China is stepping up efforts to promote responsible, coordinated and inclusive global artificial intelligence governance, with a slew of key initiatives released during the ongoing 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai covering AI ethics, cooperative development and the trusted interconnection of AI agents.
This July 17, 2026, photo shows the exterior view of the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, China. (Photo: Xinhua)
An international action plan on AI ethics governance was released on Friday at the conference, as part of the nation's efforts to push forward more coordinated, practical and inclusive global AI governance.
Led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the action plan aims to help implement commitments related to the United Nations' Pact for the Future and its annex, the Global Digital Compact, while promoting a globally collaborative, action-oriented framework for AI governance.
It focuses on several key areas, including ethical governance throughout the full life cycle of AI, risk classification and tiered prevention and control, the development of agile governance mechanisms, the building of coordinated industrial ecosystems, and the construction of a sound social environment for responsible AI development.
Looking forward, the MIIT said it will work with relevant international parties to promote the implementation of the action plan, including by deepening multilateral cooperation and encouraging dialogue among governments, industry and academia. It will also focus on helping developing countries strengthen their capacity for AI ethics governance.
While the ethics action plan focuses on how AI should be governed, another plan released at the conference placed greater emphasis on how AI development can be advanced through cooperation.
Released by the National Development and Reform Commission, it seeks to foster an open and cooperative ecosystem for AI development by outlining actions in eight areas — such as increasing the supply of high-quality data, improving access to computing power, promoting open-source development, expanding AI applications and cultivating digital talent.
The plan also encourages countries to jointly build international open-source AI communities and foster a global open-source ecosystem that is open, inclusive, secure and well-governed.
In addition, the plan calls for deeper cooperation under the AI Plus initiative and stronger support for digital and AI capacity building in developing countries.
As AI moves from models and applications toward more autonomous systems, the country also put forward an international cooperation initiative on AI agents during the conference. A global cooperation initiative on agent trust, interconnection and interoperability was released by the Cyberspace Administration of China on the same day.
It calls on countries to increase investment in basic technologies such as agent identity recognition and collaborative mutual recognition, while also encouraging efforts to advance efficient, scalable and low-latency cross-platform interoperability to lay a stronger technical foundation for global agent interconnection.