Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Jeremiah Manele and Prime Minister of the Republic of Vanuatu Charlot Salwai in Beijing on Friday.
During the meeting with Manele, Xi said that China is ready to enhance strategic communication with the Solomon Islands to firmly support each other in safeguarding core interests and addressing major concerns, enhance the synergy between the Belt and Road cooperation and the development strategy of the Solomon Islands.
China's friendly cooperation with the Solomon Islands and other Pacific Island countries is a sincere effort to assist these island nations in achieving development, falls within the framework of South-South cooperation, and is part of the common development of the Global South, without targeting any third party or seeking any selfish gain, he said. When meeting with Salwai, Xi said China will continue to provide economic and technical assistance to Vanuatu without attaching any political conditions, to help it achieve development and prosperity.
Xi emphasized that China is committed to equality among all countries, big or small, and adheres to the principle of combining justice with interests while prioritizing justice. China does not seek major-power competition or geopolitical spheres of influence. It does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries or force them to take sides.
The visits of the two leaders from the Pacific Island countries (PICs) not only deepened the relations between China and the two PICs, but also paved the way for enhanced cooperation that will benefit both sides in various aspects, as well as contributing to regional peace and stability. Unlike some Western countries, China's cooperation with the PICs is based on mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, without targeting any third party or attaching any political conditions, analysts said.
The visits of the leaders of the two PICs demonstrate that China's cooperation with them will be more comprehensive, with the goal of enhanced exchanges to promote mutual development and regional stability and prosperity, Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Friday.
"China has been fostering strong and mutually beneficial cooperation relations with the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and China's assistance to the area, including infrastructure, has made a significant contribution to promoting the economic development of these nations," said Yu Lei, a professor at the Department of International Politics and Economics at Shandong University.
Yu noted that in the wake of the pandemic, the PICs are tasked with expediting economic recovery and growth, while also addressing local employment needs and fostering a conducive environment for economic progress by enhancing local infrastructure development, Yu told the Global Times on Friday.
China is a very important provider of infrastructure and public goods in the Pacific Island region, which has been recognized and praised by the PICs, as they hope to promote the development of local infrastructure through mutually beneficial cooperation with China, Yu said.
The relations between China and the PICs serve as a model for building more mutually beneficial relations among the Global South, and the deep-level cooperation and exchanges will be of great significance to safeguarding the sovereignty and development interests of respective countries and achieving more widespread regional prosperity, Li said.
However, some Western countries have been distorting China's relations and the win-win practical cooperation with the PICs. For example, VOA said on Monday that the two prime ministers' visits came as China is "increasingly competing for influence in the region" with Australia, the US and others. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation also reported on July 4 that some are "questioning the motivations behind China's large infrastructure aid projects in the Pacific region."
Chinese experts refuted such claims, emphasizing that China's support for the PICs is based on local needs, and that China consistently upholds the principles of mutual respect and win-win cooperation.
The cooperation between China and the PICs is focused on mutual benefit and not aimed at any third party, Yu said, adding that the PICs also believe in their right to make independent decisions. Given that they hope to learn from China's successful experiences in poverty alleviation, employment enhancement, and improving living standards, the PICs possess a strong desire and expectation to deepen economic cooperation and other areas with China, Yu noted.
Echoing his words, Zhou Fangyin, a professor at the Guangdong Research Institute for International Strategies, told the Global Times that cooperation between China and PICs in terms of economy and infrastructure is universal and comprehensive, and based on mutually beneficial relations. In stark contrast, the approaches of the US are driven by geopolitical competition, often leading to potential interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
China's approach to international cooperation stands out for its respect for the right of PICs to independently choose their partners for cooperation, whereas the US-led West will inevitably face resistance and opposition from the PICs for not respecting their sovereignty as well as their right to choose their own development path, analysts said.
The US youth exchange delegation started their journey in Shanghai after visiting other Chinese cities such as Beijing and Fuzhou. They are participating in various activities, including experiencing the unique culture of each city, to strengthen communication and friendship with locals.
The "Shared Journey of Friendship" US Youth Exchange Delegation consists of around 190 teachers and students from 14 schools in seven states across the US. They have visited Beijing, Shijiazhuang, North China’s Hebei Province, Fuzhou, East China’s Fujian Province, and Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, interacting with local Chinese students, and feeling the modern pulse of the country. They then continued their journey in Shanghai.
On Thursday, some of them visited a high-tech company called VeriSilicon in Pudong New Area of Shanghai to explore high-tech innovations such as VR. In the afternoon, they had interactive activities with Chinese students at the High School affiliated with Fudan University. The welcome ceremony began with a performance of Wind of Provence by the Chinese student brass band, followed by group activities to help everyone get acquainted.
The activities at the Chinese high school included technology experiments, Chinese sports, and fun games. Students from both countries worked together on robotics programs, constructing house models, creating calligraphy works, and making soy milk. They also experienced Chinese martial arts and participated in fun sports.
