29 nations sign on to China's world AI body

A New Intergovernmental Body Takes Shape in Shanghai

Twenty-nine countries signed an agreement on July 16, 2026, to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO), an intergovernmental body China says aims to promote international cooperation and global governance in artificial intelligence. Founding members include Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela, as well as 10 African and 12 Asian countries. The organization's headquarters will be located in Shanghai.

The signing ceremony was held in Shanghai on the eve of the annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference, where Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to outline an ambitious vision for Beijing's role in global AI governance. The 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance runs in Shanghai from July 17 to 20. UN Secretary-General António Guterres attended the signing, lending the event a degree of multilateral legitimacy that Beijing has been keen to cultivate.

As an international public good, the organization aims to deepen cooperation in artificial intelligence, break down barriers to the flow of production factors, and promote practical AI cooperation among countries, with work centred on three goals: deepening innovation cooperation, promoting inclusive development, and strengthening collaborative governance.

A Parallel Track or a Rival Rulebook?

The United States, European Union and United Kingdom are absent from the founding membership list, a gap that critics say is the point rather than the problem. If WAICO gains even a modest foothold among Global South nations, it would establish a second set of AI norms that do not require compatibility with the EU's AI Act, the OECD's AI Principles, or the G7's Hiroshima Process guidelines, producing a bifurcated international AI governance landscape.

Beijing would hold outsized norm-setting authority over that second group simply by virtue of being the body's founding and dominant member, a dynamic that closely parallels how the Shanghai Cooperation Organization operates in the security domain.

For now, Beijing frames WAICO as an open, inclusive alternative for countries that have felt sidelined by Western-led governance processes. Whether it evolves into a genuine multilateral forum or a Chinese-anchored parallel standard-setter may depend heavily on how many more governments join after the founding round, and on what Xi says from the Shanghai stage.

Sources:
Reuters via CNBC Africa: Twenty-nine countries sign agreement to establish global AI cooperation body
Xinhua: 29 countries sign agreement on establishing World AI Cooperation Organization
Tech Times: Xi Jinping Steps Onstage as China Pushes Rival AI Governance Body for Global South