The 2026 China Internet Media Forum opens in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province, on March 29, 2026. Photo: 2026 China Internet Media Forum

The 2026 China Internet Media Forum opened in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province, on March 29. Hosted by the Cyberspace Administration of China, People's Daily and the cyberspace commission of the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the forum is themed "Leveraging the leading role of mainstream media, unleashing the creativity of diverse stakeholders, and jointly building a prosperous online content ecosystem."

On April 19, 2016, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on cyberspace security and informatization and delivered an important speech. This year's forum systematically reviews and summarizes the extraordinary journey and fruitful achievements of online content development over the past decade, discusses the new situations and tasks currently faced, and jointly plans new directions and paths for online content development during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period.

This year's forum further innovates its format, taking "review and outlook" and "transformation and new landscape" as its main threads. Stakeholders in online content development, including mainstream media, government-affiliated new media, commercial internet platforms, and internet influencers, have centered their discussions around four major themes: "Main peak commands the view amidst ten thousand towering mountains," "Caring for every leaf and tend every branch in the garden of peoples well being," "A spring breeze brings new vistas" and "One hundred flowers in full bloom bring spring to the garden." The forum has brought "scriptwriters" and "characters in the story" to the forefront, vividly showcasing the achievements of diverse stakeholders in co-creating a prosperous online content ecosystem over the past decade through scenario-based presentations, narrative storytelling, artistic expression, and technological empowerment.

A high level of "AI content" is a prominent feature of this year's forum. The empowerment of positive energy content creation, local cultural and tourism development, and micro-drama production by AI has also become a highlight of the event's exhibitions. Major domestic internet platform enterprises shared innovative applications of new technologies represented by AI in driving the extension of the new media industry during the event. Central mainstream media outlets such as People's Daily, the Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television also reviewed their successful practices in applying AI to news creation over the past year.

The event is hailed as "an important window for observing the development trends of China's internet media." At the opening ceremony of this forum, key annual online major theme publicity and major agenda-setting projects were promoted, including "Moments of strengthening the military," "The Red Star Over China," "Writing the splendor of youth on the land of the motherland," "Winds from Pengcheng," "Ignited! Major national projects," and "internet high-quality content creation gala." The "China in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan" online theme publicity campaign was launched, and the results of the 2025 China positive energy online excellent works collection and exhibition activity were released.

This forum also hosted a series of inaugural themed events, including the Positive Energy Creators Conference, the Digital Intelligence Empowering Positive Energy Production and Communication Conference, the Road of Transformation: Innovative Practices of Online Media, New Voices of Integrated Media: New Pathways for Government and Enterprise New Media to Reach Wider Audiences and Strike a Chord with the Public, Telling Stories Well: From Empathetic Communication to Cultural Identity, and Proper Use and Sound Governance: the Regulated  Development of AI Content.

As the annual event with the highest-profile, largest-scale and most influential in China's online media industry, the China Internet Media Forum has kept pace with the times and closely followed the development of the sector since its launch in 2001. It has witnessed the entire journey of China's online media from initial emergence and rapid expansion to in-depth integration and intelligent innovation, and has become a core platform that guides the development of online media, builds industrial consensus and discusses cutting-edge issues. Over the past two decades, the forum has seen evolving themes and in-depth discussions, which not only document the development and changes of China's online media, but also chart the course for the high-quality development of the industry.