AI & Algorithm Governance

China's AI balance still tilts to promotion, and the newest evidence is that compute-network construction has reached the State Council, not just ministries. A Sept 11 executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang studied 算力网建设 (computing power network construction) and stated flatly that the compute network is "the foundational support for AI development" ¹. When AI infrastructure is debated at the top decision body, promotion stops being an industrial-policy question and becomes national infrastructure. Domestic model and content control has not moved to match.

The meeting's framing matters because it grafts a light coordination layer onto build-out. It calls for "合理布局、规范有序" (rational layout, orderly regulation), "算电协同、算网融合" (compute-electricity coordination, compute-network integration), and 算力资源监测调度 (monitoring and dispatch of compute resources), alongside backbone fibre build-out, green-power direct connection and source-grid-load-storage projects ¹. This is the mildest register of control: not content or model rules, but the siting, dispatch and electricity-matching of compute. It sits atop the 17-province regional-node list, where Heilongjiang's 10,000-card Harbin Ascend cluster and cold-climate clean energy anchor the north-east hub ².

Below the infrastructure layer, promotion keeps compounding through named plans with enterprise-count targets. MIIT's action plan for AI in software and IT services aims by 2028 to extend high-standard coding tools and platforms to more than 20,000 major software enterprises and to build 100 benchmark agent-software applications across key industries ³. The data-annotation rung is scaling from pilot to programme: the National Data Administration's second pilot-city batch gives Liaoning a "two-city, two-domain" position, and the province counts 2.7万TB of cumulative annotation, 334 high-quality datasets and 62 billion... rather, 6.2 billion yuan of output, with Dalian's 19-firm annotation park and nine tertiary hospitals feeding medical data ⁴. Targets here are stated as counts, not as compliance conditions.

On positioning, the World AI Cooperation Organization remains the vehicle and still only a proposal: Indonesia is the one prospective founding member named, and there is no charter, secretariat or budget ⁵. What continues is packaging. At the 25th CAREC ministerial in Ulaanbaatar on Sept 29, Vice Finance Minister Liao Min put AI on the regional-development agenda and aligned it with the Belt and Road, Global Development Initiative and Global Governance Initiative ⁶. At the Hangzhou digital trade expo, Li Qiang marketed Chinese AI as "开源开放" under a "数字阶梯" (digital ladder) framing alongside digital-governance reform ⁷, while the Xi–Trump understanding on mutual APEC and G20 hosting gives the organization two ready launch venues ⁸.

Domestic control has not advanced. The live instrument is still the CAC's Sept 18 draft State Council regulation on minors' healthy and safe internet use, open for comment to Oct 17, which binds smart-terminal makers and app-distribution platforms as well as content services ⁹. The only fresh rule-making touching AI obliquely is the 15th five-year IP plan (2026–2030), promising refined IP rules for algorithms and AI-generated content — rights protection, not content or model control ¹⁰. No generative-AI filing, large-model safety review or algorithm-recommendation rule moved this period.

Two limits bound the reading. The software and annotation targets remain ministry- and province-level aspirations, and the World AI Cooperation Organization still lacks a founding list, so Indonesia's endorsement is a credential rather than a coalition ⁵. Externally, Washington's partial repeal of carbon standards for fossil-fuel plants keeps sharpening the energy-cost contrast under China's compute scale-up ¹¹.

Three questions carry the next phase. Whether the Sept 11 State Council session converts into a document or budget line for the compute network, and whether "规范有序" hardens into monitoring duties ¹. Whether the minors' regulation finalises after Oct 17 and reaches into recommendation or content duties ⁹. And whether the World AI Cooperation Organization gets a charter, founding list or launch date at the APEC or G20 venues both capitals agreed to support ⁸. Until one lands, the judgment holds: promotion compounding, control deferred, diplomacy building institutions.