…Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County held a special training session on DeepSeek Localized Service Capability Training… to thoroughly implement the national Digital China strategy…

…察布查尔县举办DeepSeek本地化服务能力培训… 专题培训，深入贯彻落实国家数字中国战略…

Guan Hanyu, “Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County Holds Special Training Session on ‘DeepSeek Localized Service Capability Training: Empowering Government Affairs and Serving the People’s Livelihood,'” China.com, March 12, 2025

At this point, there’s little doubt that DeepSeek is being absorbed rapidly and deeply into China’s New Type Infrastructure as a core tool for implementing the Digital China strategy. Still, this particular training session caught me by surprise. Not because DeepSeek is spreading, but because of where and how it is being deployed.

According to a March 12, 2025 report from China.com, Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County, located in northern Xinjiang along the border with Kazazhstan, held a DeepSeek training session on March 10. The explicit purpose was to implement the national Digital China strategy and related work plans issued by the Xinjiang Autonomous Region and Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture Party Committees. The training emphasized using DeepSeek to advance the country’s digital transformation, improve the efficiency of government services, and strengthen public services supporting the “People’s Livelihood” (民生), specifically education, income and employment, health care, housing, and more.

Xinjiang is often an early testing ground for new forms of digital governance and public security technology, and Qapqal sits in a politically sensitive frontier region. DeepSeek’s arrival here, embedded in local Party work, civil administration, and grassroots governance, suggests how thoroughly the model is being routed into Digital China implementation at the county and township levels.

The invited speaker for the session was Wang Hongjie (王红杰), artificial intelligence technology R&D expert from China Unicom, one of China’s state-controlled telecommunication operators deeply involved in Digital China implementation. Wang’s presentation focused on the practical application of artificial intelligence across government services, public security, social governance, smart cities, and administrative approvals. Participants were shown how AI tools like DeepSeek can streamline government processes, optimize public service delivery, and support modernization of grassroots governance.

At the conclusion of the session, Patiman Zinate (帕提曼•孜娜提), a member of county’s Party Standing Committee and head of the county’s Propaganda Department, delivered closing remarks. She urged participants to “seize the policy dividends” of the national Digital China strategy and make full use of DeepSeek to modernize governance. She also echoed an aphorism attributed to Xi Jinping, now formalized as the “E-Government Services Concept” (电子政务服务理念): The people should run less errands and run more data.“

Events like this reveal something important. DeepSeek is not merely a commercial large language model. It is quickly becoming part of China’s political-administrative machinery, integrated into Digital China‘s system-level architecture and deployed down to the grassroots of a border county government. If we want to understand how Digital China is being implemented, these are precisely the developments to watch. Not the headlines, but the quiet institutional adoption taking place far from Beijing.

A lightly-edited translation (by ChatGPT) of the China.com summary of Patiman Zinate’s concluding speech follows:

After the training session, Patiman Zinati, a Standing Committee Member of the Qapqal Xibe County Party Committee and the Head of the Propaganda Department, delivered a concluding speech. She stated that it is important to seize the opportunities in digital transformation and accelerate the application of artificial intelligence technology in government affairs and People’s Livelihood services. She emphasized the need to capitalize on the policy benefits brought by the national “Digital China” strategy, fully utilize technical tools such as DeepSeek, optimize government service processes, improve efficiency, and truly realize the goal of “run more data, so people can run less errands.” She also highlighted the importance of focusing on actual needs, breaking through information barriers, and using functions such as intelligent customer service and policy interpretation to optimize government services. Additionally, she stressed the need to promote the intelligentized upgrade of sectors like healthcare, education, and employment, so that technological innovation can directly benefit the public. She further urged the reinforcement of practical applications, exploring the deep fusion of AI in government affairs, public services, and social governance, and promoting scenarios like smart government, online healthcare, and intelligent monitoring, thereby continuously improving grassroots governance capabilities. Finally, she called on all departments to take this training as an opportunity to proactively embrace digital transformation, push for technology implementation, and support the modernization of government services and social governance across the county.

培训会后，察布查尔县委常委、宣传部部长帕提曼•孜娜提作总结讲话。她表示，要把握数字化转型机遇，加快人工智能技术在政务和民生服务中的应用。要紧抓国家“数字中国”战略带来的政策红利，充分利用DeepSeek等技术工具，优化政务流程，提高办事效率，真正实现“数据多跑路，群众少跑腿”。要围绕实际需求精准发力，重点突破信息壁垒，利用智能客服、政策解读等功能优化政务服务，推动医疗、教育、就业等民生领域智能化升级，让技术创新切实惠及群众。要强化实践应用，结合实际探索AI在政务、民生、社会治理等方面的深度融合，推广智慧政务、在线医疗、智能监测等应用场景，不断提升基层治理能力。各部门要以此次培训为契机，主动拥抱数字化变革，推动技术落地见效，助力全县政务服务和社会治理现代化进程。