By
Dr.Nadia Helmy
Africa-Press – Lesotho. By marking the United Nations Day of the Developing Global South on September 12, 2025, China emphasizes the need to develop and coordinate new and innovative AI programs and policies to assist developing countries in the Global South. China believes that the rise of the Global South represents a tremendous advance in the development of human society. The countries of the Global South are strong promoters and defenders of world peace and will play a major role in building a stable, multipolar world. Advanced AI technology, under China’s leadership and support, can play a significant role in strengthening interconnectedness among countries in the Global South.
Reflecting China’s growing role in shaping global governance standards for emerging technologies, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced a proposal to establish an International Organization for Artificial Intelligence Cooperation on July 26, 2025, in his opening remarks at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. Beijing highlights its focus on engaging countries in the Global South as one of the most successful aspects of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. China has pledged to provide its technical expertise, products, and services, as well as its digital infrastructure, to countries that lack the capabilities to engage in the digital revolution.
The importance of China’s support for developing countries in the Global South in advanced AI technology and techniques comes after the global AI race witnessed a remarkable shift in recent years, particularly with China’s significant progress, represented by companies such as DeepSeek and Alibaba developing advanced and highly efficient open-source systems. This reflects China’s accelerating efforts to narrow the technological gap with the United States, particularly in developing technologies whose performance approaches the capabilities of the human mind, with the help and support of China’s partners in the Global South.
China, as the world’s largest developing country, belongs to the Global South and always shares the same destiny. It is an active advocate and important participant in South-South cooperation using advanced technology and AI innovation policies. China has declared that it will always closely unite with developing countries in the Global South to promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity using advanced AI mechanisms in the Global South.
The AI divide may overtake the traditional digital divide. Which (modules computing power, governance, ethics) should be prioritized in the “South-South knowledge package” that global South developing countries most urgently need under Chinese support and supervision? Currently, global AI governance faces critical challenges, especially for developing countries in the Global South. The most prominent of these is the “digital divide between the South and the rest of the world.” Some developing countries and regions suffer from incomplete digital infrastructure, insufficient skills training, and a lack of digital resources. By the end of 2024, 2.6 billion people worldwide will still be offline. If this digital divide is not urgently bridged, the development gap between the North and the South will deepen, severely constraining global economic growth.
Artificial intelligence has witnessed tremendous progress in recent years, and countries around the world are investing heavily in infrastructure, education, and innovation. China is setting global standards for AI adoption, pumping billions of dollars into data centers and research centers for development using AI mechanisms and technologies. The media and technology ecosystems of the Global South, guided by the United Nations 2025 Development Goals, can work together to unleash the potential of AI to bring developing countries of the Global South together, led by China.
AI can create platforms for countries in the Global South to share and support each other with information, as information exchange is crucial for these countries to unite and support each other. Besides, the modules’ computing power, governance, and ethics should be prioritized in the “South-South knowledge package” that developing countries most urgently need.
Recently, the 2025 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance launched the “Action Plan for Global AI Governance,” which proposed six core principles: orientation toward good and serving the people, respect for sovereignty, orientation toward development, secure governance, fairness and inclusion, and openness and cooperation.
Artificial intelligence impacts the developing Global South, where the lack of basic digital infrastructure and energy poses significant challenges to the spread of AI in countries of the Global South. AI requires stable internet connectivity, access to digital technologies such as smartphones and computers, and reliable electricity, which are not widely available in developing countries of the Global South.
The use of artificial intelligence and digital computing technologies for cooperation among developing countries of the Global South under Chinese support and encouragement represents one of the mechanisms that enhances the role of think tanks in addressing challenges by utilizing big data to predict future trends, thus enhancing governments’ decision-making capacity. Given the common challenges facing countries of the Global South, think tanks, through close collaboration, can contribute to providing important insights and solutions to common problems, formulating global public policies that are more equitable to the Global South, and placing the issues and problems of the Global South on the list of global priorities.
Developing countries of the Global South can collaborate with China through the use of AI technologies, including:
1) Working to build joint projects among countries of the Global South: These projects rely on the use of AI technologies to address common challenges by leveraging shared expertise to support decision-making.
2) Using AI to enhance government communication among countries of the Global South, both internally and externally: By building shared digital platforms through which think tanks can listen to diverse opinions and build bridges of communication between the peoples of the Global South.
Based on the above analysis, we understand the reasons behind Beijing’s support for AI technology in the Global South, with the expectation that strengthening global governance rules for AI technology, led and supported by China, will enable Chinese companies to establish a presence in international markets and compete for a share of a market expected to exceed $4.8 trillion by 2033.
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