TREE NEWS update: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Asia Society Board Co-Chair John Thornton and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman on Oct. 23 in Xiong’an New Area, Hebei, on the sidelines of the 2026 Global Governance Forum. Wang said China advocates inclusive, beneficial AI development and that China and the US, as first-tier AI nations, have the ability and responsibility to jointly develop and manage AI so it remains controlled by humans and serves the people.
Wang Yi meets Asia Society co-chair Thornton, NYT columnist Friedman in Xiong’an
The venue is as notable as the message: Wang Yi is making the case for Sino-US AI co-management in Xiong'an, a location chosen to signal China's own development narrative, and doing so to an Asia Society co-chair and a prominent US columnist rather than through formal channels. The framing — AI "controlled by humans" — implicitly stakes out a governance stance that could resonate with Western concerns about frontier risk, even as it avoids specifics on rules or enforcement. Whether such Track II-style exchanges translate into any shared governance mechanism, or remain a diplomatic talking point, is the open question worth watching.
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