The combination of climate change and rapid urbanization has led to the emergence of multi-hazard, cascading, and fast-evolving urban disasters in China. The final stage of early warning information transmission, from "reaching individuals ‒ understanding ‒ acting," remains a prominent shortcoming. This study, adhering to the view that "people are both recipients of warning services and active participants," proposes a people-centered collaborative framework and development strategies for urban early-warning systems (EWS), serving as a localized practice of the United Nation's Early Warnings for All initiative. Building on the clarification of urban EWS concepts and the orientation of people-centered collaboration, we identify the current conditions and challenges of developing such systems. The challenges include insufficient identification and response to cascading hazard chains, inadequate impact-based prediction and conversion into actions, and lack of institutionalized public participation and good-faith immunity. We also highlight development opportunities arising from policy momentum, technological advances, and widespread digital endpoints. An integrated construction framework is proposed, featuring a core structure of "three-tier actors ‒ twin-chain support ‒ technology enablement," together with an analysis of key elements and their coupling. Finally, we suggest development strategies including building unified data and technology foundations with closed-loop capacities, improving institutional design to clarify responsibilities with adequate safeguards, strengthening community-based organization and mobilization, and advancing through piloting, evaluation, scaling-up, and continuous improvement. These approaches collectively aim to enhance China's urban early-warning capabilities.