Beijing has emphasised the safe and orderly development of artificial intelligence amid growing global anxiety about the disruptive impact of the rapidly advancing technology, as the country’s leaders put the final stamp of approval on China’s next five-year plan at this year’s “two sessions”.
The 15th five-year plan elevates China’s AI Plus initiative as a top national priority, according to a draft version of the document submitted for review to the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, on Thursday and seen by the South China Morning Post.
First announced in 2024, the AI Plus initiative includes a target of integrating AI into 90 per cent of China’s economy by 2030, the final year of the 15th five-year plan.
AI is mentioned 52 times throughout the document, compared to 11 times in the 14th five-year plan released in 2021, as Beijing looks to ensure self-reliance in a technology with huge geopolitical and economic implications.
But while it emphasises the importance of accelerated breakthroughs in fundamental AI technologies, including high-performance chips and foundational models, the document includes numerous provisions to ensure that rapid AI progress happens smoothly.
Drawing on language from AI Plus as well as recent AI-related regulations, the planning document calls for the construction of a “beneficial, safe and fair development environment” for AI through measures such as new standards and ethical guidelines, as well as strengthened rules surrounding ownership of AI-generated content.
The rights and responsibilities of AI developers, operators and users should be further defined, while a “full life-cycle risk management system for AI” covering safety monitoring and emergency response should also be developed, the document said.
In the US, AI progress has led to equity market volatility amid widespread anxiety over the disruptive potential of the technology, including labour displacement and mass surveillance risks.
Meanwhile, China has been one of the most proactive regulators of AI in the world, rolling out rules targeting AI companions, data labelling and deepfakes.
Since 2022, Chinese AI service providers have been required to file with authorities through a so-called algorithm registry system before their services can be made available to the public.
Qi Xiangdong, chairman of cybersecurity company Qi An Xin Technology Group, said AI agents, which autonomously execute tasks for people, posed heightened security risks for society, especially as China increasingly looked to dominate physical AI applications.
“The security issues of embodied intelligence are only just emerging and their future [risks] are undoubtedly very serious,” Qi said on the sidelines of the “two sessions” on Wednesday.
The draft calls for the further refinement of these regulations, though specific details remain undisclosed.
The draft document also emphasises safe AI deployment in government institutions as the technology is increasingly used to bolster domestic societal governance and security, as well as in cyberspace maintenance.
“We will deepen the application of AI in security governance, enhance our capabilities in perception and early warning, command and decision-making, precise management and immediate response,” it said.
The document repeats previous commitments by Beijing to establish a global AI cooperation organisation to further multilateral development of AI standards and ethical norms, with open-source AI forming a central pillar.
This commitment echoed Premier Li Qiang’s government work report, presented on Thursday, laying out the government’s main agenda for 2026, which emphasised the need to build huge compute clusters to support AI development as well as the importance of open-source AI.
Beginning on Wednesday and scheduled to end in a week’s time, this year’s annual meetings of China’s legislature and its top advisory body – known as the “two sessions” – are happening ahead of an expected visit by US President Donald Trump starting on March 31.
Separately, in Hong Kong – which seeks to align with Beijing’s five-year plan with one of its own for the first time – regulators signalled their intention to balance development and security in the adoption of AI.
On Thursday, four financial regulators - the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Securities and Futures Commission, Insurance Authority and Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) – jointly launched a new generative AI sandbox initiative with the Hong Kong Cyberport Management.
The collaboration will see the regulators experiment with different AI uses, such as its handling of insurance underwriting and claims and the MPFA’s trials for AI-powered fraud detection.
The move came a week after Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said in his budget that the city would promote AI applications in the financial sector and AI literacy at all levels of society. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
