The 2025 "Blue Future" project results salon is held in Beijing on December 26, 2025.

The "Blue Future" project achievements report  salon, hosted by the Global Times and co-organized by the China Oceanic Development Foundation, was held at Guangyang Academy in Beijing on Friday. Under the theme "Blue Echoes · Port Stories," the event shared a series of outcomes from the Global Times' 2025 reports on ports development and discussed implementation plans for marine-city promotional activities in 2026. Guests from government departments, social organizations, universities and the media reviewed and summarized the highlights and achievements of the work and looked ahead to new directions for telling China's maritime story.

Xu Bo, general manager of the Global Times, said in her welcome remarks that Chinese President Xi Jinping has pointed out that "building China into a strong maritime country is a major strategic task for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation." Xu said that the Global Times' "Blue Future" project closely follows national strategy and planning, and represents a focused, vivid and heartfelt effort to tell China's maritime story, amplify the voice of China's ports and showcase China's deep-blue strength.

Xu noted that in 2025, the "Blue Future" project, with ports as its focal point, published a lot of marine stories and launched a series of activities, achieving substantial results. In 2026, the project will center on "marine cities," continue the "port-and-city linkage" narrative, and build a dual-track communications matrix of "marine cities + ports." Relying on the Global Times' bilingual (Chinese-English) platform and overseas dissemination network, the project will interpret governance experiences of marine cities, respond to external misunderstandings and biases, and enable China's maritime voice to reach farther, wider and louder.

Liu Wei, deputy director of the Maritime Rights Bureau of the Office of Foreign Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, said in his remarks that building a maritime power is the original intention behind the "Blue Future" project. The platform showcases the development achievements of China's maritime endeavors and allows the international community to gain a more comprehensive understanding of China's maritime outlook. Ports are an important component of an economic power, a maritime power and a shipping power, and they are a window through which China practices high-level opening-up and pursues high-quality development. By making ports the theme of this year's "Blue Future" project, the Global Times is helping more people understand China's maritime policies and polish the "golden brand" of China's ports.

Pan Xinchun, vice chairman and secretary-general of the China Oceanic Development Foundation, was invited to attend and delivered a keynote report titled "Strengthening Ourselves by Looking to the Sea, Building a Blue Future Together." Pan said the foundation has always taken serving national strategy as its core mission, focusing on three main lines — building a maritime power, jointly constructing the Belt and Road Initiative, and actively participating in global ocean governance. The foundation has launched "10 major actions," implemented more than 150 projects, carried out practical cooperation with 60 countries and over 10 international organizations, and built a network of maritime exchanges, friendships and partnerships.

At the salon, the Global Times officially released the "2025 Global Times Annual Report on the Vitality, Resilience, and Development Confidence of China's Ports," shared the impact of its series "Inside China's ports -- Witnessing the resilience of trade," and presented the 2026 work plan for the "Blue Future" project. Attending experts and scholars exchanged views on the project's future prospects.

The "Blue Future" project, organized by the Global Times, aims to foster a favorable public opinion environment for building a maritime power and for high-quality development of the marine economy, to narrow the gap between the government and the public and to solidify public support. Now in its second year, the initiative has become an important platform for the Global Times to promote China's maritime concepts and an important window for telling China's maritime story, attracting domestic and international readers to better understand the value of the ocean, participate in its development and help protect the marine environment, achieving significant dissemination effects.