Column: Solidarity, inclusiveness and a future for all: understanding China's Global AI Governance Action Plan

by Liang Zheng

On July 26, the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance released the Global AI Governance Action Plan.

The Action Plan outlines six core principles and 13 concrete actions, reflecting broad international consensus. It is poised to inject renewed momentum into the global development and governance of AI technology.

FROM CONSENSUS TO IMPLEMENTATION

Today's world is at a pivotal moment in the development and governance of AI. On the one hand, AI technologies are evolving at an unprecedented pace, fast approaching a "technological singularity" that demands urgent global cooperation to seize opportunities and mitigate emerging risks. (Editor's note: The technological singularity is a theoretical scenario where technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible.)

On the other hand, while there is growing international consensus on the need for AI governance, it remains at a lowest-common-denominator level -- fragile, weakly binding, and uneven in implementation.

In this context, China's joint release of the Action Plan with its international partners marks a significant and timely step forward, translating shared values into shared actions.

In October 2023, China put forward the Global AI Governance Initiative, outlining 11 proposals around the development, security and governance of AI. Now, less than two years later, the transition from initiative to action plan reflects China's sustained commitment and growing contribution to advancing global AI governance.

AI AS INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC GOOD

China has always called for the utilization of AI technology to serve as an international public good for all. This is more than rhetoric; it is a guiding vision backed by concrete measures.

In the Action Plan, the term "global" appears 20 times and "international" 16 times. Words such as "cooperation" and "exchange" occur 21 times, while related expressions like "sharing," "joint building," and "collective effort" appear 29 times. Each of the Action Plan's 13 actions is designed as a globally coordinated effort, fully embodying the spirit of global solidarity in the AI era.

In stark contrast, just three days prior to the release of the Action Plan, the White House issued its own "Winning the Race: America's AI Action Plan." It calls for preventing U.S. adversaries from "free-riding on our innovation and investment," countering specific countries' influence in international governance bodies, strengthening enforcement of AI compute export controls, and imposing strong export controls on sensitive technologies, and encouraging partners and allies to follow U.S. controls.

The geopolitical undertones are unmistakable.

AI FOR GOOD

The ultimate goal of AI governance is development. Its governance must not become a tool for technological rivalry or geopolitical maneuvering. Instead, it should be a bridge linking nations' varying needs and stages of development, guiding technological progress to genuinely serve human well-being in areas such as poverty alleviation and public health.

The Action Plan, therefore, sets "promoting AI for good and in service of humanity" as one of its objectives and principles. It advocates for promoting the innovative development of AI and advancing AI empowerment across sectors like agriculture and poverty reduction. It calls for resource-saving, environmentally friendly development models; an open, inclusive and diverse innovation ecosystem; and greater international cooperation on AI capacity building.

This governance-for-development approach mirrors China's new development philosophy, which emphasizes innovation, coordination, green growth, openness and sharing.

CHINA'S VISION AND RESPONSIBILITY

The Action Plan is both forward-looking and rich in original and practical proposals

Conceptually, it pioneers the idea of sustainable AI, calling for international standards on energy and water efficiency, and promoting green computing technologies such as low-power chips and efficient algorithms.

Practically, it seeks to advance AI-enabled transformation in manufacturing, consumption, commerce, healthcare, education, agriculture and poverty reduction. It also calls for accelerating digital infrastructure and promoting joint creation of high-quality data sets through global partnerships.

Furthermore, on open-source innovation, the Action Plan outlines steps to build a global compliance system and promote the open sharing of development resources like technical and API documentation, paving the way for broader collaboration.

Together, these innovative and practical efforts exemplify China's commitment to both contributing wisdom and shouldering responsibility as a major country in the world.

Editor's note: The author is a professor from the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University. He is also vice dean of Institute for AI International Governance, Tsinghua University.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Xinhua News Agency.