Xi Jinping Addresses World AI Conference in Shanghai, Calls for International Cooperation

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke at the opening of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on July 17, calling for international cooperation in AI development. In his address, Xi stated that AI advancement should be "a symphony of international cooperation" rather than "a solo performance by a single country," emphasizing that no single nation should dominate the field.

Xi called for countries to jointly oppose what he characterized as overstretching the national security concept in AI or placing one country's security above that of others. He advocated for laws, regulations, technological monitoring, early warning systems, and emergency response mechanisms to ensure AI remains under human control, proposing a "people-centric" approach to AI governance.

The four-day WAIC, described as China's largest annual event for the AI industry, drew more than 1,000 Chinese tech firms along with officials, researchers, and industry figures, with around 3,000 products on display. International attendees included UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet, and Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.

On July 16, the day before the conference opened, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and representatives from 29 countries—including Russia, Pakistan, and Indonesia—signed an agreement establishing the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, an intergovernmental AI cooperation group headquartered in Shanghai. The organization aims to ensure the "healthy and orderly" development of AI.

AI has become a strategic pillar of China's industrial policy, driven by state investment aimed at building a domestic ecosystem spanning chip production to consumer use. According to official data, the Chinese AI market was valued at 1.2 trillion yuan (approximately $177 billion) in 2025 and is expected to grow more than 30 percent in 2026.

China leads globally in generative AI patent filings, with the World Intellectual Property Organization recording more than 43,000 such filings from China between 2024 and 2025. State media cited officials reporting that daily consumption of AI "tokens" in China has increased a thousandfold over the past two years.

Xi's speech came against a backdrop of US and EU restrictions on Chinese tech imports citing national security concerns. Washington maintains strict export controls on advanced semiconductors and restricts overseas access to top AI models. The United States retains a clear lead in advanced chips, frontier computing infrastructure, and the most capital-intensive model development, while China is the US's closest and most comprehensive AI competitor, according to analyst Poe Zhao of Hello China Tech.

Chinese AI models are catching up to the most powerful US offerings while attracting global users with lower costs. A growing number of international companies, such as Siemens in 2026, are adopting Chinese open-source AI models, drawn by their performance, lower cost, and ability to be customized.

Among new products showcased at WAIC, Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI released its flagship model Kimi K3 on July 17, with performance reportedly rivalling some of the best US AI offerings. Huawei displayed its Atlas 950 "supernode," an AI architecture for learning and reasoning, while MiniMax unveiled its M3 model—described as the first mass-produced phone equipped with an autonomous AI agent.

The South China Morning Post, owned by Alibaba Group, characterized Xi's personal attendance at WAIC as signalling that AI development has become both a technological imperative and a cornerstone of China's geopolitical strategy, representing an elevation of the conference's profile.

France 24 reported that the main theme of WAIC is the transition from AI models to systems that can be deployed at scale in everyday life, with AI agents taking centre stage, according to analyst Zhao of Hello China Tech.

The Japan Times, a center-left outlet, reported that Chinese AI models' share of U.S. firms' AI usage on the OpenRouter marketplace is nearing 60%, and characterized the growing power of Chinese AI models as stirring security concerns in both Washington and Beijing.

The Japan Times also noted that Chinese state media and officials framed China's openness on AI as an antidote to global restrictions, with People's Daily warning against an "AI Iron Curtain" and contrasting an "oil mindset" that hoards data with a "water" approach treating AI as a public good.

The South China Morning Post framed Beijing's accelerated drive for technological self-reliance explicitly as a response to US export controls and access restrictions.