Xi Jinping's First-Ever WAIC Keynote: China Pitches Open-Source AI as a Global Alternative to US Dominance

What did Xi Jinping say at WAIC 2026?

Chinese President Xi Jinping used the opening ceremony of the 2026 World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai to argue that artificial intelligence development "should not be a solo performance by a single country, but a symphony of international cooperation." It was Xi's first-ever keynote appearance at WAIC since the event launched in 2018, and Chinese state media framed it as a deliberate signal of how central AI has become to Beijing's global strategy.

Without naming the United States directly, Xi warned against countries "overstretching the national security concept" in ways widely understood as a reference to US export controls on advanced chips and AI hardware. He called on the international community to seize what he described as a "rare and historic opportunity" by encouraging open-source development, collaboration, and shared access to AI capacity-building, particularly for countries in the Global South that have had limited influence over how the technology is governed.

A new global AI body: what is WAICO?

The keynote came one day after 29 countries signed an agreement establishing the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), headquartered in Shanghai. Xi called the new body "a milestone in the history of world AI development," positioning it as a response to Global South demands for greater input into AI governance — an area where the US and EU have so far set most of the rules. According to Chinese state broadcaster CGTN's full transcript of the speech, the organization is intended to promote "consultation and collaboration" among member states to ensure AI develops in a "healthy and orderly" way.

Xi also announced concrete commitments: 5,000 AI training and seminar opportunities for developing countries over the next five years, joint AI application cooperation centers with ASEAN, the African Union, the Arab League, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and BRICS, and access for 30 countries to China's AI-powered meteorological warning system, MAZU.

The geopolitical backdrop

The speech's timing added extra weight to its message. According to the South China Morning Post, Xi's address came just moments after US President Donald Trump delivered a prime-time broadcast accusing China of orchestrating what he called the "largest compromise of election data in history" — an escalation that underscored just how entangled AI policy has become with broader US-China tension. Xi's WAIC appearance also landed the same week Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, its largest open-weight model yet, giving China's open-source pitch a concrete product to point to.

China's open-source strategy has a clear commercial logic behind the diplomatic framing. Chinese labs — DeepSeek, Moonshot, Alibaba, Zhipu AI, and others — have leaned heavily on open-weight releases to build global developer adoption without needing to match the compute budgets of OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google DeepMind. Positioning those models as a "global public good," as Xi did in Shanghai, reinforces both a geopolitical narrative and a market-share strategy at the same time.

Why it matters

For businesses and governments outside the US-China axis, WAICO and Xi's speech represent a concrete alternative institutional path for AI governance and capacity-building — one that may appeal particularly to countries wary of being dependent on either Washington's export-control regime or Beijing's terms, but that now have a formal China-led option on the table. Whether WAICO becomes a meaningful counterweight to bodies like the OECD's AI governance frameworks or remains largely symbolic will depend on how many countries actively engage with it beyond the signing ceremony.

What is the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO)?

WAICO is a new international body headquartered in Shanghai, established July 16, 2026, by nearly 30 countries to coordinate AI governance and cooperation, positioned by China as an alternative platform to US- and EU-led AI governance efforts.

Has Xi Jinping spoken at WAIC before?

No — the July 17, 2026 keynote was Xi's first personal appearance and speech at the World AI Conference since it began in 2018. Previous editions were typically addressed by other senior officials, including Premier Li Qiang.