China says its generative AI users passed 700 million
State internet-registry figures put penetration above half the population, with answering questions the most common use, cited by 76% of users.
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China’s generative AI user base passed 700 million people as of mid-2026, Xinhua reported, citing a newly released Generative AI Application Development Report (2026) from the China Internet Network Information Center, the state body that compiles China’s official internet-usage statistics. That put penetration above 50% of the country’s population. The report was unveiled at the seventh China Internet Infrastructure Resource Conference.
Answering questions was the most common use, cited by 76% of users, ahead of processing images or video (48%), handling text (38%), and producing work summaries, meeting notes or presentations (33%). Sina Finance’s report on the same figures added that AI assistant and productivity tools had more than doubled in usage frequency over the previous year, and that 39% of Chinese internet users had bought a smart-hardware device — wearables and similar AI-enabled electronics — in the preceding six months.
The figures are self-reported by a state body as part of China’s routine internet-development statistics, rather than independently audited, and were released without a stated survey methodology or margin of error.