China’s 2025 White Paper on Smart Education: Governance Logic, Policy Design, and International Relevance

This paper examines China’s 2025 White Paper on Smart Education as a governance-oriented policy framework for integrating artificial intelligence into the national education system. Rather than treating the document as a technological blueprint, the study analyzes its underlying governance logic, focusing on the role of the state, educational equity, and public digital infrastructure. Through policy analysis and selective institutional examples, the paper argues that China articulates a state-coordinated alternative to market-driven edtech models prevalent in Western contexts. While the paper does not claim immediate global impact, it suggests that this model holds analytical relevance for ongoing international debates on AI governance in education, particularly in Global South contexts.