On March 7, 2024, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi talked about global AI governance when he met the press during the NPC and CPPCC sessions.

Wang Yi said artificial intelligence is now at a crucial stage of explosive growth. China believes that there should be equal emphasis on development and security. New things and new opportunities should be embraced; and at the same time, brakes should be checked before setting off. Concerted efforts are needed to advance global governance on AI. The Global AI Governance Initiative put forward by President Xi Jinping last October has clearly laid out China’s position and proposals. China’s main focus is to ensure three principles are met. First, ensure that AI is a force for good. Development of AI should be conducive to the welfare of all humanity, in line with ethics and norms, in conformity with the rules of international law, and in keeping with the trend of human civilization. Second, ensure safety. AI should always be placed under human control, with constantly improving interpretability and predictability. For that purpose, plans should be made to assess and control various kinds of risks. Third, ensure fairness. An international AI governance institution should be set up under the U.N. framework and all countries should be able to participate on equal terms in the process of AI development and share in its benefits fairly.

Wang Yi stressed that attempts to create “small yard, high fence” in AI development would result in mistakes with historic consequences. Such attempts cannot block other countries’ technological development. They would only fragment international industrial and supply chains and undercut humanity’s ability to tackle risks and challenges. China takes an active and open approach on AI cooperation with other countries and has established dialogue mechanisms with a number of countries. In the field of AI, cooperation between major countries is vital, so is capacity-building for developing countries. China will submit in due course to the U.N. General Assembly a draft resolution on enhancing international cooperation on capacity-building of artificial intelligence in order to encourage technology sharing among parties, bridge the AI divide, and leave no one behind.