Is China Building the Future of Global Education Through AI?

“Each region reflects a different strategic focus in structure, speed, and balanced development. But together, they illustrate how China is not just teaching AI, it’s building a full ecosystem around it.”

Jon Santangelo, Founder of Chariot Global Education

At the 2025 World Digital Education Conference in Wuhan, China signaled a clear ambition to shape the next era of global education. With over 70 countries in attendance and support from organizations like UNESCO and UNICEF, the forum served not only as a showcase for China’s domestic advancements in digital learning but also as a platform to align Global South partners around a shared vision, one centered on AI integration, scalable tools, and cross-border cooperation.

This vision is rooted in more than just technical upgrades. It reflects an emerging strategy to embed AI into the core of national education systems, from curriculum development to teacher training and student evaluation. Rather than mirroring existing Western frameworks, China is constructing its own ecosystem that prioritizes speed, infrastructure, and coordinated rollout.

To understand how this shift is unfolding on the ground, we turn to Jon Santangelo, an international educator based in Asia and founder of Chariot Global Education. His perspective offers insight into China’s regional strategies and the growing appeal of its AI-driven education model across emerging markets.

Jon Santangelo is an award-winning international K-12 educator and founder of Chariot Global Education, based in Asia since 2010.

Santangelo is an active member of several professional learning communities and research hubs; he has also worked with multiple startups and in educational technology throughout his career.

Across China, regional governments are taking distinct but complementary approaches to integrating artificial intelligence into classrooms.

In Beijing, a structured city-wide AI curriculum is set to launch in 2025. “This plan includes dedicated classroom hours, integration with STEM subjects, and a strong emphasis on AI ethics,” says Santangelo. “The capital’s approach is systematic and policy-driven, setting a model for top-down integration.”

Shenzhen, by contrast, is advancing more quickly and in close collaboration with industry. “The city began piloting weekly AI lessons in 2023 and has partnered closely with leading technology companies to bring real-world applications into classrooms,” Santangelo explains. “Over 100 ‘AI model campuses’ have already been launched, and the city plans to train 100,000 teachers in the coming years.” The result is a tech-forward education model that draws on public-private partnerships to accelerate rollout.

Zhejiang province is taking what Santangelo describes as a “more balanced route,” combining age-appropriate AI instruction with major infrastructure investment and large-scale teacher training. “Full curriculum rollout is planned by 2026.”

“Each region reflects a different strategic focus in structure, speed, and balanced development. But together, they illustrate how China is not just teaching AI, it’s building a full ecosystem around it.”

While regional diversity remains, these programs share a common goal: preparing a generation of students not just to use AI, but to understand and shape its future. In doing so, China is cultivating not only technical talent, but also strategic autonomy over how AI is taught and applied in its society.

China’s domestic AI education momentum extends beyond national borders through strategic international collaborations. One example is its UK-based partnership with the Learning Resource Network (LRN), which will pilot an A‑Level Artificial Intelligence course this September in selected schools within the U‑Link Education Group.

Delivered via the KEATH.ai‑powered Lumin platform, the course combines British academic standards with delivery mechanisms and deployment methods aligned with Chinese education systems. “This gives students in China a formal academic pathway into AI; grounded in British standards but tailored to global demand,” says Jon Santangelo.

Broader interest in this hybrid approach is growing across the Global South. Santangelo notes, “KEATH.ai and Lumin’s tech have attracted interest in the Global South and other regions.” Countries in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East are evaluating similar platforms, especially in contexts where certified AI instructors are scarce. For many, these turnkey solutions offer a scalable and credentialed entry into AI education models.

China is further reinforcing this cross-border outreach and collaboration via multilateral frameworks, especially under UNESCO’s G77 + China initiative. A series of regional seminars held in 2025 is supporting member states in crafting national AI competency frameworks aligned with UNESCO guidelines. These efforts facilitate South–South collaboration, sharing China’s experience in large-scale digital infrastructure and curriculum design as a shared reference point.

Specific bilateral initiatives further illustrate China’s deepening educational diplomacy. China and Brazil have launched plans for a joint AI research facility focused on agricultural innovation in semi-arid regions, pairing China Agricultural University with Brazil’s National Semi‑arid Institute. In Africa, China’s Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (SAIRI) is developing AI applications across sectors in partnership with multiple developing countries.

These engagements are not about one-size-fits-all exports. They represent intentional co-creation—tools and platforms shaped to fit local contexts, development challenges, and institutional capacity constraints. As Santangelo emphasizes, this model offers “a low‑cost, scalable, and assessment‑driven solution” — one that resonates in systems grappling with teacher shortages, infrastructure gaps, and the need for credentials tied to global standards.

China no longer simply exports AI tools and is helping shape how nations define and govern AI learning itself. The pilot A‑Level AI course developed with LRN and delivered through Lumin illustrates one model. But beyond that, Beijing is investing in education systems and policymaking frameworks across multiple developing countries.

Under UNESCO’s G77 + China South‑South cooperation project, regional seminars held in April 2025 have gathered delegates from over 36 countries in Asia and the Pacific to co-design national AI competency frameworks based on UNESCO’s teacher and student AI guidelines. More than 50 countries and 1,300 policymakers have been involved to date. These efforts aim to support countries in crafting programs that suit their institutional realities, promoting a more inclusive model for AI literacy.

This model is bolstered by infrastructure and training programs delivered via large education and ICT partnerships. For instance, Huawei’s ICT Academy initiative has partnered with over 3,000 universities globally—many in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia—and trained 1.3 million students in AI, cloud, and ICT skills. Meanwhile, Chinese adaptive learning platforms such as Squirrel AI Learning are being piloted in markets across the Global South, offering scalable AI-powered tutoring where local teaching resources are limited.

These investments come amid broader geopolitical ambitions. China’s engagement across the Global South—via Digital Silk Road, UNESCO initiatives, and academic infrastructure advances its role in shaping emerging norms around education and AI governance. As AI becomes a tool of “code diplomacy,” Chinese education models are gaining credibility as development assets. This extends China’s influence far beyond economic leverage, positioning it to set standards for how AI is taught, evaluated, and embedded in social policy.

Education systems in Global South countries are not just adapting foreign curricula; they are participating in the design of competency frameworks, co-creating programs with China, multilateral agencies, and local institutions. This approach honors linguistic, cultural, and pedagogical diversity, offering layered models tailored to different capacities and goals.

If China continues to lead South–South cooperation in AI education, while major Western actors lack comparable depth in emerging markets, Beijing’s framework may emerge as the default global standard. Whether Western governments and institutions adjust to this landscape or whether a competing model gains traction may determine whose vision prevails in the coming era of global education.

China is not only building a national AI education system; it is also helping define how AI is taught, credentialed, and governed around the world. From coordinated rollouts in cities like Beijing and Shenzhen to cross-border partnerships in the Global South, its approach combines internal scale with growing international reach.

For many countries facing teacher shortages and infrastructure gaps, China’s model presents a practical alternative. Scalable tools, flexible delivery systems, and modular frameworks offer a way to build AI capacity without relying on legacy education structures. This is especially true for education systems under pressure to modernize while keeping costs low and outcomes measurable.

Rather than promoting a one-size-fits-all curriculum, China is advancing a system that can be adapted across diverse political and economic contexts. Its influence is not only visible in course design or technology exports, but in how it helps shape the standards by which future AI fluency will be measured.

As more countries adopt elements of this model, a broader shift may be underway. If Western institutions do not respond with equal clarity and investment, China’s vision for AI education could quietly become the global norm.