Xinhuanet to invest 1.1bn yuan in AI lexicon for Xi Thought

China’s state-backed Xinhuanet has filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange to invest more than 1.1 billion yuan ($162.38 million) in Xinhua Yudian, an artificial intelligence lexicon intended to research, verify and disseminate Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

The filing describes Xinhua Yudian as an intelligent agent that will give users access to political and current affairs content while helping them manage large volumes of information. The document states the platform will be built from Xinhuanet’s own corpus, which it described as “pure and clean,” and will be guided by mainstream values.

The proposed tool is designed to present key themes and messages from Xi Jinping’s speeches and writings and to act as a citation-checking system for politically sensitive material. The filing says users will be able to rely on the platform to confirm references to Xi’s statements in official documents and policy explanations, helping address what it calls a “dilemma of trust in distinguishing truth from falsehood.”

The project is framed in the filing as a resource for learning and research on party ideology and as a means to deliver Communist Party messaging across different segments of society. The company described the investment as part of efforts to consolidate the ideological and public opinion foundation of the party’s messaging.

Xinhuanet linked the project to national efforts to accelerate artificial intelligence deployment, noting a government AI+ initiative launched in March aimed at speeding AI adoption across sectors. The filing also referenced earlier technology-driven initiatives, including the Xuexi Qiangguo app introduced in 2019.

The filing did not include a detailed timeline for development or rollout. It offered limited information on model architecture, technical safeguards, data governance beyond the stated corpus source, or the specific user groups the system will target.

The investment and planned development were disclosed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange in the company filing.