Throughout history, technology has not only shaped how people live and work, but also managed to penetrate the realm of high politics by redefining the relationships between governments.<\/p>\n
For proof, one needs look no further than artificial intelligence (AI), a rapidly improving technology that has been all the rage for the past several years. The technology has brought China and countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) closer as they collaborated on multiple AI-related projects and made significant contributions to advances in the field.<\/p>\n
Artificial intelligence broadly refers to a machine’s ability to perform the cognitive functions we usually associate with human minds. In the past decade, as applications of AI have continued to expand and improve, the technology has shifted from an emerging area of computing to one that is ubiquitous in people\u2019s lives and critical to companies hoping to stay ahead of the game.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, numerous nations have been investing heavily in improving their AI research and development. In this pursuit of AI prowess, China and the U.S. have emerged as global leaders.<\/p>\n
In China\u2019s quest for AI supremacy, the \u201cNew Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan,\u201d a top-down institutional framework released by the State Council in 2017, has been crucial. With it, the Chinese government announced a goal of becoming the world’s AI superpower by 2030 and laid out a three-step plan: First, it will keep pace with all leading AI technology, and its application in general, by 2020. Part two is to make significant breakthroughs by 2025, which is intended to lead to the third stage of the plan \u2014 the establishment of China as the world leader in the AI field by 2030.<\/p>\n
Since then, there has been a tremendous increase in AI research productivity and quality from China, said Dr. Gan Hong Seng, an associate professor at the School of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) Entrepreneur College (Taicang). According to the latest AI Index Report<\/a>, an annual publication from Stanford University that tracks and evaluates AI progress through a wide range of metrics, China accounted for an impressive 39.78% of the global AI journal publications and 29.07% of the world AI journal citations in 2021, consistently outpacing other countries in both areas.<\/p>\n \u201cAI research productivity in China has shown a steady increase since 2010, whereas other tech superpowers have been gradually slipping,\u201d said Dr. Gan. \u201cThis sharp contrast suggests that China is reaping the success of its aggressive spending in AI research.\u201d<\/p>\n Situated at the geographical center of the U.S.-Chinese struggle for global impact, Southeast Asia has long been regarded as a region of primary importance in the eyes of Chinese officials. \u201cHistorical bond, geographical proximity, and cross-cultural interaction between both regions have created an interdependent symbiotic ecosystem,\u201d explained Dr. Gan.<\/p>\n As the largest trade partner of the ASEAN member states for the last 13 years, China has stepped up its engagement in the region in recent years via an array of multilateral and regional arrangements. Among them, the Belt and Road Initiative, launched by President X\u00ed J\u00ecnp\u00edng \u4e60\u8fd1\u5e73 in 2013 as part of the \u201cMajor Country Diplomacy\u201d strategy, has led to numerous mega investments across ASEAN countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.<\/p>\n Although initial investments were mostly in the form of physical projects such as infrastructure building, China has been increasingly pushing for tech cooperation in the past few years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, which has sped up digital transformation in various industries in the region.<\/p>\n As reported by the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, in addition to Alibaba, Chinese tech giants like Tencent and Huawei are also planning to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in building data centers in Southeast Asia, which will lay a foundation for AI projects in the coming years.<\/p>\n In Malaysia, Chinese internet behemoth Alibaba Group has already worked with the local government to build the Malaysian Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ), an Alibaba-inspired OneTouch e-services platform that utilizes \u201ccloud-based technology, fintech, and blockchain,\u201d setting a blueprint for future AI collaborations between the two nations.<\/p>\n As China-ASEAN collaborations yield results in areas such as cloud services, cybersecurity, and information and communications technology, a number of AI-themed projects have also begun.<\/p>\n In the southern province of Guangxi, there\u2019s the China-ASEAN (Huawei) AI Innovation Center, which has served 280 AI-related companies and started 119 projects on AI cooperation. In February, Huawei \u2014 in collaboration with the National University of Singapore Business Analytics Centre \u2014 launched an innovation challenge in Singapore, where students from local universities and polytechnics are given the chance to test their skills in a competition that seeks to nurture AI talents.<\/p>\n On July 13, the first Forum on China-ASEAN Artificial Intelligence Cooperation was held in Nanning<\/a>, Guangxi Province. Attended by over 300 governmental officials, business leaders, and scientists, the conference \u2014 with the theme of “AI for good and for all” \u2014 saw the participants gather to explore business opportunities in AI-related fields and further AI collaboration between China and ASEAN countries.