Beijing forum eyes new paths for modern urban governance

Chinese and international experts gathered in Beijing to explore new paths for modernizing urban governance, as the 2026 Beijing Forum on Swift Response to Public Complaints began Monday.

The two-day event, themed "Digital Intelligence Era and People's City," drew more than 3,200 participants from over 70 countries and regions.

In 2019, Beijing, home to over 20 million residents, launched a "swift response to public complaints" initiative aimed at addressing public concerns promptly and resolving everyday challenges efficiently. It has integrated more than 60 hotline services into the single hotline number 12345, which serves as the primary channel for residents to voice their concerns.

Official data shows the Chinese capital has handled about 200 million public appeals in just over seven years, with resolution and satisfaction rates both exceeding 97 percent.

Beijing's "swift response to public complaints" reform began with a single hotline and platform and has since evolved into an urban governance system integrating big data and AI, one that has tackled a range of pressing public concerns, Gao Xiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in his opening address.

"Digital empowerment of people-centered urban governance is the prevailing trend in urban governance worldwide," he said.

This year's forum unveiled a batch of research outcomes on urban governance, including theoretical studies of the reform itself, an evaluation of global city hotline services, and case studies of governance innovation worldwide.

It also rolled out two English-language publications on the reform -- the monograph "How Urban Governance Works: the Case of Swift Response to Public Complaints in Beijing," and a special issue with the "Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice." Both signal a move from lessons learned to theoretical exposition, and from Chinese practice to international comparison.

"The experience of Beijing's citizen service system offered valuable lessons for Athens in advancing people-centered urban governance and building a city that listens to its citizens and responds to their concerns," said Georgios K. Giannaros, first deputy mayor of Athens, Greece.

Held every two years, this year's Beijing Forum on Swift Response to Public Complaints featured six parallel sub-forums, where participants noted that the reform has driven changes in mega-city governance, offering the world a window into China's approach to governance.