China Power | Diplomacy | East Asia

With New AI Governance Organization, China Seeks to Formalize Its Global AI Influence

The World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization may prove to be China’s most ambitious effort yet to shape the future deployment and governance of AI.

On July 17, Xi Jinping delivered the keynote address at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, marking the first time China’s leader has addressed the event in-person since its launch in 2018. His appearance underscored the growing importance Beijing attaches to shaping the global governance of artificial intelligence (AI). In his speech, Xi emphasized four observations, including the promotion of “true multilateralism,” language Beijing increasingly uses to justify the establishment of a parallel global order under the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership.

In line with China’s ambitions to embed its own institutions into the global AI governance ecosystem, the most consequential announcement of the conference came a day before Xi’s speech, with the formal establishment of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), to be headquartered in Shanghai. The new international organization may prove to be China’s most ambitious effort yet to shape the future deployment and governance of AI.

Building on China’s 2023 Global AI Governance Initiative, the idea for a China-led international organization on AI was first proposed by Premier Li Qiang at the 2025 conference and reiterated in the Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) passed in March. WAICO signals China’s shift from articulating principles for AI governance to building permanent institutions through which those principles can be operationalized and normalized.

Precisely because it will be a focal point for entrenching China’s approach to AI, its potential success as a norms-setting venue risks enshrining digital authoritarian approaches to AI governance.

Twenty-nine countries signed the agreement establishing WAICO on July 16. The founding members were largely from Africa and the Middle East (Algeria, Cameroon, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Oman, Senegal, and South Africa) and Asia (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan). From Europe, the signatories were Belarus, Russia, and Serbia, while in Latin America, Brazil, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela pledged their endorsement. Many of these countries already participate in China’s Digital Silk Road, Belt and Road Initiative, or broader digital cooperation programs, which have fueled rising digital repression.

In his keynote address, Xi Jinping hailed the establishment of the new organization as “a major move by China to answer the call of the Global South and unite the international community together to vigorously promote AI development and governance.”

This framing reflects a broader continuity in China’s approach to global digital governance. The stated commitment to Global South partnership and implied win-win cooperation in AI is guided by China’s earlier rhetorical framing on “a shared future in cyberspace,” which seeks to normalize “cyber sovereignty “– the notion that the digital domain is a natural extension of national sovereignty and that digital governance should be the sole providence of states, unencumbered by international human rights obligations or accountability to independent stakeholders. WAICO risks extending such approaches into the evolving domain of AI governance.

Institutions matter not simply because of the ideas they espouse, but because of the mechanisms through which they diffuse tools and shape norms. International organizations create influence by convening governments, training officials, developing technical standards, coordinating research, and establishing enduring........

© The Diplomat