host the seminars “Smart City and Regional Integration & Space Infrastructure and Interstellar Connection”, “International Relations and Regional Integration & Interstellar Connection” and “Global Governance, International Finance, and Regional Integration & Interstellar Connection”.
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