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China AI summit highlights push for AI governance to avoid digital divide
Speakers warned that governance rules could slow early AI development in emerging markets, arguing countries need room to participate before regulation tightens.
Greater global cooperation and development-focused AI governance are needed, scholars and international figures said at China’s premier AI conference in Shanghai, in a push to prevent a widening digital divide. The remarks formed part of a broader theme at the World AI Conference (WAIC), where Beijing is engaging countries across the Global South with an AI agenda.
According to SCMP Economy, Xue Lan, a scholar of public policy and global AI governance and dean of the Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, called for an international consensus and urged more interoperability between national governance systems to avoid fragmentation of global rules. The panel also emphasized expanded cooperation between the Global South and the Global North.
Representatives from developing economies cautioned that AI governance could stifle early-stage progress in emerging markets. SCMP Economy reported that Nambaryn Enkhbayar, former president of Mongolia, said governance should not start with restricting technology “at the very beginning,” and argued nations first need the capacity to seize opportunities and take part in the global AI economy.
Enkhbayar said Mongolia is ready to develop AI through cooperation with other countries, including China, framing the issue as an acceleration of participation rather than an immediate regulatory clampdown.