China backs UN on AI governance

China will consult and cooperate with other countries through the broad platform of the United Nations on major issues concerning the future of global AI governance, guided by principles of openness, open-source cooperation, mutual benefit, joint contribution and shared benefits, China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Fu Cong said on Friday.

Fu made the remarks during a briefing at the UN headquarters, organized by China's UN mission. The briefing took place two weeks after the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance was held in Shanghai.

Fu said the conference was more than a platform for dialogue, exchange, and cooperation; it brought stakeholders together to facilitate the global flow of innovation resources for AI development and inject fresh momentum into international cooperation.

"More importantly, it focused on the defining issue of our times: how to ensure that artificial intelligence develops in ways that benefit all humanity," he told representatives from more than 70 countries and international organizations at the briefing.

Fu noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping outlined China's vision for building a just and equitable global AI governance system, presenting four observations: boosting innovation-driven development, ensuring AI remains secure and under human control, promoting mutual learning between civilizations, and improving global governance.

One of the conference's major outcomes was the launch of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, or WAICO, the world's first intergovernmental international organization dedicated to AI. Representatives of 29 countries signed the founding convention.

"It represents China's concrete response to the aspirations of the Global South and an important step toward bringing countries together for AI development and global governance," Fu said, adding that the organization welcomes the participation of all countries.

The ambassador said WAICO is designed to complement and reinforce the UN's work on AI governance by focusing on capacity building, policy dialogue, technical cooperation, and AI applications.

"China stands ready to strengthen policy coordination, institutional cooperation, and practical collaboration with the United Nations, and to support the UN in playing an even greater role in global AI governance," he said.

"We see the UN as the main channel and the main platform for global governance on AI," he said during a question-and-answer session.

Asked about regulation, Fu said governments must balance innovation against risk. "If you have too much regulation, then you stifle innovation," he said, while warning that giving companies free rein could expose societies to AI's inherent dangers.

Speaking at the briefing, Amandeep Gill, the UN secretary-general's envoy on technology, described this year's World AI Conference as "qualitatively different".

'Step forward'

He also said the Shanghai gathering marked "a significant step forward" in making AI capacity-building an international priority.

Gill said the UN secretary-general focused on capacity, safety and sustainability, and stressed that different initiatives should complement one another, with the United Nations retaining a central role.

"I think the UN should remain the inclusive home for AI governance," Gill said at the Q&A session of the briefing.

The briefing also heard talks by other representatives from countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Moses Jere, a counselor and cyber/digital expert of Zambia's UN mission, said that computing remains the binding constraint for most African countries. The obstacle is neither ambition nor talent, but access to computing infrastructure, quality data, and comparable standards.

"The undertakings given in Shanghai on access to computing infrastructure and AI standards frameworks are therefore of real consequence," he said.

Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan's permanent representative to the United Nations, said the establishment of WAICO is timely and significant, as it provides a platform for countries, particularly those of the Global South, to strengthen national capacities and promote shared development.

The ambassador said that developing countries need more than access to finished AI products. They also need the data, computing capacity, models, tools, and the technical support to develop and adapt AI themselves.

"In this regard, the outcomes of the conference and the high-level meeting provide a clear and action-oriented framework for future international progress," he said.

Other speakers welcomed the establishment of WAICO and called for the conference's initiatives to be translated into practical capacity-building support for developing countries, with the broader goal of making AI more inclusive, widely accessible and mutually beneficial.