During an interactive session, some students from China and the US were grouped together to build a model house. They worked together to construct the model and learn from each other's different perspectives and ideas. Kayley Gallagher told the Global Times on Thursday that it was her first time building an architectural structure like this. “I think we really did a great job. I’m very happy with the product we produced. It’s pretty cool,” Gallagher said.
“We want to show our guests from the US the culture of China, and provide them with Chinese hospitality when they visit. We also hope to experience different cultures,” Ma Jingyu, a student from the High School affiliated with Fudan University and also one of the members in the group that built the house model, told the Global Times on Thursday. The theme of this program is building dreams together, and deepening friendship, said Ma. Through the interactive activities, many participants have formed new friendships with each other and exchanged contact information, such as e-mail addresses, to stay in touch and continue building their relationships. Sakina Cotton from the US youth exchange delegation said that they had a lot of fun today and made new Chinese friends here.
After traveling to several cities in China, Cotton said that she has noticed the different cultures that are specific to each city, especially the dialects. "That was interesting, and the types of food that people eat, the pieces of history, and architecture that are still preserved are different. "
US tech firm OpenAI has restricted access to its artificial intelligence (AI) models through its application programming interface (API) service in China since Tuesday.
The Global Times interviewed several Chinese AI developers and users, who generally agreed that the ban was not anticipated to have a significant impact on the domestic industry as OpenAI's products were not officially available in China anyway. In fact, some believed that this restriction will motivate Chinese developers to redouble their efforts to compete in the AI development and application sector.
What implications does this ban have for Chinese AI developers on a more granular level? And what is the actual gap between China and the US in terms of AI development? How should the two AI giants lead the world in AI developing and governance?
The other boot drops
API refers to interface that allows external access, which means that third-party developers can integrate ChatGPT's capabilities into their applications, building their own AI software. In March 2023, OpenAI announced the opening of the API, allowing third-party developers to integrate ChatGPT into their applications and services through an API.
The Global Times perused the OpenAI website on Tuesday and found that the company had published a list of 188 countries and regions where its API service is officially available, excluding the Chinese mainland, China's Hong Kong, or Macao regions.
"Accessing or offering access to our services outside of the countries and territories listed below may result in your account being blocked or suspended," OpenAI said on its website.
According to media reports, there were two main channels for developers to access OpenAI's products in China: By connecting to OpenAI's official API service or by connecting to Microsoft's Azure services.
Azure is reportedly the only legal way to access OpenAI products and services in China. In a report by US-based news portal PYMNTS.com on Monday, a Microsoft spokesperson was quoted as saying that Microsoft will maintain its Azure OpenAI Service offerings in China, and will continue to provide access to eligible customers in the country via models deployed in regions outside of China.
OpenAI's suspension may be a result of several factors, according to analysts.
First, legal compliance must have been taken into account as of June 21, as just a few days before OpenAI made the move, the US Department of the Treasury issued draft rules to ban or require notification of certain investments in AI and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security.
At the same time, China has also been enhancing the implementation of laws and regulations on cybersecurity and data security law. Requirements for cross-border data transmission and processing have been raised, making OpenAI faces more complex compliance procedures and high costs in the Chinese market.
In addition, the need to train GPT-5 and a shortage of computing power may also be part of the reason as some industry insiders told the media that they had been receiving shorter responses from ChatGPT recently.
Meanwhile, the move is also believed to help OpenAI to crack down on companies that "package" OpenAI technology as their own product, driving out companies without core technology and competitive strength from the market.
Chinese industry insiders pointed out that most Chinese companies will suffer little from this time's service suspension. They will either transfer to domestic large models, or purchase OpenAI's services via Microsoft or other providers outside China. In the long run, this move may be good to China's independent development of large models and self-reliance.
Chinese domestic large model developers have been ready to take customers from OpenAI. Companies like Moonshot, Zhipu AI, Baidu, Alibaba, Zero One Wanwu, and other large model manufacturers, took immediate action to release their "relocation plan" for OpenAI API users.
At the exhibition during the World AI Conference (WAIC) held between June 4 and June 7 in Shanghai, the Global Times noted that various large model manufacturers in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong are now providing relocation services
Chinese large model manufacturers are also ready to "go global." A fund manager in Beijing told stcn.com that domestic large model developers are striving to catch up with the US. If these developers have plans to explore overseas markets, they can set up branches in countries and regions where OpenAI is legally available. The true gap
But OpenAI's move did sound an alarm for Chinese large model developers to reflect on the gap between them and their US competitors.
Take generative AI, one of the most widely used and the most widely known field of today's AI development, as an example.
Both the US and China are leaders in the generative AI field. But the US does better in cutting-edge and underlying technology while China has certain advantages in industrial application and service design, Ni Kaomeng, initiator of the China AIGC (AI-generated content) Industrial Alliance, a nationwide civil group of China's AIGC industry insiders, told the Global Times.
