On the occasion of the 57th World Post Day, on behalf of China Post Group, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the governments at all levels, customers and all sectors of society for their long-term support. I would also like to extend my greetings to the active and retired colleagues nationwide.
President Xi Jinping has pointed out that infrastructure is an important pillar for economic and social development. Spanning across urban and rural areas, covering the whole country and reaching out globally, the postal network is not only the foundation upon which postal services survive and thrive, but also the core bedrock that supports economic and social progress. The inscription handwritten by the late Premier Zhou Enlai, “Postal routes spanning thousands of miles are the lifeline of the nation”, profoundly epitomizes the vital role of postal services in safeguarding the national economy and people’s well-being.
In recent years, with the accelerated breakthroughs in a new round of sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation, public demand for postal services has undergone disruptive changes. Traditional postal services have plunged. Letter, parcel and remittance services volumes have plummeted by 92 percent, 82 percent and 99 percent respectively from their historical peaks, leaving postal outlets mired in a shortage of business.
Faced with changes of the times, industry and technology, China Post unswervingly takes Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as its fundamental guidance and fully implements the decisions and arrangements of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. We follow the orientation of serving national strategies, root ourselves in the national industrial layout, focus on strengthening our own core functions and core competitiveness, and strive to advance the “three shifts”. As the national team of the postal sector, we shoulder the missions and responsibilities to serve major national strategies, boost economic and social development, and meet people’s needs for production and daily life. We thus become an important pillar and reliable force for the Party in governing and rejuvenating the country, and live up to the earnest expectations of the people.
We have accelerated the shift from primarily meeting consumer demand to better satisfying production demand, providing high-quality support for a modern industrial system.
With a deep understanding of the political, people-centered and economic significance of supporting rural revitalization, China Post has leveraged its inherent resource advantages in the integrated flow of commodities, logistics, capital and information. Taking the revitalization of rural industries as the foothold, we have targeted five major client groups including administrative villages, farmer cooperatives, family farms and individual farmers, leading agricultural industrialization enterprises and rural merchants, and developed a standardized and specialized service system with specific tailored policy for each product, industry and category. We have eventually facilitated shifting agricultural products from local bulk offline transaction to high-value online sales. Over the past five years, we have facilitated a total agricultural product transaction volume of 73.2 billion yuan (about 10.92 billion US dollars), with an average annual growth rate of 34 percent, effectively addressing the sales difficulty of agricultural products.
We have strengthened the parcel, express and logistics network in rural areas, shipping agricultural products from remote mountainous areas to households across the country via postal services. Over the past five years, we have delivered more than 22.1 billion pieces of agricultural products, with an average annual growth rate of 63 percent, effectively addressing the logistics difficulty.
By improving the inclusive finance system, we have transformed rural credit from “individual farmers having no collateral to pledge” to “proactive credit extension to thousands of villages and households”. With the balance of agriculture-related loans exceeding 2.5 trillion yuan (about 372.88 billion US dollars), we have effectively addressed the financing difficulty. We have facilitated the connection of agricultural products to larger markets and integration of small-scale industries into the greater economic circulation, and conscientiously fulfilled our role as a pacesetter and main force among centrally administered SOEs in serving rural revitalization.
We have accelerated the development of embedded logistics, brought express services into factories, and deepened our integration with modern industries including manufacturing and commerce. We have rolled out customized full-chain services from inbound logistics of raw materials to distribution of finished products, and developed service models including the full industrial chain service for Huawei, joint development of warehousing services with Youngor in Zhejiang, and factory-side logistics for Sinotruk in Shandong. These efforts have effectively ensured the security and stability of industrial and supply chains.
We have accelerated the shift from primarily serving the general public to concurrently supporting national defense and national emergency response, conscientiously building China Post into a fundamental force that can be counted on to take immediate action and deliver success in critical moments.
