China uses AI to expand its "economic zone" APEC diplomacy has changed in 25 years - competing for leadership with Japan and the US

China will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, southern Guangdong province, on the 18th and 19th. As the country holds the chair for the third time, artificial intelligence (AI) will be a pillar of diplomacy. While the United States, which once supported China's entry into the global economic market, is leaning toward protectionism, the Xi Jinping administration is promoting multilateral cooperation as its banner. We will leverage the spread of AI to attract the Global South (emerging and developing countries) and compete for leadership with Japan and the United States.

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"We want to provide the public good of AI to the international community." Last year, President Xi made this appeal at the APEC summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, and laid the groundwork for assuming the chairmanship. In July of this year, the company paved the way for the establishment of the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO). The United States, on the other hand, is promoting bulk exports of everything from semiconductors to AI models. Japan is also focusing its efforts on creating international rules.

Twenty-five years ago, it was the United States that tried to welcome China into the global economy. In 2001, just before China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Jiang Zemin administration at the time hosted China's first APEC summit in Shanghai, promoting free trade. After that, China's economy grew rapidly. Japan has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest country, and its gross domestic product (GDP) last year expanded by about 14 times compared to that time.

However, becoming an economic power has also created friction. Amid criticism of preferential treatment of state-owned enterprises and overproduction, 12 APEC countries, including Japan and the United States, have moved forward with creating high-level rules for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without China. On the other hand, China has set its foothold on APEC, which has non-binding agreements. At the Beijing Conference in 2014, Mr. Xi put the economic zone concept ``One Belt, One Road'' at the forefront and called on all countries to do so. "Welcome to board the train of China's development."

It was the United States, the flag bearer, that turned its back on the TPP. The first Trump administration withdrew from the TPP in 2017, and Japan has been busy working to bring the deal into effect without the United States. Even after that, the United States continued to put its own country first. APEC, which is not forced to implement, has become an easy place for China to promote its grand vision as a champion of multilateral cooperation.

Seung-ryong Park, a senior researcher at the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, sees the significance of APEC in that rival countries can have dialogue with each other, and that ``no major power can decide the rules on its own.'' The APEC Summit was started in 1993 by the United States with the aim of strengthening its involvement in Asia. Now, on that stage, China is attempting to create an economic zone using AI. However, the power to advocate a vision and the power to move countries are two different things.