Position Paper of the People's Republic of China on Strengthening Ethical Governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Authority: Chinese central government
• Jurisdiction: China
• Collections: Chinese law and policy
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2022-11-17

Risk subdomain coverage

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

• Compromise of privacy
• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Governance failure
• Lack of capability or robustness
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

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

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• Unequal performance across groups
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Cyberattacks, weapon development or use
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Power centralization and unfair distribution
• Competitive dynamics
• AI pursuing its own goals
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 10-12 subdomains, with strong focus on governance failure (6.5), AI system security (2.2), privacy compromise (2.1), lack of robustness (7.3), lack of transparency (7.4), unfair discrimination (1.1), malicious use prevention (4.1, 4.2, 4.3), and competitive dynamics (6.4). Coverage is concentrated in governance, security, privacy, and AI safety domains.

Sector coverage

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

• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

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

• Scientific Research & Development Services
• National Security

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This is a cross-sectoral governance framework that does not target specific economic sectors. As a high-level position paper on AI ethics, it establishes principles and recommendations applicable to AI use across all sectors without sector-specific provisions. The document governs AI governance actors (governments) rather than specific industries.

Legislative Status

Soft Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a position paper that uses predominantly voluntary and recommendatory language ('should', 'calls on') without establishing binding legal obligations or enforcement mechanisms. It represents China's policy positions and recommendations for international AI governance rather than enforceable domestic law.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: People's Republic of China; Chinese central government
• Summary: The document is explicitly authored by the Chinese central government as a position paper representing China's official stance on AI ethical governance.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Entities: Governments; R&D entities; all countries; international community
• Summary: The document targets governments to establish governance frameworks, R&D entities to follow ethical practices in development, and the broader international community to cooperate on AI ethics. It applies to both AI developers and deployers through requirements on R&D and utilization.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Governments
• Summary: Governments are designated as the primary enforcers responsible for establishing rules, conducting reviews, monitoring quality, and prohibiting unlawful AI use, though specific enforcement bodies are not named.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Governments; scientific and technological communities
• Summary: Governments are assigned monitoring responsibilities including quality monitoring, risk evaluation, and ethics review. Scientific and technological communities are also mentioned as playing oversight roles.

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 comprehensively covers the entire AI lifecycle with particular emphasis on R&D (Build and Use Model) and deployment/operational stages (Deploy, Operate and Monitor). It addresses planning through ethical frameworks, data collection and processing requirements, model development practices, validation through ethics review, deployment controls, and ongoing monitoring mechanisms.

Technical Scope

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

• AI Systems

Technical Scope Summary

The document uses general terminology referring to 'AI technologies,' 'AI systems,' 'AI products and services,' and 'algorithms' without distinguishing between specific technical categories like foundation models, generative AI, or frontier AI. No compute thresholds or distinctions between open-weight and closed models are mentioned.