On July 17, Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance and delivered a keynote speech.

In his address, Xi comprehensively and systematically expounded on China's policy stance, philosophy, and proposals regarding AI development and governance. He called for joint efforts to build a just and equitable system for global AI governance, providing crucial guidance for steering global AI toward a future that promotes good and benefits humanity.

In the course of history, the invention of the steam engine heralded the industrial civilization, the widespread access to electricity brightened up modern society, and the birth of the Internet brought the entire world together. Each of these technological revolutions has profoundly reshaped our way of work and life, and enabled a giant leap in economic and social development.

Today, as a strategic technology driving a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, AI is comprehensively reshaping the developmental models of human economy and society, which will exert a profound impact on the progress of human civilization. Driven by collective breakthroughs, AI technological innovation has entered an unprecedented period of high activity, bringing great opportunities alongside governance challenges.

As a latest frontier in global governance, AI bears directly on the shared future of humanity. On July 1, the UN Independent International Scientific Panel on AI released a report that, while affirming the immense potential benefits of AI, urged all nations to take immediate action to improve AI governance.

How to get along with thinking machines? How to ensure security when algorithm is part of decision making? How to tackle ethical challenges by technologies through adaptive governance? How to realize AI for all when the divide keeps widening? These questions demand serious consideration and real answers from the whole international community.

Xi stressed the need for adhering to the principle of openness and win-win and boosting innovation-driven development, strengthening risk-awareness and ensuring that AI is secure and controllable, encouraging inclusiveness and promoting mutual learning between civilizations, and advocating solidarity and improving global governance.

These proposals run through a clear, central thread: steering the development of AI with a value compass geared toward promoting good. This demonstrates a profound grasp of the trends and laws governing AI development. More importantly, with the well-being of all humanity at heart, it establishes a clear and definitive value coordinate for the global community to solve AI governance challenges.

A grand vision demands actionable and practical blueprints. From proposing the Global AI Governance Initiative and implementing the AI Capacity-Building Action Plan for All, to open-sourcing large language models to lower the global barrier to application and bridge the intelligence divide, and to promoting the adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution on enhancing international cooperation on capacity-building of AI by consensus—China has taken concrete actions alongside all parties to foster a global AI governance system rooted in broad consensus, transforming AI into an international public good that benefits all humanity.

Today, with the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO) officially established in Shanghai, China will provide developing countries with 5,000 opportunities in AI training and seminar programs in the next five years, and develop international AI application cooperation centers 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. Through consistent, practical measures, China continues to contribute its solutions to building a just and equitable system for global AI governance.

"A man of wisdom adapts to changes; a man of knowledge acts by circumstances." In this surging wave of intelligence, by upholding the spirit of "sharing the same planet," discarding the narrow mindset of zero-sum games, and practicing true multilateralism, we can continuously enhance mutual trust and build consensus. By consistently constructing open, fair, and effective governance mechanisms, we will surely collaborate to promote an open, inclusive, universally beneficial, and good-oriented AI, allowing AI to better serve global development and enhance the well-being of all humanity.