Over 1,200 guests from over 30 countries gathered at the 2025 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance held in Shanghai on July 26th. [Gao Erqiang/chinadaily.com.cn]
While artificial intelligence is transforming the world's economy and society, some countries want to weaponize this critical technology for geopolitical control. In contrast, recent China's initiatives offer constructive alternatives.
Later last month, the 2025 World AI Conference and High-level Conference on Global AI Governance was held in Shanghai. Over 300 orders have been confirmed in Shanghai, with a total of approximately 16.2 billion yuan ($2.24 billion).
While working on the opening ceremony of the event, Prime Minister Li Qiang highlighted the need for a joint approach to global AI governance to ensure that technology is developed for all. Therefore, the Chinese government proposed the establishment of a global AI cooperation organization as part of an effort to strengthen open, comprehensive and equitable development of AI and strengthen effective global governance of technology.
In an article in the South China Morning Post, Professor Zenjin Han of Hong Kong City University wrote, “High-level conferences on global AI governance are not merely symbolic.” He argued that China's initiative is in stark contrast to the paths taken by other forces. The US strategy to maintain its technological advantage over China reflects a conflicting approach that undermines true multilateral cooperation. Rather than moving forward with a comprehensive framework for responsible AI development, such zero-sum tactics risk fragmenting international standards and hampering collective progress on critical challenges.
“In China, government support for applications is certainly strong and there is a clear obligation from the central government to spread technology through society,” Scott Singer, an expert in the Carnegie Carnegie AI sector at the Carnegie Fund for International Peace. In contrast, the US focuses on developing the most sophisticated AI models, with “the application layer being completely ignored,” Singer said.
In fact, a few days after the Shanghai event, the China State Council Executive Meeting on Thursday called for approval of guidelines for the implementation of the “AI Plus” initiative, and actively promote the large-scale commercial application of AI, and strengthen accelerated dissemination and deep integration across various sectors of economic and social development.
In an interview with Economic Information Daily, Zhu Minghao, executive director of the High-End Manufacturing Research Center at Beijing Jiaotong University, said that the deeper implementation of the “AI Plus” initiative will allow for iterative upgrades of key AI technologies through diverse applications, further increasing the global competitiveness of the Chinese AI industry.
Other experts agree. Pan Herin, a member of the Ministry of Information and Communications and Economics' Expert Committee of the Ministry of Industry, Information and Technology, told Chinanews.com that the initiative promotes the emergence of diverse AI-powered application scenarios and represents a major boon for the Chinese AI industry.
Liu Gang, chief economist at China's New Generation Institute for Artificial Intelligence Development Strategy, told Shanghai Securities News that AI is restructuring the fundamental logic of economic growth, and that China's advantages in AI application scenarios and technological innovation will gradually translate into industrial competitiveness.
China has been taking concrete steps in recent years to help its global AI governance. In 2023, the country launched the Global AI Governance Initiative to boost the open, fair and comprehensive development and governance of AI technology. The country further proposed the 2024 AI Capacity Building Action Plan for All to fill the division of global AI and promote comprehensive and balanced global development. These efforts demonstrate China's dedication to creating a balanced and mutually beneficial global AI ecosystem.
Is AI a platform for competition or global advancement for advantage? China has made that answer clear.
