Chengdu's Magnetic Appeal Through the Lens of APEC Digital Week

From July 16 to 29, the 2026 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Digital and AI Ministerial Meeting, alongside other events of the Digital Week, is held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. The event serves not only as an important platform for advancing exchanges and cooperation in the digital and AI fields across the Asia-Pacific region, but also as a window into Chengdu's innovative vitality.

According to the Chengdu Municipal People's Government, the organizer of the event, the Digital Week features a range of activities centered around four pillars: AI innovation, the showcase of industrial achievements, the promotion of Tianfu culture, and economic and trade cooperation. These efforts aim to leverage the meeting's momentum to boost high-quality growth in Chengdu's manufacturing and digital economy, and to further polish its calling card as a digital, intelligent, and international city.

Why Chengdu? The answer lies in the strategic imperative of extending the Asia-Pacific digital economy's footprint westward.

For years, digital cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region has been heavily skewed toward developed coastal areas. The fact that the meeting is being held in China's inland heartland for the first time marks a major step forward in the regional cooperation landscape. Leveraging the national "Eastern Data, Western Computing" project, Chengdu has developed secure, resilient digital infrastructure, equipping the city with the capacity for high-level multilateral dialogue. This geographical shift from a "coastal frontier" to an "inland hub" offers new coordinates and greater room for cooperation, fostering balanced development and shared digital benefits across the Asia-Pacific.

Chengdu also offers an ideal window into China's innovative vitality in the digital sector.

For a long time, global perceptions of western China have been largely confined to its natural resources, while its rapidly rising innovation capabilities received little attention. In 2025, Chengdu's industrial enterprises above designated size racked up 1.79 trillion yuan in operating revenue. The city has fostered two trillion-yuan industrial clusters in electronic information and equipment manufacturing, along with 11 key industrial chains, each with an output value exceeding 100 billion yuan, including artificial intelligence and aerospace. It has built more than 80,000 5G base stations and established a multi-tier computing infrastructure system that integrates "supercomputing, intelligent computing, general-purpose computing, and edge computing", bringing its total computing capacity to over 20,000P. Meanwhile, the core AI industry in Chengdu has surpassed 150 billion yuan in scale, growing by approximately 39% year on year. The city has also been ranked among the top-tier "leading cities" in the China City AI Index Report.

Driven by electronic information, AI, and digital cultural and creative industries, the added value of Chengdu's core digital economy sectors now accounts for more than 15% of the city's GDP. The Chengdu-produced animated feature Ne Zha 2 has set a new box office record in Chinese film history, topping 10 billion yuan in ticket sales and emerging as a benchmark for science-industry integration in Chengdu's digital cultural and creative industries.

The capacity to turn digital and intelligent technologies into tangible productivity gains represents precisely the kind of "certainty" that the global economy urgently needs amid its ongoing recovery. For Asia-Pacific economies, Chengdu offers more than market opportunities, but rather a systematic solution for applying technologies and validating scenarios.

On top of that, Chengdu's distinctive cultural charm and open, inclusive urban character bring a human touch to what might otherwise be a cold technical exchange. With its dual-airport hub connecting the city to the world and its innovation ecosystem embracing the globe, Chengdu is putting the principle of opening-up and cooperation into practice. Through concrete actions, the city is presenting a Chengdu approach to connecting the world in the digital age.

Located in southwest China, Chengdu is a major economic, cultural, and transportation hub for the western region. With a history spanning more than 2,300 years, the city is renowned worldwide for its Dujiangyan Irrigation System, giant pandas, and cuisine. Home to a permanent population of over 21 million, Chengdu is served by two 4F-class international airports that connect it with destinations across the globe. Here, ancient temples stand alongside financial sci-tech districts, where tradition and modernity coexist in harmony. It is a city that captivates visitors so deeply that they simply never want to leave.

Source: The Chengdu Municipal People's Government

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