On 23 July 2026, the 2026 APEC Digital and AI Ministerial Meeting was held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China, following China’s assumption of the APEC 2026 host role. The meeting’s theme centered on the topic of “Digital Technologies and AI for the Empowerment of an Asia-Pacific Community,” advocating for openness, innovation and collaboration.

The principal outcome of the meeting was the adoption of 2026 APEC Digital and AI Ministerial Statement (Chengdu Statement), a formal intergovernmental agreement to deepen cooperation on digital technology and artificial intelligence.

On standards, the Chengdu Statement encourages participating economies to voluntarily cooperate with governments, social organizations, academia, and the private sector to share best practices in technical standards. It further encourages industry to enhance accountability and advances toward a safe, trustworthy, and resilient application of digital technologies including AI, to strengthen public confidence and trust.

In a separate high-level dialogued held on 24 July, 2026, Mr. Li Lecheng, Minister of Industry and Information Technology of China, expressed hope that APEC economies would strengthen exchanges and cooperation in areas such as policy, technology, talent, and standards, continuously enhance digital and intelligent empowerment, and shape new advantages for innovation and development in the Asia-Pacific region. He further advocated for fostering a single market for AI industrial and supply chain stability and resilience, deepening open-source collaboration, and developing governance frameworks and standards with broad consensus.

At the MIIT press conference after the ministerial meeting, further details were revealed on how the country will carry out standards cooperation across the region:

• Open-source ecosystem: China will encourage AI open-source projects and work with APEC economies to build innovation platforms, support the flow of knowledge, technology, and talent, and promote open-source community collaboration.
• Standards alignment and mutual recognition: China will promote mutual recognition and interoperability of standards with various economies. This includes deepening technical standards mutual recognition and alignment to remove barriers to trade and providing affordable, high-performances smart terminal devices and solutions to support the digital and intelligent transformation of APEC economies.
• AI safety governance: In conjunction with the Action Plan on International Artificial Intelligence Ethics Governance announced in the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, China will share its approach to AI governance, strengthen policy and regulatory coordination with various economies, promote mutual recognition and interoperability of standards, jointly conduct risk monitoring, early warning, and emergency response, and work together to enhance the safety, reliability, and controllability of artificial intelligence.

The APEC Digital and AI Ministerial Meeting remains a pivotal platform for multilateral exchanges and cooperation across the Asia-Pacific region. The 2026 meeting advances regional dialogue on standards cooperation, including technical standards alignment, standards mutual recognition, and open-source collaboration. The Chengdu Statement’s provisions on standards, together with China’s emphasis on standards interoperability and governance frameworks, point to standards as an essential tool for translating high-level initiatives into practical implementation across the region.

Source: https://wap.miit.gov.cn/xwfb/bldhd/art/2026/art_d109e2b6dc4844cc902a1f6f49712f67.html