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ExclusiveChina and US push Southeast Asia over their AI blocs. Will it test region’s non-alignment?
Beijing reportedly offers exclusive perks to attract Global South partners while describing the American-led body as exclusionary
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Southeast Asian leaders have long insisted they will not be forced to pick sides in the great-power rivalry between the US and China. But their posture is about to be further tested.
This time, the battleground is AI. While Washington wants the region locked into Pax Silica – its bid to build a China-free artificial intelligence supply chain – Beijing wants its neighbours to join China’s own World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (Waico).
Sources told the South China Morning Post that both powers had in recent months piled pressure on Southeast Asian economies, each trying to draw them into its own AI framework.
One source said Chinese officials had heavily lobbied Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries to back Waico before it was established last month, telling their counterparts they stood to gain from signing on as founding members, including an offer of “exclusive privileges”.
Another source said the lobbying had reached senior levels of government, with Beijing pitching its AI organisation as an inclusive body that championed developing economies, in contrast to what it described as an exclusionary American initiative.
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Facts Only
* The United States and China are competing for influence over artificial intelligence (AI) frameworks in Southeast Asia.
* Washington is promoting "Pax Silica," an initiative to create an AI supply chain excluding China.
* Beijing established the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (Waico) last month.
* Chinese officials lobbied Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries to become founding members of Waico.
* Beijing offered "exclusive privileges" to partners joining Waico.
* Beijing describes its AI organization as inclusive of developing economies.
* Beijing describes the American AI initiative as exclusionary.
* Lobbying efforts by China have reached senior levels of government in Southeast Asian nations.
* Southeast Asian leaders have stated they will not pick sides in the US-China rivalry.
Executive Summary
The United States and China are engaged in a strategic competition to integrate Southeast Asian nations into their respective artificial intelligence ecosystems. Washington is pursuing "Pax Silica," a strategy aimed at establishing a China-free AI supply chain. Simultaneously, Beijing has launched the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (Waico), positioning it as an inclusive alternative designed to empower developing economies.
Chinese officials have actively lobbied senior government leaders across Asean countries, offering exclusive perks to those joining Waico as founding members. This puts significant pressure on Southeast Asian states that have historically maintained a policy of non-alignment in the great-power rivalry. While the specific nature of the "exclusive privileges" remains unspecified, the tension highlights a growing struggle for technological hegemony where regional players must balance economic opportunity against geopolitical autonomy.
Full Take
The strongest version of this narrative is that AI is no longer just a commercial race but the new frontier of geopolitical alignment, where "technological stacks" replace traditional military alliances. The tension centers on whether Southeast Asia can maintain strategic autonomy when the underlying infrastructure of the future economy is being split into two incompatible blocs.
This situation is framed through a binary of "Inclusive vs. Exclusionary," a common rhetorical device used to paint strategic containment as moral leadership. By labeling the US approach "exclusionary" and its own "inclusive," Beijing utilizes predatory liberation rhetoric—promising empowerment to the Global South to justify the expansion of its own sphere of influence. The narrative relies heavily on anonymous sources to detail high-level lobbying, making the claims difficult to independently verify.
Patterns detected: ARC-0074 Predatory Liberation Rhetoric
The driving paradigm is the "New Cold War" model, echoing the 20th-century scramble for proxy alignment. The unstated assumption is that AI supply chains are a zero-sum game; the implication is that choosing one framework necessitates the abandonment of the other. This threatens human agency by reducing sovereign nations to "nodes" in a larger power struggle, where the cost of non-alignment may be technological stagnation.
If this were a coordinated influence campaign, the playbook would involve leaking "exclusive offer" narratives to trigger FOMO (fear of missing out) among smaller nations while framing the US as a hegemon. The content here matches standard journalistic reporting of geopolitical tension rather than a structured psychological operation.
Bridge Questions:
1. Can a nation realistically utilize both Pax Silica and Waico without compromising security or interoperability?
2. What specific "exclusive privileges" would be required to make a nation abandon its non-alignment policy?
3. How does the definition of "inclusive AI" differ between the two powers in practice?