Key facts
- US warns countries joining China's AI bloc risk access to US AI infrastructure.
- China's WAICO launched July 16, 2026, with 29 founding members, including five Southeast Asian nations.
- US Pax Silica initiative requires exclusive commitment, not simultaneous participation elsewhere.
- Southeast Asian countries have historically maintained non-alignment in great-power rivalries.
Southeast Asian countries are navigating a growing artificial intelligence rivalry between the U.S. and China, with concerns that they may be forced to choose sides. The US has warned that participation in its Pax Silica initiative for secure AI supply chains requires a dedicated commitment, potentially jeopardizing access to advanced AI infrastructure and supply chains for countries also involved in competing initiatives like China's World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO).
WAICO was launched in Shanghai on July 16, 2026, with 29 founding members, including several Southeast Asian states. The US initiative, Pax Silica, launched in December 2025, aims to build secure, innovation-driven supply chains and lists 34 countries and the EU as signatories, with Singapore and the Philippines being the only Southeast Asian nations involved. US officials have reportedly signaled disapproval of Southeast Asian countries joining WAICO, while Chinese officials had lobbied for support for their organization, offering 'exclusive privileges'.
This situation tests the region's long-standing policy of non-alignment, a principle that has underpinned its post-war prosperity. The US approach mirrors Cold War tactics of offering security in exchange for technological exclusion, now transposed onto AI supply chains.