Chinese FM holds talks with Malta's deputy PM

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Ian Borg, Malta's deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs and tourism, in Beijing on Monday.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that Malta plays a unique and positive role in world peace and stability.

China is willing to maintain high-level political mutual trust, mutual respect, mutual understanding and mutual support with Malta, and will honor its commitments on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, Wang said.

Wang said that China will work with Malta to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in trade, investment, culture and tourism, science and education, and continue to maintain good communication and coordination in international affairs.

On China-EU relations, Wang pointed out that the most important experience and enlightenment from the 50-year development of bilateral ties is that China-EU relations are positioned as partners rather than rivals, with a tone of dialog and cooperation.

As the world's two major forces, civilizations and markets, China and the EU should understand, respect and appreciate each other, Wang said.

Wang called on the two sides to view the mutually beneficial and win-win essence of their relations with a developmental perspective, jointly promote the process of human civilization and maintain world peace and stability.

Borg said that Malta highly values its relations with China, always takes relations with China in its diplomatic priority, firmly adheres to the one-China principle, actively participates in the Belt and Road Initiative, and welcomes more Chinese friends to visit Malta.

The Maltese side also believes that the EU and China should be partners rather than rivals, and differences should be properly resolved through dialog and consultation, Borg said, expressing his country's willingness to continue playing an active role in promoting EU-China relations

Chinese FM holds talks with Malta's deputy PM

China aims to achieve secure and reliable supply of key core artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by 2027, with its industrial scale and empowerment level remaining among the world's forefront, according to a recent government action plan.

The plan, jointly issued by eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission, outlines an ambitious push to deeply integrate AI with the manufacturing sector, foster new quality productive forces and comprehensively empower new industrialization. By 2027, the plan targets the deep application of three to five general-purpose large AI models in manufacturing, the development of specialized, full-coverage industry-specific large models, the creation of 100 high-quality industrial datasets, and the promotion of 500 typical application scenarios.

It also aims to cultivate two to three globally influential ecosystem-leading enterprises, a batch of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises, and a group of enabling service providers proficient in both AI technology and industry know-how.

Furthermore, China plans to build a world-leading open-source ecosystem, enhance security governance capabilities, and contribute Chinese solutions to global AI development.

The document outlines measures including promoting the coordinated development of AI chips' hardware and software, supporting innovations in model training and inference methods, fostering key industry-specific large models, and deeply embedding large model technology into core production processes.

The plan also emphasizes making breakthroughs in key technologies such as security protection for industrial model algorithms and training data protection.

China aims for secure, reliable supply of AI core tech by 2027