President Xi Jinping spoke on Friday at the opening of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), China’s largest annual event for the AI industry.
Xi’s personal attendance elevated the conference’s profile, and signalled AI development has become both a technological imperative and a cornerstone of China’s geopolitical strategy.
As Washington maintains strict export controls on advanced semiconductors and restricts overseas access to top AI models, Beijing has accelerated its drive for tech self-reliance.
Reporting by Sylvia Ma, Coco Feng and Howard Liu
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