China Open Source Daily — 2026-09-21
“Three institutionally new placements on the same unsolved institutional object that this series’ prior thirty-two briefings have been documenting: the institutional identity of Chinese open source across institutional borders. (1) MIIT Vice Minister Xin Guobin, speaking at the 2026 World Manufacturing Conference in Hefei on September 20, 2026, directs MIIT to vigorously develop open-source base models and vertical-domain models to consolidate the software and hardware foundation of new-generation intelligent manufacturing - the first-documented instance of a MIIT deputy-minister-level official directly naming open-source base models as a state-directed industrial-policy surface in this series, and the first-documented administrative-level operationalization of a term that no open-source community has yet defined; (2) OpenAtom Foundation Chairman Xie Shaofeng delivers the keynote Open-Source Innovation Building the Software Powerhouse City at the 28th China International Software Expo in Zhengzhou on September 20, 2026, framing open source as the state-directed instrument for late-developing cities to swap-lane-and-overtake the 14 existing national software powerhouse cities, co-hosting three work items (build famous enterprises / build famous parks / cultivate talent) with a government-plus-foundation-plus-local-service-system tri-party operational structure; (3) The Supreme People’s Court Opinions on AI Disputes (September 7, 2026) explicitly names open-source software developers in Article XIII for liability exemption - the first-documented Chinese-judicial apparatus placing open-source developers as a distinct legal subject for tort liability - while conspicuously sidestepping the copyrightability of AI-generated works themselves.”