By Brenda Goh
BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese President Xi Jinping used a visit to Shanghai on Tuesday to push for breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and underscore China’s leading role in the “Global South”.
Although Xi did not reference the trade war started by U.S. President Donald Trump during his visit, the implicit message was clear: China can develop its own leading technology and has alternative markets.
“It’s a show of strength,” said Alfred Wu, a China expert at National University of Singapore.
Xi’s Shanghai trip, his first to China’s main international financial hub since November 2023, comes at a time when the tariff fight with the U.S. has raised the stakes for global economic growth, and as Beijing pursues AI development in the wake of the global success of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.
On Tuesday, he urged Shanghai to accelerate efforts to turn itself into a technological and innovation hub with global influence and strive to be at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) development and governance, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Xi also urged the city to expand its exploration of AI models and said more supportive policies for the technology should be rolled out, as he visited an incubation lab for AI startups and tried on a set of smart glasses.
In addition, the Chinese president visited the Shanghai-based New Development Bank, a multilateral lender of BRICS member nations, and met its president, former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Xinhua said.
China is ready to strengthen project cooperation with the bank and share development experience with other member countries, Xi said during his visit, adding that the collective rise of the Global South had become an important force in safeguarding world peace, the report said.
The visit to the NDB underlines how Xi wants to continue to position China as the leader of the Global South, Wu said. “China wants to offer an alternative to the world against the U.S.-dominant global order.”
The concept of the Global South emerged to designate developing, emerging or lower-income countries, mostly in the southern hemisphere, and replace the term “Third World” generally used during the 1945-90 Cold War.
In November, Xi announced a raft of measures designed to support the Global South at a gathering of leaders of the Group of 20 major economies in Rio de Janeiro.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom and Brenda Goh; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Kate Mayberry)
