Chinese leader Xi Jinping attended and delivered remarks at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai in July — his first appearance at the annual event — where the People’s Republic of China promoted its pitch for global AI governance and cooperation and launched the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO), headquartered in Shanghai with 29 founding members.
The conference coincided with growing international traction for Chinese AI models, including DeepSeek’s R-1, released in January 2025, and Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, released on the eve of the conference. Xi pledged to further support global AI development and advance global AI capacity building, including providing developing countries with 5,000 opportunities in AI training and seminar programs.
World AI Conference as a vehicle for Beijing’s global pitch
The WAIC, established in 2018, has evolved from a domestic showcase into a platform Beijing uses to promote its technological and governance approaches to AI. The 2026 edition featured an opening address by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, underscoring the event’s international reach. At the same time, several Western technologists and former officials who had appeared at past WAICs — including Jack Ma, Elon Musk and Henry Kissinger — were not present in 2026.
Organizers point to broader audience growth: WAIC reported its online viewership rose from about 253 million in 2020 to over 2 billion by 2024.
Roots in domestic AI strategy
The WAIC traces its origins to Beijing’s designation of AI as a strategic technology and to national policy guidance beginning in the mid-2010s. The conference launched soon after the 2017 New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan, which set targets for integrating AI into the economy by 2025 and becoming a leading global AI innovation center by 2030. Shanghai moved quickly to align with that plan, issuing implementation opinions in late 2017 and a 2019–2021 action plan that explicitly framed the WAIC as a hub-type innovation platform to organize and gather global innovation resources.
From showcase to governance: WAICO and the PRC’s international agenda
WAIC programming and initiatives have increasingly reflected Beijing’s interest in shaping global AI norms. In 2024 the conference issued a Shanghai Declaration endorsing priorities such as promoting AI development, maintaining AI safety, and developing AI governance systems. In 2025 organizers released a Global AI Governance Action Plan with 13 points covering AI development, infrastructure and norms, and that conference called for establishing an AI cooperation organization. The 2026 WAIC formalized that proposal with the launch of WAICO.
Little is currently known about how WAICO will operate or how it will complement the PRC’s broader global AI governance vision, but its formation and any future expansion in membership are positioned as indicators of China’s influence in shaping international approaches to AI.
