Summary
Reuters reported exclusively on the 15th that the US State Department plans to send letters to more than 30 countries that signed the joint statement on the Artificial Intelligence Opportunities Partnership in June, demanding they pick a side in the US-China AI competition. The letters warn that countries participating in China-led AI frameworks would be excluded from the US-led 'AI alliance'. The US launched the 'Silicon Peace' initiative in December last year, which currently has 24 signatories, and the June summit issued a joint statement from 35 countries.
The letter states that "participating in everything is equivalent to participating in nothing". Chinese experts said the move is full of technological bullying. Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the US coercion to force a choice is highly irrational, as AI governance cannot be balanced by a single country's power.
Hu Qimu said external blockades will in turn compel China to build a more autonomous AI ecosystem.
Commentary
The US is reportedly pressuring more than 30 countries to choose between the US and China in AI, and New Zealand will find it hard to stay out. The US leads in AI chips and cloud services, but China's large models and open-source ecosystem are catching up quickly, with DeepSeek and others lowering deployment costs. For NZ SMEs, being forced to pick one side could mean losing access to low-cost Chinese AI solutions while also facing higher US computing and compliance costs.
The US is using 'trusted partners' to split supply chains, intensifying parallel markets. China may accelerate its own ecosystem, creating a separate set of standards. NZ businesses should assess their dependence on US and Chinese technology stacks, reserve alternative interfaces, and watch for the spread of Chinese AI solutions in Asia-Pacific under RCEP, to avoid being locked into one camp.
Keywords: US-China AI, tech bullying, Silicon Peace initiative, artificial intelligence, picking sides, US State Department, AI alliance, World AI Cooperation Organisation
Source: Global Times
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