China’s new AI Club: What WAICO means for the world

China has launched the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, or WAICO, as part of its push to shape global AI rules. The new body could deepen the divide between Chinese and Western approaches to AI governance.

On 17 July 2026, Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the World AI Conference in Shanghai by announcing the creation of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), calling it “an important milestone in the history of AI development.” A day earlier, representatives of 29 countries had signed the founding agreement in the same city, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres looking on. The new body will be permanently based in Shanghai.

It is tempting to treat the announcement as ceremony. That would be a misreading. WAICO’s immediate powers are modest, but it marks China’s most serious attempt so far to move from following technology rules written by others to writing those rules itself. This article examines what was announced, why China built the organization, and what its consequences are likely to be.

What Was Actually Announced

WAICO is an intergovernmental body, meaning an organization whose members are national governments. Its founding agreement commits it to the purposes of the UN Charter and to putting people, rather than any single state’s interests, at the center of AI development. The idea is not new. Premier Li Qiang first proposed such a body at the 2025 edition of the same conference, and Xi repeated the proposal at the APEC summit in October 2025. What changed last week is that a proposal became a signed institution.

The founding membership tells its own story. It includes........

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