# AI & Algorithm Governance: AI push stays promotion-first as Li Qiang pitches open-source 'digital ladder'

China Snapshot · created by Tristan McInnis · reading v184
Updated: 2026-09-24T10:55:51.795818+00:00
Permanent reading: https://china-snapshot.com/analysis/dossiers/ai-policy/v184.html
AI-assisted interpretation; verify against the cited original sources.

## Current understanding at this revision

China's AI policy remains promotion-first, and this batch of fourteen documents adds no new control instrument for models or algorithms. What it does add is elevation: Premier Li Qiang headlined the fifth Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou (Sept 23–27) and pitched Chinese AI as an open-source "digital ladder" other countries can climb, lifting a line previously heard from BRICS and foreign-ministry platforms to the head-of-government level [1](https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/jzhsl_673025/202609/t20260924_12030669.shtml). That matters because it confirms the sequencing Beijing has settled on — build and export the stack, keep domestic model rules out of the way, and use multilateral venues as delivery channels.

The expo itself is the concrete evidence. Themed "Encounter AI's Future at the Digital Trade Expo," it drew more than 1,200 delegates from nearly 50 countries and regions, with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar and Kyrgyz Prime Minister Japarov attending alongside Li [1](https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/jzhsl_673025/202609/t20260924_12030669.shtml). Li's three points covered digital-trade trends, keeping trade open, and China's contribution; the operative sentence was that "China's AI and other technologies adhere to an open-source, open route," building a ladder "every country can climb," with China offering its own solutions for improving international rules. Read against the domestic record, the asymmetry is the story: a rules-shaping, open-source pitch abroad, and at home still no generative-AI filing, model safety review or algorithm-recommendation rule moving this month. The only active control file remains the draft State Council regulation on minors' internet use published by the Cyberspace Administration of China on Sept 18, comments closing Oct 17, which binds smart-terminal makers and app-distribution platforms as well as content services [2](https://www.cac.gov.cn/2026-09/18/c_1791482017777471.htm).

This is the same playbook running in a bigger room. Beijing converts chairmanships and hosted events into named deliverables, and Li's speech now sits on top of the BRICS commitments to an AI open-source zone, a digital-industry cloud platform and a youth sci-tech exchange plan announced at the New Delhi summit [3](https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/jzhsl_673025/202609/t20260914_12021744.shtml) and the fourth AI capacity-building seminar for 30-plus countries at Peking University [4](https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/wjbxw_new/202609/t20260907_12017685.shtml). What is still missing is a launch date or budget for any of it — the "digital ladder" is a framing, not yet a program with a line item.

The industrial thread keeps compounding under an AI label. Guizhou remains the only one of MIIT's 17 compute-interconnection regional nodes whose implementation consortium includes a grid company — Guizhou Power Grid alongside the three provincial telecom branches — producing a "three-network hub" that couples the national compute network, the new-generation communications network and the power grid, with compute-power coordination as its declared comparative advantage [5](https://www.guizhou.gov.cn/home/gzyw/202609/t20260903_90813774.html). Heilongjiang, also approved, anchors on China Mobile's Harbin 10,000-card cluster and counts 430 provincial digital workshops and smart factories by end-2025 (up 212 since 2022, 25.4% average annual growth), with key-process digitisation rising from 34.6% to 51.8% [6](https://www.hlj.gov.cn/hlj/c107856/202609/c00_31973311.shtml). The fuller provincial account adds the payoff metric Beijing actually prizes: three national "digital navigator" enterprises including Feihe Dairy, six national excellent smart factories including Harbin Electric, nine firms on the national 5G factory list, and a national-first provincial smart agricultural machinery platform [7](https://www.hlj.gov.cn/hlj/c107856/202609/c00_31975316.shtml). Compliance never appears as a bottleneck in any of it.