<\/p>\n But more can be done, Dr. Gan said. For less developed ASEAN member states such as Laos and Myanmar, China can help accelerate their digital transformation by boosting their internet penetration rates. \u201cLow internet network coverage hinders the spread of knowledge and ecommerce business opportunities that subsequently induce AI creativity,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n For ASEAN countries that already have a solid foundation to build on, such as Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, China can help with their AI developments and adoption in related sectors like ecommerce, finance, and smart cities, through both business collaborations and educational activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While China usually exerts its influence in Southeast Asia through diplomatic and economic relations, high-tech cooperation \u2014 especially in the area of artificial intelligence \u2014 has been on the rise and might open a new chapter for the relationship. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20030,"featured_media":280809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12902],"tags":[14995,14077,16177,16052,16912],"column":[],"class":[16300,15723],"coauthors":[18963],"acf":[],"la_post_categories":{"politics-and-current-affairs":"Politics & Current Affairs"},"la_post_tags":{"artificial-intelligence":"artificial intelligence","asean":"ASEAN","no-paywall":"no paywall","xian-jiaotong-liverpool-university":"Xi\u2019an Jiaotong-Liverpool University","xjtlu":"XJTLU"},"content_writeup":{"rendered":" Dear reader: <\/em><\/p>\n The Korean Armistice Agreement <\/strong>that ended the fighting of the Korean War was signed 70 years ago on July 27, 1953.<\/p>\n The men who signed it were P\u00e9ng D\u00e9hu\u00e1i \u5f6d\u5fb7\u6000 \u2014 representing the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army that had fought on North Korea\u2019s side, North Korea leader Kim Il Sung and General Nam Il \u2014 representing the Korean People’s Army, and U.S. Army Lieutenant General William Harrison Jr. and General Mark W. Clark \u2014 representing the United Nations Command.<\/p>\n Chinese state-media has commemorated the anniversary with a deluge of articles and videos aimed at a domestic audience. There is some English-language coverage, see for example this three-and-a-half-minute Xinhua video<\/a>, but the Chinese messaging is very much aimed at telling Chinese people that the Party is an outstanding organization. Here\u2019s an example<\/a> which includes the following (in my translation):<\/p>\n The Chinese Communist Party always leads the Chinese people to dedicate themselves to safeguarding international fairness and justice, and to promoting world peace and stability. General Secretary X\u00ed J\u00ecnp\u00edng \u4e60\u8fd1\u5e73 clearly pointed out\u2026 “We advocate bridging differences through dialogue, and resolving disputes through cooperation. We resolutely oppose all forms of hegemonism and power politics, and argue for the spirit of unity and win-win results.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The coverage is also implicitly and sometimes explicitly critical of the U.S. Subscriber Carl Mitcham yesterday wrote to me to note that CCTV has been showing, on different channels, \u201ca documentary and a docudrama on the Korean War emphasizing American aggression toward China.\u201d<\/p>\n The message is even clearer in a piece from the People\u2019s Liberation Army Daily<\/a>, and widely republished in state media today. The essay \u2014 signed Xi\u00e8 X\u012bnp\u00edng \u89e3\u8f9b\u5e73, a pseudonym used for important opinion pieces in PLA media \u2014 emphasizes how China entered the war when it was poor and undeveloped, but against all odds, won victory against the far wealthier, more powerful, and more technologically advanced United States. And, this has lessons for today, says \u201cXie\u201d:<\/p>\n 2023 is only four years away from realizing the 100-year [modernization] goal of the army\u2026<\/p>\n At present, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process, but hostile forces are deliberately disrupting, obstructing, vilifying and suppressing, threatening and intimidating, and blackmailing to disrupt the situation\u2026<\/p>\n Back then, Chairman Mao commented on Americans this way, \u201cWhere they can be unreasonable, they will be unreasonable. They\u2019ll only be a little reasonable if they are forced to do so.<\/p>\n Today, some countries in the world are still the same. How has it changed? Chairman Xi emphasized, \u201cYou have to fight for victories. No one will give them to us for free.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Korean peninsula is now a very different place: The South Korean president is embracing the U.S. and Japan, even to the extent of forgiving Japan its wartime crimes against Koreans. Scroll down for a summary or click through for details of the changing geopolitics of the region, and Beijing\u2019s discomfited reaction<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our Word of the Day<\/strong> is: Korean Armistice Agreement<\/em> (\u671d\u9c9c\u505c\u6218\u534f\u5b9a ch\u00e1oxi\u01cen t\u00edngzh\u00e0n xi\u00e9d\u00ecng).<\/p>\n Finally, may I have your views on the way we use Chinese characters?<\/strong><\/p>\nTech cooperation can bring China and ASEAN closer together<\/h3>\n
AI can bring China-ASEAN relations to the next level<\/h3>\n
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