Translated by Claude, edited by Sinocism.com

Source: Yuyuan Tantian (玉渊谭天), republished by 21st Century Business Herald (21世纪经济报道) via Sina Finance | July 16, 2026, 23:06

Benefit others in order to strengthen yourself. (A play on 兼济天下 from Mencius, Jin Xin I: 穷则独善其身，达则兼济天下 — in obscurity, cultivate yourself alone; in success, bring benefit to all under heaven.)

兼济以自强。

The 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) is about to open in Shanghai.

2026世界人工智能大会（WAIC）即将在上海开幕。

Taking the occasion, this commentator (Tan Zhu) talked with insiders at national ministries and commissions, research institutions, and the big internet firms, and that opening line came up.

借此机会，谭主和国家部委、科研机构以及互联网大厂的内部人士聊了聊，说到了开头的这句话。

Echoing it is a phenomenon that has taken hold in America's AI circles:

与之形成呼应的，是美国AI圈兴起的一个现象：

Many people working in and around the AI industry come to China to see it for themselves, and when the trip ends they go home, open their laptops, and write long posts that say: "I just returned from China"……

许多AI行业相关从业者来到中国实地走访，行程结束后回去，打开电脑，写下长文，说道：“I just returned from China”（我刚从中国回来）……

They record in detail what they saw in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, and walk back through how local AI labs and tech startups actually run.

他们详细记录自己在北京、上海和杭州等城市的调研见闻，复盘当地AI实验室、科创企业的真实运作状态。

Running through these pieces is a hard jolt to their assumptions: the industry understanding they built up over years is being overturned by Chinese AI.

而贯穿全文的，是强烈的认知冲击：他们用多年时间形成的行业认知，正在被中国AI颠覆。

In the past they were used to judging a country's AI path by a few simple variables: open source or closed source, government-driven or market-driven, ample compute or constrained resources.

过去，他们习惯用几个简单变量评判一个国家AI的发展道路：开源还是闭源，政府推动还是市场驱动，算力充足还是资源受限。

But in China, AI development is not a single-dimension technology upgrade. It is an all-around layout covering compute scheduling, data circulation, technology iteration, talent linkage, deployment into use cases, and governance rules.