China Post has actively supported the strategy of military-civilian integration, and established three service systems covering universal postal service and postal services in barracks areas, transportation readiness and national defense mobilization, as well as military-related finance and technology finance. We have put 160 postal routes into regular operation for border and coastal defense units, and made postal services available at 13 remote sites of the Information Support Force. With these efforts, we have been highly recognized by the military authorities for our military-related services, and have contributed postal strength to strengthening and improving integrated national strategies and strategic capabilities.
In times of crisis and critical moments, we rise to our responsibilities. When major disasters such as floods and earthquakes occur, China Post has gone all out to provide emergency rescue and relief support, and ensured the delivery of essential livelihood supplies. We have opened free channels for disaster relief donations, and set up mobile post offices to shelter the affected people, making every effort to ensure supply, connectivity and smooth logistics. Today, China Post is shouldering unprecedented responsibilities, exerting unprecedented influence, demonstrating unprecedented capabilities, and earning unprecedented recognition and generating unprecedented social impact.
We have accelerated the shift from focusing primarily on China Post’s own development to strengthening collaboration and sharing, delivering tangible cooperation outcomes that benefit urban and rural development as well as people’s well-being.
We have deepened strategic cooperation with national ministries and commissions, governments at all levels, large enterprise groups and rural industrial clusters, promoting coordinated development through resource sharing, joint development of advantages and win-win cooperation. We have transformed our widespread postal outlets into comprehensive service platforms integrating universal postal service, financial services, parcel and express delivery, warehousing, e-commerce and government services, providing the general public with comprehensive convenience services featuring wide coverage, complete functions and high quality.
We have bolstered collaboration with transportation enterprises and improved the joint operation mechanism of rural passenger, cargo and mail transportation services featuring government support, China Post leadership, multi-party engagement and benefit sharing. Delivering mail via 7,534 public transportation lines, we have fully tapped the underutilized social resources including the capacity and personnel of passenger transport to and from villages to reduce the costs of last-mile delivery and expand service coverage in rural areas.
We have strengthened cooperation with private courier companies. Targeting weaknesses in rural logistics infrastructure, we have systematically pushed forward the development of the county-township-village three-tier logistics system. To date, we have established 1,553 county-level joint distribution centers, 7,135 township hubs and 484,000 village-level comprehensive convenience service stations. With these facilities, we have smoothed the two-way circulation channels for consumer goods entering villages and agricultural products reaching cities, addressed the bottleneck of the last-mile express delivery to villages with China Post’s underpinning support, and facilitated the extension of rural public services to villages and households, thereby playing a vital role in meeting the production and living needs of rural residents, unlocking rural consumption potential and boosting the smooth domestic circulation.
The year 2026 marks the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period. This year’s World Post Day theme is “One postal network, infinite possibilities”. Remaining true to its original aspiration and founding mission, China Post will serve millions of households, link cities and industries, and reach destinations across the globe through a more connected, convenient and intelligent postal network, thereby fulfilling its role as the lifeline of the nation, a driver of development and a pillar of people’s livelihoods.
We will enhance connectivity with a ubiquitous postal network.
Domestically, we will fully leverage our network with post offices covering all townships and postal services available in all villages across the country. Relying on 54,000 postal outlets nationwide, 484,000 comprehensive convenience service stations in all administrative villages and the three-tier logistics system reaching every corner of counties, townships and villages, we will contribute to unblocking the national transport arteries and smoothing the micro-circulation of local economies, and build a bridge and bond linking urban and rural areas and supporting people’s livelihoods. “Where there is an inhabitant, there is China Post”. No matter how remote the destination is—border outposts, snow-capped plateaus or vast deserts, China Post will fulfill its mission whenever the country and the people need it.
