中文
This photo taken on July 16, 2026 shows the exterior view of the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, east China. [Photo by Ding Ting/Xinhua]
By Azhar Azam
Lead: Chinese President Xi Jinping used a keynote address at the World AI Conference in Shanghai to lay out China's vision for a more inclusive, multilateral approach to governing artificial intelligence.
The 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance concluded in Shanghai on July 20, reaffirming the city's preeminence as a leading global hub for AI innovation and governance.
This year's exhibition, themed "AI Partnership for a Brighter Future," brought together more than 1,100 enterprises and showcased roughly 3,000 AI products and technologies.
Since its inception, the WAIC has evolved into one of the world's premier platforms for unveiling technological innovation, facilitating exchanges among academics, entrepreneurs and industry pioneers, fostering international collaboration, translating ideas into real-world applications, and advancing dialogue on AI governance, ethics and emerging technological standards.
At the opening ceremony, President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech outlining China's perspective on the future of AI and its global governance.
Describing AI as the driving force behind a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, he highlighted both the immense opportunities created by rapid progress in intelligent connectivity, human-machine collaboration and cross-sector innovation, as well as the complex governance challenges they present.
Xi urged countries to adopt a people-centered approach to AI development and work together to build a just and equitable global AI governance system. He stressed that AI should serve humanity and contribute to common prosperity and collective security, advocating closer global cooperation on development strategies, governance rules and technical standards to forge a consensus-based governance framework.
His remarks underscored the growing priority Beijing places on cultivating an inclusive global AI governance architecture to advance innovation-driven development for all. Rather than pitching China as the leader of a new global AI order or challenging any country's dominance, he emphasized creating a multilateral AI governance mechanism that promotes openness, narrows the AI divide and extends the benefits of AI to developing countries.
Xi's speech built on a sustained policy focus on AI. During a visit last year to the Shanghai Foundation Model Innovation Center, a large-model incubator home to more than 100 enterprises, he observed that AI was entering a period of "explosive growth" and urged the city to take the lead and become a frontrunner in AI development and governance.
In a fragmented global AI governance landscape, Xi continues to make AI a new frontier for human development and international cooperation, reinforcing China's commitment to sharing AI opportunities with the Global South.
His vision for global AI governance is anchored in the China-proposed Global AI Governance Initiative. Unveiled by Xi in 2023 at the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, the initiative seeks to build a community with a shared future, articulating the country's proposals on AI across three main areas: development, security and governance.
The initiative provides a comprehensive framework to promote technological innovation, strengthen international collaboration to mitigate emerging AI risks and lower barriers to technological access. The initiative draws on China's domestic AI governance experience, with the country regarded as among the first nations to introduce detailed, binding regulations on some of the most common AI applications.
At WAIC, Xi further advanced this vision by calling for the establishment of early warning and emergency response systems to prevent abuse and malicious use of AI.
China has expanded its domestic AI development through the "AI Plus" initiative, which featured prominently in Xi's address. The blueprint aims to supercharge productivity by integrating AI across every facet of industry, government and society.
Looking ahead, Beijing plans to advance the strategy by promoting the deployment of next-generation intelligent terminals and AI agents, encouraging the large-scale commercial application of AI across key sectors.
AI should not remain an exclusive preserve of a handful of technology powers. This principle underpins the Global AI Governance Initiative, which calls on all countries to build consensus on promoting the development of AI technologies, boosting information exchange and working together to jointly develop AI governance mechanisms that make AI more secure, reliable, controllable and equitable while preventing technological monopolies.
The initiative upholds a people-centered model. It urges respect for the sovereignty of other countries and opposes the use of AI to manipulate public opinion, spread disinformation or intervene in other countries' internal affairs. It also advocates greater representation of the Global South. Together, these principles help safeguard humanity's common interests and international peace and development.
Open-source and accessible AI is a shared asset. Beijing has moved to act on that principle: China's National Development and Reform Commission and other government departments jointly released a Global AI Governance Action Plan during the WAIC, mapping out cooperation in data, computing power and talent development.
