Page 12 - The Indian EYE 091826

OPINION SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 | The Indian Eye 12

of the US’ overwhelming dominance and sharing of computing power and Beijing’s proactive participation has only 39 member states and, nota-
and the survival of the order largely data resources; building a network in global AI governance forums lies at bly, none of the Western powers are
rooted in US values and norms. On of technical experts among Global the intersection of institution-building parties to it, the multilateral platform
the other hand, an alternative out- South countries to promote joint rule and the legitimisation of Chinese tech does mark a more concerted move
come that favours China would create research and standard co-writing and norms. China, being one of the stron- by China to lead the formation of the
uncertainty about how Beijing would cooperation on standard formulation gest powers in AI and other emerg- international AI governance architec-
use technological primacy to reshape and governance policies. ing technologies, will have a greater ture. Here the Chinese leadership will
the global order. voice in determining the future of AI be able to engage with non-Western
Chinese observers contend that At present, China’s coopera- governance at a time when there are countries on AI governance on its own
as major power competition is shifting no robust global AI regimes. From a terms without the structure being dic-
from the physical world to the digital tion with ASEAN, Gulf states diplomatic perspective, creating in- tated by the US. Also, with expansion
space, AI, which is leading the current and Africa on AI is deepening. stitutions and multilateral platforms of its membership, the platform can
round of the industrial revolution, will is tantamount to having a first-mover evolve into an alternative regime with
determine the extent of digital power. In July 2023, the first China– advantage, as it gives the power to parallel norms and structures vis-à-vis
This digital power, in turn, will shape ASEAN Artificial Intelligence shape the foundational framework of the West.
the rules and structures of existing norms, definitions, and technical stan- The pillars of China’s AI diplo-
technology, trade, and finance mar- Cooperation Forum was held dards around which later negotiations macy are the advancement of the
kets, as well as national and global and last year China–ASEAN and modifications will be built. Fur- global diffusion of Chinese-origin AI
governance. In effect, AI will impact ther, Beijing believes that the ability to models, AI cooperation networks, and
the power dynamics, micro-founda- Countries Artificial Intelligence set AI tech standards and norms will institution-building on AI governance
tion, macro-direction and institutional Application Cooperation Center also provide Chinese companies with projects, positioning China as a norm
composition of the international order. a greater competitive advantage in in- builder in this new ungoverned space.
In this context of grand geopo- was established following the ternational markets. At the same time, it also facilitates the
litical contest with AI at its disposal, first China–ASEAN Ministerial In the past few decades, China integration of other countries into the
China’s AI diplomacy assumes par- has successfully shaped its domestic Chinese technology system, thus en-
ticular significance. At a time when Roundtable on Artificial Intel- AI governance landscape, imple- hancing China’s ability to shape the
China is engaged in building a parallel ligence. Similarly, China has menting binding regulations on select discourse on AI governance. Howev-
technological system to the US, the applications, content generation, hu- er, China’s potential influence on AI
popularisation of Chinese AI systems, signed MoUs with the UAE, Sau- man control and the safe use of AI. governance will depend on the extent
open-weight models, and technologi- di Arabia and Qatar on the joint The Guide to AI Ethics (2020), the to which other countries accept its AI
cal standards through diplomatic and Ethical Norms for New Generation standardisation rules in the future.
commercial outreach will lend Beijing promotion of AI technology in- AI (2021), and the White Paper on Reports suggest that prolifera-
considerable control over how such tegration with industry, AI inno- Trustworthy AI (2021) are attempts by tion of Chinese hardware and digital
technologies are adopted in real-world the Chinese authorities to standardise products has not led to automatic ac-
practice. Subsequently, the diffusion, vation centres and R&D labs. AI development. In the international ceptance of Chinese regulations. For
which will also provide standard-set- arena, Chinese experts, drawing on instance, in Indonesia, Malaysia and
ting authority, would amplify Chinese Further, through platforms such their regulatory experience at home, the Philippines, members of China’s
influence in the governance of future as the Forum on China–Africa Coop- have been active in global forums on Digital Silk Road, governments in-
global tech supply chains and financial eration (FOCAC), the Belt and Road AI governance. stead of blindly importing digital gov-
architectures, among others. Initiative (BRI), and the China–Africa While the scope of AI governance ernance models along with the tech-
The launch of the R1 model by Action Plan on Digital Cooperation is vast, some of the issues that China nology, are drawing from their own
DeepSeek in January 2025 was a and Development, China and Africa is pushing to regulate internation- political traditions as well as norms
breakthrough moment, as it was the are cooperating on artificial intelli- ally include technical standards and and regulations proposed by the EU
first time a frontier model was opened gence, digital governance, cloud com- norms for the adoption and physical and the UN. While countries would
and released by a Chinese company. puting, telecommunications, smart application of AI, risk assessment and retain the authority to formulate their
Although OpenAI and Google later education and research exchanges. evaluation mechanisms for future AI standards and regulations to maintain
released their frontier models, like Additionally, at its 2026 World Arti- systems, cross-border data flows, and AI sovereignty at the international
o3 and Gemini 2.5, respectively, both ficial Intelligence Conference, Bei- privacy issues in training systems. The level, this is likely to test the limits of
were closed models. On the other jing announced 5,000 training oppor- two major documents the Global AI China’s AI diplomacy.
hand, Chinese tech giants like Qwen, tunities in AI, joint AI application Governance Initiative published in
Alibaba and Baidu have been releas- cooperation centres with ASEAN, 2023, and the Global AI Governance Dr. Mayuri Banerjee is a Associate
ing open-weight models, achieving the League of Arab States, the Afri- Action Plan in 2025, indicate China’s Fellow with the East Asia Centre at the
massive popularity on Hugging Face. can Union, the Community of Latin focus on these aspects. Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence
China’s strategic push to expand American and Caribbean States, the However, the launch of the World Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New
AI cooperation is another important Shanghai Cooperation Organization Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Delhi where she focuses on Chinese
aspect of China’s AI diplomacy. In and BRICS. Organization by China, as the world’s foreign policy and strategy and Chinese
April 2025, Chinese President Xi Jin- Expanding the network of coop- first inter-governmental organisation media narratives
ping, during the 20th collective study eration provides Beijing with a diverse for AI, is more significant than pre- Views expressed are of the author and
session of the Political Bureau of the dataset from the Global South and a vious endeavours to propose gover- do not necessarily reflect the views of
CPC Central Committee, emphasised critical testing ground for its models nance norms or a Chinese position, as the Manohar Parrikar IDSA or of the
that China should expand interna- and technology. This, in extension, it intends to place Beijing more cen- Government of India.
tional cooperation on AI, especially compensates for many of the bottle- trally in the field of AI governance. As
with the Global South. Defining the necks imposed by US export controls. one Chinese commentator has not- The full version of this article
parameters of the collaboration, Xi Finally, alignment with Chinese tech ed, WAICO is China’s answer to the first appeared in the Comments
instructed his officials to focus pri- infrastructure and technology stan- governance gap in AI, representing a section of the website (www.idsa.in) of
marily on coordinated improvement dards is likely to translate into lever- “pivotal step in reimagining the inter- Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense
of technology R&D application and age in rule-making in international national architecture of artificial in- Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, on
talent cultivation; joint construction bodies. telligence”. While WAICO, for now,
September 7, 2026

www.TheIndianEYE.com