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Orange Wang

China should try to make sure that its new international artificial intelligence (AI) body is not seen as “naturally opposed” to the United States and its allies in case it puts off prospective members, analysts have warned.
They said the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (Waico) was not designed as an alternative to the US Pax Silica partnership, which was established last December with the aim of reducing “coercive dependencies”.
Waico was established at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai last month, with an initial 29 members, mainly from the Global South. It has since gained another nine members.
Although China has repeatedly insisted that Waico was designed to advance “AI for good and for all”, it has come under intense international scrutiny amid claims that it was a strategic move by Beijing to rally friendly capitals against Washington in the race for global AI leadership.
Pax Silica, which has 24 members and core objectives that include building “supply chain security”, is widely perceived as being, at least in part, an effort to build a tech bloc that is walled off from China.
The emergence of the two blocs has also raised concerns that the global AI landscape will become polarised between two rival camps.
But Sun Chenghao, a senior fellow of the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, said the two organisations were focused on different areas and were “not naturally opposed”.
He said the “competitive” dynamic between the two frameworks could become increasingly prominent as AI governance, industrial policy and national security became intertwined, warning this could prompt the US-led bloc to impose “external constraints” on Waico members.
Sun added: “Whether Waico can build influence will ultimately depend on whether it can offer open cooperation, capacity building and tangible opportunities for development, rather than simply engaging in bloc-based confrontation with US mechanisms.”
Huang Ping, assistant dean of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen)’s school of public policy, said the short-term relationship between the two blocs appeared competitive, but “from China’s perspective, what we have always wanted is not a bloc to counter Pax Silica but an inclusive international AI organisation under the UN system”.
He added: “As long as the US does not exclude us, we have always been willing to welcome the US.”
At present, only Kazakhstan is a member of both Waico and Pax Silica, which suggested some countries did have strategic concerns, Sun said. But he added that “what warrants greater attention is the caution of European countries”.
The European Commission formally signed the Pax Silica initiative in June on behalf of the 27 European Union member states.
Italy also sent an official representative to the AI summit in Shanghai last month but did not join Waico. Instead, it signed up to Pax Silica two weeks later.
Sun said it highlighted how US allies were constrained by “alliance relationships, technology supply chains and domestic politics”, adding that the greatest risk to Waico’s future expansion lay in it being labelled as a “China bloc” by the outside world.
“Once this impression takes hold, many middle countries will worry that joining [Waico] would entail geopolitical costs, even if they agree with the development orientation,” Sun said.
Huang, who is also a deputy director of the Shenzhen-based think tank Institute of International Affairs, Qianhai, said Waico might be little more than a “circle of friends” at present but bringing in the next Pax Silica member could be the key to turning it into a genuine international organisation.
He argued that China could minimise the political cost of joining Waico by not setting any exclusionary clauses to ensure countries did not have to pick sides and inviting Pax Silica members to participate as observers.
“The bar should be low enough [to make] joining Waico become something countries do not need to explain to the US,” he said.


Huang also said that while Waico’s formation was driven by state diplomacy, concrete action should be left to businesses, adding: “Governments set up the stage, enterprises put on the show.”
“Once it is perceived externally as state behaviour rather than market action, the cost of participation for middle countries and Pax Silica members will spike immediately.”
He said Waico should let open-source, cost-effective AI models and products “speak for themselves” and draw in more members, including Pax Silica signatories.
While the White House, Silicon Valley and Wall Street are debating whether Chinese open-source models should be banned, Huang said China should allow US firms such as Nvidia and Tesla to share in the dividends from its AI development to “break down prejudices”.
Last month, Huang wrote on social media that Waico could avoid being positioned as an “anti-Pax Silica” camp by following the example of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, whose 57 founding members included many US allies.
Some critics have argued that Waico’s influence could be very limited due to the lack of technologically advanced countries or Group of Seven members.
But Sun argued that signing up more Pax Silica members would not be the key to success because changing the bloc’s open and development-oriented approach to attract Western countries could undermine its distinct features.
According to Sun, Waico’s membership is more inclusive than that of many “values-based clubs”.
“The challenge is that the members’ needs are highly diverse,” he said.
“If the agenda is too broad, it can easily result in an organisation with many members but few projects.
“At the current stage, the most important thing for Waico is not rapid expansion but proving that it can deliver.”


Sun said Waico could prioritise building AI capacity for the Global South, including computing support, talent training, open-source models and public data platforms.
He also suggested it should build a cross-border AI safety testing network and cooperate on evaluating models, incident reporting and safety standards.
He further proposed developing pilot projects in areas such as healthcare, agriculture, education and climate and disaster warnings.
“If Waico can show members that joining genuinely brings access to computing power, talent, technology, governance experience and concrete projects, its appeal will be more sustainable than simply expanding the membership list,” Sun said.


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News

China

Diplomacy

Both superpowers have set up their own international blocs, fuelling concerns that other countries will be forced to pick sides


Both superpowers have set up their own international blocs, fuelling concerns that other countries will be forced to pick sides.


Global South

United States

Pax Silica

World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (Waico)

China urged to avoid ‘us or them’ split with US over AI governance

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Both superpowers have set up their own international blocs, fuelling concerns that other countries will be forced to pick sides

Both superpowers have set up their own international blocs, fuelling concerns that other countries will be forced to pick sides