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Majid Ali AlShehry outlined China’s potential leadership role during an exclusive interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the fourth UNESCO Global Forum on the Ethics of AI in Riyadh. The acting director-general of the International Center for AI Research and Ethics noted that while international consensus exists on basic AI governance principles, many countries have developed their own ethics frameworks and regulatory guidelines. He stressed that the central difficulty remains converting those policies into embedded practices within development processes.
AlShehry told Xinhua that the challenge now is to move from policies into practice by embedding compliance into the value chain of building solutions and tools. A report from the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security described China’s AI security governance as having evolved from almost no specific regulations to a layered framework of laws, guidelines and standards within five years. Stanford’s 2026 AI Index found that Chinese institutions produced 35 notable AI models in 2025, compared with 59 in the United States, while China led in AI publications, citations and patent grants.
China possesses a vast AI ecosystem that spans infrastructure, data centers, technologies and companies with full-stack capabilities, according to AlShehry. The expert said China, as a leading nation in AI, could become an influencer toward the goal of balancing between innovation and regulation to ensure technologies stay within appropriate boundaries while advancing human benefits. A Mint analysis of Chinese policy noted that despite elaborate rules on recommendation algorithms, deep-synthesis technologies and generative AI, the country’s industry has remained highly competitive with the model-performance gap to the United States effectively closed.
AlShehry expressed hope that China and other countries would work toward producing role models in this balance from the great nations in AI. The 15th Five-Year Plan for 2026-2030 cements AI Plus as China’s drive to diffuse the technology across sectors for economic growth while prioritizing safety and risk management, a State of AI Safety in China report stated. This approach aligns with broader efforts at the UNESCO forum, which drew 8,000 participants including ministers from around 50 countries to discuss ethical governance tools.
The Riyadh-based International Center for AI Research and Ethics was established in 2023 under UNESCO auspices and seeks to build partnerships with universities, research institutions and companies worldwide, AlShehry explained to Xinhua. The center is actively working to establish partnerships with Chinese institutions as part of its mandate to advance AI research, ethics awareness and policy recommendations. Saudi Arabia was among the first countries to adopt UNESCO’s AI ethics recommendations in 2021, and PwC forecasts that AI will contribute $135 billion to the Saudi economy by 2030, positioning the kingdom as the largest beneficiary of the technology in the Middle East.
The forum, co-hosted by UNESCO and the Saudi Data and AI Authority alongside the center, launched new tools to help policymakers strengthen national AI governance based on human rights and sustainability. AlShehry added that such collaborative platforms can support the center’s goal of promoting international cooperation in ethical AI development. China’s AI Safety Governance Framework 3.0, released this week, sorts risk categories and offers suggestions for technical responses and comprehensive measures, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry statements.
