State Information Centre Delegation visits ADM+S
Author ADM+S Centre
Date 3 December 2025
On Thursday 20 November 2025, ADM+S hosted a delegation from the Public Technology Service Department within China’s State Information Centre (SIC).
The delegation comprised 20 officials from across the SIC, including Deputy Director-General of the Public Technology Service Department Lifeng Zhang, and Deputy Director-General of the General Office Xin Lyu.
SIC was established in 1987 to advise the Chinese government on strategies in digital technologies, economy, and diplomacy. The group was hosted at the ADM+S offices at RMIT University by Distinguished Professor Centre Director Julian Thomas, Chief Investigator Professor Haiqing Yu, Associate Investigator Professor Jeffrey Chan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Jiaxi Hou, and Chief Operating Officer Mr Nick Walsh.
The group discussed the SIC’s role in coordinating economic analysis and information development for the Chinese government, and a range of ADM+S research projects, including the Australian Digital Inclusion Index, which measures the extent to which people in Australia can access, afford and have the ability to benefit from digital technologies.
Chief Investigator Professor Haiqing Yu and Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Jiaxi Hou from RMIT’s School of Media and Communication delivered a presentation on the project Language and Cultural Diversity in ADM: Australia in the Asia Pacific, a new project investigating the challenges and opportunities for cultural and linguistic diversity in automated decision-making across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.
Focusing upon language and cultural diversity as the central concern, the project aims to better understand the ways in which AI and ADM may be utilised to promote diversity and social cohesion across our region, in addition to identifying the roles of bias and manipulation in ADM.
ADM+S Associate Investigator and Professor Jeffrey Chan from the School of Computing Technologies shared insights into the ADM+S Centre’s work in mapping automated decision-making across institutions, such as the project Mapping ADM tools in administrative decision-making in NSW, a partnership between ADM+S and the NSW Ombudsman to map and analyse the use of automated systems in state and local government sectors in NSW.
The group also discussed the Centre’s research on new approaches that aim to combine fairness, transparency and safety guarantees for machine learning based systems in the sharing economy via research projects such as Adaptive, Multi-Factor Balanced, Regulatory Compliant Routing ADM Systems.
Delegation organiser Rachel Wong thanked ADM+S for hosting the visit, “On behalf of the entire visiting group, we sincerely thank you all for your meticulous reception and thoughtful arrangements during the group’s visit this morning. Gaining valuable insights into your research, the group deeply admire your dedication and remarkable achievements.”
