The Diplomat author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts, policy practitioners, and strategic thinkers across the globe for their diverse insights into U.S. Asia policy. This conversation with Gloria Chen – head of Asia-Pacific geopolitical strategy and business development at Rocky Road Resilience, a U.K.-based specialist risk advisory – is the 520th in “The Trans-Pacific View Insight Series.”
Analyze China’s agenda behind the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO).
The World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO) was founded in Shanghai this July, with founding members including Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan, virtually all BRICS members except India, plus a number of other Global South countries, with no major Western democracies among its members. China positions it as an “intergovernmental organization” and claims to aim for the “beneficial, safe, and fair” development of AI.
Just as Christian civilization shaped Western culture and ways of thinking, the deeply rooted Confucian culture of China has similarly shaped the Chinese value system and language system. Confucian culture emphasizes moral correctness and face-saving, and is centered on family culture. From the perspective of the Chinese regime, China is very clear about what kind of “correct” language to use to legitimize its actions. Looking at the 2026 World AI Conference (WAIC), China tells you it wants global cooperation, AI regulation and world prosperity. However, the manifestation of family culture is often: “I tell everyone I’m promoting the common good, but what I really want is to make my family prosperous and for me to become a leader.”
Because of resource monopolies, long-term wars historically, and internal struggles, Chinese leaders have a deep-seated insecurity. Therefore, they believe that only by seizing power and controlling others can they secure their own safety. As a result, this nation finds it difficult to cooperate with others. WAICO’s abbreviation differs from the United Nations’ World AI Organization (WAIO) by only one character. Those familiar with Chinese culture know that names always have special symbolic significance for China. So I think China’s WAICO agenda is to gradually establish a China-led AI hegemonic empire.
What does the composition of the 29 WAICO signatories reveal about China’s agenda?
The WAICO strategy aims to build an organization of non-Western democratic systems led by China and to co-opt specific regimes. One of its strategic objectives is to connect regimes isolated by the international community, such as Russia, Cuba, and Myanmar, and to influence and control their political situations through financial aid and AI technology.
China provides “unconditional aid” through the Belt and Road Initiative, mobilizing vast amounts of national wealth and resources to support partner countries. This model will also appear in WAICO, with the strategic goal of maintaining relations with Global South countries to gain diplomatic leverage and extend China’s sphere of influence. China can exert influence in distant regions through AI technology and infrastructure, potentially even involving destructive activities.
To gain legitimacy for its global expansion, China attempts to package the organization’s purpose as benefiting impoverished countries and the world, portraying Western countermeasures as hegemonic suppression. China then seizes the narrative through social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube, making young people and the middle class in Western democracies believe that the CCP is a victim of suppression and a true peace advocate, thus tearing Western societies apart and weakening democratic countries from within (a strategic tactic that China excels at).
Compare and contrast China-led WAICO to U.S.-led Pax Silica Initiative.
From Xi Jinping’s speech at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), we can analyze the main goal of WAICO’s establishment, anti-monopoly and anti-injustice, is essentially China’s effort to build its own AI hegemony by uniting with Global South countries to break through Western technological blockades. This is China’s core objective. All the other nice-sounding words China utters, such as equality, openness, and mutual benefit, have already been said during China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Instead of listening to what the Chinese say, it’s better to observe their actions.
The United States’ Pax Silica, on the other hand, is a typical democratic capitalist initiative, emphasizing cooperation and supply chain security, and deepening economic partnerships among democratic countries. After all, for democratic countries, mutually beneficial economic cooperation under international free trade creates the greatest national interest.
Although current narratives often equate the U.S. with hegemony, democratic countries are fundamentally different from authoritarian states. Private enterprises and entrepreneurs remain a significant force in democratic societies, and democratic elections give citizens a certain degree of voice. Alliances among democratic countries are still built on trust, technological cooperation, and shared values, which is drastically different from the absolute dominance of authoritarian hegemony and its opposition to free trade.
