Li Lecheng, the Minister of Industry and Information Technology in China, addressed attendees during a press briefing on July 23, 2026, as part of the APEC Digital Weeks hosted in Chengdu.
In a significant development, there is a growing trend among governments to seek control over artificial intelligence technologies, particularly as companies unveil increasingly sophisticated open-source models. This sentiment was captured in a newly released multilateral declaration.
The "Chengdu Statement," issued by the 21 member nations of APEC, including major economies like the U.S. and China, underscored the importance of "security, data protection, and intellectual property rights," while also advocating for the growth of open-source initiatives.
On Thursday, the statement highlighted the need for support for AI models and projects that integrate robust security measures throughout their development and implementation processes.
The contents of the Chengdu Statement illustrate a shift away from the traditional libertarian ethos of open source, leaning instead towards an approach that embraces greater governmental oversight. Notably, China has been at the forefront of recent advancements in open-source AI, in response to accusations from the U.S. regarding the appropriation of American technology.
In contrast to U.S. companies like Anthropic, which provide proprietary and paid AI models, Chinese firms such as DeepSeek and GLM 5.2 offer accessible and free-to-download open-source models.
Winston Ma, an adjunct law professor at New York University, pointed out that the Chengdu Statement’s "explicit alignment with open-source ecosystems and computational infrastructure" signifies a regional pivot in the Asia-Pacific towards open-weight systems, accompanied by coordinated efforts in energy, telecommunications, and digital infrastructure.
According to Li Lecheng, this is the first APEC AI statement to address open-source collaboration at a ministerial level. He emphasized that all participating nations acknowledged the potential risks associated with AI and encouraged ongoing dialogue among government entities, the private sector, and academic institutions to enhance information sharing on cybersecurity, supply chain integrity, and online fraud.