Globally, we will accelerate the development of an independent, secure and controllable international logistics network. We will give full play to the capacity of our 42 self-owned all-cargo aircraft, the postal service links with more than 220 countries and regions under the Universal Postal Union and access to174 gateways worldwide, and rely on the international air routes operated by China Postal Airlines, rail routes by China-Europe Railway Express, dedicated maritime routes and China Postal Warehousing Service covering the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia, to build international logistics corridors integrating air, sea, rail and land transport. With these efforts, we are aiming to develop safe and stable channels to facilitate China-made products going global, establish reliable logistics bridges for cross-border e-commerce businesses, and play a greater role in supporting the new development pattern of dual circulation and safeguarding the security and stability of industrial and supply chains.
We will enable a better life for the people with a quality and convenient postal network.
“China Post, by the People, for the People” is the timeless service tenet of China Post and a vivid reflection of its commitment to improving people’s well-being. China Post is enriching its service content to keep pace with the times. At postal outlets, we are adding locally adapted convenience services to traditional postal services, and constructing integrated government service scenarios involving police, tax, government, legal, social security and health insurance services. Today, agency services such as public utility bill payment, issuance of tax invoices, delivery of vehicle license plates, renewal of driver’s licenses, and issuance of social security and health insurance cards are all available at the postal outlets in townships, saving people trips to distant municipal or county government service halls. These services enable the general public to handle several affairs at one stop, realizing the goal of “letting data run errands for the people”, and turning the “last mile” of government services into the “closest ties” to people’s hearts.
We are vigorously strengthening China Post’s underpinning support to extend express services to villages, enabling rural residents to receive deliveries at their doorsteps instead of making round trips to towns. We are supporting the livelihood of the general public with postal and express services, ensuring that no one is left behind in equal access to public services, to contribute to advancing Chinese modernization.
Serving the people knows no bounds. Keeping abreast of the times, China Post will expand its service scope, extend its service reach, and provide more convenience and beneficial services for the public, thereby meeting the people’s demand for postal services in pursuing their better lives.
We will unleash our development momentum with an intelligent and efficient postal network.
Technologies evolve rapidly, and new quality productive forces are gaining momentum. Digital and intelligent transformation is no longer a choice—it is a must for survival and growth. We will further advance the development of China Post into a Digital Post and continuously improve the postal network, to complete the evolution from “sweat logistics” to “smart logistics”.
We are making forward-looking arrangements for unmanned applications. Over 5,000 unmanned vehicles have been put into operation across 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) in China, with a safe operating mileage exceeding 20 million kilometers and more than 130 million mail items transported. More than 2,400 round-the-clock unmanned service stations have been built in residential communities, office buildings, college campuses and other areas to help people enjoy easy parcel pickup. Automatic feeding systems have been fully deployed in 37 newly built mail processing centers to enable non-stop round-the-clock operations. Unmanned aerial vehicle application scenarios have been expanded, with more than 300 drone routes launched. With these initiatives, China Post is leading the industry in unmanned applications.
Relying on the integration of big data, large language models and high computing power, we are building a digital and intelligent mail operation platform featuring precise resource planning, dynamic network optimization, intelligent command and scheduling as well as efficient network-business coordination, realizing “instant planning upon order entry, instant network formation upon shipment, instant adjustment upon anomalies and instant alarm upon parcel loss”.
By 2030, the parcel, express and logistics volume in the postal sector is expected to hit 290 billion items. Faced with such a huge business volume, only through digital and intelligent transformation can we tackle challenges such as rising costs and efficiency bottlenecks, and achieve quality improvement, cost reduction and higher efficiency for high-quality development.
China Post will continue to pursue innovation and forward-looking planning. We will push forward comprehensive transformation through the “AI plus” initiative, reallocate resource factors, reshape operation models and restructure organizational systems through unmanned, digital and intelligent technologies. We will create new scenarios, foster new business forms and generate new driving forces to underpin the construction of a delivery and logistics system tailored to China’s path to modernization.
The postal network spans thousands of miles and links the world. We will stay true to our fundamental principles and forge ahead with innovation for a promising future. At this new juncture, China Post will adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and focus on improving the postal network. We will work together with all sectors of society to unlock infinite possibilities of the postal sector, and make new and greater contributions to building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts.