Global South Countries Turn to China for AI Development and Governance

Common Traits of Participants

Among the signatories, which included Kazakhstan, Laos, Pakistan, Russia, Indonesia, and China itself, two common characteristics were found: all these countries have integrated AI into their national development plans and belong to the Global South. This raises the question of why developing nations are choosing Beijing to navigate the field of AI development and governance. The consensus reached in Shanghai points to two key factors: China's unique combination of technological power and its philosophy of soft governance.

Practical Application of AI Technologies

The first factor attracting Global South partners is China's ability to provide practical, people-oriented AI technologies that successfully combine innovation with on-the-ground implementation. A prime example is the MAZU system—an AI-based early meteorological warning solution from China. An updated version of this system was officially handed over to Djibouti at the WAIC meteorological subforum. China also announced plans to provide this system to 30 countries over the next five years.

Ismail Nour, CEO of the Djibouti National Meteorological Agency, called this system a lifeline for his semi-arid country, which is prone to droughts and floods. He noted that the joint use of Chinese satellite data and AI computing power has helped save lives and support his country's economic development. He made this statement during an interview with China Media Group (CMG).

Kazakhstan's Cooperation with China

Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev led a large delegation, including telecommunications giants, AI startups, equipment manufacturers, and scientists, to WAIC. During the visit, more than 70 commercial deals worth over $15 billion were concluded with Chinese counterparts. Tokayev, calling 2026 the 'Year of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence,' stated his country's readiness for comprehensive cooperation with Chinese partners across a wide range of areas, including investment, localized technology development, joint scientific research, and human resource training.

He also expressed confidence that interaction between Kazakhstan and China in the fields of artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, and high-performance computing will become a central element guiding the next phase of their bilateral strategic partnership.

Challenges in AI Access

A previously published UN report revealed a structural imbalance: despite advanced AI capabilities nearly doubling since April 2024, and over a billion people worldwide using conversational AI tools weekly, Global South countries lag significantly behind developed economies in terms of AI access and adoption. As part of efforts to bridge these gaps, China, as a global leader in AI development, pledged to provide 5,000 opportunities in AI training and seminar programs for developing countries over the next five years. Furthermore, it presented actionable frameworks, transforming the Global AI Governance Initiative, first proposed in 2023, into concrete plans covering inclusive capacity building, cross-border coordination, and ethical constraints.

Open Source as a Public Good

Shahbaz Khan, Director and representative at the UNESCO Regional Bureau for East Asia, told CMG that China's commitment to providing 5,000 AI training slots is a significant step that allows these nations to build their own AI data systems and applications based on open source code. China also renewed its promise to the international community to consistently act as a provider of global public goods in the AI sector during the conference. Open-source technologies became a key word appearing in almost all documents released at the event, reflecting China's specific initiative to promote global AI exchange. According to Xinhua, publicly available large AI models from China, whose source code, training, and other data are publicly accessible, have been downloaded over 10 billion times globally, surpassing all other countries.

Blade Nzimdane, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation of South Africa, told CMG that China provided comprehensive support resources as his country prepares to launch an AI center. Nzimdane emphasized that China acts not as a patronizing donor but as an equal partner, leveraging its technological advantages to provide practical assistance. Chen Yi, Professor at the University of the People's Democratic Republic of China, noted that given the central principle of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—'leaving no one behind'—open-source development must become an indispensable strategy for spreading the benefits of AI to the entire population. Chen also mentioned that China positioned AI from the outset as an empowering technology to advance the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, noting that China promoted and reinforced the value of open-source AI concepts on an unprecedented and large-scale global level.

Addressing the opening ceremony of WAIC on July 17, Guterres highly praised China's contribution to global AI governance and called China's open-source strategy a 'huge global success.'