According to Nanhua Morning Post's report on August 21st, leaders of Southeast Asian countries have long claimed that they will not be forced to side in the competition between China and the United States. However, this stance is about to face further testing.
This time, the battlefield is artificial intelligence. Washington hopes to incorporate this region into the “Pax Silica” framework—a plan by the United States to create an artificial intelligence supply chain that excludes China. Meanwhile, Beijing hopes that neighboring countries will join the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (Waico) initiated by China.
According to reports, sources revealed that in recent months, both China and the United States have been trying to incorporate them into their respective artificial intelligence frameworks.
According to a source, before the establishment of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization last month, China actively lobbied countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to support the organization. It was also mentioned that joining as a founding member would bring benefits, including access to ‘exclusive preferential treatment’.
Another source said that such lobbying has reached the top levels of the government. Beijing has positioned its artificial intelligence organization as an inclusive institution that supports developing economies, contrasting it with the exclusive American initiatives that Beijing describes.
The World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization was established during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in July this year, with the aim of promoting "intelligence for good, inclusive and shared benefits". The first batch of members consisted of 29 countries, mainly from the "Global South".
The countries that signed to join this organization include five Southeast Asian countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, and Myanmar.
Meanwhile, ‘Silicon Freedom’ currently has 24 members, aiming to strengthen supply chain security. It is widely seen as an attempt to exclude China from key technology networks. Singapore and the Philippines are the only two Southeast Asian countries that have joined ‘Silicon Freedom’.
According to these sources, American officials have also been trying to recruit Southeast Asian countries to join the artificial intelligence initiative led by the United States.
According to a source, American officials pressured the Southeast Asian countries regarding their plans to join the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization. At the same time, they privately expressed their dissatisfaction with these countries joining organizations led by China, as well as attending the meeting last month.
Reuters reported last week that Washington is preparing to tell several countries that they actually have to choose a side, and warned that those who join China's framework will be excluded from "Silicon Peace".
Political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group senior analyst Jeremy Chan said: "Southeast Asia will become one of the main battlefields of the AI competition between China and the United States."
"Despite Southeast Asian countries' efforts to preserve options for selection—and potentially adopt hedging strategies between the Chinese and American AI systems—they may be unable to retain such flexibility."
The competition in artificial intelligence between Washington and Beijing has intensified rapidly, and it has reached a turning point. Chinese open-source artificial intelligence models are increasingly able to compete with closed-source systems developed by American companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.
The Trump administration has introduced a series of measures, including implementing export controls, to restrict China from acquiring advanced technologies.
Chen said that the joining of ASEAN countries to the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization highlights the attractiveness of China's open-source approach to artificial intelligence. This indicates that, despite pressure from the United States, artificial intelligence technologies that are less costly and easier to obtain will continue to attract Southeast Asian countries and other developing regions.
He said, “The United States may not exert excessive pressure on ASEAN countries to choose a side right now, but Washington will try to prevent these countries from getting too close to China’s artificial intelligence technologies and standards.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian emphasized that China firmly opposes partisan alignments and factional confrontations on the issue of artificial intelligence. He hopes that all parties will abandon the zero-sum mentality, work together for common benefit, respect the digital sovereignty of all countries, and jointly build a fair and reasonable global governance system for artificial intelligence. This way, artificial intelligence can become an important driving force for promoting common prosperity and maintaining common security.
