China's delegate to the meeting, Vice Minister of Science and Technology Wu Zhaohui, was present on Thursday, his ministry said on Friday. The Chinese technology ministry declined to say why China did not agree to the proposal, which was about AI model testing. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chaired Thursday's meeting that comprised "a small group of like-minded senior representatives from governments around the world", Britain said, including the U.S. vice president and the EC president. Some British lawmakers had criticised China's participation in the inaugural AI summit. Sunak told reporters: "Some said we shouldn't even invite China, others said we would never get an agreement with them.

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Persons: Ursula von der Leyen, Kamala Harris, Rishi Sunak, Giorgia Meloni, Antonio Guterres, Yoshua Bengio, Mila, Microsoft Brad, Technology Wu Zhaohui, Wu, Oliver Dowden, Sunak, Paul Sandle, Brenda Goh, Alistair Smout, Cynthia Osterman Organizations: Italy's, UN, Quebec AI Institute, Microsoft, Safety, Science, Technology, Bloomberg, U.S, European Union, Thomson Locations: British, SHANGHAI, LONDON, China, Britain, Beijing, Bletchley Park, England, United States, Bletchley, London, Shanghai