Diffusion is moving down-market and into academia, which is the quieter but more telling shift. Liaoning is now a "two cities, two domains" annotation province — Shenyang on industrial manufacturing, Dalian on medical health — with 27,000 TB annotated, 334 high-quality datasets, 120-plus firms, 20,000-plus workers and a 6.2-billion-yuan industry, and Dalian's annotation park sitting on a 3,000-firm software cluster and nine tertiary hospitals drawing 53 million patient visits a year [8](https://www.ln.gov.cn/web/ywdt/jrln/wzxx2018/2026091507083465076/index.shtml). Unisound's "token export" served Ethiopian cross-border e-commerce with over 10 billion tokens in week one off domestic compute [9](https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiVEFVX3lxTFBPSm5NVm5DQlFjYVd5WVBVbFNHWGFTM05SSVFWS1cyMlZCM0N6Z2NndXlxT1UxSUhadDhWS2pTTFB6OHQ3Tmx5T0pSOE1nNy1oU0pXUQ?oc=5). Now a dumpling restaurant near Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications hands diners 10-yuan compute cards and exposes its booking interface to consumer AI agents — the first restaurant to do so [10](https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiTkFVX3lxTE5HSEVxNUI2YnRnbzJRUXB3a2tkUXRNZ1ZvR0RTcGJ0djNubi1ESjlGODRmSTdXcGZuRTJSN0lTcjFXSzJWRkUtUmowdlkwUQ?oc=5). University of Macau's new AI and Brain Science Institute drew about 500 people to its first international symposium [11](https://www.gcs.gov.mo/detail/zh-hans/N26ICFPGIV), and Macao's compute training pilot put 28 staff from certified firms through Ascend-based courses toward HCIA-AI Solution exams [12](https://www.gcs.gov.mo/detail/zh-hans/N26IDFHCUD).

The one counter-signal still comes from outside China: a US Federal Register notice partially repealing carbon pollution standards for fossil-fuel power plants says nothing about China's AI stack, but sharpens the energy-cost contrast under compute build-out — Beijing is coupling compute to green power and source-grid-load-storage by design while Washington loosens emissions rules on generation [13](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/17/2026-19071/partial-repeal-of-the-carbon-pollution-standards-for-fossil-fuel-fired-electric-generating-units). With the minors' regulation pending and the BRICS open-source zone still dateless, three questions carry the next phase: whether the minors' rule finalises after Oct 17 and reaches into recommendation or content duties; whether the regional-node instruction hardens into a named plan, budget line or agency; and whether Li's open-source line converts into an actual rules or standards proposal rather than a slogan.

## What changed in this reading

Four documents are new. The fifth Global Digital Trade Expo opened in Hangzhou Sept 23–27 with Premier Li Qiang headlining and pitching Chinese AI as an open-source "digital ladder" and a Chinese solution for international rules — the first time this line has been delivered at premier level rather than from BRICS or foreign-ministry platforms [1](https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/jzhsl_673025/202609/t20260924_12030669.shtml). Heilongjiang's fuller digital-economy account adds national pilot badges (Feihe Dairy, Harbin Electric, Jianlong Xigang) to a compute-node story already in the record [7](https://www.hlj.gov.cn/hlj/c107856/202609/c00_31975316.shtml), and diffusion evidence moved down-market and into academia — a BUPT-adjacent dumpling shop handing out 10-yuan compute cards and opening its booking API to AI agents [10](https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiTkFVX3lxTE5HSEVxNUI2YnRnbzJRUXB3a2tkUXRNZ1ZvR0RTcGJ0djNubi1ESjlGODRmSTdXcGZuRTJSN0lTcjFXSzJWRkUtUmowdlkwUQ?oc=5), and the University of Macau's first AI-and-brain-science symposium [11](https://www.gcs.gov.mo/detail/zh-hans/N26ICFPGIV). The promotion-vs-control balance is unchanged

## Open questions

- Will the draft State Council regulation on minors' internet use finalise after the Oct 17, 2026 comment deadline, and will the final text assign algorithm-recommendation or content duties to platforms, smart-terminal makers and app stores?
- Will MIIT's 17-node compute-interconnection instruction harden into a named plan, a budget line or a standing agency rather than a list of approved provincial nodes?
- Does the BRICS AI open-source zone get a launch date and a concrete deliverable now that China holds the chair and hosts the 2027 summit?
- Does Li Qiang's "digital ladder"/open-source framing at the Hangzhou expo convert into an actual rules or standards proposal rather than a slogan?