If we continue to simply portray China and the United States as two superpowers vying for hegemony, we are likely to fall into the linguistic trap set by China. This kind of argument misleads people into portraying China and the United States as similar countries. However, the United States is a democratic country and China is a dictatorship, and they are fundamentally different in nature.
Examine how WAICO advances China’s geopolitical ambitions.
WAICO can be seen as China’s AI version of the Belt and Road Initiative. Both follow similar paths, and one of their strategic objectives is to connect non-democratic regimes like Russia and Cuba that are not integrated into the international community. Their shared goal is to counter U.S. pressure and establish opposing camps in international geopolitics, using WAICO as an organizational tool for China to extend its sphere of influence.
The Belt and Road Initiative’s strategic objective is to build an “axis of evil” against Western democratic values through monetary diplomacy and alliances with authoritarian regimes. This same strategic objective is also reflected in WAICO. The difference lies in the inclusion of China’s advantageous AI capabilities, shifting the competitive landscape beyond the manufacturing and high-tech industries where China has historically struggled against the West.
Assess the role of WAICO in intensifying the China-U.S. AI race and its implications for AI sovereignty and governance.
China possesses advantages in the AI industry that Western countries lack. In the past, China struggled to truly surpass Western technology at the forefront of innovation. However, in the AI industry, which heavily relies on databases and testing personnel, China boasts a much larger pool of testing personnel and unparalleled data compared to the West.
According to the “Statistical Report on Internet Development in China,” as of December 2025, China had 1.125 billion internet users and 602 million generative AI users, representing a 141.7 percent increase in AI users compared to the end of 2024. This has created one of the world’s largest training data pools, providing a powerful impetus for model development and optimization. This massive scale enables Chinese developers to conduct large-scale AI training and inference faster than most other countries, and to further test, improve, and deploy artificial intelligence systems
Furthermore, the Chinese government has the authority to rapidly and centrally invest its highly monopolized resources in the AI industry, devoting all its efforts to strengthening computing power, algorithms, and data infrastructure. This speed and resource allocation model is difficult for Western democratic governments to achieve. A report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shows that as of the end of December last year, China’s generative AI computing power exceeded 1590 quadrillion calculations per second. Data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) shows that China has become the world’s largest holder of AI patents, accounting for as much as 60 percent.
China has placed artificial intelligence at the core of its economic strategy and, through the establishment of WAICO, is actively promoting the creation of an international system to regulate the use of this technology. By leveraging its ever-growing AI capabilities, China seeks to dominate the AI regulatory system, a part of its efforts to reshape the international order. This is not merely about the AI industry; it’s about overthrowing Western liberal values and reshaping a new world order. This is China’s fundamental strategy.
At this year’s WAIC, Xi Jinping stated, “We should formulate laws and regulations, technology monitoring, early warning, and emergency response systems to ensure that artificial intelligence always remains under human control.” Xi also expressed opposition to prioritizing the security of one nation over the security of others in the field of AI.
While these statements are politically correct, their essence is that China wants to seize control of the discourse and leadership in AI regulation. In other words, China wants to decide how AI can be used and how it can answer questions, much like China’s “DeepSeek,” always avoiding sensitive political issues. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rose to power through propaganda, understands that AI will be the search engine and encyclopedia of the new era. Only by controlling the AI regulatory system can the CCP write its desired historical narrative.
Maintaining power and achieving global dominance are China’s core strategic goals in AI. For China, the arrival of the AI era represents its only historical opportunity to defeat the West, what Xi Jinping calls “seizing historical opportunities.”
At the WAIC, Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI launched its powerful new flagship model, Kimi K3. Other highlights included MiniMax’s M3 model and Huawei’s Atlas 950 “super node.” Compared to the closed systems of American giants OpenAI and Anthropic, an increasing number of foreign companies, such as Siemens, and numerous Silicon Valley engineers are adopting Chinese open-source AI models due to their performance, low cost, and the customization features. If Western countries cannot stop this trend, the increasing use of Chinese AI models by Western companies and AI professionals will create another form of supply chain hijacking.