With China as a global artificial intelligence (AI) leader alongside the United States and the European Union, ASEAN countries find themselves increasingly pulled between competing AI ecosystems. China’s AI rise helps ASEAN capture AI’s economic benefits, but this carries dependency and political risks. ASEAN should take a pragmatic and balanced approach to engagement with China on AI development and adoption.
As global AI governance becomes increasingly fragmented, regional initiatives are becoming more important, creating strategic space for middle powers like ASEAN to exercise agency. Much of ASEAN’s emerging AI governance architecture has been shaped by Singapore’s leadership and close engagement with both Western and Asian technology ecosystems.
China has increasingly promoted its own international AI governance vision through the Global AI Governance Initiative and later Action Plan, which place a strong emphasis on sociopolitical order and coherence with broader Chinese Communist Party-led development and security priorities. This includes advocating for cyber laws that facilitate strict control over internet content. They have campaigned heavily, particularly at the United Nations, for building AI capacity in the developing world, deepening relations with the Global South and fostering a global AI marketplace for China’s AI industry to engage with.
