Overview

• China’s State Council set nationwide AI penetration goals of 70% by 2027 and 90% by 2030, positioning AI as infrastructure by 2030 and a growth engine for an intelligent economy by 2035, a target that implies roughly 980 million regular users by 2027.
• The directive mandates integration across six pillars—technology, industry, consumption, governance, welfare, and international cooperation—while ordering regions and departments to align implementation with local conditions and deliver results.
• Officials framed AI as an international public good, emphasizing open-source development, support for Global South capabilities, and backing for the United Nations’ role in AI governance.
• The plan acknowledges risks such as model opacity, hallucinations, and algorithmic discrimination, and calls for governance frameworks covering natural persons, digital persons, and intelligent robots.
• A day after the plan’s release, the NDRC urged against blind expansion and said it will extend AI vouchers for computing access and pilot consumer subsidies for AI-powered products.