## Evidence

1. [Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun Chairs a Regular Press Conference on September 24, 2026](https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/jzhsl_673025/202609/t20260924_12030669.shtml) — MFA (spokesperson); published 2026-09-24.
2. [Notice by the Cyberspace Administration of China on Soliciting Public Comments on the State Council Regulations on Ensuring Minors' Healthy and Safe Use of the Internet (Draft for Comments)](https://www.cac.gov.cn/2026-09/18/c_1791482017777471.htm) — CAC; published 2026-09-18.
3. [Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun Hosts Regular Press Conference on September 14, 2026](https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/jzhsl_673025/202609/t20260914_12021744.shtml) — MFA (spokesperson); published 2026-09-14.
4. [Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin Attends Opening Ceremony of the Fourth AI Capacity Building Seminar (2026-09-07)](https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/wjbxw_new/202609/t20260907_12017685.shtml) — MFA (news); published 2026-09-07.
5. [贵州获批建设国家算力互联互通区域节点](https://www.guizhou.gov.cn/home/gzyw/202609/t20260903_90813774.html) — Guizhou Provincial Government; published 2026-09-03.
6. [Our province selected as regional node for national computing power interconnection.](https://www.hlj.gov.cn/hlj/c107856/202609/c00_31973311.shtml) — Heilongjiang Provincial Government; published date unknown.
7. [Heilongjiang's 100-Billion-Yuan Digital Economy Cluster Rides the Momentum](https://www.hlj.gov.cn/hlj/c107856/202609/c00_31975316.shtml) — Heilongjiang Provincial Government; published date unknown.
8. [Our province wins another national pilot in data annotation](https://www.ln.gov.cn/web/ywdt/jrln/wzxx2018/2026091507083465076/index.shtml) — Liaoning Provincial Government; published date unknown.
9. [Over 10 billion tokens generated in first week! Domestic AI models power overseas e-commerce, no need to build computing power abroad — the 'token export' era has arrived | Overview](https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiVEFVX3lxTFBPSm5NVm5DQlFjYVd5WVBVbFNHWGFTM05SSVFWS1cyMlZCM0N6Z2NndXlxT1UxSUhadDhWS2pTTFB6OHQ3Tmx5T0pSOE1nNy1oU0pXUQ?oc=5) — Yicai; published 2026-09-05.
10. [Dumplings and tokens: A shop near BUPT serves AI computing power as dessert](https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiTkFVX3lxTE5HSEVxNUI2YnRnbzJRUXB3a2tkUXRNZ1ZvR0RTcGJ0djNubi1ESjlGODRmSTdXcGZuRTJSN0lTcjFXSzJWRkUtUmowdlkwUQ?oc=5) — 36Kr; published 2026-09-02.
11. [University of Macau Hosts International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Brain Science](https://www.gcs.gov.mo/detail/zh-hans/N26ICFPGIV) — Macao SAR Government press; published 2026-09-03.
12. ['Innovative Computing Power Training Pilot Program' launches to boost AI application capabilities of tech companies.](https://www.gcs.gov.mo/detail/zh-hans/N26IDFHCUD) — Macao SAR Government press; published 2026-09-04.
13. [Partial Repeal of the Carbon Pollution Standards for Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/17/2026-19071/partial-repeal-of-the-carbon-pollution-standards-for-fossil-fuel-fired-electric-generating-units) — US Federal Register; published 2026-09-17.

Revision dates describe China Snapshot readings, not policy effective dates. Citation overlap is not causation or a measure of importance.