29 Countries Just Signed a China-Led Global AI Treaty. Here's What It Does
A new intergovernmental organisation called WAICO launched in Shanghai on 16 July 2026, with 29 countries signing on. Will it produce binding rules, or is it a talking shop?
Key points
- 29 countries signed the agreement creating WAICO, the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, in Shanghai on 16 July 2026.
- The organisation is headquartered in Shanghai and operates as a China-led intergovernmental body, meaning it is run by governments, not a private group.
- Xi Jinping first proposed the organisation at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in October 2025.
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres attended the signing ceremony.
- Analysts disagree on whether WAICO will produce binding rules or remain a forum for discussion.
Twenty-nine governments gathered in Shanghai on 16 July 2026 and signed the founding agreement for WAICO, the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, a new body designed to coordinate global AI policy. The ceremony fell on the eve of the annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi signed for Beijing; UN Secretary-General António Guterres was present, lending the event a degree of international weight.
Who is actually in it?
Twenty-nine countries joined at launch. Researchers mapping WAICO's early membership describe its design as open to any sovereign state, with a particular focus on the Global South, the group of lower-income countries across Africa and Latin America that are often left out of decisions made in Silicon Valley or Brussels.
China first floated the idea in July 2025, and Xi Jinping repeated the call at the 33rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting that October. Our earlier story on Xi's address to the World AI Conference covers how he framed the pitch to developing nations as cooperation over competition.
What will it actually do?
That's less clear. Elizabeth Gibney, writing in Nature in December 2025, speculated that WAICO is unlikely to govern the AI industry in an enforceable way: no fines, no binding bans.
Arindrajit Basu of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace suggested China may use the body to expand its network of AI cooperation centres abroad and to shape how AI gets discussed at the United Nations.
Heru Sutadi, a digital policy expert speaking about Indonesia's membership to Majalah ICT, put the challenge bluntly. Computing power, specialist chips known as GPUs, and large-scale data infrastructure are all concentrated in a handful of large technology companies. Countries in the Global South risk becoming permanent consumers of AI products built elsewhere without ever developing their own capabilities. He called on WAICO to "champion the interests of the Global South so that it is not left further behind."
What does this mean for ordinary people?
Nothing changes tomorrow. WAICO can't yet regulate apps, set safety standards, or compel companies to behave differently. What it does create is a formal table where governments outside Europe and North America can argue for a say in how AI develops globally. Whether that table produces real rules or simply more meetings will become clearer as WAICO holds its first working sessions from Shanghai.
