Chair's statement of 2026 World AI Conference issued in Shanghai

A chair's statement of the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance was issued in Shanghai on Friday -- the first day of the four-day event.

The statement notes that AI is completely reconfiguring economic and social development, and that both the opportunities and challenges accompanying AI are growing.

It stresses the need to strike the right balance between development and security, and outlines the principles of people-centered approach, AI for good, fairness and inclusiveness, and collaborative governance.

It calls for more robust international cooperation to ensure AI truly benefits all humanity.

The statement advocates fostering an innovation ecosystem that is enterprise-led, market-driven, application-oriented, research-grounded and talent-based, and calls for actively promoting an AI+ model and leveraging AI to transform and upgrade traditional industries.

It encourages the joint development of open-source ecosystems and stresses the need to safeguard data security and move faster to create foundational institutions such as data property rights, so as to ensure that data is manageable, controllable and traceable, thereby promoting its secure and orderly flow and efficient development and use.

On sustainability and security, the statement calls for advancing the green and low-carbon development of AI, preventing the abuse and malicious use of AI, and ensuring that AI always remains under human control.

On global governance, it champions practicing true multilateralism under the UN, calls for promoting inclusive cooperation on AI industrial and supply chains, stresses implementing the UN resolution on AI capacity-building, and calls for respecting the differences in histories, cultures and social systems across all countries.

The 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance runs from Friday to Monday, bringing together official representatives, business leaders, scholars and researchers from more than 100 countries and international organizations.

Chair's statement of 2026 World AI Conference issued in Shanghai

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday urged efforts to carry out search and rescue operations in a scientific manner after a landslide struck a county in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, leaving people trapped and missing.

The landslide occurred at 9:08 Friday in Hanjia Sub-district along a section of the Wujiang River in Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County, burying several residential buildings at the foot of the mountain. Ten people had been rescued as of 14:00, according to local authorities.

In his instructions, Xi stressed the need for scientific search and rescue operations to prevent secondary disasters, and called for proper medical treatment for the injured and appropriate arrangements for the aftermath. He also urged relevant departments to identify the cause of the disaster, draw lessons from this case and conduct thorough inspections to eliminate geological hazards. Xi emphasized that all regions and relevant departments must further fulfill their safety responsibilities, strengthen monitoring, early warning and risk inspection systems, and ensure that all work is carried out in a concrete and meticulous manner, so as to effectively protect the lives and property of the people.

The Ministry of Natural Resources on Friday raised its geological disaster emergency response to Level II from Level III and dispatched a working team to the site.

A four-tier emergency response system is in place for geological disasters, with Level I being the most severe.

Xi urges scientific search and rescue efforts after Chongqing landslide