TAC Annual Conference 2026
By Yaning Fan
(Secretariat, TAC)
The annual conference of the Translators Association of China (TAC) was held from 25 to 26 April 2026 in Wuhan, in central China’s Hubei province, bringing together more than 900 participants from the T&I community, government agencies, universities and research institutes.
TAC President Du Zhanyuan addressed the opening session, which was chaired by Mr Gao Anming, executive vice president and secretary-general of TAC, who is also a former FIT council member. FIT President Guillaume Deneufbourg delivered a speech via video, and FIT Vice President Xu Rong and council member Victoria Lei Cheng Lai also attended the event.
Mr Deneufbourg said that advances in digital technology and AI are driving profound changes in the industry and increasing demand for highly skilled language professionals. He noted that what we are leaving behind is not the profession itself, but a certain phase of its development. What matters now is not the number of practitioners, but the level of expertise. In a world where content can be generated instantly, the real value lies in those who can ensure accuracy, nuance, responsibility and trust.
During the conference, TAC launched a series of new programmes under its ‘Four Translation Projects’ initiative, which was first introduced in 2025 as an inclusive plan encompassing translators’ networks, cultural outreach, research hubs and trainings. Among the highlights was a list of multilingual translation publications and documentary works focusing on themes such as Chinese culture, rule of law and ecological protection.
As part of its efforts to advance the healthy development of China’s translation sector, TAC set up its 21st specialist branch during the conference, the Standardisation Committee, to coordinate its standardisation work and promote best practices in T&I across the country.
The conference also marked the launch of a themed project on the translation of public signs, aimed at standardising multilingual public information and supporting tourism and city branding. Three industry reports on China’s translation sector, the global translation market and AI-driven translation trends were also released.
Under the theme of ‘Breaking Boundaries: The Infinite Possibilities of Translation in the Era of Digital Intelligence’, the two-day event featured 26 thematic sessions on topics covering human-machine collaboration, ethics in AI-powered translation and career development, among others.
Founded in 1982 as China’s only national-level organisation in T&I sector, TAC is made up of 21 specialist committees covering areas such as translation technology, literature and arts translation, legal translation, ethnic language translation and interpreting. With over 1,900 institutional members and 14,000 individual members, TAC represents the voice of the translation community nationwide.