China’s President Xi Jinping has emphasized the critical need for AI self-reliance in China, pledging a “self-reliance and self-strengthening” approach to propel the nation’s artificial intelligence development.
This directive, reported by state media on Saturday, comes as China intensifies its competition with the U.S. for global leadership in artificial intelligence, a strategically vital sector.
What is China’s AI Strategy
Speaking at a Politburo meeting study session on Friday, Xi Jinping outlined China’s AI strategy, stating that the nation should leverage its “new whole national system” to aggressively advance the development of AI in China.
According to the official Xinhua news agency, Xi Jinping acknowledged the existing “gaps” in China’s AI development compared to global leaders.
He then stressed the urgency to “redouble our efforts to comprehensively advance technological innovation, industrial development, and AI-empowered applications.” Xi Jinping also indicated that significant policy support would be provided in key areas such as government procurement, intellectual property rights protection, research funding, and the cultivation of AI talent in China.
China Closing the AI Gap with the United States
Several experts suggest that China has made significant strides in narrowing the AI development gap with the United States over the past year. The emergence of Chinese AI startups like DeepSeek has garnered international attention.
DeepSeek’s January launch of an AI reasoning model, reportedly trained with less advanced chips and at a lower development cost than Western counterparts, demonstrated China’s growing capabilities in AI technology.
China has also achieved progress in foundational infrastructure software engineering, a critical component of AI development.
DeepSeek Challenge: China’s AI Resilience Amidst US Sanctions
The DeepSeek announcement challenged the prevailing assumption that US sanctions were significantly hindering China’s AI sector amidst the intense geopolitical tech rivalry between the two nations. It also questioned the notion that China was lagging behind the U.S. following the groundbreaking launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022, highlighting China’s capacity for independent AI innovation.
Xi Jinping further emphasized the necessity for China to “continue to strengthen basic research” and “concentrate our efforts on mastering core technologies such as high-end chips and basic software.”
His vision includes building an “independent, controllable, and collaborative artificial intelligence basic software and hardware system,” underscoring China’s commitment to AI self-sufficiency across the entire technological stack.
In addition to fostering innovation, Xi Jinping stressed the importance of accelerating the development of “AI regulations and laws.”
The goal is to build a robust “risk warning and emergency response system” to ensure that artificial intelligence is safe, reliable, and controllable within China’s rapidly evolving technological landscape.
