China's AI Governance Measures and Its Competition in Global AI Rule-Making

China’s National Data Bureau announced that it will ’timely promote the construction of intelligent data standards.’ This move indicates a broader trend: China is building a coordinated framework to govern AI development and deployment. This is crucial because establishing practical AI rules has far-reaching implications, possibly even more important than developing underlying AI models themselves. As a result, safety and governance are becoming a strategic component of the global AI competition.

For developing countries, AI governance frameworks will also become a key driving factor in choosing which AI systems to adopt, as they will also adopt corresponding data management, content review, privacy protection, and system supervision standards.

China’s National Data Bureau’s actions are a manifestation of this AI governance strategy. Similar governance measures have been taken in other related fields. In July, China began implementing the ‘Provisional Regulations on the Management of AI Humanized Interactive Services’ jointly issued by the National Cyberspace Administration and five other departments. Earlier this year, the National Cyberspace Administration, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the ‘Implementation Opinions on the Standardized Application and Innovative Development of Intelligent Entities.’