Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for international cooperation in artificial intelligence development, saying the technology should not be dominated by any one nation. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on Friday, Xi declared that "AI development should not be a solo performance by a single country, but a symphony of international cooperation." He also warned against "overstretching the national security concept in the field of AI or placing one country's security over that of others" — a pointed reference to US and EU restrictions on Chinese technology imports, which Washington and Brussels have justified on national security grounds.
Xi also called for a "people-centred" approach to AI governance, stressing that laws, technological monitoring, early warning systems and emergency response frameworks must be put in place to "ensure AI is always under human control." He announced that China would provide developing nations — including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the African Union, the Arab League, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Latin American states and BRICS countries — with 5,000 research projects, training programmes and cooperation centres over the next five years. A day earlier, 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 (WAICO), a new intergovernmental body headquartered in Shanghai aimed at promoting "healthy and orderly" AI development. UN Secretary-General António Guterres was among those present at the signing.
The four-day WAIC, described by analysts as "the most important annual event for understanding the direction of China's AI industry," drew more than 1,000 Chinese technology firms alongside officials, researchers and international leaders. Around 3,000 products were on display, including Huawei's Atlas 950 supernode AI architecture and the first mass-produced smartphone equipped with an autonomous AI agent. Shortly before Xi's address, Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, a flagship model whose performance is reported to rival some of the leading US offerings.
The conference underscores the rapid rise of China's AI sector. Daily consumption of AI tokens — the industry's standard measure of usage — has increased a thousandfold in China over the past two years, according to state media. China's AI market was valued at 1.2 trillion yuan ($177 billion) in 2025 and is expected to grow by more than 30 percent this year. The country has filed more generative AI patents than any other nation, with over 43,000 recorded by the World Intellectual Property Organisation between 2024 and 2025. A growing number of foreign companies, including Germany's Siemens, have begun adopting Chinese open-source AI models, drawn by their lower cost and flexibility compared to closed US systems.
The backdrop to Xi's speech is a deepening technology rivalry with the United States. While the US retains a lead in advanced semiconductors and frontier computing infrastructure, analysts describe China as its "closest and most comprehensive competitor." Washington has tightened export controls on advanced AI chips destined for Chinese companies and their overseas subsidiaries, while China has compensated with vast energy infrastructure — it already generates more than twice as much electricity as the US — that enables it to power the large data centres AI systems require. Xi's appeal for multilateral cooperation, though welcomed by the dozens of countries attending WAIC, is also a clear political challenge to the framework of technology controls the US and its allies have been building around China's AI industry.