By implementing the plan, China is striving to provide international public goods to help developing countries build AI capacity. Chinese companies and research communities have also made advanced models such as DeepSeek and Qwen more accessible, including through open-source releases and lower-cost deployment options, enabling nations, particularly across the Global South, to accelerate their AI transformation.
To further support their AI development and capacity-building, Xi announced a series of measures at WAIC. These include providing specialized training on artificial intelligence to 5,000 individuals from developing countries and establishing AI application cooperation centers in partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the League of Arab States, the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and BRICS.
Xi also announced plans to enable 30 countries to use AI-powered meteorological warning systems, as part of China's response to the United Nations' "Early Warnings for All" campaign.
Beijing has institutionalized this approach through mechanisms such as the Group of Friends for International Cooperation on AI Capacity-building, which seeks to foster partnerships and harness AI to empower sustainable development in partner nations.
Since its establishment in 2024, the group has convened several workshops involving around 200 representatives from member states. Xi's call to strengthen AI capacity-building and bridge the widening AI and digital divides gives practical expression to China's vision of inclusive AI governance.
The endeavor has been seen in the West as an attempt by China to amplify its influence within the United Nations system. In fact, it aims to promote open-source and accessible AI technologies and scale up South-South cooperation in computing power, data and talent to ensure that AI dividends are shared more equitably by people around the world.
The conference opened one day after the formal establishment of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), an idea Xi floated last year. The "important milestone" in the history of AI development responded to the call of developing countries, constituting a significant step toward uniting the international community to promote AI development and governance.
WAICO is incorrectly portrayed as China's AI coalition to rival the U.S.-led Pax Silica. While the former embodies China's development-oriented AI approach to elevate the role of the Global South in global AI governance through capacity-building and technology sharing, the latter focuses on building a resilient technological ecosystem, securing control over critical AI infrastructure, and achieving technological hegemony and digital extraterritoriality. WAICO thus offers a just and inclusive framework, encompassing participatory governance, shared development, equitable access to AI and technical collaboration.
China's commitment to AI cooperation extends beyond its work with the developing world. During a meeting with U.S. business leaders, including Tesla, Nvidia and Apple in May, Xi reaffirmed that China would continue opening its economy. Even as Washington has sought to restrict Beijing's access to advanced AI chips, the Chinese president struck an optimistic tone, reflecting his conviction that mutually beneficial collaboration could still define the future of bilateral economic and technological relations. Those restrictions have instead prompted Chinese companies such as Alibaba to accelerate indigenous innovation and develop AI models that compete with leading U.S. companies.
Despite China's triumphs in AI, Xi remains committed to international cooperation. According to Stanford University's 2026 AI Index, Beijing has effectively closed the AI model performance gap with Washington, leading in publication volume, citations, patent output and industrial robot installation. Even companies in the U.S. are reportedly adopting Chinese open-source AI models because they are highly competitive compared with U.S. frontier models and accessible at lower cost.
With China's LineShine overtaking the U.S.-based El Capitan as the world's fastest supercomputer, Beijing has further demonstrated its ability to sustain technological progress despite America's export controls.
In his maiden appearance at WAIC, Xi described AI both as a shared opportunity and a shared challenge, necessitating collective action and extensive international cooperation. Through initiatives such as the Global AI Governance Initiative, the expanded "AI Plus" initiative, AI capacity-building and training programs, AI-powered meteorological warning systems, the Group of Friends and the newly launched WAICO, he is positioning Beijing to help developing countries strengthen their AI capabilities, embrace emerging technologies more rapidly and play a more active role in global AI governance.
Xi's address leaves little doubt about the direction China intends to pursue: advancing an inclusive AI governance framework that places development, multilateralism and access to AI, not "China First," as the country's central priority. In a world divided by technological competition and faced with technological exclusivity, such an approach has the potential to serve all humanity rather than a few select countries.
Azhar Azam is a geopolitical analyst with a focus on economy, climate change and international security.
