Position Paper of the People’s Republic of China on Regulating Military Applications of Artificial Intelligence

• Authority: Chinese central government
• Jurisdiction: China
• Collections: Chinese law and policy
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2021-12-13

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Cyberattacks, weapon development or use
• Competitive dynamics
• Governance failure
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities
• Lack of capability or robustness

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Compromise of privacy
• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Power centralization and unfair distribution
• AI pursuing its own goals

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 8-10 subdomains, with strong focus on malicious actors (4.1, 4.2), competitive dynamics (6.4), governance failure (6.5), goal misalignment (7.1), dangerous capabilities (7.2), and lack of robustness (7.3). Coverage is concentrated in security, misuse prevention, AI safety, and governance domains.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• National Security

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Scientific Research & Development Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document exclusively governs the National Security sector, specifically addressing military applications of AI including weapon systems development, deployment, and use. It does not regulate AI use in civilian economic sectors.

Legislative Status

Soft Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a non-binding position paper using voluntary language throughout, with no enforcement mechanisms, penalties, or legal obligations. It relies on normative pressure and international cooperation rather than legal enforceability.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The document is explicitly titled 'Position Paper of the People's Republic of China' and states 'China welcomes' and 'China calls for' throughout, clearly identifying China as the proposing entity.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Developer
• Summary: The document repeatedly addresses 'countries' and 'major countries' as the primary targets of these governance recommendations. It also explicitly mentions technology enterprises and research institutes as actors who should participate in governance.

Enforcer

• Summary: No enforcement body or mechanism is specified in this position paper. It is a voluntary, non-binding call for international cooperation without designated enforcers.

Monitor

• Summary: No specific monitoring body is designated. The document calls for policy dialogue and exchanges to 'track technology development trends' but does not establish formal monitoring mechanisms or bodies.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Collect and Process Data
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document addresses multiple lifecycle stages with primary focus on deployment, operation and monitoring of military AI systems. It also covers design considerations, verification/validation requirements, and research and development practices. The emphasis is on ensuring human control and safety throughout the entire lifecycle.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Systems

Technical Scope Summary

The document refers to AI technology, AI systems, and weapon systems throughout but does not use specific technical terminology like frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, or compute thresholds. The focus is on military applications of AI broadly defined.