Xi Jinping has launched a new AI alliance of 29 countries, unveiling the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation in Shanghai on Friday, 17 July 2026, with South Africa among its founding members.
The bloc, shortened to WAICO, was announced at China’s annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference, as reported by Al Jazeera.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was among the attendees, which tells you China wants this read as a global project rather than a Beijing side venture.
A cooperation organisation is basically a treaty club with a permanent office, the AI equivalent of a trade bloc.
The point is to set shared rules, pool research and pick common standards, so that members are not each writing their own AI rulebook from scratch while the technology races ahead of everyone.
What Xi Jinping’s AI alliance actually is
WAICO will be headquartered in Shanghai, and its 29 founding members lean heavily toward the Global South, including South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Senegal, Russia and Pakistan.
The stated aim is to coordinate international cooperation and build shared AI rules that keep the technology safe and useful for people.
Xi framed the launch as a rebuke to the idea of any one nation running the show.
“The development of artificial intelligence should not be a solo performance by any single country but rather a symphony of global cooperation,” he said at the conference opening.
Why China is building an AI alliance now
Timing is everything here. The move lands while United States export curbs keep squeezing China’s access to the most advanced chips, so building a coalition of willing partners is both a diplomatic flex and a practical workaround for a country locked out of the top-end supply chain.
The subtext is a straight-up superpower contest. The United States has spent the past two years fencing off its best AI chips and software from China, and Beijing has answered by courting the rest of the world instead, betting that scale and goodwill can offset the hardware it cannot legally buy.
China is sweetening the offer too. Over the next five years it has promised 5,000 AI training opportunities for developing countries, and pledged to give 30 nations access to a Chinese-built AI weather tool designed for early-warning systems. For smaller states, that is a real carrot.
For South Africa, sitting inside a China-led AI bloc is a notable alignment, and the practical benefits will depend on what training and tools actually arrive.
The bigger question is whether WAICO becomes a working standards body or a talking shop, and whether Washington answers with a bloc of its own.
