China Rewrites the ‘Soft Power’ Playbook for the A.I. Age

In the Cold War era, “soft power” meant American movies and music that won hearts and minds abroad. Today, in the digital era, China is promoting a very different kind of soft power: its open, low-cost artificial intelligence technology.

In a speech last week, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, described so-called open-source A.I. as key to China’s ambitions to shape the global development of the technology. Mr. Xi hailed open-sourcing, in which much of the software can be freely shared and modified, as a “rare and historical opportunity” to spread the technology’s benefits worldwide.

Mr. Xi made clear that China will champion the open path as an alternative to relying on U.S. tech giants, whose A.I. software is typically closed and more costly.

“A.I. development should not be a solo performance by a single country,” Mr. Xi said, “but a symphony of global collaboration.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/business/china-ai-soft-power.html