Generative AI refers to AI systems that are capable of creating new content, such as images, text, or music, based on patterns and data they have been trained on.
At the just-concluded WAIC, the Global Times saw many Chinese enterprises showcasing their newly developed generative-AI tools, such as various interesting text-to-video applications.
Some leading domestic developers told the Global Times that their products have reached, if not exceeded, the level of Sora, currently the world's most famous cutting-edge text-to-video model by OpenAI.
Kling, for instance, is "the world's first text-to-video model with Sora-level abilities that has been made available to the public," its R&D team from Chinese tech company Kuaishou told the Global Times. "Sora, by contrast, remains inaccessible to ordinary users."
Text-to-video is a super sunrise industry globally. There will be a 100-fold increase in the number of AI-generated videos in two years, predicted Song Donghuan, founder of StoryStorm, one of China's earliest AI-generated video communities.
Song said that some of the AI-generated video software or mobile applications popular in overseas markets, such as PixVerse and NeverEnds, are actually products by Chinese companies, "although many people don't know it."
As for Chinese developers, it is no exaggeration to say that Chinese enterprises "account for half of the overseas AI-generated video market," Ni said.
But still, none of these Chinese products can be as epoch-making as Sora.
Sora allows global developers to see the potential of the diffusion transformers. As a product, it can generate stable long videos with good semantic consistency. Video generative products in China have made great progress this year, but few of them can be compared with Sora in terms of long and stable video generation and semantic understanding, Hong Wenyi, a doctoral student at the School of Software, Tsinghua University, told the Global Times during the WAIC.
Luckily, China's diverse application scenarios provide a good environment for the development of AI technology. AI self-driving technology is another typical example apart from generative AI, as mushrooming domestic automobile companies are cooperating with tech firms to constantly introduce new products to the booming market.
Many Chinese auto brands displayed their recently launched self-driving vehicles at this year's WAIC. Many vehicles are found to have been the results of technological collaboration between China and other countries, particularly the US.
One of the exhibited vehicles is equipped with a Chinese self-developed autonomous driving platform and US processor chips, said the exhibitor. "In today's globalized world, it is quite normal that different parts of tech products come from various countries," he told the Global Times.
Generally, China follows the path of the US in terms of the underlying technology of autonomous driving, but China has a vast market, diverse and complex road conditions, and Chinese developers and enterprises are enthusiastic about the field, an industry insider told the Global Times.
"I'm more optimistic with China's AI self-driving development in the long run," he concluded.
Catch up and cooperate
To catch up with the US, Chinese experts and entrepreneurs call for more investment in basic research and talent cultivation.
During the WAIC, iFLYTEK showcased the latest iFLYTEK Starfire V4.0 large model launched at the end of June. According to company, iFlytek Starfire V4.0 is fully benchmarked against GPT-4 Turbo. However, GPT-4 Turbo was released in November 2023, nearly 9 months ago, not to mention that OpenAI introduced GPT-4o in May, further enhancing the model's capabilities.
"We are confident in quickly benchmarking various sizes of large models in the market. But we must admit the gap while recognizing our own advantages. We need to establish a mechanism for continuous development for national computing power construction and data resource aggregation in order to develop further with a more scientific, rational, and long-term mindset," iFlytek chairman Liu Qingfeng told media during the WAIC.
China must have a universal benchmark large model comparable to the US, otherwise the long-term development potential and core competitiveness of China in the era of general AI will be hindered, Liu noted. "With the support of a universal base large model, vertical industry large models, and small models in various application scenarios can all flourish."
In April, Tsinghua University's School of Artificial Intelligence was officially established with Chinese Turing Award winner Andrew Chi-Chih Yao serving as the first dean.
According to Yao, the goal of the school is to train 100 doctoral students annually in the near future.
"China now lacks top talents in AI frontier innovation research. While there are many good universities in China that can cultivate excellent talents, few of the Chinese doctoral students can be compared with their counterparts in top US universities. This makes China have to import foreign-trained university teachers every year, which is not a sustainable situation. In the future, China must be able to cultivate such talents domestically," Yao noted during the WAIC.
Beyond the gap and competition between the US and China - two leading countries in the field of AI to cooperate - there are seemingly more urgent tasks for the two leaders to cooperate to promote AI governance while facing the risks brought about by booming AI technologies.
Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, said during the conference that the problem lies in an infrastructure gap, with 2.5 billion people worldwide still lacking access to the internet. "These are challenges that require global cooperation to address, as they not only hinder global development but also have a significant impact on global governance," Xue said.
"The governance and development of AI have reached a critical 'crossroads,' especially with the unprecedented challenges brought about by generative AI," Xue said during the conference.
"It is quite challenging to balance competition and cooperation between China and the US. However, I believe it is important to at least consider how to create a safe space for technology professionals and experts to collaborate without fear, and freely discuss and solve technical issues. Without this, many of the things we talk about today would be impossible to achieve," Xue said.
