By Hasan Muhammad

Editor's Note: The writer is a freelance columnist on international affairs based in Karachi, Pakistan. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of China Economic Net.

The world of artificial intelligence moves at a pace that tests even the most seasoned observers. Just a few years ago, the narrative around AI was dominated by Silicon Valley's breakthroughs, with Chinese firms scrambling to catch up. By late 2025, that story has flipped. Models from Alibaba and Baidu now lead in sheer volume, with over 3,755 iterations released by July, outstripping global rivals. This is not mere hype. It signals a profound shift: China is not just participating in the AI race; it is redefining the track, pushing for a model of development that prioritizes scale, efficiency, and shared access.

China's generative AI user base hit 515 million by mid-year, a figure that doubled from 2024. These stats reflect a domestic market that doubles as a vast testing ground, where AI integrates seamlessly into daily life - from fitness coaching apps with 4.73 million monthly users to legal assistants handling routine queries. By February, the sector had drawn 250 million users, fueled by DeepSeek's seven-day surge to 100 million. This adoption rate, unmatched elsewhere, stems from a deliberate strategy. Beijing's 2017 New Generation AI Development Plan set clear milestones: parity by 2020, breakthroughs by 2025.

Yet the real power lies in application. The infographic highlights how AI empowers industrial growth, with deployments in manufacturing, finance, healthcare, and education reaching 1,500 scenarios. Humanoid robots, numbering 10,000 units, now handle tasks in factories, while AI agents forecast a $10 trillion market by 2030, capturing 25 percent in food and beverage alone.

This domestic momentum spills abroad, creating opportunities that challenge old divides. Chinese models, often open-sourced on platforms like Hugging Face, undercut Western costs by half - DeepSeek's sparse attention mechanism handles long documents at lower energy use. American firms, from startups like Cursor to established players, quietly integrate Alibaba's Z.ai and Moonshot's tools, bypassing export curbs on advanced chips. By mid-2025, Chinese AI accounted for 48 percent of global equity investment in the sector, drawing talent that powers U.S. research: nearly one-third of top AI experts hail from China.

But scale alone does not guarantee equity. AI's promise risks widening gaps if left to market forces. Here, China's global stance offers a counterpoint to fragmented Western approaches. The July 2025 World AI Conference in Shanghai, themed "Global Solidarity in the AI Era," unveiled the Global AI Governance Action Plan. This 13-point roadmap calls for infrastructure sharing, data security, and open ecosystems, urging nations to align AI with sustainable development goals. It proposes a new international body - potentially headquartered in Shanghai - to coordinate efforts, complementing UN frameworks and preventing monopolies. Principles like respecting sovereignty and fostering inclusivity target the Global South, where 700 million lack digital access. China pledges to export affordable models and build capacity, as seen in AI tourism apps deployed in Europe and health diagnostics in Africa via Belt and Road ties.

This initiative arrives at a pivotal moment. Global governance remains patchwork: the U.S. emphasizes risk mitigation through export controls, while Europe focuses on ethical standards. Beijing's plan bridges these by prioritizing "AI for good," with actions like traceability systems to curb misuse and cross-border open-source communities for shared innovation. It echoes broader calls for multilateralism, inviting over 30 countries - from Russia to Germany - to join dialogues on safety and fairness.

Of course, challenges persist. Domestic venture funding dipped 50 percent in early 2025 amid economic headwinds, and ethical concerns - like bias in training data - demand vigilance. Beijing's safety guidelines, updated in 2024, stress controllability, but scaling globally requires trust-building. Still, the trajectory is clear. As AI permeates governance and economies, China's blend of state guidance and market dynamism positions it to lead not by dominance, but by demonstration.

The opportunities are vast. For developing nations, Chinese models offer low-cost entry to precision agriculture or disaster forecasting. For investors, the $146 billion market by 2030 beckons. Even rivals benefit: open-source releases democratize progress, narrowing the compute chasm that once favored the West.