| China | | China's policy-industry synergy powers AI for inclusive growth | | | | | | As the first light spread across an orchard on the outskirts of Wuhan in central China, Zhang Shuwang loaded crates of freshly picked fruit onto a small autonomous delivery van. After scanning a QR code with his customers' addresses, he stepped back and watched as the vehicle quietly made its way down a country road. Developed by Zelostech, the van uses real-time sensing and artificial intelligence (AI) to navigate without relying on costly high-definition maps, making autonomous deliveries feasible even in remote rural areas. For years, getting fruit to market was Zhang's biggest headache. The nearest wholesale market is about 60 kilometers away, and truck drivers were often reluctant to make the trip. At best, he could make one delivery a day. Sometimes the fruit spoiled before it ever left the orchard. That changed last year, when Zhang's son suggested he try the robovan. "Within a month, I saw the difference," Zhang said. "Now the fruit we pick in the early morning reaches customers the very same day. On busy mornings, the van can make three to four trips, and my annual income has gone up by at least 30 to 40 percent." Zhang is one of a growing number of ordinary people in China who are benefiting from AI as the technology spreads beyond big cities and large corporations to improve the lives of farmers, doctors and small business owners. That shift is also the backdrop to the 2026 World AI Conference (WAIC) and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance, which opened in Shanghai on Friday. Inside the exhibition halls, visitors crowd around Huawei's latest AI computing supernode system Atlas 950; Kimi K3, the world's largest open-source model with 2.8 trillion