China 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

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.

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.

Five Southeast Asian countries were among the signatories, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Myanmar.