China willing to cooperate with all countries including U.S. in AI governance: Chinese envoy

China is willing to maintain exchanges and cooperation with other countries around the world, including the United States, on global governance of artificial intelligence (AI), China's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dai Bing said on Thursday.

The 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) on Monday unanimously adopted the resolution on strengthening international cooperation in the capacity building of artificial intelligence (AI). It was proposed by China and co-sponsored by over 140 countries, including the United States.

Both China and the United States are leading countries in the field of artificial intelligence which has become an important area of cooperation between the two countries, Dai said at a press conference held on the sidelines of the 2024 World AI Conference (WAIC) and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance which opened in Shanghai on Thursday.

"During the consultations in the past period, both our delegations showed an open, cooperative and constructive attitude. China appreciates the United States' active participation in the process, and finally supported and co-signed the China-proposed draft resolution. Both China and the U.S. recognize that there is great potential for cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence," Dai said.

"At the same time, both sides have common concerns about responding to global challenges in AI. China is willing to continue to maintain exchanges and cooperation with (other countries in the world including) the U.S. to jointly promote the follow-up implementation of the General Assembly resolution," he said.

The resolution proposed by China actively reflects the common wishes and demands of member states, especially developing countries, Dai said, adding that the resolution is of milestone significance to the global governance of artificial intelligence, especially in promoting capacity building.

Dai said he personally participated in the consultations on this resolution throughout the whole process and fully felt the support and trust of the member countries.

"This resolution has 30 paragraphs, including 15 action clauses, and the content is very specific and pragmatic. Many developing countries affectionately call this resolution the 'Global South' resolution. Recently the U.N. agenda is particularly busy. Under such a circumstance, the consultations hosted by the Chinese side could only be squeezed in, but we had a full house every time, with nearly 100 experts from various countries participating in each meeting," Dai said.

"It shows that all countries attach great importance to the topic, and it also proves that China submitting the draft resolution is a right thing which is also expected by the member states. The adoption of the resolution by the U.N. General Assembly fully demonstrates that China's ideas and solutions in the field of artificial intelligence are increasingly becoming an international consensus," said the Chinese envoy.

China willing to cooperate with all countries including U.S. in AI governance: Chinese envoy

A retired Japanese teacher said that Japan's history education in various schools is misleading and distorting, which has been hijacked by some political forces for beautifying Japan's history of aggression and covering up historical truth.

In recent years, Japanese textbooks have gradually downplayed or even glorified Japan's history of aggression and distorted the historical truth, which has been opposed and resisted by many people in Japanese society.

In August this year, Japan will once again conduct a new round of textbook review, and many Japanese people with a sense of justice are using various social activities to make Japanese society face up to the historical crimes it once committed.

Ooka Fumiyo was born in 1950. She was a primary school teacher who taught social studies. She still remembers auditing a primary school history class, which gave her a feeling that there were serious problems in Japan's history education that urgently needed to be changed.

"On whether the war is right or wrong, the teacher drew a line and let the students discuss. As a result, the vast majority of students believed that the war was wrong. However, the teacher said that Japan was in great economic difficulty at the time. If it had not gone to Northeast China and plundered China, Japan would not have survived and would have been colonized. Through such teaching explanations and discussions, students' opinions gradually changed from 'war is wrong' to 'war is right,'" Fumiyo said.

Fumiyo said that the Japanese government has been constantly putting pressure on the Japanese education industry, and many words and expressions in history textbooks have been tampered with.

"In Japanese textbooks, there are only three or four lines about the Nanjing Massacre. But even if there is only a little bit of it, the teachers can expand on it. But now the textbooks no longer use the term 'Nanjing Massacre' but call it the 'Nanjing Incident' instead," she said.

"Although there is a textbook certification system in name, in reality the certification standards and methods are constantly changed by the Cabinet, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology also intervenes and imposes restrictions on it," Fumiyo said.

Fumiyo, already 74, has been participating in public speeches and other social activities, calling on the Japanese people to pay attention to the textbook issue. She said she would continue the activities against right-wing textbooks.

History education in Japan on aggression misleading, distorting: retired Japanese teacher